My pal Mike Thurgur, who has died of most cancers aged 82, was an excellent squash participant who represented England and Nice Britain within the Seventies. He was first chosen for the British touring group to South Africa in 1970 and in 1974 took half within the European Championships with the England group earlier than captaining a British squad to New Zealand in the identical yr.
He continued taking part in to a excessive commonplace even in comparatively superior years, and after transferring to Wales in 2000 he turned No 1 Welsh veteran, in addition to nationwide coach. In 2001, competing underneath the Welsh flag, he was British champion within the over 60s age group and, in Melbourne, world champion.
Mike was born in Paignton, Devon, to Dennis, a pharmacist, and his spouse, Joan (nee Yates). He attended Brentwood college in Essex earlier than learning historical past at Exeter College, the place he performed for the squash group and in 1961 received the Devon county championships for the primary of 14 occasions.
After college he started work as a valuation surveyor with the Better London council in 1962, however rapidly deserted that job to take a diploma in schooling at Exeter College, and in 1964 turned a historical past instructor at Millfield college in Somerset.
Within the mid-Sixties Mike turned concerned with the Pilsdon Neighborhood, a Christian initiative based mostly round a farm in Dorset. There he met Ruth Smith, a singing instructor and counsellor whose mother and father had been founders of the group. They married in 1967 and Mike was cautious to dwell by the tenets of acceptance and friendship that he had discovered at Pilsdon.
He and Ruth later spent a yr in Christchurch in New Zealand, the place Mike took on educating work, earlier than returning to the UK, the place he taught at Stanbridge Earls college close to Romsey, Hampshire (1976-79), after which at St Christopher college in Letchworth, Hertfordshire (1979-99).
After he had retired, he and Ruth moved to Hyssington, close to Montgomery in Powys, the place they threw themselves into native life. All the time extremely match, Mike enormously loved strolling within the Welsh hills and in his final months was nonetheless transferring logs round with the identical verve that had sustained him on squash courts everywhere in the world. He was an exquisite particular person: modest, erudite and stuffed with integrity.
Mike is survived by Ruth, their two youngsters, Rebecca and Justin, their grandchildren Jonah, Milo and Lily, and his sister June.
