FORMER Churcher's College pupil Ted Slinger has died at the age of 86. Born in Somerset, where he gained a scholarship to Taunton School, his family moved to Liss during his early teens and he finished his education at Churcher's College, Petersfield, where he excelled academically. As soon as he was old enough he joined the RAF, trained in America and went off to engage in active service in the Far East, where he reached the rank of Squadron Leader and where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war he took up a position at the Stock Exchange and he rose to become a partner in the jobbing firm White and Cheeseman. He married his childhood sweetheart, Molly Musgrave, whose family had also moved to Petersfield from Somerset. They moved to the Barley Mow pub in Tilford in the mid-60s and stayed until they retired at the end of the 1987 cricket season. Ted was an avid cricketer, who started his career as a fast bowler, but the war got in the way of his cricket. However, he once turned out for Liss as a schoolboy and won the match for them on his own by taking nine wickets for only six runs. Later he became a hard-hitting batsman and often broke the tiles on his own pub roof! As his sons Peter and Paul came to take his place on the cricket pitch, thirsty customers often were treated to the refrain: "No I'm not serving you – I'm watching the cricket." Getting a drink at the Barley Mow was rarely as easy as it should have been as Ted would often keep the main door locked whilst silently sliding the bolt back on the side door. He'd then be able to carry on watching the cricket until someone tumbled his rouse. Ted's rules were absolute – customers who didn't have the good manners to say "Please" and "Thank you" were simply ignored and woe betide you if you entered the pub without a shirt on. However, to his regulars, he was a deeply loved and respected landlord, who protected them with a rod of iron and who, when he felt he could let his guard down, would entertain them by playing the harmonica or serving them dressed as an Arab sheikh. Ted was one of those great character publicans – a dying breed it seems these days – who wrote their own rule book. If he wanted to watch something on television he would leave the pub in total darkness and hope that customers would go away. If they didn't he'd eventually come into the bar, look shocked to see people in his pub and tell them some cock-and- bull story about it being illegal to serve alcohol between the two medieval bridges before 7.30pm. Sometimes he'd agree to serve them as long as they didn't mind if he threw a camouflage net over their car so that no-one would know they were there! If strangers asked Ted to turn the dart board light on, he'd pretend to go to switch it on and then exclaim: "It's already on – it must be that loose connection." He'd then delight in getting the poor customers to jump up and down on the flagstones near the board as he flicked the light on and off. Ted was a staunch supporter of Tilford Cricket Club, and his stinging wit would echo around the Green. Ted and Molly's daughter, Penny, is an artist and now lives in California. The couple retired to Bordon and remained there until Ted was moved to a nursing home, where he died peacefully on November 20. His funeral takes place on December 6 at 1.30pm at Aldershot Crematorium.