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JOY WATTS – REST IN PEACE

Flight Refuelling PC are sad to announce the death on 27th December of one of their most long standing and treasured members, Joy Watts. She had been ill for a long time but still made the effort to attend each of our functions with the help of her partner of many years, Mike Gillingham.

Both Mike and Joy were familiar faces across the pétanque terrains of the south, both in the Southern Counites and the New Forest leagues, enjoying both competitions and winning many trophies.

Many league players of more than a few years standing will remember Joy as a fine pointer who was a stalwart of the Harriers team that swept the board in the New Forest League from 2010 to 2012. But even by that time she’d been a member of Flights Harriers for two decades – Mike tells me that it was he who ‘persuaded’ her to pick up a set of boules as long as ago as 1990, and she never looked back. Not many of us can boast of a third of a century’s involvement in our sport!

Joy and Mike also played a big part in the long standing twinning arrangements between Flights and Cherbourg PC that resulted in lifelong friendships with the Choubrac family.

Everyone who knew Joy will miss her ready smile and her sharp wit, and she will not be forgotten by her many friends at Flights and throughout the league. She will be sadly missed.