THEY will gather from all parts of the kingdom for a special dinner in Edinburgh tonight. It was the team of the three Browns and the six men from Gala, the side which, 25 years ago, laid the Twickenham bogey and beat the English on successive Saturdays. That has never happened before or since.

Sadly, Jock Turner, one of the finest fly-halves cum centres Scotland ever produced, has passed away, and Alastair McHarg is on business in India, but the rest have answered the call of their captain, Peter Brown. And included in the guests are two of the most famous England faces - probably still wondering what happened to them - John Spencer and David Duckham.

``Do you know,'' mused the skipper, ``I certainly was not aware, and I don't think any of the boys were, that we had not won at Twickenham since 1938.

``It was only when I received about 20 telegrams congratulating us on the feat that it sunk in.''

Peter ``PC'' Brown has changed little, nor has his brother Gordon. They remain refreshing enthusiasts for the game, men with whom you would always want to savour the crack.

Even today, Peter, a successful chartered accountant, is still serving on the Gala committee. When his playing days were over, he happily took up refereeing. ``Where,'' enquired one local supporter of another, ``did PC actually come from?'' ``Heaven,'' came the reply.

In 1971, however, he was presiding over a Scotland team that appeared to be heading for a Five Nations whitewash.

``We were, in fact, unlucky to lose the opening game in Paris by 13-8. Our full-back Ian Smith was taken out by a late tackle and that rather swung the game for them.

``Then we met Wales at Murrayfield in a match that no-one who saw it will ever forget.

``We were leading 18-14 until the very last minute when Gerald Davies scored a try and John Taylor kicked what was called the greatest conversion since St Paul's.

``In Dublin, the Irish rubbished our scrummage and we were well beaten by 17-5.''

Typically none of this had taken the bounce out of PC Brown.

In his team-talk, the players were informed it was their turn to win and that they were far too good a side to go on without a victory.

For Twickenham, the selectors had introduced a new full-back Arthur ``Hovis'' Brown and Quintin Dunlop of West took over as hooker from Frank Laidlaw.

Bob Hiller struck first with a try for England, but PC himself finished off a break by Chris Rea and converted to put Scotland ahead. That did not last long, Hiller kicking two penalties so the home side turned 9-5 in front.

Dunky Paterson, with a rare dropped goal, cut the deficit to a single point but a try by Tony Neary and a penalty by Hiller made it 15-8 for England.

An unconverted try by Paterson again hauled the Scots back into contention. And it was the scrum-half who sent Rea in for the vital, last-minute try. But it still needed to be converted.

Some of the Scots simply could not look as PC calmly went through his normal routine. He turned his back on the ball, wiped his nose on his sleeve then, biff, the job was done.

``No,'' he said afterwards, ``I was not very nervous. I have been practising all my life to do that.''

PC himself believes the introduction of ``Hovis'' was the spark. At the after-match dinner, Arthur struck up a conversation with the somewhat aloof Hiller.

``And what,'' enquired the Englishman, ``do you do for a living?''

``I am an executive with the Milk Marketing Board,'' replied ``Hovis''. Well, he did drive a milk lorry.

The following week, the countries met at Murrayfield in a special match to celebrate the centenary of the first international at Raeburn Place.

This time Scotland were 5-0 up after 13 seconds, John Frame picking up a dropped pass to grab a try and PC converting.

The English were thumped 26-6.

``We were becoming a good side. There was experience from men like Ian McLauchlan, Sandy Carmichael, brother Gordon, McHarg and Rodger Arneil while Jock Turner was a complete fly-half.

``What I think these two wins did was to re-kindle enthusiasm for international rugby among the Scottish crowd.

``Before then there was always a problem selling the seats in the wing stands for the French game. After that we had sell-outs.

``Coach Bill Dickinson and I were so dissatisfied after the Irish game, we persuaded the union to allow a Sunday squad session. The modern players have us to blame!''

Peter Brown was never slow to speak his mind and that has not changed either.

``I see the game today through the eyes of my son, Ross (a promising centre). Players are going to go where the money is and who can blame them?

``I do believe, however, the SRU has mishandled the situation by failing to give the clubs a lead. They have given no guidance to anyone and have made a complete mess of the club season.''

With a promise to return to Brown's views on the game on another occasion, I moved him to his thoughts of this Scotland team.

``I take my hat off to them. For the first time in years there is a grave danger of the backs actually enjoying themselves.

``They played well in Ireland, excellently against France and took their chances in Cardiff. When I saw that first penalty from Michael Dods stagger over, I thought it was going to be our day.

``Can we beat England? This is the Cup Final, anyone can win. My lot will be making plenty noise.''

For the record, the 1971 double winners were: Arthur Brown; Billy Steele, John Frame, Chris Rea, Alastair Biggar; Jock Turner, Duncan Paterson; Ian McLauchlan, Quintin Dunlop, Sandy Carmichael, Alastair McHarg, Gordon Brown, Nairn MacEwan, Peter Brown, Rodger Arneil. Stephen Turk of Langholm came on as a replacement in the first match, Gordon Strachan of Jordanhill in the second.