Fred Evans – 1927 – 2021
The undisputed “King” of Tanglewood died in the early hours of Thursday 28th Oct. – exactly one month
before his 94th birthday. Fred, who was truly loved by everyone who met him, was a founder member of
Tanglewood. He attended the very first club on Oct. 4th 1965. The club helpers who I have spoken to all
mentioned the same words – “He was a real Gentleman”
His last club night was 31st March 2014. Shortly after that date he suffered a fall in his flat. His mobility never really fully recovered and we all missed him – club just wasn’t quite the same without Fred sitting at his table chatting to his friends, and he had a lot of them.
His attendance was legendry. Our records only go back to 14th April 1980 but from that date until his last attendance there were 1,470 club nights and Fred attended 1,446 of them.
Remarkably between 1980 and 2004 – that is 24 years – Fred only missed 6 clubs. That is truly amazing. As you are all aware I’ve printed a lot of facts and figures in my time but none come even close to that.
Fred also attended 19 club holidays between 1987 and 2007. Fred wasn’t particularly keen on sport and
didn’t win any Tanglewood competitions. However, he was a runner-up in the doubles darts competition (with his partner Marion Mckeown) in 1991 – when the the photo with a young looking Chas was taken. He was runner-up again in 2008 (with Dawn Harmes). He was runner-up in the Pool singles in 1997 and runner-up in the pool doubles (with Sue Hillman) in 1998. The picture below is one of my favourites, he is pictured with former club helper Christine. There are hundreds of other photo’s I could have used but these three seem to sum-up Fred to a tee.
Fred was admitted to Northwick Park hosp. two weeks ago with a chest infection and seemed to be responding to treatment. He seemed bright and alert the last time his brother saw him, but died peacefully in his sleep. As far as I am aware it was not Covid related. Obviously there is no date for a
funeral yet, that will be posted on our web site. I will certainly attend and I would urge all of you to do the same so you can show respect to a true gentleman.
