We have learned that George Hardy has recently passed away. George was a very active member of the Club in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. A geordie, George was quiet and shy with an extremely dry sense of humour. He was a member of TVP, married to Joan. They lived in the Police House at Bampton until they bought a house in Talbot Fields round the corner. After retirement George and Joan inherited a house in Ulverston, Cumbria, where they settled.
George and Joan had a son, Chris, who unfortunately died in his mid-teens. The Club was very supportive, and I know that George and Joan appreciated the camaraderie and fellowship that the Club offers in times of grief.
Georges real skill was his pacemaking. Not a great fan of stopwatches, you could be running along with George in a half marathon, and he would suddenly say”We’re doing 6’50’s” and he’d be spot on! (Yes, impossible though it may seem, I did used to run at that pace!!)
George and I would run together probably 3/4 times a week, and he was always good company. As a group, with Nigel Street, Paul Sheffield, “Puffing Billy” Bill Hay, Dick Shellard and Bob Ellis, we would go all over the place doing daft runs like The Tough Guy, The Rhayader 20, The West Highland Way, some silly run along Chesil Beach amongst many others, and started the movement towards Triathlons, doing the Broadribbs Kirtlington Tri in 1990 and 1991. George and the others went on to do the Iron Man event and many cycling sojourns to Sardinia or Corsica, or somewhere like that, whilst I fell by the wayside!
George was great fun to be with and to run with, and I will always be grateful to have known him.
I hope you will join me in thinking of Joan at what must be a very sad time.
Steve Hopkins