Tom Costigan
LRAFC are very sad to announce the passing of Tom Costigan, who had a heart attack on the 8th fairway at Formby Golf Club on 21st July 2018. His funeral will take place on Thursday 2nd August at St. Joseph’s Church, Blundellsands. L23 6UE at 11a.m.
His entry in Jo Russell’s book is as follows:
Tom Costigan (President 1986-88) was ‘a good solid player who always gave 110%.’ His dry self-deprecating wit, craggy jaw and deadpan demeanour were his hallmarks. Tom had been a late convert to the game after playing rugby at Stonyhurst College and then at Oxford where he went to read law in the hope it would get him out of National Service. It did and he followed his brother into the Ramblers in about 1956. As he recalls, this was a time when everybody played in set positions. He reckoned he never moved more than 6 yards in any given direction. Tactics were simple. “Wingers were to stay on the wing and everyone else used their nouse!”
Nick Toosey said Tom had a wonderful sense of humour and loved to sing after a few pints on a Saturday night. His white palour invited comments when he entered the changing –room from the rest of the team saying how well he looked and what a great suntan he had.
Tom’s humour was behind his challenge to George Davies which centred on his belief George hogged the ball and was reluctant to pass. So he told him in the changing-room at Wellingborough “George, I am going to pay 2 shillings for every time I receive the ball from you”. Tom says he didn’t have to part with much change.
Tom acted as chauffeur to Simon Edwards when he first joined the Ramblers in 1966 as they lived in the same road. Most away games would see Simon returned home at 2.00 or 3.00 in the morning. On this occasion, Nicko Williams had borrowed his mother’s Mini and drove Tom Costigan and Simon Edwards to Bootham School. After scoring a hat-trick for the 2nd XI he then drove them back. Nicko quietly told Simon that the previous Saturday when they got back at midnight Tom had quickly said goodnight to Nicko, leaving him to drive back to Neston. At 2.30 am that morning Simon said there was no chance of a repeat performance as Tom would undoubtedly give him a bed for the night. But sure enough the same procedure occurred. Until very recently Nicko had felt aggrieved that Tom had been so uncharitable. But Simon revealed the real reason. Tom wanted to protect his two younger sisters from Nicko and had no wish to lie awake waiting for the creak of floorboards caused by Nicko’s late night manoeuvres. When told of this, Nicko replied “I’ve always wondered. Of course it’s an absolutely ridiculous thought”. Quite.
Tom was and probably still is a James Bond ‘anorak’. To pass the time on trips to Malvern and Repton he and Bill Higson would test each other alternatively with increasingly difficult questions on the Ian Fleming books.
He was at the centre of the Club for many years, captaining the 1st XI for three years, winning the turnout cup for four years, Committee Chairman for three years, a team secretary for five years, captaining the 3rd XI and running the Easter Festival for three years. His playing career ‘was a bit of a blur as every weekend was so enjoyable and much the same’. A happy and contented Rambler, Tom’s greatest performance was not on the football pitch but at the Adelphi Hotel when his speech at the Ramblers Centenary Dinner in 1982 brought the house down. Deadpan humour at its best.
Jo Russell remembers:
Of the 100 Ramblers interviews I undertook for the Book, Tom was my first victim. I drove up to Formby Golf Club, put on the newly purchased Dictaphone and asked him about his time playing for the Ramblers. He replied ‘Well, its all bit of a blur really’ and then stopped. “Tom,” I said, I haven’t driven 250 miles for the past 4 hours just to hear those few words. Probably due to modesty, his memory of his great 1982 speech at the Centenary dinner, which many Ramblers had reminded me about, seemed very thin.
Then several months later someone told me there was definitely a recording of the speeches. I rang Tom and asked if he knew who might have the cassette recording. He told me he had it and agreed to hand it over at the Anfield Dinner. I rushed back to London and finally found a cassette recorder owned by a 99 year old neighbour. Alan Isaac’s speech was crystal clear but Tom’s voice was almost inaudible due to the amount of hysterical laughter and the truth of his opening words, ‘Alan Isaac has asked me to speak up as he says I mumble’. I needed a translation. So I arranged to come up and meet Tom at Formby Golf Club again. I went and sat where we had met before – but no sign of Tom. After 10 minutes I went to the carpark and there he was sitting inside his car. He was unimpressed I had been waiting inside ‘I thought you wanted to listen to the cassette played in the car.’
So while he mumbled the inaudible speech from the car’s cassette player I tried to write down his translation. Back in London I still couldn’t make proper sense of what I had written, so in some trepidation I rang Tom and told him I wanted to send my feeble written interpretation for him to correct. There was a silence at the other end of the phone and I think I may have heard the words “ you stupid boy”. Maybe it was my imagination. Anyway, a few days later I received my original write-up. It resembled one of my French translations at Shrewsbury. Virtually every word had been crossed out with the corrections inserted. He had remembered every word. We got there in the end and Tom’s very funny speech is in the book for posterity.
Sean Duncan said:
“A grand fellow, a great captain of the 1st and later the 3rd team and an enormous supporter of the Ramblers. He made a brilliant speech at the centenary dinner.”
Dick Harper said:
“We have lost a man who was everybody`s friend. I first met Tom over 60 years ago and played soccer and golf with him and cricket against him for many years. I do not think in the 60 years I ever heard anybody say other than what a good man he was. He had a wonderful sense of humour and anybody lucky enough to have heard his speech at the centenary dinner (which is quoted verbatim in THE BOOK) will know what I mean. He will be missed by many older Ramblers who had the good fortune to have known Tom Costigan.”
