THE Yeoman of the Guard who rugby-tackled a would-be streaker at a Buckingham Palace garden party said last night that his rugby training meant he instinctively lunged at the youth.

Raymond Duffy, 56, a Captain in the Territorial Army 34 (Northern) Signal Regiment, based at Hartlepool, and an honorary Yeoman bodyguard for two-and-a-half years, was guarding the gate to the Royal tea tent when the unnamed 17-year-old stripped to his boxer shorts and shirt and dived through the 8,000-strong crowd into the tent enclosure shouting "wahey!"

"I just ran forward and apprehended him. I got his arm behind his back and marched him round to the rear of the Royal tent where myself and another Yeoman handed him over to the civilian police.

"Apparently, he had 'flashed' previously, although I didn't see that."

Capt Duffy, from York, who served for 29 years with the Royal Signal Corps, said: ''I got the lad round the shoulders and on to the ground. I just wanted to stop him.

''At that time the Queen was coming up the middle aisle. So, had he turned right instead of left he would probably have run towards her. I am not sure how much she saw of it all."

The teenager's father, a teacher from the South, said: "He is extremely embarrassed by the incident and regrets any discourtesy."

The youth was not arrested, but spoken to by police and later escorted out of the Palace grounds.