It has been announced of the death of Peter Grimstead a stalwart of Essex table tennis. He can be seen below in his playing days on the far right with Colin Hughes, left, and Les Eadie in the middle.
Along with Bernard Chatterley he started Grove T.T.C. in Chadwell Heath which played a central part in the Dagenham League for many years as a place to play finals, Rep matches as well as bread and butter league games most nights of the week.
Grove attracted the likes of Chester Barnes, Stuart Gibbs, Les Eadie, Kevin Caldon, Elaine Foulds and, sadly, the late departed Joe Andrews and many more of that standard.
He acted as Chairman and Secretary for the Dagenham League and with Peter Cranmer they worked on Rep. matches, Inter -League and social events.
In 1980 and 1981 he was involved with two Wilmott Cup finals along with the help of his good friend Wally Read when Dagenham beat Leicester in two consecutive finals to win the cup with firstly, Ian Horsham, Des Charlery and Dave Newman, and then with Ian, Dave and Kevin Caldon.
Peter Cranmer recalls how in 1990 Dagenham reached the Final again and asked him ‘Who’s playing in the final?’ I said ‘Well, I would like it to be Des Charlery , Grant Solder and Steve Dorking but Steve is playing in a tournament in Bulgaria the week before and won’t get back till Saturday morning around 9.00am at Heathrow’. ‘I’ll pick him up’ says Peter ‘and bring him up to St.Neots’ and that’s what he did. They beat Chesterfield, Bradley Billington and all, to make it a third victory in 10 years.
Peter also tells the story of how, after one Dagenham Championship, he can remember unloading 14 tables from one of his vans into a lockup of his at 1am in the morning when the police arrived and asked what was going on. Quick as a flash Pete said ‘unloading tables – give us a hand!’
Back in the late 50’s, early 60’s Peter ran his own bike shop – Grimsteads – in Canning Town later selling scooters even to the likes of Stuart Gibbs and Chester Barnes.
Outside table tennis he was a West Ham United fanatic. His office had pictures all over the wall of W.H.U. players amongst table tennis players and his other sports love speedway. In later years his walking stick was painted in West Ham colours. He will be missed by friends and family, a proper character.
The funeral is on Friday 4th February at Forest Park Crematorium, Hainault, IG6 3HP at 11.00am.
