My name is Erica, Alex was my partner and we had been together for 32 years. We lived in a little village in Lincolnshire. Alex was a lifelong biker...and that is how he first discovered the fabulous Isle of Man. He came to his first TT in 1996 and was instantly hooked but it certainly wasn`t just the bikes and the course that brought him across the Irish sea. He fell in love with the views, the people, the beer, the little back lanes, the huge sense of community and a hundred other things about the island. I know this to be true because when he introduced me to the island, I fell in love with the same things. We talked for years about moving here and finally in 2019 we made it a definite plan, but of course Covid then struck and lots of peoples plans were put on hold. When freedom returned we came to the island with one plan - to find a tiny house with a big garage! We looked and we found and we had great fun doing it....but tragedy struck. It was just a few weeks after our last trip to the island. On September 21st 2021 Alex went out on his favourite bike along some of his favourite Lincolnshire lanes and was involved in a collision. He died at the scene. One of his other passions was playing pool for our local pub team. They played in the 607 league in and around the Grantham area. As a mark of respect for a player that had enjoyed and supported pool matches for over 40 years the 607 pool league arranged a memorial match with a a perpetual trophy and the aim to raise some money for a charity. I chose the Queen's Pier, Ramsey as the charity because we loved this pier and visited every time we came, the restoration project is inspirational and myself and friends from England and from Ramsey will be able to walk on the planks proudly remembering that we knew and loved a very good man who happened to know and love this island.
