During the Nottingham Test I received the very sad news of the passing of a good friend of mine, ‘Silver Dave’ Garrity.
In reality, I haven’t known Dave all that long. We first met on tour in 2013 in an Irish bar in Napier, New Zealand, quite late at night when Lofty had returned to our motel ‘beered out’ but Midnight fancied another pint. After the initial meeting with Dave, his son Nick, and their gang of friendly Kiwi reprobates, and five or six more pints, I was offered a lift back to the motel which I foolishly accepted, to discover to my horror that this bunch were not only staying in the same motel, but in the very next unit to ourselves.
As I staggered to our door to put the key in the lock I heard the fateful words:
“Where do you think you are going? We’ve got a fridgeful of beer in here and you are coming in to help us drink it!”
An offer I couldn’t, and didn’t refuse, and so began a lovely friendship.
Dave was living in Wellington at the time to be close to his son Nick and Kiwi family, but he told me that in the end he just couldn’t hack the Kiwi lifestyle and a short time later he returned to his native Huddersfield, the town of his birth. We then began to meet regularly, for Huddersfield is a short train ride away for me and many enjoyable afternoons followed, usually swapping yarns and downing pints in the Kings Head on Huddersfield station.
Dave liked all sports I think. Football – it was Huddersfield Town of course, and every time I saw him, he told me the story of his Monday morning in work after the Terriers disastrous visit to Manchester City – years before City were any good! After lunch, a City fan at his workplace would come up to him at 12.50pm exactly and ask the time. “Bloody ten to one!” replied Dave, which coincidentally, was the exact match score from the weekend.
When the imposters pretending to be Manchester United visited Huddersfield in the league during their premier league spell, Dave kindly phoned me with the offer of a ticket. Although I had stopped going to Old Trafford long ago, with tickets as rare as rocking horse droppings this proved to be another offer I could not refuse, and on the wettest and coldest Saturday afternoon imaginable we found ourselves sat in the uncovered Huddersfield end, thoroughly frozen and drenched.
Surprise surprise, the Terriers deservedly won the game 1-0. “Caught us at a good time didn’t you!” was all I could respond with, but in truth there was no gloating at all. Dave wasn’t like that. Instead we repaired to his sons pub to dry off outside and get wetter still inside.
Dave also liked his cricket, obviously, but at Kirkburton rather than Headingley, which in fact we never visited together. Dave was not a lover of things Leeds, especially the football team!
He was a very well travelled man. Apart from his time living in New Zealand, when he was younger, he spent time in Canada, where he even played ice hockey!
A few years ago Dave started having knee problems. An operation to correct this followed, and in truth Dave never really fully recovered from this and ended up with a serious and protracted illness. At that point we lost touch as the COVID regulations effectively made visits impossible. We spoke on the phone where possible and I know that Dave looked forward to reading his Addis newsletter, especially when his mobility became very poor.
During the Nottingham test I received the very sad news from son Nick in Wellington that Dave passed away on Wednesday 8th of June. I know he was having a very rough time with his illness, and I hope he is now in a much better and pain free place.
The end of an era for me, I have lost a good mate and the world has lost one very nice human being.
RIP Dave. You will be sadly missed, and condolences to your family and friends who may be reading this.