Roger came to Australia for our 1998 event, held
at the Collingwood Harriers track. There he walked a well-judged
race to gain his Australian Centurion badge with a time of 23:04:51.
He was a continuous presence on the track, never stopping, taking
his drinks on the fly and never losing concentration for a minute.
His determination was obvious and many remarked on his gutsy
performance.
At the time of our walk, (1998) he had recently
been retrenched from work, had done his financial calculations and
decided to retire. This was the first of a number of trips that he
then made, making the most of his new found leisure time. He came to
Melbourne a week before the race to acclimatise and saw a lot of
Victoria during that brief time. He left on the Monday after the
race and travelled to Queensland where he took in the Great Barrier
Reef and the mountain railway trip to Kuranda. He spent 5 nights
with Fred Baker in Brisbane and caught up with John Harris to swap
stories about how they had pulled up.
Then Roger hired a car and drove slowly down to Sydney to finish
off. He was very impressed with Sydney with its great waterside
location but felt he preferred Melbourne (a wise decision which I
can endorse - with no personal bias at all!). While in Sydney, he
had a great trip to the Blue Mountains. It was certainly a trip to
remember.
Roger was already a British Centurion and a
Continental Centurion so his Australian badge made him second only
to Chris Clegg who has 4 badges (British, Continental, Australian
and American).
In March 1999, he was off to Florida for another
holiday and then in July 1999, he made the trip to New Zealand to
try for a fourth Centurion badge with the newly formed Centurion
club in that country. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire soon
after the 50 mile mark and was taken to hospital for a brief checkup.
All seemed ok and he returned to the track to watch the completion
of the event.
Towards the end of 1999, he sold his family home and
moved to a new abode near Bournemouth. He enthusiastically threw
himself into various endeavours – setting up the
British Centurions website, helping walkers in their long distance
endeavours, working as an official timekeeping or manning the
feeding stations at various events.
Like most old walkers, Roger always felt he had one final walk left
in him and he made the trip to Colorado in September 2000 to try for
the American Centurion badge. In conditions of snow and sleet, he
retired after only 26 miles.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Roger travelled in June 2001 to
Holland and walked the 50 miles Kennedy walk with Sandra and Vicky
Brown. He then returned to America in November 2001 for a second
American Centurion attempt, this time completing 43 miles in the San
Diego event.
It was in 2002 that Roger was first diagnosed with cancer and an
initial operation seemed successful. Unfortunately, the remission
was only temporary and earlier this year things took a turn for the
worse. His emails had become less frequent and I detected both
frustration and despondency in his brief correspondences. He had
only a short time to enjoy his retirement but he had used it to the
full doing what he enjoyed most – immersing himself in the Centurion
world.
Roger will be remembered warmly and with gratitude for his
dedication and his real contribution to the Centurion brotherhood
worldwide and to Surrey Walking Club, and for his tough and plucky
approach to competition in all conditions.
He will be greatly missed by all his friends in the
many countries that he has visited.
Tim Erickson
Secretary, Australian Centurions
27 April 2004
