I attended Peter Tarrant’s Funeral at St Mary’s Church, Bulphan on Thurs 12 November. As the only Chingford CC member able to attend given the current Government restrictions, I thought it would be appropriate to pen a few words of tribute to Peter.
Peter was born in 1960 in the village of Bulphan and lived there all his life. He was a farmer by trade and by all accounts worked extremely hard with all the manual labour and graft involved. Indeed one summer in the 1990s seasonal labour was required and reinforcements were drafted in from Chingford CC. Peter worked his new “recruits” so hard that they never returned for a second helping! Peter was always alive to a business opportunity and PJ Tarrant Ltd went on to work for a few years in ground investigations (and those skills were also to put to good use by Chingford CC for which we were very grateful) and then meat - selling boxes of different cuts of beef
Peter was also a pillar of his local community and was involved in local volunteer committees such as those involved in the reopening of Bulphan Village Shop and the Bulphan in Bloom programme.
I first met Peter on the cricket field where regular fixtures twice a year between Herongate and Chingford Sunday B were competitive to say the least. At the time Peter was the Captain of Herongate CC, his local Club, just up the road from his farm. Although he took advantage of the short boundaries at what he always called “The Gate” I have no doubt Peter smashed every runs tally and centuries record at the Club. Indeed your writer had the dubious distinction of keeping his tally of centuries down by dismissing him for 99 in one game caught by Steve Wilson on the boundary! Peter was also a handy change seam bowler who could pick you up a wicket when you really needed one and could even keep wicket, such was his array of cricketing skills.
We thought Peter had Herongate CC in his DNA so it came as something of a surprise to say the least when Peter applied to join Chingford CC in 1990 as he had decided he wanted to play a higher level of cricket. Indeed I remember his debut away to Hornsey in a game when I captained the 2nd xi and I travelled with him in his car to the game. If I recall I spent most of the journey laughing enjoying his dry sense of humour and our friendship just grew from there. Peter opened the batting and scored 17, famously hitting a wheel on a pram with a shot for four when the mother wasn’t looking, but fortunately no-one was injured and for good measure I even gave him a bowl aswell.
Peter went on to Captain the Chingford 1st xi in seasons 1992 and 1993 and we finished 17th and 13th in the Essex League, the highest standard of recreational cricket in the County. These finishes were a considerable improvement on the 19th the previous season. A few years later Peter had dropped down to Captain the 2nd xi in 1999. Overall he scored 4540 runs and took 24 wickets for Chingford.
Peter stopped playing regularly outdoors at the end of the 2000 season, however after then if you were ever short and needed a player he was the sort of person who would always, always help you out. Indeed I can remember Captaining a 4th xi game scheduled for Saturday 12 August 2006 away at Southend and it had got to Friday night and after 50 or so phone calls I still only had 10 players. Funnily enough I actually turned down the opportunity to play Dan Lawrence (now the Essex and England squad professional) who was 8 years old at the time and phoned Peter instead. Peter immediately agreed to play and then hit 150 for us and won the game. Peter continued to play indoors for Chingford on a Sunday evening for a few more years and played a leading part in a number of Waltham Abbey Indoor League Titles and was a regular performer in Cricket Week for the Wormcasts Invitation xi of former Chingford players.
Finally one lasting thought from today. With the streets around St Mary’s Church being very narrow I decided to park the far side of the A128 and walk along Church Road to St Mary’s. Indeed I was very glad that I did. What really struck me was the amount of Bulphan villagers who had lined Church Road to pay their final respects to Peter as the Funeral Procession went by. Not only this but also the local farmers provided a convoy of tractors behind the hearse and cars. This just showed how much Peter was loved and respected by everyone in his community and I have no doubt that had the pandemic restrictions not been in the place, St Mary’s would have been packed to the rafters.
Our sincere condolences go to Peter’s wife Heather and his daughter Georgia. Peter will be sorely missed
RIP PJT
Michael Blake