It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce the passing of Dave Levings. A club stalwart who joined Sale FC in 1967 as a player and served the club in many different roles right up until the cancellation of rugby last season. His funeral is being held today and is reserved for family.
His daughter Liz, has a link to to charity to allow people to donate in his memory and leave messages of condolence.
If you knew him, you will know that people making a fuss about him would be the very last thing he wanted. I will try not make a fuss, but describe the man I knew.
When I first joined the executive body as Chair of Minis and Juniors, there were only 80 children playing and we were a small part of the club. The first match I attended as a member of the executive, he saw me at the bar, called me over, put his arm around my shoulders and introduced me to the people he was talking to. He included me in the conversation and made sure they all knew that as M&J’s chair I was part of the future of the club.
He made me feel welcome in the group and said;
“Old farts like me aren’t the future of the club, we’re the past. Minis and Juniors are the future of this club”. This is something he said many times to all of us on the executive.
He was a believer in the future of the club and was a firm supporter of the development of children in the game. Over the years since, I have travelled up and down the country with Dave, watching rugby, talking nonsense on busses, eating in his restaurant and having a mid week coffee with him. He was engaging, funny, interesting and self-deprecating to the point where the only real rugby stories he relished were the ones where his close friend Richard Trickey got punched or the time he scored after having a couple of Guinness’s in the bar because he thought he wasn’t going to be playing. He became my friend and I shall miss him. We will all miss him. Rest in peace Dave.
James Hourihan
President Sale FC Rugby