Peter’s Chingford career began like most of us in the Extra 3rd xi in 1955 when he turned out v Gidea Park. It was to be the beginning of an association with the Club spanning over 60 years.
A larger than life character he was known for his wicked sense of humour and distinctive voice (affectionately nicknamed as Gravel by Iain Hastings) and laugh, whilst he always had a sense of authority he was always a very fair and reasonable man. Peter was much respected and loved by so many Chingfordians over the years.
Peter was a local resident living in Whitehall Gardens for a great deal of his life with his lovely wife Maureen and his sons Andrew and Graham.
Peter had many cricketing talents and whilst his strong suit was always his batting with his legendary jab shot on the leg side, he was always willing to help out with the seam bowling or even take a few blows to the body keeping wicket. Paul Cross once dubbed him as Chingford’s "Mr. Utility"
Peter was soon racking up the runs and contributed 5188 runs which places him 64th in Chingford CC history. The author was very privileged to be present when he hit his one and only century at Gidea Park in 1980 in days when totals were often half of what they are in the 2020s - however Peter also passed 50 a total of 19 times. Meanwhile his bowling contributed a very handy 136 wickets.
Over the years Peter turned out for all the elevens from 1st to Extra 3rd xi and Sunday As to Cs as we all should. However Peter was also keen to put things back into the Club. Coaching the Colts for several years one can recall a crop of not just good cricketers but also good clubmen that graduated from Peter’s tuition and sage advice. Names that spring to mind are Fraser and Mark Lawrence, Robert Hubbard, Stuart McLean, Colin Howard, Malcolm Wright and of course Andy and Graham Norgate who presumably both got detention in the back garden !
Peter captained the 2nds,3rds and Extra 3rds at times and ran a midweek side that won the Waltham Forest Knock Out Cup in 1984. A shrewd skipper, I can remember a game at Buckhurst Hill when Steve Wilson had toiled long and hard to capture the vital wicket. Immediately Peter took him off having seen that the next batsman was no bigger than the stumps. Peter brought himself on, incidentally with Boyo at short leg, dismissed the little kid with a straight one, and with analysis of 1-0 and an adult batsman now at the crease immediately reinstated Boyo to the attack.
Peter had remarkable resilience and made a miraculous recovery from a very serious problem in his back in the mid 1980s and he also lost a leg a few years ago, but neither of these things blunted his spirit. He just carried on in his own wonderful way as though nothing had happened.
In the 1980s Peter was amusingly often the victim (but he loved it really) of some bigging up of his performances in the local press that he was often stopped in the street. After the Guardian once printed a match report of a fictitious game in which Chingford fielded several over 80 year old players, Peter’s (apparent) performance of 134 and 7 wickets did not go unnoticed to his fans in Station Road who would often stop him and enquire about his cricket. In these match reports we often made out that Peter, a military medium bowler, was actually the fastest bowler in Club Cricket and to this day Cliff Greenhill who ran the Indoor League at Loughton Hall still talks about the scorch marks Peter left on the mat.
Peter was a newsagent by trade so would often get to read about his exploits before anyone else had received their copy or gone to the shop. One week he had dropped a player who quite frankly wasn’t worth a place in the side and I remember the phone ringing on the Thursday morning before 7am. It was Peter. He said "Have you read this week’s Guardian". Having said "I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet" he said "Right listen to this from the Classified. It says “New club requires former Chingford Cricket Club players”. Contact the player who had been dropped". Peter was fuming. Upon enquiry The Guardian as ever had got in wrong at it should have said "Former Chingford Cricket Club player requires new Club."
Peter had an umpire called John Blake (no relation, thank you by the way!). I remember Peter telling me “ I rang him up and asked him to umpire Saturday, I said it was Peter Norgate”. John apparently said “Peter Aldgate, who ?” Peter said to me “He’s umpired for me for 5 years and he doesn’t even know my name!”
Peter always reckoned he could never get a run at Chelmer Park and loathed the place. I have researched his scores on the ground from the Chingford CC archives and note that in 4 visits his scores were 2, 1, 1 and 0 ! The author remembers his final innings there where with Peter dismissed for a duck, his bat pads and gloves all went flying in advance of his return to the pavilion as spectators dived to take cover. As he came off he said “I’m never coming back to this bl***y place ever again - and he stuck by his word and never did!
Peter was always keen to help bring about change at the Club when it was needed and called a Sunday morning meeting of a few of us at his house on the morning of the Players Meeting. 1st xi Captain Mike Higgs aware that something was going on phoned Peter’s house only to be shocked to have the phone answered by yours truly. As I passed the phone over to Peter I could hear Mike asking “am I safe”, but to his surprise Peter replied he most certainly was….
I had the pleasure of playing in Peter’s last ever game for the Wormcasts v Chingford in 1995. Well, we needed 22 to win with two wickets left when I was joined at the crease by Peter. He beckoned me towards him and said “Right now don’t do anything stupid”. Anyway a couple of balls later I hit one straight to a fielder at short third man and to my surprise Peter called me for the run. He was run out by half the lengthy of the pitch….
I also remember one of Peter’s milestone birthday dos at Wanstead Central bowls club (which became his other love in later life) and a number of hilarious greetings and gifts from the football club on the wrong (in Peter’s opinion) side of North London !
Peter please RIP and thank you so much for all the laughs, good times and happy memories.