10:02am Friday 18th June 2010
By Michael Pickard
Former policeman Jeff Pickard wrote to Nostalgia with memories of one particular night at Baileys.
Mr Pickard, from Middleton-on-Sea, West Sussex, said: “Firstly, it seems a bit off writing to a namesake, no relation I believe.
“Last weekend while visiting my daughter in Watford and reading the Watford Observer, I enjoyed very much the Nostalgia page and was alerted by your request for any memories of Baileys nightclub.
“Briefly, my CV was that I served in the Hertfordshire Constabulary from 1957 to 1987, when I retired as Detective Chief Inspector and moved to Sussex.
“In August 1981, I was a DCI on the number five regional crime squad living in The Avenue, Watford.
“A colleague of mine, a Detective Inspector Gary Purser, became a father to a baby girl, Gemma, born to his wife Bridget. I heard of this that same day and decided to visit him at his home address to celebrate, which we did.
“After visiting many hostelries in the Watford area, the two of us ended up in Baileys, I believe Graham White was the manager then.
“To cut a long story short, I lost Gary, couldn’t find him and so I walked home not really knowing where he was.
“Some time later, my wife and I were woken up by banging on the front door and there was Gary, alleging I had abandoned him in Baileys.
“The story he told was that feeling tired, he had entered the toilets and fallen asleep. Baileys was closed.
“Trying to get out he met a security officer who thought he had captured a burglar, but no. Gary was released and made his way to my house.
“He was taken home to his wife and new born daughter and on the way back to my address I was stopped by a police dog handler. He looked at me, I looked at him, I recognised him as PC Froy and he said: ‘All right, Guv’, which it was. He was, no doubt, a bit surprised to see a DCI driving a car at 4am in his pyjamas.
“No doubt someone else will remember how Inspector Gerry Fuller took over the microphone one night after a disturbance and closed Baileys.
“Sussex is great but I have many happy memories of serving in the police, ten years at South Oxhey, Rickmansworth, Watford and Hemel Hempstead.”
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