‘DANNY WAS ALWAYS SO FUNNY’
Wayne Alexander pays tribute to his old amateur teammate, Danny Watts
I WAS in Jamaica when I heard that Danny Watts had died and I was in shock. I was only speaking to him on Facebook a few months ago, and he was still the same, a real Peckham boy.
I’d recently sent him some photos of our old amateur days and he’d asked me to find some more, and I had planned to but I didn’t get the chance in the end. But you have to be positive and remember the good times and when you were with Danny, it was always a good time.
He was such a character. He was always so funny and he made everyone laugh. When Danny was around you knew he was around. Part of that was his sheer size of course, but he was larger than life in every way. He was a joker, he was a p**s-taker, but in the best possible way. You could never get one over Danny Watts!
I first met him in 1992 when we went away on an amateur trip and he wasn’t sure if he was going to join the army or stay in the building trade. I joked that there was no way he had the discipline to join the army. So he joins the army and then wins the ABAS in 1994, the same year that I did. Happy memories, such good times.
I went to his funeral last week (Friday June 15) and it was like a celebrity funeral. It was packed. We all looked back on Danny and remembered what a great guy he was, but it was sad to hear from his children. But they will always be proud of their dad. Like a lot of funerals, and as I get older I go to more and more, it was both a bad day and a good day. It makes you realise how short life is. You’re here today and you’re gone today. We must do the best we can and be thankful, and be happy.
It was a shame it clashed with Dean Francis’ funeral, someone else I’ve known for years. He was a year younger than me and you’d always see him with his dad, Trevor, when we were young amateurs. I was gutted I couldn’t be there to say goodbye.