Alnwick golf hero remembers days playing with Nick Faldo

Posted by The Journal on Jul 23, 09 12:42 PM in Sport

A forgotten hero of North East golf, Peter Deeble, who is battling a rare form of motor neurone disease, will be taking a long and educated look at his television set today.

Sir Nick Faldo, who Deeble succeeded as English Amateur champion in 1976, will be teeing off in the same group as Bernhard Langer and Mark O'Meara in the Senior Open Championship on the Old Course at Sunningdale.

Peter Deeble and Nick Faldo

Deeble, now 55, but unable to play golf for 21 years, was one of Faldo's amateur peers. Our black and white picture, supplied by Chris Robinson, the father of junior golf in Northumberland, captures them together.

It was taken by Robinson at the Northumberland club in 1980, by which time Faldo had long turned professional but was seven years away from winning the first of his six majors, a record for a European.

Deeble and Faldo, who had been England amateur room-mates for the 1975 home internationals at Portmarnock, played in the same fourball for a Pro-Am before the Newcastle Brown 900 Tournament.

Making a breakthrough when he was picked for the Northumberland men's team at 16, ironically before making his debut for the junior side, Deeble brought a string of honours to the Alnmouth club, equally well known as Foxton Hall.

He won the English Amateur again at Moortown, Leeds, in 1980, beating a former double British Amateur champion, Peter McEvoy, 4 and 3 in the final.

Deeble represented Great Britain & Ireland in the 1977 and 1981 Walker Cups, in New York and California, and helped England win the European Team Championship in 1977. He played for his country 67 times in all between 1975 and 1985, winning around three times as many contests as he lost.

Deeble captured the Lytham Trophy, the Northumberland strokeplay title five times, the matchplay on three occasions and is one of only two men to have triumphed in The Journal Champion of Champions two years running.

Understandably, Deeble golf memorabilia is in big demand at Alnwick's Bailiffgate Museum, which is staging a six-week "Sporting Achievement" exhibition, which starts on Tuesday. Robinson said: "Peter had tremendous talent, and it was heart-breaking when his amateur golf career was so dramatically cut short through illness."

County secretary and president Elliott Procter said: "Peter was not only an exceptionally good golfer, but also always beautifully turned out and well-mannered. He was a fine advertisement for Northumberland golf everywhere he went."

Born and brought up in Alnwick, where he first played golf and where he went to Duke's Grammar School, these days Deeble speaks slowly and can move only with difficulty, getting out of his home with the help of a walking frame and what he calls "a buggy-type contraption".

Most days, he has a cup of tea with his father, Jack, either at Jack's home near Peter's in Alnwick or at Alnmouth Golf Club. Jack joked: "Sometimes we sit overlooking the golf course on a Saturday morning and criticise the golfers on the 18th green!"

Deeble, who lives with his wife, Aileen, overcame Hodgkinson's Disease with the help of radiation therapy when he was 20.

He said: "That went away and when I became ill again in my mid-30s, they thought at first it was as a result of the radiation therapy treatment. It took around 15 years before I found out I had primary lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease which is non-lethal."

Deeble's mind is still highly active and, with the Senior Open being given five and a half hours of coverage on Sky Sports 2 today, he says: "Oh yes, I shall be watching Nick on television and I shall enjoy that.

"When we were room-mates in Dublin in 1975, it struck me how single-minded he was, how fiercely determined. I am not surprised he has had such a great career. He kept himself to himself and he was never going to be someone you would get close to but, against that, he was a friendly enough sort of guy.

"And what a golfer. I can remember playing with him in the Berkshire Trophy when he was leading by one shot standing on the 18th tee. He hit this beautiful four iron into the middle of the green. I remember thinking what a great shot it was, given the situation. Nick has always done things his own way, with that tremendous drive and get up and go he has. Even back in 1975, you knew he was going to be No 1."

By Tim Taylor

We'd like to hear from you.
Send your stories, pics and videos