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Phil Hexter Offline
#1 Posted : 20 January 2019 07:41:16(UTC)
Phil  Hexter

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Erol Alexis told me on Saturday, that "Big" Alf Evans had died. He was in his 70s, though Erol wasn't sure about what caused Alf's passing.

Older Croups members may remember Alf from the late 70s and 80s, when Alf was a hard, determined and consistant marathon runner, running for Cardiff AAC. He regularly finished in around 2 hours 45 minutes and in his earlier days he swam for England.

He was a great character, an extroverted fun loving guy, who loved the phrase, "Yellow ball in the sky makes ginger man die". Being ginger he hated the sun.

In 1981 (ish) Alf, Luther Williams (also of Cardiff AAC) and I travelled to Cornwall to run in the Duchy marathon.This was run from Land's End to Redruth. Alf stormed past me at 25 miles, going up a horrible hill in Camborne, looking like he'd just started the race.

At that time an employee of Les Croupiers (allegedly) tried to shoot Gordon McIlroy. As we were driving down to Cornwall, a driver going in the other direction beeped us and waved - it was Six Gun Sid (name changed!), the guy who'd tried to shoot Mac and was on the run from the police.

In the early days of the Croups a mixed group of Cardiff and Croups runners often did long runs together on Sunday mornings. We had a very lively bunch - Alf, Luther, Jim Riley, Howie Brown and Jeff Wood. It was never dull.

Erol or Martin Pinnell may have more details.

Edited by user 20 January 2019 07:43:15(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

JogAlong (Jeff Aston) Offline
#2 Posted : 20 January 2019 17:10:00(UTC)
JogAlong (Jeff Aston)

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I remember Alf well - a real character.

Sad news indeed.
Mick McGeoch Offline
#3 Posted : 22 January 2019 22:15:06(UTC)
Mick McGeoch

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Phil and Jeff - I share your sentiments. However, I am aware that very few people who come on this Forum are old enough to remember Alf. So - just to put a picture to the name - the latest edition of ACE carried 5 pages of pictures from the 1980 Newport Marathon, held in the middle of August in 80 degrees. There are several pictures of Big Alf wearing number 32 - and yes, the yellow ball in the sky did slow Alf down to 3:25, where he finished just behind Errol.
Phil you ran 3:07:50, and Jeff, in only his second marathon 3:25:56.
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