Our Tribute to Mr Peter Craft
The Tug of War Aassociation is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of a long and upstanding member of our Association, Mr Peter Craft.
Peter will be very well known to many in the tug of war world, both at home and abroad having been a long standing member of the TOWA General Committee for a number of decades.
Before Peter became a committee member, he was a puller, and can be seen in the image, back row, second from the right, with the Rotax team. The image is from 1956 a couple of years before the TOWA was founded. After finishing his pulling, Peter became a TOWA judge and was accompanied at a huge number of events over the years with his wife Betty who was also a recorder and another hugely dedicated servant to our sport who we lost in 2016. Peter eventually became a TWIF judge, officiating at a number of international events over the years, his final TWIF event being the TWIF European Championships in Switzerland in 2001. Whilst retiring from judging at TWIF events, Peter continued to serve as a TOWA Judge, officiating at numerous events around the country until his passing.
As a committee member, Peter has served the TOWA General Committee for a great number of years as an Area Representative, Officials and Records Secretary and International Representative, but served for 30 years as TOWA Hon. General Secretary until he stood down in 2014 - a huge number of years of service. At the 2014 AGM he was presented with an engraved Crystal Rose Bowl as special recognition of his long service to the TOWA. Whilst he may have stood down as TOWA Secretary in 2014, Peter continued to serve as an Area Representative for TOWA Area 7 and a Grade 1 TOWA judge until he sadly passed away.
Peter was a TOWA Award of Merit Holder in recognition of his huge service to the TOWA over a significant number of years and we are hugely grateful to have had someone so committed to serving our sport over the number of years that he did, undertaking a number of roles behind the scenes which more often than not can be a thankless task.
We thank Peter with an enduring sense of gratitude, and may he rest in peace.
Peter can be seen on this photo on the right hand side with the England 640kg team (represented by Oxney Vines Cross) at the 1989 European Championships in Rimini.
