 As many of you will know, Spratty played for Harwell for many years during the 1980’s /90’s at scrum half. His talent at this position often helped his team mates out of some tricky situations. I have already received several tributes but if you have any anecdotes to share of your times playing with Pete I would be very happy to share them here. From Kev Lewis: Spratty was one of the characters of the club in the 80s and 90s and was part of the Harwell Village ‘intake’ which served the club so well during that period. Many of the great stories on and off the pitch from those days involved Pete. Pete leaves a wife Caroline, and 2 grown up daughters, Sam and Ella, names indicative of his sense of humour. One particular memory is of him and Ken Chapman swapping passes multiple times with a couple of loops involved to scythe through a defence. Then both of them looking around for someone else, as neither of them fancied the 40 metre unopposed run to the opposition line. I’ve a feeling the ‘Leaping Salmon’ arrived at pace in the nick of time. From Gary da Luz Vieira: That is really sad news as I personally had some great times on a rugby pitch with Spratty. He was a truly remarkable scrum half with an ability to get the ball away in any number of ingenious ways, frequently catching the opposition out in the process. In many ways he allowed me to ‘get away’ with playing fly half as a far-from-natural incumbent of the 10 shirt due to that ingenuity coupled with very quick hands. As a 10 you knew the ball would be coming, you were just never sure how and quite where. Up to our last meeting we would still greet each other with our tour names from a long distant tour to Trentham (I think). I was Emerson Fittipaldi – cos I drove, and he was Abdul Kareem Y’Knickers after the basket ball player who appeared in Airplane mainly because he was nothing like the height to actually play the game. Though we rarely crossed paths in recent years, I consider him a dear friend and will miss him. Rest in Peace Spratty, and keep wearing those long shorts in Heaven. From Martin Whitelock: Playing 10 to his 9 proved that Euclid & Pythagoras new jack about angles and the laws of ballistics were "flexible"....was never dull though...!!! Sleep well bud. |
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