The girl was Princess Anne, then 15, who had attended the Commonwealth Games with her elder brother Prince Charles and her father, the Duke of Edinburgh, who was President of the Commonwealth Games Federation for 30 years.

She was already at least as tall as Precious, who stood, as he does now, at 4ft 10in.

"I walked between all the legs - everyone was taller than me - to the centre of the dance floor, and there was Princess Anne," said Precious.

"Being forward, I cut in on a good-looking young athlete and asked her for a dance. She smiled and said yes, and we started doing the twist. All the other athletes gathered round, cheering and clapping, and it became such a crowd that the security guys had to come and break us up. She was happy to talk to me."

So was the Queen, and the Queen Mother, when Precious made visits to Buckingham Palace either alone or with his wife Elizabeth in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.

He went as a weightlifting member of Britain's Olympic team for special receptions, and to be awarded an MBE.

His most memorable encounter with the Queen, though, came at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada.

By then Precious was a celebrity in the UK, having made frequent appearances on television to show off his strength by, among other things, lifting television presenters in the air.

His story was well known: Precious was South Africa’s best weightlifter but he was the wrong colour for the apartheid regime in his homeland and was not selected for the national team. 

His father had been killed by a crocodile, his mother was an alcoholic, he was raised by a succession of abusive foster parents until he and his sister - both illiterate until their teens - were taken in by a Catholic school.

He escaped to Britain and worked in a shoe factory, unable to profit from his sporting prowess in the days of amateurism.

Precious won three straight gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, all for England, in 1966, 1970 and 1974, after which he moved again to New Zealand, where he still lives.

He was 42 when he lifted in Edmonton, for New Zealand, seeking to become the first athlete in any sport to win four straight gold medals at the Games.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were there to see him do it, staying for more than an hour.

After Precious made his final lift he stood with four fingers raised, for the four in a row. “Nobody had done that before. It was the highlight of my life - the only thing comparable was the visits to Buckingham Palace," he said.

“The next day the Queen held a garden party in Edmonton for invited guests. She looked at the list and saw I wasn’t there and wanted to know why. She said I should be there, and the Canadians called in the police to help, because nobody knew where I was.

“While this was going on I was just watching the weightlifting. I went out for a break at the interval and a policeman spotted me, walked over and said, ‘You’re under arrest!’

“I was genuinely worried. I thought they suspected me of shoplifting or something. The policeman could see I was in a bit of a state and said ‘No, we’re only joking, the Queen commands that you attend her garden party.’

“I was in the back of a police car, siren wailing. We got there just in time. I was taken straight to the Queen and she said ‘Where have you been?’ I said I hadn’t been invited, and she said, ‘Well, you are now.’ I asked her if I could have a photo taken with her and she said of course. 

"Later on I sent the photo to Buckingham Palace and asked if the Queen would autograph it for me, and she did. It is one of my proudest possessions." 

In 1990, when the Commonwealth Games returned to his home city of Auckland, Precious worked as a volunteer, helping with arrangements for the athletes’ entertainment and sightseeing. 

"The volunteers were presented to the Queen. “She shook my hand and wouldn’t let go, talked about my move, and spoke for a long time. All the other volunteers couldn’t believe it."