Pete Jacques

13 4 2010
A TRIBUTE TO PETE JACQUES

Yesterday I spoke to the wife of a very good friend of mine Pete Jacques. Her name is Pauline and she told me that Pete is seriously ill and is not expected to survive more than a few more days.

I have known Pete Jacques for over 20 years and we have become pretty good friends over those years. Like me, he did basketball commentary for many many years starting, I think, back in the day with Doncaster. His biggest gig was probably working for Newcastle Eagles when I handed the baton over to him. He is most recently known for his commentaries at Durham Wildcats who are cleaning up in Division 2.

Having said all that, Pete probably wont be remembered most for his commentary but for the awesome job he did first with Pawprint magazine and then with the website of the same name.

Now when people are diagnosed with a serious illness or when they pass on, people come out of the woodwork to say what a wonderful person he or she is or was. I am afraid I am not one of those people.

I have always called it the way I see it and I am happy to say what a great guy Pete Jacques is, however my opinion on his magazine and the website is somewhat different.

The magazine was one of the best basketball publications around and also one of the worst, and his website was exactly the same. I don’t mind putting this in writing as I told it to him to his face, and he understood what I was saying.

The first hint that I got that something was wrong was when I went to pawprint75.co.uk looking for some scores from last week’s EBL games. This was the message printed on the site

I’ve enjoyed every minute of the last ten years, Hope you have.
Unfortunately my body disagrees, and has just packed up.
Shan’t be around to update any more, but if anyone fancies taking it on, feel free to contact family at webmaster@pawprint75.co.uk – (you’ll get all computer programmes, background and archives info …. A huge haul!)

I am a regular visitor to the site because it is, in my opinion, one of the best sites ever for factual information about basketball at all levels in the UK. I often go there when I need to check some bit of information on some aspect of the British game. I was often amazed at how he managed to make the time to gather all this information together and how he managed to keep it up to date.

I say above that Pawprint magazine and website were at the same time brilliant and awful.

This was because there were absolutely no design elements in them. He simply did not care about that aspect of the operation. He was about the facts of basketball and that was all that mattered. Once I even offered to redesign the website for him but he declined saying he was happy with it as it was.

This is Pete Jacques. He does it his way and he doesn’t care what anybody else thinks.

Pete knows everybody in basketball and everybody knows him. When we were together he always introduced me as the second best commentator in British basketball. (Cheeky sod)

In addition to his love of the game, Pete has a family, wife Pauline and a daughter Lucy, both of whom he absolutely adores. I wish them the very best at this difficult time.

He spent many years as a teacher in Doncaster which he eventually gave up when he decided that he had finally, “had enough”.

Some months ago, I included Pete Jacques in my mikeshaft.com feature ‘People who make basketball the joy that it is’. He certainly is one of those people.

I do not know what the future holds for Pete Jacques but I do know that British Basketball owes him a debt of gratitude for all that he has done for the game.

I am not sure how we can ever repay him.

Later

Mike S