The Prescotian

I chatted for quite a long time over a few pints with Roy at the PGS Reunion in 2001, and was 'made up' that we still had a good friendship, so your news has particularly saddened me on this beautiful Sunday evening. My wife particularly enjoyed meeting him, and also sends her condolences. John and Julia McIntyre. Like John, I too was very shocked and saddened to learn of Roy's death. Until that wonderful reunion in 2001 (how can it be 5 years ago already) I had not been in contact with Roy, or with so many others, but it was amazing how old friendships were so quickly picked up over a few beers. Roy, hair-loss apart, seemed to have changed relatively little in the intervening years, and I would have recognized him anywhere. He lived very close me in Rainhill, and we used to catch the number 7 bus in the morning from the same bus-stop outside the Coach & Horses. The house structure at PGS being arranged on strictly alphabetical lines, we were also in the same form group, along with David Anderton, Mike Burrill, Mike Ashton, Roy Clarke, Albert Ball, Rob Barrigan, Roy Bradford, Bill Friar, Alan Crickmore, David Bolshaw, John Cashen and a few others whose names I have no doubt will come back to me later, as I raise a glass to Roy. God bless. Peter Chadwick

I guess that I must have known Roy for about 45 years, as we were in the same year at Longton Lane in Rainhill and then at PGS. I can remember going on bike rides with Roy when we must have been about 10 and then in our teenage years playing Subbuteo and chess and various board games. Then at about 16/17 we discovered beer and the two of us would regularly go to "Maggie Sharkey's" (now The Rocket) over the road from my parents' house to play darts on a Sunday night. By this time, Roy had left PGS to start work with ICI, but we kept in touch whilst I was in the sixth form and on into my university years and would always meet up for a beer and curry night whenever I was at home. From our teens, we had also both been firm Saints fans and we both played rugby union for Prescot BI. This kept us in touch as we went through our twenties and thirties - we would occasionally meet up to go to a match. I remember going to Roy and Lynn's wedding celebrations and seeing Mike Ashton there - I hadn't seen him for about 15 years prior to that. Roy and I continued our occasional rugby-orientated meetings - bumping into one another in Edinburgh at the RL cup final and then arranging at short notice to go to the RL Grand Final at Old Trafford when Saints beat the old-enemy Wigan. We were both delighted to get involved as the Prescotian took off and come to the reunion dinner - that night at Statham Lodge with Roy, Derek, Peter, Mike, Bryan and everyone was great and we ought to try to repeat it, as Neil Johnstone has suggested elsewhere. I thought about Roy just a short time ago, as I went to a Saints match with my family. I didn't have time to call him to meet up as we were in a rush to get there on the Friday night and afterwards went to visit my parents, but as we drove through Toll Bar I did think about my old mate. Now there won't be any more rugby and beer nights together and I'm really sorry about that. Roy was a lovely guy, a good friend, and a good father and husband and I will miss him. God bless him and look after Lynn, Fiona and Vicky. Tom Storrow