Chris Swift (Swifty) RIP

A place to pay your respects for those with Harriers connections that are no longer with us.

Moderators: harry211, harriershane, garthrockett

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Krasnyi
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Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2024 6:52 pm
I don’t know how many on here would have known Swifty but he sadly died recently after battling cancer for around three years. I was at his funeral in Bristol today.

Swifty was a lifelong Harriers fan. He was a sports reporter for the Shuttle and later the Worcester Evening News where he reported on all our games, home and away. He then worked for the Bristol Post and Western Daily Press covering Bristol Rovers and Gloucestershire cricket but still came up to watch Kiddy whenever he could. He was also a co-founder of the first Harriers fanzine, The Soup. Because of illness he hadn’t got to as many games as he’d have liked in recent seasons but despite being pretty unwell he did make it up to Southport last season for that match.

We’ll miss him, he was a lovely bloke. Three points for Swifty on Saturday please.
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Joe Stalin
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Location: Worcester, UK
Sad news. A really great, very amusing, writer too. RIP.
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harry211
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Followed Chris on social media, and he was always good value. I'd seen he had been ill, but this is still sad news nonetheless.
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garthrockett
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Location: Habberley
Really sad news, his writing in The Soup inspired me and a few other fans to get involved with the other fanzines springing up back in the old days of the late 1980s and 1990s, including Harriers' 'The Keeper Looks Like Elvis' and later 'Mr Harry Urz'......

Thinking about it I've got most of the issues of the Soup stored away in the attic somewhere. I'll dig them out and scan a few, both as a tribute to Chris and for younger regulars on here to get an idea of what fanzines were all about; The Soup was one of the best.
"We're all just amateurs, doing our best....." Richard Lane, Jan 2022.
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TomLong78
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I am very sorry to read this.

I didn’t know Chris personally, but suspect, after c40 years of following the Harriers, I would have recognised him.

I am of an age where I thought that “The Soup” was one of the funniest things I had ever read and, although I am obviously biased, it remains my favourite ever fanzine.

Thanks for the laughs and the memories Chris and much love to his friends and family.
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