Peter was a very likeable character and very helpful to so many people. In spite of his academic and sporting abilities, he was always very modest and often attributed his orienteering successes to luck or that a main competitor had not been available to compete.
His academic ability led him to become editor of scientific journals for The Society for Chemistry in Industry. SARUM orienteers benefitted from his ability to write well-polished event reports and to write reports for local newspapers.
Peter was born and bred in South Wales near Merthyr Tydfil and Newport. He was proud to be Welsh and an avid supporter of Welsh rugby. On the stands at Cardiff Arms Park, he would dream of how it would be to become a Welsh International. Little did he know then that he would become a Welsh International orienteer.
Peter was a member of the Porton Camp Athletic Club and would train and compete with Ron Ley and others in cross country events. Many of you will know Ron as a co-founder of SARUM, our past president and SARUM’s most prolific winner of orienteering events. Ron encouraged Peter to start orienteering and join SARUM. Peter was initially reluctant because he knew that if he started he would become totally hooked – which proved to be the case. Peter and his wife, Joan, joined SARUM in 1984 and were real assets to the club from then onwards. Peter was a long term committee member and was chairman twice, each for a 3 year period. He was chairman at the time I joined the club and instantly made me feel right at home.
A staunch Welshman who loved to compete in Wales, he had his first Welsh success by becoming the Welsh M65 Champion in 2009. His latest notable success was Welsh M75 Champion 2021.
As a result of his M60 successes, Peter was selected for the Welsh International team and firstly represented Wales in the Veteran Home Internationals in Ireland in 2004.
He and his wife, Joan, loved the Lake District so much that they obtained a holiday home there. So orienteering in The Lake District very much added to their regular holidays in the area.
Coaching activities
Peter was a great advocate of junior activities and coaching. We cannot remember an occasion when he wasn’t there at club junior training as a helper and as a coach.
Funding
Peter had a knack for raising funds from various sports authorities.
He raised a substantial grant for facilities for the Salisbury Hub Club. Subsequently, SARUM used the hall and grounds as a base for a number of years for meetings, annual dinners and, most importantly, as facilities for junior training.
Peter then obtained a grant from Sport England for a maze for fun ‘O’ training and as a novelty feature at our club events.
The next grant Peter obtained from Sport England was to fund a campaign and coaching program to build up our juniors. I think we only had 3 juniors at the time but had 33 juniors at the end of the program, together with some of their parents. Peter expertly monitored and controlled the project to ensure we met the objectives and kept within the budget.
Following the pandemic and the drifting away of many of our new juniors, we benefitted from Peter’s expert bidding ability to obtain for a grant from Sport England from their “Back to Sport” campaign. This not only brought many of our juniors back, but enabled us to initiate our contactless ‘O’ kit.
Publicity
Peter had a particular talent as a speaker and writer. He convinced the local newspaper, the Salisbury Journal, to include orienteering news in their sports section. Peter wrote eloquent articles for the press whenever we had notable successes, e.g. when SARUM won the Compass Sport Trophy. Our association with the Salisbury Journal has resulted in 2 nominations of SARUM members for Sports Personality awards. He was also our roving reporter and photographer, writing event reports for our club website. Whenever I wrote event reports, I would send them to Peter to upgrade them to his standard before posting them on the website.
We will all miss the fantastic support Peter gave to our club and will miss his gentle and kind nature as well as losing a skilled orienteer and friend.
Ian Peirce SARUM