idahoblues
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2009
- Messages
- 20,309
Oh No! One of the few people I’ve met from here, so sad. I’d hoped to do some falconry with him…..RIP mate :(
I’m finding it hard to come to terms with this loss and I want to let people know a little bit more about Andyhinch and what he meant to me.
I first met Andy at a friends leaving do. Andy was a young design engineer who had recently joined a small company based in Sale, Manchester. I immediately clicked with him, he was the loud, confident, unusually knowledgeable for a young person and a mad Manchester City fan like I was. There was another Andy in this small company who was a couple of years older. So to avoid confusion Andhinch became known as Young Andy, I’ve called him that ever sinc in fact my daughter and Grandson also called him Young Andy. Even though we never worked together as I had left the company the previous year we became good friends and would meet up every Friday lunch time for a pint and discuss anything and everything to do with city this was in the early 90s around the time of Paul Lakes injury at City. Every week the first question was any news on Lakey? we would meet in a pub called Jackson’s Boat next to Sale water park he was like a cheeky little brother to me. The years went by and we remained in touch although I moved down south with work. Andy stayed at the small design company and moved up through the ranks working mainly at Sellafield Nuclear plant in Cumbria. He had many good friends there as you couldn’t avoid liking him. In his mid twenties he married and had a daughter he also after a few more years became the Managing Director of the company and ended up as the main shareholder. I remember in later years using Andy as a supplier on some design work I needed and he was the consummate professional and pushed a hard bargain when negotiating!! In later years he told me about this forum and I remember when the takeover happened and we signed Robinho we spoke and predicted that we would become the top dogs, we was right.
In the later years Andys business hit tough times and he had to lay off his staff and close the company something which he found hard to do. Andy’s health also deteriorated after this and he had to retire from the workplace environment.
I moved back north in 2013 and rekindled an even closer relationship mainly based around all things City. We went to Lyon together for a champions league game and stayed for 5 days sampling the fine French food and Andy explaining it all That was some trip.
Andy had many friends and reading some of the comments on this thread as made me realise just how many people from Bluemoon he had eithe met or conversed with. He seemed to have knowledge of everything and could discuss anything from how to use a chainsaw to how to reprocess nuclear fuel. Andy taught me how to make a perfect poached egg and the secret of the perfect omelette (its Worcester sauce by the way). From eggs to venison from crepes to sourdough bread Andy was the man.
Andy had some close friends from bluemoon some who I also know; Worsley web, Muttley, Phil, Ali, Prestwich Blue, Mel, Bluegirl74 and many others. I’m sorry for rambling on a bit as I’ve hardly ever posted on the forum but view it daily.
Rip Young Andy