UNSW Cricket Club - A Tribute to Peter Richardson 1943-2009
UNSW Cricket Club | April 29, 2024
Although there have already been lengthy and numerous celebrations of Peter Richardson’s life, it is only appropriate that a tribute is now paid in the UNSWCC’s Annual Report. We will never do his life justice, nor his contribution to this club…but may we try. Tim Richo was going to pen a broader and more meaningful preface to the following comments from various Club people who were close to Pete over the years. He wasn’t able to do that in time for the Annual Report so the following is pretty UNSWCC specific – obviously so much more could be said about Pete’s wonderful life that extends so far beyond his magnificent contribution to this Club and its culture.
Pete joined UNSWCC in the 1999/2000 season when Tim decided to play here and finish his legal studies at UNSW. Pete’s extraordinarily strong family bonds, combined with his retirement from the workforce, saw him attending most club fixtures and functions with Tim. It was clear from the outset that Pete would be an important contributor to the Club but the ultimate extent of those contributions would always have been impossible to predict. Immediately Pete took on various roles and tasks in the most unofficial of manner – basically (as we all know) there are so many tasks that can be done and need to be done to try and create a successful cricket team and Club. Pete just showed up and started doing them if they weren’t already being done. He was never asked … they just got done. Ultimately this was the nature of priceless contributions he made to our Club. Some vital official roles … but, more so, in that continual unofficial role of selfless contribution.
The official roles were as 1st Grade Manager for at least 7 seasons and 4-5 seasons as Practise Coordinator. It probably needs no elaboration here to impress upon Club Members how important these roles are, how onerous they are (particularly when performed at “Pete Richo” levels) and, unfortunately, how for granted they can be taken. He received the Clubman of the Year Award, the UNSW Sports Recognition Award and was awarded a UNSWCC Life Membership. No doubt the Briars Club will have eulogised as we have because, typically, his involvement there was combined with the same talent, yet selflessness, that we all knew.
My more personal reflections on Pete Richo leave me often lost for words to describe the man and how much he meant to me. All I can say is, what a truly wonderful man - his enormous contributions to the Cricket Club simply reflected the combination of Richo's unbelievable generosity with his love of life and cricket. He received some official recognition but, again, it is hard for even those awards to do him justice. Hopefully a life so wonderfully lived is in itself the fulfilment he deserved. He was such a knowledgeable and willing person with so many natural talents - though many may not have appreciated his many skills and abilities as you will never meet a more humble man.
We know this was a sudden and heart-wrenching loss particularly for his family - the extraordinary closeness...the love, respect and admiration...within those relationships bore testament to Richo's wonderful character. There is no doubt that love, respect and admiration for the man extended well beyond his family – certainly to me and the many at our Club who know him well. Veil Richo - what a wonderful life to have lived and (I must say) how lucky I was to be a small part of it.
Jim Dixon
Peter was a much loved member of the UNSW Cricket Club. Peter came to the Uni in the late nineties following a legendary career at Sydney’s most successful Shires club, Burwood Briars, when his son Tim decided to give Grade cricket a go. He quickly acclimatised to our unique ways and became heavily involved in many facets of the club, but in particular our trainings and the important role of First Grade Manager. He also fitted easily into our active social scene and mixed all of his roles with his humility, wit and total reliability. What made Pete’s contribution even more remarkable was the fact that he lived in Wollongong. For a decade he made three or four round trips to Sydney a week, often more, to help us out. Any discussion of assistance with travel costs was deflected as almost offensive. A quick calculation of his effort comes up with about a thousand trips, or just under 100,000 kilometres.
His influence on the Club’s ethos and culture was profound and we were fortunate indeed to be represented to the cricket community by someone of his talent, dignity, wisdom and humour. At the time of his death our Club received many messages of sympathy from other Grade clubs which spoke clearly of the respect held for him. Another measure of the respect held for Pete was Wests Cricket Club’s immediate suggestion that we remember Pete at this season’s Test match Breakfast and by playing for the Richardson/O’Neil Shield when our clubs meet each season. Peter’s relationship with his son was ageless and unique. The closeness and respect they obviously had for each other enabled them to spend long hours alongside one another on match days, practices, tours and many nights out, where it must be said, Pete was usually last to leave, without anything approaching a hiccup.
Peter’s death was a shock to all of us at Uni but when remembering him we were at least able to reflect on a decade at our Club where, as well as putting an enormous amount into the place, he had a great time. He was a true lover and avid follower of the game and took great enjoyment from the successes of the 1st Grade team, tours of India with 1sts and the UK with 25 others from across the Club, managing a State League representative side, some Masters cricket in Perth and the Club’s social events, especially the Cricket Olympics where he dominated the Veterans Sprint. He was involved to the full and his approach to life and people made many friends.
David Jebb
It was with great regret that we learned of Peter Richardson’s passing on July 11, 2009. Richo was a great servant of the club – really, one of the unsung heroes of the club’s history. For a decade he’d not only managed the First Grade side – attending every day of every match, organising drinks, stumps, teas, umpiring meetings and everything else logistical – he’d also managed most of the club’s practices, running the book with politeness and precision. All this while commuting from Wollongong. That’s 50-75 round trips to Sydney per year, plus 8-15 hours of work each week in summer, an extraordinary contribution by any measure.
The manner of Richo’s contribution was also exceptional. He was always good humoured, generous and modest to a fault. Richo never talked himself up, and never put anyone down. He treated everyone with respect, no matter their age or what grade they played. Richo was also a lot of fun, quick with a shout and quicker with an incisive comment. He was the type of person that every club needs, but few are blessed with to our degree.
Richo was also a very fine man. He’d worked hard, and been very successful professionally. He also raised a fine family, with son Tim being a leading contributor to the club in the late ‘90s and 2000s. Pete had earned a long and enjoyable retirement, but unfortunately – and unjustly – his time was cut short. However Pete will always be remembered at UNSWCC. Not only by those who knew him, but by those who follow: the Club Committee has renamed the Clubman of the Year award in his honour. There can be no higher tribute.
Andrew Jones
It is difficult to put into words, capture or do any justice to the essence of what made Pete such a great man. He seemed to me to have a genuine understanding of what was important to him in his life - and seemed a contented man living this truth in his typically unassuming way. Importance of a strong coherent family unit seemed to head this list - this is evident just by watching how Richo's family interact with each other. The sparkle in his eyes when he talked about the grandkids was a giveaway also. Luckily for us lot, following his retirement he placed service to UNSWCC extremely high on this priority list also.
To me, Pete's ‘essence’ shone brightly when touring. And did he love a tour. Always ready for a beer or with a quip, bit of advice or wry comment when asked; displaying qualities of mateship, loyalty, generosity and humility for the lads to follow when the moment demanded. He had all of these qualities in spades but in typical Richo style, they were never displayed in an extroverted manner. In the team atmosphere with the Bees, he operated like that of the great ‘keepers. He would usually go unnoticed to the self-absorbed. But to the rest of us, his immense contribution and support was valued and appreciated, as he consistently went about his business in the background in his typically effective manner, always thinking how he could make an effective contribution to the team effort.
One particular story that does come to mind was after a pub crawl. As most may know, I am not much of a story teller, but I will always remember this one. Pete had organised to camp at Sutto's (Luke Sutton) place after the pub crawl that particular evening. After many schooners and much theorising, Sutts pulled the plug and went home in the wee small hours. Pete, however, still had some socialising left in him (as he invariably did) and decided to stay with us for a few more jars. Before Sutts left, Pete squared away the details and organised a key drop off (I think Sutts was going to leave it under a rock for him in the garden). Anyway, after some time we called it a night and Pete headed off back to Sutts' place. After rattling around in the garden for some time, he couldn’t locate the key under the rock (I believe in Sutts drunken stupor he forgot to actually leave the key out). Instead of banging the door down, waking up Sutts to get him to open up and then giving him a gobful for the key debacle, Pete kipped in the garden for the remains of the night. When the boys heard about it in the sheds the next week, he brushed the whole episode aside in his typical deadpan fashion, noting that it was quite a comfortable camp (except for the rocks) and besides, with the outdoor camp he was able to rise early with the sun and get going. The man was unflappable. Above all, he was just a great bloke.
David Carson
