Chris Langford
The Club is very sad to announce the passing of Chris Langford on Monday 23rd December 2024, aged 78.
"Club Legend" is a title we rarely use, but Chris - or "Lockjaw" as most knew him - was indeed worthy of that title.
Chris joined our club in the late 1960s and played both football and cricket for the next 40 years or so. He had a brief period away in the middle for work and personal reasons, and it was after his return in 1989 that his significant non-playing contributions to Club life commenced.
In his working years, he rose to the rank of Inspector in the Metropolitan Police serving time at Golders Green.
For the Cricket Section, Chris played from 1970 – 2009 in nearly 600 games. He hit 3,816 runs with a highest back in 1973 when he scored 125* out of 192-2 for the 4ths v Chingford, his sole century! He had been described as “an aggressive batsman liking to score runs quickly rather than worrying about his average”.
With the ball he took 566 wickets with a best against Tesco of 9/29 back in 1992. As well as being a fine bowler he was also a wicket keeper, taking 193 catches in his time with the club.
At the beginning of the 1992/93 football season, the Football Section had more players than it could accommodate, so a 9th XI was formed for the first time, with Chris as captain. They won their league at the first attempt losing only one game of 22, whilst scoring over 100 goals.
Chris loved collecting and publishing information and news about the Club. In the early days of the internet, we had a website constructed which Chris populated with huge amounts of information week by week. At the time it was acknowledged by many to be one of the best amateur sports club websites around.
Over the years, Chris gathered mountains of archival material from the Football Section, with match reports and newsletters going back to the war years and beyond. Much of this was invaluable in constructing the Football Section centenary celebrations brochure.
Continuing his administrative contribution to the section, Chris produced a printed programme for 1st XI home games for many years and continued until his health prevented him from getting to The Paulin in 2024. The programmes raised a total of at least £2,000 for the club over many seasons.
But it is on the non-playing side that Chris gave his all to our Club.
He took on the key role of Secretary of the parent club in 2009 and held this position through until 2015.
Having been on the Wine Committee in the early 1970s, Chris rejoined it in 1990 and became a pivotal member for over 30 years, Chris would serve behind the bar, manage the stock and finances, and handle the weekly brewery deliveries. He only eased up on these duties in early 2024.
Chris was a Life Member of our club, and he will be greatly missed.
Funeral details are as follows:
Thursday 23rd January at 2pm
New Southgate Crematorium, Brunswick Park Rd, London N11 1JJ
Afterwards at Winchmore Hill Sports Club, N21 3ER
