ON THE job he was Glen Turner, but to many around him he was Lord Ted.
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Like any nickname, there is a story, one that was coined by him that has stuck for more than a decade.
See, the 51-year-old was a touch team player, the driving force behind the “Stalwarts” – a local team made up of fellow environment workers, friends and friends of friends.
“He wanted his nickname to be Lord Ted like Dragons legend Teddy Goodwin,” friend Ben Hanks recalled yesterday to The Leader.
“He said I’m great one week and ordinary the next.
“This name stuck, ever since then I don’t think I’ve called him Glen to his face, he’s Ted, he’s been that for 10 years.”
The Stalwarts have been playing in the over-30s competition in Tamworth since 2003.
“He loved his family. He was a great guy like that,” Mr Hanks said.
“And he set up a footy team that means a lot to the people in it ... and it’s too hard.”
The team rallied around friends and colleagues on Wednesday, still in shock at the loss of their mate in an unspeakable tragedy.
As a team, they’re nothing short of distraught, some too upset to speak, trying to come to grips with what happened, but Mr Hanks said they were looking back on the good times – who Lord Ted was, not what had happened to him.
The boys said he had a “great laugh”, a great sense of humour, one that would make others laugh too. “He had a very
distinctive laugh ... you could hear him from wherever, down the hallway,” Mr Hanks said.
Not only a friend, he was a good dummy half, a good player, who many would turn to over the years, on and off the field.
“He had long legs. He was a good player,” Mr Hanks said.
“He put a lot of people over for a lot of tries, me included.
“He was a pretty forthright individual.
“You knew where you stood with Glen. He was very, very honest; very much for the little guy.”
His home brew was another talking point with teammates too, even online hashtags and condolence messages are adorning the #LordTed tag, in reference to his alcoholic craft that was way above the norm.
Locals said “Teddy” was a “craft brewer” with the skill to make a “mean brew”, a staunch friend who cherished his family.
“He was always pretty generous with his home brew,” Mr Hanks said.
“Glen really got into it, perfecting it as a process.
“No one was on his level. He was just about a pro ... it was like anything. Once you gave him something, he would get into it and learn everything about it.”