[SOC] Another K-R-A-P day tomorrow [my time]

[Ian C. Purdie]

Bill Cunningham wrote:

> A good glass it is.
> .
> >
> > Ian, do remember that you can stop burying your mates only when they bury
> you.
> >
> Amen to that.

Thanks to all for the kind words. I have now returned from Sydney.

I couldn't quite remember how old Pat was, he would have turned 70 on 14th
June.

My friend John White spoke at length at the funeral and at times somewhat
emotionally. John's like that. He evoked many memories, some I had almost
forgotten.

Pat was a wonderful fellow. As John observed "Pat at all times was both a
gentle man as well as a thorough gentleman?

Indeed.

Pat was also an accomplished sportsman. A fine soccer player in winter and an
excellent cricketer in summer who had the privilege of having been coached as a
wicket keeper by the legendary Bert Oldfield. In later years he played lawn
bowls as well as indoor carpet bowls to Australian championship level. He
devoted much of his time to charitable works and was a leading figure in
helping para-olympics get off the ground. He did many other good works as well.

He was a former Director and Life Member of the Cumberland Catholic Club where
we all met and socialised together. In later years I also became a Director
before we moved up here.

Pat's principal love, and mine as well, was horse racing. Pat part owned a
number of horses over the years and his greatest was Raffellini. This horse
gave him and other mates a lot of pleasure, plenty of success and very
substantial prize money not to mention betting returns. Sadly, all the
racehorses I've had an interest in were dramatically slower than Raffellini
was.

It was tragedy that Raffellini, a gelding, broke his back in his last race - a
major Cups race. It demonstrated the calibre of Pat and his co-owners when they
initially refused to have the horse put down, were prepared to spend $10,000's
to help the horse spend the rest of his days in a paddock and forego an
extremely large insurance settlement.

Alas, after a week, it was beyond veterinary science... The pall of gloom
throughout the Club was palpable.

Final words must go to John because as he concluded:

"I can now visualise Pat on Saturday [today] sitting on a cloud, race form in
hand, tuning into Radio Station 2GOD, getting the scratchings, and now being a
recipient to all the inside information backing the full card in Sydney,
Melbourne and Brisbane and finally he is in:-

RACING HEAVEN."

Thank you

Ian