MIKE PETERS
By Ken Beetham
Mike as many of you know, recently lost a rather one-sided return fight with a brain tumour that had given him such trauma over twenty years ago. As a mark of respect to his memory I would like to record a few reminiscences of a nice guy who deserved a better rub of the green.
The first time I met him was in the early sixties at Laddow as a trainer shod youth soloing up Tower Face. Knees were frowned on in those days and the youth seemed to use them more than his hands. Wittering all the time, he somehow made progress upwards and repeated much of the same at Stoney the following weekend. In conversation he appeared somewhat abrasive and soon became a close mate of Danny Murphy another teenager who seemed to seek satisfaction out of the sharp end of the pre aluminium era. They like many others, idolised Joe and Don and were a bit peevish at the mention of the name of Pete Crewe. They went on to become a real ginger group which included Julie Collins whose Tinker tent they never got into and did the second ascent of Wonbits Left Hand amongst other climbs of that era. Angus Morris from this group turned up at the funeral service. Obviously anxious to get his four meets in for membership Mike arrived in the early hours at the start of a Shap to Wasdale walk, to be led by the as ever optimistic Bowden Black who announced that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line and proceeded to test the valley side contours of Longsleddale, Kentmere and all stations to Grasmere; from whence sanity was slowly returning. I think from memory Scho and Astles took the classical high level way and finally at nearly ten pm. an incoherent pale faced Peters staggered down Brown Tongue and looked so knackered that I put him to bed in my tent and got some food and brews into him. As my luxurious ventile Arctic Guinea, bought on the never never was one of my prized possessions he was indeed honoured. Having had some of Blacks epics on weekends past I really admired his tenacity as he had never done a walk of any substance in his life and it was obvious that he had lots of competitive backbone.
We became friends for ever after that and he jokingly always said that I saved his life. From the looks of him I'm sure he was right!
His first illness made a shambles initially of his youthful life when he was supported by Linda his caring girlfriend of that time. As he got better, for some reason we never knew, they parted and Len did one of his many favours by just letting him sit around his shop until he felt ready to resume his life again. Being the type of man Mike was he never ceased to forget the darkest of days so long ago. He met and married Pat and they must have been a bit left of Tony Blair as they holidayed in places as far adrift as Russia and Cuba. I'm sure in his youth the Newbury bye pass and second runway would probably occupied his thoughts at least and I have a permanent memory of this on the surface volatile yet so caring man who really didn't deserve to leave us so soon.
So dear Wonbits Left Hand I hope you and your good mate Danny can again team up on the other side and know that Pat gave you a good send off.
Ken Beetham
