Chris Monk
Chris Monk who had been ill for some time passed away on Sunday 3rd July. The funeral is at Mintlyn Crematorium, Lynn Road, Bawsley, Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE32 1HB on Thursday 14th July at 11.30 am.
Chris was a long term member of Ellenborough Table Tennis Club before moving to North Wooton in Norfolk. In 1974 he was the NMTTL Divisional Secretary for the Premier Division and not many postponements got past him. Our sympathies go to his wife Ruth who herself was for many years Treasurer of the Club.
Chris was a very good player of Div 2 standard; was a very active committee member and ran in the early days the club's British League side.
He was a great chap and will be missed by all those who knew him
Family flowers only, donations if desired to British Heart Foundation, which may be made at the service or sent c/o Thornalley Funeral Services, Austin Street, King's Lynn, PE3O 1QH.
David Hope and Harold Webb are going to the funeral.
The Late Chris Monk , an Appreciation
I first met Chris when playing cricket for a wandering side that my brother Vic was involved in which consisted in the main of footballers who needed something to do in the Summer.
I was conned into playing by my brother because the team was one short and I agreed despite the fact that I had not played for some five or six years. In my rush to the ground I left my cricket boots at home so was forced to take the field in a pair of rather fetching winkle picker boots that were all the rage at that time. I took up my place at first slip along side a rather portly gentleman who turned out to be the aforementioned Chris.
He was greatly amused by this and passed comments all through the innings and very quickley it became apparent that we both shared the same sense of humour. These cricket matches were really an excuse to fill in time before the pubs opened, or the club bar, if we were playing at a club with a bar.
I was not much of a drinker at that point but Chris and the rest of the players could hold their own with any bunch of imbibers! My mother once remarked to Chris, and I quote " David was a nice boy until he met you ". Make what you will of that! That night we finished up at Chris's home where Ruth, his wife made us sandwiches and supplied even more booze.
This pattern continued all summer and at some point I learned that Chris had played table tennis in his youth. So at the age of 32 he joined Ellenborough gradually working his way up to division two in NMTTL which was much stronger then than it is now. More importantly both he and Ruth became committee members and made signifcant contributions, Ruth as Treasurer for many years.
When the Bowes Pavillion burned down in the early seventies we transferred to our present site and it was here Chris made his most important contribution by managing our highly successful British Leage team which won the competition three years out of five. Meanwhile Chris's playing career culminated in appearances for Herts. vets and a steady average in Div 2. He ws a player of quite limited natural ability handicapped by being virtually blind in one eye due to a cricket accident long before I knew him. He made up for his deficiencies by employing an accute tactical brain and managing to convince his opponents that he was a far better player than he actually was!
In fact we used to encourage him before he went to the table by saying "Go on Chris nothing him off !" I saw him score a century at cricket when we played against a strong Wanstead C.C. side containing two Essex County 2nd team players. To this day I don't know how he did it such was the strange mixture of prods and pokes he used to propell the ball to the boundary. But it was as a slow "spin" bowler that he made his mark. Rarely did the ball deviate from the straight and narrow, I know because I watched close up when umpiring. Neverthe less one season he did take over 100 wickets a feat for anyone to be proud of.
Chris used to take most of his holiday entitlement playing upto four times a week for various teams but they would always be good drinking sides. He took most of his victims LBW playing for a non existent turn, or caught in the deep because the batsman could not believe his luck in having to face such easy bowling.
As I said earlier he was a con man and deep thinker about everything and he employed it to his cricket. At his funeral it was reported that he was a complex character; to that I would add "very" but also a true and staunch friend. Chris divided his life up into segments. In his youth he had been a redcoat at a holiday camp for one season and it was then he developed his love of Norfolk. So when the alloted time came after retiring from what had been the GPO but now British Telecom he took off to North Wootton near Kings Lynn.
There both he and Ruth joined the golf club and they spent many happy hours on the course and helping out with the administration of this large club. Chris was in his element in the bar swapping stories of how he had played a hole and dishing out his theories on all matters sporting.
Opening batsmen were his particular forte. Whenever England were in trouble as they frequently were in the 70's and 80's and Boycott or Edrich or whoever were failing, he would come up with the name of some obscure opener for say Durham who he was convinced would fit the bill. Much to everyones amusement.
I have mentioned Chris's somewhat odd shape and I was reminded of a story when Ruth was buying some clothes for him at a very upmarket gentlemans shop the sort you don't see nowadays. Ruth asked for a size 16 neck shirt and a 32" pair of trousers to which the mystified assistant replied in hushed tones "Never for the same gentleman, madam".
So there we have it, some memories of a great but sometimes infuriating friend who certainly was never forgotten by those who had the privelige to cross his path. May he rest in peace , but somehow I think he is currently giving his thoughts to the management up there about improvements they should consider.
David Hope
