Peter Crawford one of the greatest ever
Maureen and I had picked Graham up from Faro and were driving back to our base in Sagres but it was too late in the day to get Graham in the water and he had been up since some ungodly hour. So, instead, we were giving him a flavour of the Western Algarve and had already visited Lagos and Luz. We had stopped in Burgau for refreshments and were wandering along the seafront when Maureen spotted the most recent edition of Mundo Submerso. This excellent magazine covers every aspect of underwater activities and always has a large spearfishing section. This edition had a write up on the coming Afro-European Spearfishing Championships which included a list of the more famous competitors: Spain’s Pedro Carbonell and Alberto March; Stefano Bellini from Italy; the home team of Antonio Silva, Rui Torres and Andre Domingues and THE VETERAN PETER CRAWFORD.
Every time we bumped into other competitors, they knew Peter and it was obvious they respected him greatly. It was mentioned more than once that if Peter had been Italian, Spanish or French he would have been World Champion.
We all know how good a spearfisherman Peter is but I’m not sure we realise how highly he is regarded in Europe and the rest of the World.
Peter didn’t fish in this competition but he still had a very special mention at the Weigh-in on the first day and he got almost as big a cheer as the Portugese Team.
At the Presentation Dinner, Pedro Gomez (Organiser of the Championships) called Peter to the stage for a special presentation marking his exceptional international record. It was a very emotional occasion for all his friends and certainly very emotional for Peter. I can’t imagine he has ever been asked to sign as many autographs as he did that evening. A brilliant experience that we were all proud to share with him.
Here he is, well into retirement and still providing invaluable support and expertise to the Team. All of us benefited from his presence.
So its official Peter Crawford is one of the greatest!
Alan Mills.
