A GLINT in the eye, a glass in the hand and a smile to melt the heart of any woman - that is the way Angela Rankin will remember superstar footballer and playboy George Best.

Their paths crossed on two occasions in exclusive London bars during the 1980s when Angela, now 48, was working as a model and George was the man-about-town pub and bar owner.

Their first encounter took Angela, who moved to Worcester about 12 years ago and now lives off the Ombersley Road, by surprise and still evokes a raucous laugh.

"It's a really funny story," she says. "I met George in London. I was about 24 and living in Chelsea on the embankment. I was in Blushes Wine Bar in the King's Road having lunch with a wealthy friend and I could not decide what I wanted to eat.

"So my friend ordered nearly everything on the menu and the table was covered with food.

"George walked in with a couple of minders and headed straight for me. He sat down at the table and started to eat. Then he asked my name.

"I recognised him - he was very well known in London. I said: 'George, that's very cheeky. Can't you afford to buy your own food?'."

Angela, who is now training to be a dance teacher, said everyone saw the funny side of it and that nobody could really take offence at George and his behaviour.

"Several years later he opened quite a traditional English Regency pub which he turned into a trendy wine bar called Blondes.

"I went there and literally as I walked in I saw him at the bar with a full glass of whiskey in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. He quickly made eye contact and asked me to join him.

"He was always very warm and he liked to have a friendly conversation. He was very handsome and he had a lot of charisma and charm. He always had a glint in his eye. He had typical Irish looks. You could not miss him in a crowd and he had a beautiful smile."

George was also extremely generous. "There was champagne for everyone," recalls Angela. "He liked to have company and people to talk to."

She says he also had a fatal attraction to attractive ladies - especially blondes. And Angela was blonde.

"I don't know if all the stories were true but he would make a beeline for them or they would make one for him. It was like bees around a honey pot. He often had an entourage of girls trying to get close to him."

Angela says the drinking was part of the lifestyle of the wealthy and well-known in London during that time but, she feels in George's case there was another reason for the drinking, which eventually proved his downfall.

"I think it helped him to hide from the fact that he wasn't playing football."

Although Angela's brief encounter with George happened over 20 years ago and his death was a very public process, she says she was very moved by his passing.

"It was usual to see the stars in London during that era. I saw people like Rod Stewart and Joan Collins but George has always stuck out in my memory.

"I did shed a tear when I saw a documentary about him. It is such a loss. He did pack a lot into his life and maybe towards the end he did not feel there was anything he could do.

"Although he is no longer with us, his memory will live on."

And that particularly applies to Angela. "Whenever I hear his name it certainly brings a smile to my face. I instantly have a picture of him with a glint in his eye and it gives me a warm feeling.

"I am so pleased to have met him and to have met such a great man and a superstar."

GEORGE BEST: THE FUNERAL

GEORGE Best's funeral will be held in the Grand Hall at Stormont - the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly - tomorrow.

His body will leave his father Dickie's home in Cregagh Road, Belfast, at 10am after a private family service.

The cortege will than travel the short distance to Stormont where the 11am service will be relayed to thousands of mourners via huge screens. It will also be televised live.

After the ceremony, his body will be taken for burial beside his mother, Annie, at Roselawn Cemetery on the Castlereagh hills overlooking east Belfast.