Peter Sanford Hargreaves 1928-2010

LINGUIST, CRICKETER, AUTHOR AND BEER ENTHUSIAST

A tribute by Geoff Hargreaves, Wellington, NZ, Peter's youngest brother

Peter was 82 when he died in Denmark on Friday, 3 September 2010. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Peter was the eldest of four sons born to Constance Barcham and Ernest Hargreaves. Two of Peter's brothers survive. His uncle Julian Barcham introduced him to cricket which he played for Victoria University while studying accountancy. Seeking a literary career and opportunities to play cricket, in 1951 Peter went to England where he got a job in the auditing department of a large ice cream company. Starting in the summer of 1952 and through the 1950s, Peter played cricket for the Southgate Club. In the autumn of 1953 he began the first of six freezing winters teaching English in Helsinki, Finland.

In the early 1960s Peter authored several published works for training Danish business people in English. Having accomplished this and fluency in the Danish language, he moved across to Copenhagen where he not only earned a living from his linguistic and business abilities, but also pursued another of his research passions, the brewing and drinking of beer.

Through various connections at the time, Peter both helped organise and turned out for a London New Zealand Cricket Club team that toured Denmark. He gained an introduction to and joined up with the Akademisk Boldklub (AB) where he continued as a player well into his forties. With retirement from the game approaching Peter became a qualified international coach and started umpiring. Through the 1970s he selected, coached and managed cricket teams at most levels of the game including the 1972 Danish national men's team that claimed a first victory over Holland. Thriving in his adopted country, Peter became a Danish citizen in 1975.

In 1969, when he co-authored the book, The Story of Continental Cricket, Peter established himself as a devotee to the Continental game. For three decades, he regularly contributed match reports, articles and book reviews to a number of prestigious international cricket publications. Further, his repertoire of humorous personal anecdotes about the game, and his reputation as a slick well-travelled raconteur led to engagements as an after-dinner speaker at various cricket functions. Subsequently he published his witty tales in book form.

From the late 1960s until he retired in 1995, Peter worked as a guide at Tuborg, the famous Danish brewery located in Hellerup. For those of us who took a guided tour of Tuborg with ‘Uncle Peter’ we would also have been impressed with his personal qualities as a gifted educator and entertainer. Always a warm and wonderful character, Peter will be missed by his family and his many friends.