RIP Dave “El Blondie” Colclough: 1964 to 2016

The world of poker has just lost one of its best-loved players after Welsh pro Dave Colclough passed away on October 18th following a battle with cancer. The player known affectionately as “El Blondie” was 52 years of age.
In 2003, Dave “El Blondie” Colclough was named the European Poker Player of the Year, and in 2005 became the European Poker Players Hall of Fame’s youngest ever inductee aged just 41.
Many of the UK’s legions of poker fans were initially introduced to Dave Colclough during the early years of the poker boom when he would appear on such popular TV shows as Late Night Poker, often matching his poker skills against such other staples of the UK poker scene as the Boatman brothers, Joe Beevers, Simon Trumper, Surinder Sunar, and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, who also passed away only last year.
Born in Carmarthen, Wales, Colclough started out as a computer programmer before turning his attention to playing poker. In 1995, he then recorded his first tournament cash, but it wasn’t until the year 2000 that Colclough enjoyed a breakout year in which he amassed $265,633 in winnings, including a runner-up finish at the WSOP $2,070 Pot-Limit Hold’em event for $89,300.
Colclough subsequently went on to earn $2,639,641 throughout the whole of his tournament career, with some of his biggest scores including in 2004 winning the £2K European Poker Championships for £100,000, and in 2007 winning the £1K GUKPT Manchester for £88,300.
Following the sad news of Colclough’s demise, condolence messages have been flooding in from members of the poker community, including the following tributes:
Neil Channing: “A sad day. In poker, Dave was someone I always looked up to and was keen to play well against. It never seemed to happen. Never had a cross word with him, always very easy to deal with and decent. Glad to have known him.”
John Conroy: “Dreadful news about Dave Colclough – a great poker player and more importantly a lovely guy #RIPBlondie.”
Barry Neville: “One of the nicest men I ever met at the poker table or anywhere else. One of the best on the circuit. Taken way too soon RIP.”
Allen Kessler: “Rest in peace Dave Colclough. Always a gentleman at the table. https://youtu.be/7sGw1-H35Pk”