Anyone who played in the 1994 World Championships and subsequent European Championships until 2001, you may have met my big brother Chris Pritchard and want to know that he sadly passed away on Sunday 19th July, 2009.
Chris never played lacrosse, but helped out on the Welsh Men's Team from 1994 to 2001 from when my brother Ant started playing for Wales until I finished, as well as supporting Hillcroft. He was a man of few words but liked his beer and I know he made a lot of drinking buddies over the years at the Euros, especially among the referees, but I have no contact details for them. He had survived leukaemia back in 1999 but over the last couple of years developed respiratory problems.
Chris' funeral will be on 30th July, in Chalgrove near Oxford. Please contact me privately for further details at
timothy@ip.kyusan-u.ac.jp
Many thanks, Tim Pritchard
Some sad news for 1994 to 2001 Championship Players/Refs
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Many thanks
Hi Jason,
Many thanks for your reply. Sorry I haven't checked for replies for a while. I did spend days on the net the week immediately after Chris' passing - I guess partly trying to channel my energies being the other side of the world in Japan. I managed to get back to the UK for a week at the end of July, to be with my family there.
What are you up to these days lacrosse-wise? You were involved with Wilmslow, and Wales, if I remember correctly? I've been living in Fukuoka, Japan, since 2002 and played lacrosse regularly here until 2004 when my ankles started failing me and my wife and I had our first daughter (now have two: Emma (5) and Momoe (3)). Am actually planning on getting up at 5.30 am tomorrow to join my University's lacrosse training (where I work) at 6.30. My motivation is partly due to the fact I'll be running in my daughters' nursery's sports day in a week's time . They have a parent and teacher relay on a dangerously small running track, made even more dangerous as I'm pretty unfit these days. Have only managed to join my uni's lax practice about 4 times in 4 years due to work and family and weather (and the fact it's at 6.30am!) They don't play in the rain due to the ground being dirt/sand, which is a shame considering we have a rainy season here! ( I did see a football game being played when the ground was completely flooded, so not quite sure of the logic there).
Have been surfing the net all night (now 2.05am - was planning on getting an early night for a change!) getting sidetracked but trying to confirm that the 1999, 2000 and 2001 European Championships were in Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff, respectively. I'm just correcting a few mistakes I made in a eulogy I wrote about Chris, and I think I got the years a bit mixed up. My lacrosse in the UK from 1992 to 2001 is just one big blur!
Many thanks again. It really is a help to hear from people who had met Chris.
Best Regards - Tim
P.S. Will try and cut and paste my (long) eulogy for Chris, which should make you laugh at a few points. Lacrosse is mentioned on page 6!
Many thanks for your reply. Sorry I haven't checked for replies for a while. I did spend days on the net the week immediately after Chris' passing - I guess partly trying to channel my energies being the other side of the world in Japan. I managed to get back to the UK for a week at the end of July, to be with my family there.
What are you up to these days lacrosse-wise? You were involved with Wilmslow, and Wales, if I remember correctly? I've been living in Fukuoka, Japan, since 2002 and played lacrosse regularly here until 2004 when my ankles started failing me and my wife and I had our first daughter (now have two: Emma (5) and Momoe (3)). Am actually planning on getting up at 5.30 am tomorrow to join my University's lacrosse training (where I work) at 6.30. My motivation is partly due to the fact I'll be running in my daughters' nursery's sports day in a week's time . They have a parent and teacher relay on a dangerously small running track, made even more dangerous as I'm pretty unfit these days. Have only managed to join my uni's lax practice about 4 times in 4 years due to work and family and weather (and the fact it's at 6.30am!) They don't play in the rain due to the ground being dirt/sand, which is a shame considering we have a rainy season here! ( I did see a football game being played when the ground was completely flooded, so not quite sure of the logic there).
Have been surfing the net all night (now 2.05am - was planning on getting an early night for a change!) getting sidetracked but trying to confirm that the 1999, 2000 and 2001 European Championships were in Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff, respectively. I'm just correcting a few mistakes I made in a eulogy I wrote about Chris, and I think I got the years a bit mixed up. My lacrosse in the UK from 1992 to 2001 is just one big blur!
Many thanks again. It really is a help to hear from people who had met Chris.
Best Regards - Tim
P.S. Will try and cut and paste my (long) eulogy for Chris, which should make you laugh at a few points. Lacrosse is mentioned on page 6!
Eulogy for Chris
For those that are interested, please find below an essay I wrote about Chris. (Lacrosse is mentioned towards the end!) Although sad, it should make you laugh at least three times:
Dear All,
My big brother Chris passed away quietly on Sunday 19th July, 2009, following a gradual decline in health the last 6 -12 months which affected his breathing and reduced his weight to about 40kg (about 7.5 stone). He was very tough and had battled through and survived leukaemia back in 1999. My Mum, brother Ant, Dad and Jo were with him when he peacefully passed away.
Chris was a man of few words (in public at least!) but would sometimes come out with a priceless quip revealing a sharp mind hidden under his quiet exterior. He had an impressive memory for names of politicians, actors and actresses. He helped my Mum with her political campaigning, making friends with Boris Johnson, with whom he shared a love of port, although he'd gone off drink the last year or so.
As a man of few words, Chris would never say if he was in any pain or discomfort. I was surprised how once in 1999 he didn't say a word when a nurse was making multiple attempts at finding a vein, causing the needle to pull his skin up, (although, of course, the treatment overall that he received at the JR II in 1999 was first class). Due to side-effects from this treatment, he had very sore eyes, but I don't recall him ever mentioning it; the only indication was that he constantly touched the side of his eyes when he got tired.
He expressed his love in his own quiet way too. All through my childhood, he would flick my ears with his thumb....(an action, I think, left over from a baby sitter we used to have when we lived in Cyprus - I was 6 months old so am not sure about this - apparently she would pull ears if you were naughty). The flicking was so annoying, but it was Chris' way of showing affection (he used to flick Mum's ears the most
and is now, of course, a memory I treasure.
He wasn't afraid of speaking his mind when he felt strongly about something though, and did so once or twice when tensions rose on a coach holiday around Ireland that I organized with some friends. This perhaps wasn't helped by the fact that I apparently forgot to mention to my three friends that my brothers Chris and Ant were coming along too! (We had all planned the holiday together when sitting in an Oxford pub, so I assumed everyone knew!). Any disagreements were always solved by a round of Guinness though. I remember one pub had a Guinness promotion (as if we needed encouragement!), giving out scratch cards with every pint which gave you a chance to win another pint of Guinness! Ironically, as we were leaving, Chris ordered one more cheeky pint and discovered he had won a second! The holiday was unforgetable for several reasons, not least for the barren yet beautiful scenery on the Aran Islands near Galway. I shall also never forget how, in Cork, Chris got banned from a night club before even setting foot in it, simply for doffing his baseball cap at the bouncer! Someone had to go and retrieve half the group so we could go and find another club!
He was interested in amateur dramatics having appeared in many productions at Icknield School and was for years a regular member of the chorus during panto season at the Sinodun Players at the Corn Exchange in Wallingford (and supported the bar there, which was in turn supported by "Mum's taxi service"). I remember him as a policeman in "The Pirates of Penzance". In his early years he worked at the Oxford Apollo, I think touring with a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"; he has an impressive autograph book, the first entry being Norman Wisdom, which he added to over the years. He loved all the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. We all saw Starlight Express in the West End sometime in the 80s; Chris appeared in a big production of "Jesus Christ Superstar", at Pangbourne theatre ("there's one more angel in heaven, one more star in the sky"). More recently in March 2002 in London, Chris, Mum, Akiko and I saw the musical Cats. An example of how perceptive and quick his mind could be was when, whilst walking to the theatre, we noticed that a union flag was flying at half mast. Chris guessed correctly that that could be because the Queen Mother had passed away.
Chris had connections with Oxford University, having a couple of, some would say, dream jobs at a few different colleges over the years. First in the gardens at Merton college and more recently in the halls at University college when Chelsea Clinton studied there, giving Chris the chance to shake hands with Bill Clinton.
He mixed his love of Oxford and of beer by soaking up the atmosphere of pubs such as The Bear and The Wheatsheaf. He would sometimes bump into my friend Pat, who has just told me the following story which he agreed to let me quote here: ///QUOTE/// When I think of Chris (which I normally do whenever I pass Oriel College or have a pint in The Bear or The Wheatsheaf) I have to say a wry smile always crosses my face when I think of some of the stories that you and Ant used to tell me about Chris. The last 4 or 5 times Chris and I have bumped into each other in Oxford is normally in a lovely Oxford pub - he usually had a couple of pints (pretty quickly!) and then sloped off. One particular time about 4 years ago (again in The Bear) I was having a couple of post work pints with a few other lawyers and I saw Chris at the bar, we had a quick chat and he told me how you and Ant were and where he was working at the time. It was nice and then having got a round of drinks, I said good bye and went back to my table. A few minutes later, he came over to the table next to me to continue his beer. He had the confidence to have another word with me, notwithstanding the fact that I was surrounded by rather loud and confident legal types. I included him in the group and introduced him to a few of them and he happily sat with us for 20 minutes or so, not saying much at all but smiling and (apparently) just enjoying being in the group... it was nice to have him there as I felt rather protective of him knowing that you were in Japan. I will miss bumping into him in those Oxford pubs.///UNQUOTE///
He loved the TV series Inspector Morse, which was set in Oxford, and had his first professional call up when he appeared in an episode as an extra. I remember he had to sit in a pub and drink beer (OK, not so much acting involved there, as he had done that quite often in the Red Lion - his local pub had changed over the years, between the Lamb, the Crown and, around 1988/9, the Chequers in Berrick) but he did defy the laws of physics as in the scene with him sitting in a pub, the camera then went outside and he could also be seen walking down the road! In another episode he had to look surprised when someone fell off a bike! I remember Mum saying that the reason he first got accepted to be an extra could have been because the production crew were curious to see his massive head - it turned out he didn't know his hat size when filling in the application form, so had just guessed a number!
Chris loved to laugh and enjoyed old classic TV comedy such as 'It Aint Half Hot Mum", "Dad's Army" and Norman Wisdom to name but a few. He had videos of a whole range of comedians like Morecombe and Wise, Harry Hill (whom he would do a good imitation of: 'mmm mmmm mmmm' etc) and Reeves and Mortimer. We shared an appreciation especially of Blackadder, Grease, Bugsy Malone and, yes...The Three Amegos... . (Without fail, he would always point out a look-a-like of my friend Ryan in one scene of Bugsy Malone). But we didn't really share a taste in the comedian Chubby Brown, who could make Chris cry with laughter (Although I have to admit, Chris' perhaps favourite joke, along the lines of a guy who had to eat his dog and then looked at the bones and said "Spot would have loved them", does take some beating, and gives an indication of Chris' wicked sense of humour). Maybe his love of Chubby Brown had something to do with Chubby's resemblance to Ray "2 hats" Harry of Hitchin Lacrosse club fame, who Chris liked a lot.
As well as occasionally having a season ticket to Oxford United, Chris, along with Mum and me, followed Ant's lacrosse career when Ant first played at Southampton Uni and later for the Men's Welsh Lacrosse team at the Manchester World Championships in 1994 and the first European Lacrosse Championships: Czech Republic 1995. He became an official part of the Welsh bench, in charge of team drinks, when Ant and I played together in Germany 1996 and me in Sweden 1997 and England 1999 and Scotland 2000. He even continued as a member of the team at Cardiff in 2001 when neither Ant nor I played. Gwynn Turner sent a message about Chris, saying: ////QUOTE/// I, along with many other people were fond of him and considered him an important and integral part of the Welsh support team- We never went thirsty when he was around- either on the pitch or at the bar after!!! ///UNQUOTE///
These times hold untold amounts of memories of Chris letting his hair down with the men's team after each game - even putting more hair on! (in the form of the team wig in Germany. He gave Mum a scare when he forgot to take off the wig when returning to the apartment in the early hours. Standing in the doorway of the bedroom a bit worse for wear; because of the wig Mum thought it was Ray Harry who had got the wrong room!). Chris enjoyed his annual socializing with the referees, and would often ask how 'Peachy' was, if Simon Peach had officiated a Hillcroft game. I know he also really enjoyed Bernie and Gywnn's company, not to mention Ray Harry's. When Mum, Chris and I were watching Ant in Prague, in 1995, Mum was describing to someone how she had to gesture to communicate with shopkeepers near our self-catering apartment. For example: monkey gesture for bananas; chicken gesture for eggs...Chris chirped in "what did you do for toilet paper?"!
He also had a love for airshows, or more precisely, paying large sums of money to enjoy the VIP area at the annual Fairford airshow. He was a member of the Air Training Corp at RAF Benson in his youth and would take immense pride in polishing his shoes every week. The phrase 'triple hook lifting system' is embedded in our minds due to the amount of practice he did for a presentation on the Chinook helicopter's capabilities. Due to moving from RAF Benson to Chalgrove, or perhaps our age differences, Ant and I joined the cub scouts instead of the ATC, but I always admired Chris in his ATC uniform and wondered if I would have made a good cadet too. I remember the thrill of joining in ATC night exercises in the Chilterns which involved attacking enemy bases with only the moon and glow worms for light.
I have seen more and more of Chris in my eldest (5 yr old) daughter's mannerisms over the last year or so and in things I've started doing myself.
Only now, in hindsight, I realize he loved being with or talking about people he considered characters or larger-than-life, be they famous people, family or friends. Chris was very tuned in to peoples' emotions, although I don't think he ever cried in public himself (except at Chubby Brown). We are all doing your crying for you now Chris, take care xxxxx
Tim Pritchard
timnosuke@hotmail.com
Dear All,
My big brother Chris passed away quietly on Sunday 19th July, 2009, following a gradual decline in health the last 6 -12 months which affected his breathing and reduced his weight to about 40kg (about 7.5 stone). He was very tough and had battled through and survived leukaemia back in 1999. My Mum, brother Ant, Dad and Jo were with him when he peacefully passed away.
Chris was a man of few words (in public at least!) but would sometimes come out with a priceless quip revealing a sharp mind hidden under his quiet exterior. He had an impressive memory for names of politicians, actors and actresses. He helped my Mum with her political campaigning, making friends with Boris Johnson, with whom he shared a love of port, although he'd gone off drink the last year or so.
As a man of few words, Chris would never say if he was in any pain or discomfort. I was surprised how once in 1999 he didn't say a word when a nurse was making multiple attempts at finding a vein, causing the needle to pull his skin up, (although, of course, the treatment overall that he received at the JR II in 1999 was first class). Due to side-effects from this treatment, he had very sore eyes, but I don't recall him ever mentioning it; the only indication was that he constantly touched the side of his eyes when he got tired.
He expressed his love in his own quiet way too. All through my childhood, he would flick my ears with his thumb....(an action, I think, left over from a baby sitter we used to have when we lived in Cyprus - I was 6 months old so am not sure about this - apparently she would pull ears if you were naughty). The flicking was so annoying, but it was Chris' way of showing affection (he used to flick Mum's ears the most
and is now, of course, a memory I treasure.He wasn't afraid of speaking his mind when he felt strongly about something though, and did so once or twice when tensions rose on a coach holiday around Ireland that I organized with some friends. This perhaps wasn't helped by the fact that I apparently forgot to mention to my three friends that my brothers Chris and Ant were coming along too! (We had all planned the holiday together when sitting in an Oxford pub, so I assumed everyone knew!). Any disagreements were always solved by a round of Guinness though. I remember one pub had a Guinness promotion (as if we needed encouragement!), giving out scratch cards with every pint which gave you a chance to win another pint of Guinness! Ironically, as we were leaving, Chris ordered one more cheeky pint and discovered he had won a second! The holiday was unforgetable for several reasons, not least for the barren yet beautiful scenery on the Aran Islands near Galway. I shall also never forget how, in Cork, Chris got banned from a night club before even setting foot in it, simply for doffing his baseball cap at the bouncer! Someone had to go and retrieve half the group so we could go and find another club!
He was interested in amateur dramatics having appeared in many productions at Icknield School and was for years a regular member of the chorus during panto season at the Sinodun Players at the Corn Exchange in Wallingford (and supported the bar there, which was in turn supported by "Mum's taxi service"). I remember him as a policeman in "The Pirates of Penzance". In his early years he worked at the Oxford Apollo, I think touring with a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"; he has an impressive autograph book, the first entry being Norman Wisdom, which he added to over the years. He loved all the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. We all saw Starlight Express in the West End sometime in the 80s; Chris appeared in a big production of "Jesus Christ Superstar", at Pangbourne theatre ("there's one more angel in heaven, one more star in the sky"). More recently in March 2002 in London, Chris, Mum, Akiko and I saw the musical Cats. An example of how perceptive and quick his mind could be was when, whilst walking to the theatre, we noticed that a union flag was flying at half mast. Chris guessed correctly that that could be because the Queen Mother had passed away.
Chris had connections with Oxford University, having a couple of, some would say, dream jobs at a few different colleges over the years. First in the gardens at Merton college and more recently in the halls at University college when Chelsea Clinton studied there, giving Chris the chance to shake hands with Bill Clinton.
He mixed his love of Oxford and of beer by soaking up the atmosphere of pubs such as The Bear and The Wheatsheaf. He would sometimes bump into my friend Pat, who has just told me the following story which he agreed to let me quote here: ///QUOTE/// When I think of Chris (which I normally do whenever I pass Oriel College or have a pint in The Bear or The Wheatsheaf) I have to say a wry smile always crosses my face when I think of some of the stories that you and Ant used to tell me about Chris. The last 4 or 5 times Chris and I have bumped into each other in Oxford is normally in a lovely Oxford pub - he usually had a couple of pints (pretty quickly!) and then sloped off. One particular time about 4 years ago (again in The Bear) I was having a couple of post work pints with a few other lawyers and I saw Chris at the bar, we had a quick chat and he told me how you and Ant were and where he was working at the time. It was nice and then having got a round of drinks, I said good bye and went back to my table. A few minutes later, he came over to the table next to me to continue his beer. He had the confidence to have another word with me, notwithstanding the fact that I was surrounded by rather loud and confident legal types. I included him in the group and introduced him to a few of them and he happily sat with us for 20 minutes or so, not saying much at all but smiling and (apparently) just enjoying being in the group... it was nice to have him there as I felt rather protective of him knowing that you were in Japan. I will miss bumping into him in those Oxford pubs.///UNQUOTE///
He loved the TV series Inspector Morse, which was set in Oxford, and had his first professional call up when he appeared in an episode as an extra. I remember he had to sit in a pub and drink beer (OK, not so much acting involved there, as he had done that quite often in the Red Lion - his local pub had changed over the years, between the Lamb, the Crown and, around 1988/9, the Chequers in Berrick) but he did defy the laws of physics as in the scene with him sitting in a pub, the camera then went outside and he could also be seen walking down the road! In another episode he had to look surprised when someone fell off a bike! I remember Mum saying that the reason he first got accepted to be an extra could have been because the production crew were curious to see his massive head - it turned out he didn't know his hat size when filling in the application form, so had just guessed a number!
Chris loved to laugh and enjoyed old classic TV comedy such as 'It Aint Half Hot Mum", "Dad's Army" and Norman Wisdom to name but a few. He had videos of a whole range of comedians like Morecombe and Wise, Harry Hill (whom he would do a good imitation of: 'mmm mmmm mmmm' etc) and Reeves and Mortimer. We shared an appreciation especially of Blackadder, Grease, Bugsy Malone and, yes...The Three Amegos... . (Without fail, he would always point out a look-a-like of my friend Ryan in one scene of Bugsy Malone). But we didn't really share a taste in the comedian Chubby Brown, who could make Chris cry with laughter (Although I have to admit, Chris' perhaps favourite joke, along the lines of a guy who had to eat his dog and then looked at the bones and said "Spot would have loved them", does take some beating, and gives an indication of Chris' wicked sense of humour). Maybe his love of Chubby Brown had something to do with Chubby's resemblance to Ray "2 hats" Harry of Hitchin Lacrosse club fame, who Chris liked a lot.
As well as occasionally having a season ticket to Oxford United, Chris, along with Mum and me, followed Ant's lacrosse career when Ant first played at Southampton Uni and later for the Men's Welsh Lacrosse team at the Manchester World Championships in 1994 and the first European Lacrosse Championships: Czech Republic 1995. He became an official part of the Welsh bench, in charge of team drinks, when Ant and I played together in Germany 1996 and me in Sweden 1997 and England 1999 and Scotland 2000. He even continued as a member of the team at Cardiff in 2001 when neither Ant nor I played. Gwynn Turner sent a message about Chris, saying: ////QUOTE/// I, along with many other people were fond of him and considered him an important and integral part of the Welsh support team- We never went thirsty when he was around- either on the pitch or at the bar after!!! ///UNQUOTE///
These times hold untold amounts of memories of Chris letting his hair down with the men's team after each game - even putting more hair on! (in the form of the team wig in Germany. He gave Mum a scare when he forgot to take off the wig when returning to the apartment in the early hours. Standing in the doorway of the bedroom a bit worse for wear; because of the wig Mum thought it was Ray Harry who had got the wrong room!). Chris enjoyed his annual socializing with the referees, and would often ask how 'Peachy' was, if Simon Peach had officiated a Hillcroft game. I know he also really enjoyed Bernie and Gywnn's company, not to mention Ray Harry's. When Mum, Chris and I were watching Ant in Prague, in 1995, Mum was describing to someone how she had to gesture to communicate with shopkeepers near our self-catering apartment. For example: monkey gesture for bananas; chicken gesture for eggs...Chris chirped in "what did you do for toilet paper?"!
He also had a love for airshows, or more precisely, paying large sums of money to enjoy the VIP area at the annual Fairford airshow. He was a member of the Air Training Corp at RAF Benson in his youth and would take immense pride in polishing his shoes every week. The phrase 'triple hook lifting system' is embedded in our minds due to the amount of practice he did for a presentation on the Chinook helicopter's capabilities. Due to moving from RAF Benson to Chalgrove, or perhaps our age differences, Ant and I joined the cub scouts instead of the ATC, but I always admired Chris in his ATC uniform and wondered if I would have made a good cadet too. I remember the thrill of joining in ATC night exercises in the Chilterns which involved attacking enemy bases with only the moon and glow worms for light.
I have seen more and more of Chris in my eldest (5 yr old) daughter's mannerisms over the last year or so and in things I've started doing myself.
Only now, in hindsight, I realize he loved being with or talking about people he considered characters or larger-than-life, be they famous people, family or friends. Chris was very tuned in to peoples' emotions, although I don't think he ever cried in public himself (except at Chubby Brown). We are all doing your crying for you now Chris, take care xxxxx
Tim Pritchard
timnosuke@hotmail.com
Many thanks
Hi Ian,
Many thanks for posting your mssg. Are you playing for Penarth now? I tried contacting the Shumackers about Chris, but have rcvd no reply - not sure if they are still around, although I would have thought so as they were the heart of Welsh and in particular Penarth lacrosse during my days with Hillcroft and Wales.
Tim
Many thanks for posting your mssg. Are you playing for Penarth now? I tried contacting the Shumackers about Chris, but have rcvd no reply - not sure if they are still around, although I would have thought so as they were the heart of Welsh and in particular Penarth lacrosse during my days with Hillcroft and Wales.
Tim
Monster Mesh
