I first met Tommy in the Eel Pie in Twickenham before watching a Quins game with Simon, Andy, Jack & Tom.
Subsequently, I had the good fortune to get to know him on one of our Rugby tours to France.
Tommy was always the calming influence on the tour exuding a quiet presence. He was a true gentleman with a wonderful dry sense of humour.
My abiding memories of Tommy were his moments of silent expression, rolling his eyes at our many antics on tour and breaking into a deep chuckle.
Rest In Peace Tommy, we will all raise a glass of red to you !
Lobby
One reply on “Remembering Tommy – By Lobby”
Is one allowed more than one abiding memory..?? I certainly have several, one of which was Tommy and Andy G sitting at a bar (where else?) somewhere in France (maybe Montpellier or Castres), matching each other brandy for brandy, the first bottle emptied, but neither would stop…”I will if you will..” as a man that can barely drink one brandy without falling over, I just watched in amusement and drank my red wine. Amazingly both of them made it out still walking, luckily the hotel was very close (next door?, or is that my poor memory again?) Tommy was as easy going as they come, but there was a piece of steel, a resolve that occasionally came to the fore, and he dug his heels in and nothing was going to change his mind, he wasn’t finishing first that night.
Another abiding memory (see, you can have more than one!) was in Castres, where the restaurants were all closed and we survived on peanuts, served free with every round of beer, the hungrier we got, the more beer we had to order… We had been out for the day and on returning to town Tommy and I said we’d take the car back to the hotel, and meet the rest of the group in the bar, but rather than going straight, we went and found a McDonalds, neither of us could cope with that much beer on peanuts alone. But we felt guilty and never told anyone!