Life Membership

After a wet and windy afternoon at Battersea Park Track where David (Lippy) Lipscomb had been manfully refereeing the track events, it was my great pleasure to present him with Life Membership of the club. This was a task left to me by the previous committee who no doubt had its own reasons in deciding to make this award but I for one consider it well deserved.
Lippy joined the club in 1997 and quickly volunteered to join the committee as Honorary Secretary. I was personally grateful for his help whilst I was Secretary for his advice and for forwarding correspondence to me. This was from organisations that were slow to realise that he had moved on and there had in fact been two other Secretaries since.
Lippy has never been a natural runner but has competed at every distance up to marathon which was a major personal achievement for him. Lippy's real forte is in field athletics, mainly throwing, where he has a methodical rather than graceful style. In a club that struggles to find people able to pick up a hammer his contribution over the years has been immense. He was instrumental in the two promotions our former Senior Mens League teams enjoyed in the 2000s.
David's love of athletics took him to qualifying as a track judge and as such plays a major role in putting on events. He is very knowledgeable about the sport and I can vouch for the fact that he is very supportive to other judges and calm under the intense pressure of the Southern Athletics League. He also has administered our track results for many years contributing to our impressive results database.
Lippy is also a Level 3 coach, regularly coaching at Willesden and before that at Paddington where he was part of that legendary team with Malcolm and Terry. He has been very supportive as a coach. I discover that he is also a throws coach and BTF Level 1 triathlon referee which has proven helpful in staging our multisport events.
So, in conclusion, David has been a stalwart of the club; a keen athlete; an invaluable volunteer; and an all round good egg. He also has his name spelt incorrectly more than anybody else I know.
Charles
Hon Chairman
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