Spy: Model tennis babe linked to Richie

Makere Bradnam. Photo / Supplied

Speculation is rife that the country's most eligible man on the sporting field, Richie McCaw, is dating a beautiful tennis player and lingerie model from Wellington.

Rumours are swirling that the 29-year-old captain of the All Blacks may be romantically involved with stunning 23-year-old Makere Bradnam from Titahi Bay.

The buxom blonde beauty is a full-time tennis coach at the Khandallah Tennis Club and is signed as a model at the Clyne agency. She also reportedly plays at the private, members-only Pompallier tennis club on Friday nights in Auckland's St Mary's Bay.

Bradnam is no stranger to world class sport. The Dominion Post lists her father, Darryl, as a former member of the New Zealand touch team, her mother, Lynette, played in the New Zealand women's basketball team and her grandmother, Roma Patterson, represented New Zealand at softball.

Makere, who celebrated her 23rd birthday last Saturday night, stole the show at the Heineken Open on Thursday sitting courtside in a corporate box as a guest of the sponsor. Wearing a micro mini dress and a glowing tan, she smiled at the suggestion she was dating McCaw, coyly telling Spy: "It's just a rumour."

However, a witness reckons she saw a woman who resembles Bradnam and McCaw in an intimate tete-a-tete at popular Ponsonby Rd haunt, the Longroom, on Saturday night where they were joined by groups of friends. "But he didn't leave with her," our mole gushed.

Makere's father wasn't surprised by the question his gorgeous daughter is dating the All Blacks star. "You're not the first person to ask me that," Darryl Bradnam said, "but she says she doesn't know where it's coming from".

McCaw didn't respond to Spy's messages.

The All Blacks captain didn't have time to think about his love life yesterday when he escorted HRH Prince William around Eden Park as part of the official party, which also included Martin Snedden, Murray McCully, John Banks and Prime Minister John Key. McCaw will also be attending a private BBQ hosted by Key at Premier House for the Prince in Wellington tonight, following the opening of the new Supreme Court building.

"I have met Prince William a couple of times," McCaw told the Herald on Sunday last week, "and I saw him during the [All Blacks'] end-of-year tour and he's a good, keen rugby man so I'm keen to catch up again."


Lily hits the beach for a dip

Pop star Lily Allen, 24, was snapped taking a dip at Takapuna beach on Thursday, the day ahead of her performance at the Big Day Out. The photos appeared on Britain's Daily Mail website and will appear in a women's magazine here this week. Wearing skinny jeans, a singlet and ballet flats, it wasn't long before the celebrity whipped them off and donned a bikini for a refreshing dip in the sea. Later, she was Spy-ed licking a Mr Whippy vanilla ice-cream with a chocolate Flake.


The Prince and the Kiwi polo princess

Not many Kiwi girls can admit to being the subject of attention by the future King of England, but Hawke's Bay socialite and former Deal Or No Deal model Rebecca Coddington insists she didn't have the foggiest who the charming man with the British accent was grinding up against her on the dance floor at a posh party at a private polo club three years ago.

"He was wearing a hat and I just walked off the dance floor," the 25-year-old model and aspiring fashion designer confessed, "and people came up to me and said 'did you know you just rejected Prince William?'. I was horrified!"

Daughter of privilege, Waipukurau-born Coddington, grew up on the family farm in Hawke's Bay where her father David and three older brothers are avid polo players. They sell polo ponies and ride professionally. Jonny Coddington is a regular fixture at the prestigious Cirencester Park Polo Club and Beaufort Polo Club where Princes William and Harry are members.

"I was meant to be stick chick for Harry," the bubbly blonde chirped - the job involves handing the players their polo mallets, a role usually reserved for the girlfriends or spouses - "but I pulled out," she said dismissively, without explanation.

"Harry hassles my New Zealand accent. He says, mockingly, 'Oh, you're a Nu Zilder from Nu Zild. But it's Wills who's the wild one. Most people don't know that."

Coddington described one incident at a party where she slipped while carrying two bottles of champagne and a chivalric William came to her rescue. "I fell over on my hands and knees and William just picked me up and carried me off." It was the same party where the aforementioned dirty dancing took place.

"He [William] was getting his skanky dance on with his cousin Zara [Phillips], you know, low dirty dancing. He's just a fun, regular guy. No one fusses over them. It's all really casual. But I do feel sorry for them because you do see lots of girls flinging themselves on them and their mothers egging them on".

Last week, Britain's Daily Mail reported William, 27, deliberately delayed his tour of Australia and New Zealand to celebrate girlfriend Kate Middleton's 28th birthday. "It's significant that he planned it so that he would be in Britain for Kate's birthday. It's rather romantic that William is factoring Kate into his diary – she is part of every equation," the Mail wrote.

Coddington - who declared in 2007 on her Facebook page as being in a "relationship" with troubled socialite Millie Holmes, to which she later insisted "was just a joke" - plans to liaise with Prince William again this year. "I will see him in June and July for the British polo season.

"I plan to move to London to do fashion design," she said. Will the Princes help? "They're not very fashionable, believe you me," she laughed.