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With great regard that the club lost one of its long time supportors in Peter Crawford during the week

Graham Stephen's eulogy at yesterday's funeral  can be read  below

Peter Ward Crawford

Good afternoon everyone, my name is Graham Stephen and I would like to speak about Peter from the point of view of the part that sport played in Peter’s life.

Peter was not a million dollar a minute professional All Black or a highly paid professional Black Cap nor indeed a sportsman blessed with a great and natural talent to be exploited to huge advantage.

Rather Peter was a sports person of the old school, totally amateur and involved and competing for the joy of being involved and participating with his mates. 

I first met Peter when he arrived with his family in Wellington in the very early 1970’s.  He had played senior club rugby for the Southern Rugby Club in Dunedin and he naturally became involved in his local rugby club which in those days was Karori.  He was soon coaching the Club’s senior team and became very popular in that role.  Karori was never a powerhouse in Wellington rugby and never dominated any senior competition.  We took our rugby seriously, always played to the best of our ability and always had our heads held high after our game, win, lose or draw as we always gave it our best shot.   

We all had great respect for one another as club members and team mates and seriously enjoyed our club rugby.  Socially we were an outstanding club.  This style and approach adopted by our Club was very much in tune with Peter’s outlook in life. He fitted in easily and became a major contributor in this very enjoyable mixture of sporting and social life. 

As part of this social life our Club formed a cricket team within the Karori Cricket Club and competed in the Wellington Cricket Associations one day grade.  Although the One Day grade was considered a social grade our team adopted a rather similar approach to cricket as we had in rugby, we played seriously and excelled socially.  In retrospect our cricket was probably more successful than our rugby because we were competition winners on a number of occasions.  Again Peter joined this cricket environment and was an extremely popular member.Peter did not lay claim to being a great cricketer.  He did not bowl and generally batted fairly well down the batting order.  He was quite happy in this role and soon laid claim to his strengths, He claimed he was in fact a SPECIALIST fielder and to this day members of that team still refer to Peter as “The Specialist”.

Peter was also responsible for another aspect of the team’s success.  He persuaded his son Richard to turn out for us from time to time.  Richard was a very talented cricketer who bowled at an extremely high speed.  In our so called social grade this was almost too much for the opposing batsmen to handle and Richard soon earned himself the title of the Terror of the grade.  Many a game was won on the back of Richard’s performance and I know Dad was well pleased with his son’s efforts. 

Peter played in that team for probably about fifteen years and as time went on the actual rugby club members diminished.  Peter was one of the few rugby club members who remained to the end alongside the likes of Mike Curtis, Murray Sherlock, Kevin Upham, my brother Ross and myself and I think this amply demonstrated Peter’s loyalty , commitment and enjoyment. 

However days of active participation soon passed and Peter continued in both rugby and cricket as an administrator and supporter.  Peter was a foundation member of the Western Suburbs Rugby Football Club when the Karori Club amalgamated with the Athletic and Onslow clubs in 1983 and became a Vice President of the Western Suburbs Club.  He served on the Wellington Rugby Football Union on the Junior Management Committee  as well as on the Union itself. 

In those days the Union was much smaller than it is today and the management Committee of about seven people was elected by the Clubs.  It speaks volumes for Peters popularity, ability and sense of fair play for him to be elected to a very political position by a majority of all the Wellington Clubs.  You needed to be a very special person to achieve this. 

Peter possessed an outstanding sense of values and fair play, he was keen, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about sport and with high respect for his, friends, his opponents and his colleagues.  He had a very keen sense of what was right and what was wrong.  He also had a keen sense of humour which typified Peter and was always appreciated by all who came in contact with him. 

Peter possessed these sporting qualities in abundance and never failed to practice them in his everyday life both within and outside the sporting arena.  This is the person that Peter was.  His principles and values were obvious in whatever he did and he was a vey enjoyable person to be associated with both in both sport and every day life.  A great sporting acquaintance. 

Peter always continued his strong interest in all things sporting.  He was most supportive of his sons involvement and achievements in sport during their upbringing and latterly his grand children received his special attention on Saturdays usually earlier in the day before he was out in attendance at Wests. 

In the summer, Saturday afternoon in the Karori cricket club rooms will not be the same for me without Peter being there with other stalwarts such as Mick Wiffin, Mike Curtis, Roy Atkin and others sharing a beer and putting the world to rights and of course Saturday afternoons in the winter in the Wests Roosters clubrooms will be much the poorer for Peter’s passing.  He was a great stalwart there with his unfailing attendance, his review of the day’s activities, his humour and his usual preview of what he was conjuring up for the evening meal.  Always sounded scrumptious and Peter was very proud of his culinary efforts. 

With Peter’s passing our local sport has lost a true sportsman, a great contributor with outstanding values, a most popular person and a great friend.  There is now a spare spot in the “Old Farts Corner” of our rugby clubrooms which I suspect will never quite be adequately filled. 

To Margaret, Richard, Tim and all your family our most sincere sympathy in this most untimely loss. 

Peter will be greatly missed by us all and never forgotten.

Farewell our true friend Peter.