Pethick leads the tributes to non-league favourite Clarke (From Swindon Advertiser)

Pethick leads the tributes to non-league favourite Clarke

6:00am Monday 4th March 2013 in Sport By Ned Payne

LOCAL managers have paid warm tributes to non-league stalwart Sean Clarke, who died recently following a long battle with cancer.

Clarke, who latterly had been Chris Pethick’s assistant at Purton, was heavily involved in local football as well as cricket.

Pethick summed up the former Wootton Bassett player as a terrific footballer and a friend he would miss hugely.

“It’s a difficult one for me to sum up in a few sentences because I knew him quite well,” said Pethick.

“From my own point of view he was a great coach and a great friend and he’ll be sadly missed.

“Before he coached with me he played for me and he was difficult to control when the red mist came over him, but he was a great player.

“It’s a massive shame. Nobody should die at that age.”

Wootton Bassett boss Dave Turner was in the same year as Clarke in school and says he would remember him as a ‘gentleman’.

“I went all through school with Sean at Grange Juniors and then Kingsdown,” said Turner.

“The best way to describe him is as a character and I had a lot of time for him.

“He was very competitive and liked to win and didn’t mind bending the rules to do that, but he was always the first to shake your hand at the end of the game.

“When I got back involved in local football after I came back from the army, I came across him many times and he was a gentleman.”

Supermarine manager Dave Webb says Clarke was a proper football man and a forthcoming character off the pitch.

Webb said: “I remember playing against Sean on Sunday mornings and he was always a very competitive player and probably could have played a lot higher than he did.

“When I was at Highworth as manager and we came up against him and Chris Pethick he was always a really nice guy who would stay for a drink afterwards, was bubbly and really loved his football.

“He had a saying that ‘it’s nice to be nice’ and that really stuck with me, and I try to do it myself. A lot of people came out to his funeral and he will be sadly missed.”