R.I.P. David Sykes

Rest in Peace

Really sorry to learn of the passing of my friend David Sykes who has been on the Management Committee of the Veterans League for the last 11 years. Since 2016 he has been either the Competition Secretary or League Secretary, sometimes both at the same time.

David passed on last Friday after a long illness which restricted his availability to fill the two jobs in life that he loved. Being on the League's Management Committee and being the Bar Manager at Brockholes BC. David lived in Netherton but bowled and drank in Brockholes where he was heavily involved in the running of the bowling club.

David had suffered poor health for a number of years which saw him retire from bowling after the non-event of the Covid year of 2020. He did come back to play two Veterans League matches in 2021 but he knew it wasn't the same and he was only helping out the team when they were really short.

I last spoke to David from his hospital bed in May of this year. He knew then that his body was letting him down but he also knew that he had let his body down by his lifestyle over many years. His doctor had told him that his smoking had done a lot of damage but there was little point in changing his habit of a lifetime and told him it would do no good depriving him of that pleasure now.

David didn't often talk about losing his son, Paul, to cancer but it was clear that his loss had had a big impact on him and his wife Sylvia. He was especially pleased that his grandson Liam decided to hold an annual bowling competition in Paul's memory to raise funds for the Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield where Paul was treated and saw out his final days. The Weston Park Trophy competition was started in 2016 and has been played each year at Brockholes BC since then and the Sykes family were all involved every year since, raising many thousands of pounds for the charity. David's involvement was important to him as well as key to the smooth running of the competition.

I will remember the frank discussions we had over events and plans for the Veterans League that we shared over the 5 years we worked together as League and Competition Secretaries. Taking up our roles at the same time we were the new boys and we always sat together at the monthly meetings. David rang me every day (including Christmas Day) for the first 18 months of our time in office together. He just liked to talk about bowling and in particular the Veterans League.

David wasn't a natural computer person but he forced himself to understand the nuances of Bowlsnet for the benefit of the Veterans League. The League was the first local League to use Bowlsnet in 2014. He was eager to get access to the system when taking on the role of Competition Secretary in 2016 and I was frightened to give him access with his limited computer knowledge.

But he persisted and we agreed the limitations of his access but that all changed in 2020 when I stood down as League Secretary. David took on that role full time because no one else would. That role included maintaining the Bowlsnet system which resulted in numerous phone calls between us. Sometimes things went wrong and David would give me time-limited Admin access to the system to help resolve such issues and there was an acknowledged agreement that we would tell no-one about our arrangement. David didn't want to upset his Management Committee colleagues. That arrangement lasted until last year when setting up for the 2024 bowling season was our final joint effort.

When the Bowlsnet Disaster occurred this year the Veterans League was among those leagues scrambling around recovering data losses. I knew that David took weekly backups of the system after each week's set of results had been input. We discussed it many times over the years and that practice had avoided some more minor issues over those years. I am sure that it would have overcome the problem this year but the backup would have been to his laptop but with David very ill in hospital there was no access available to it. I believe that he would have loved to provide the solution to the problem that I know he had prepared for.

Last year I added a posting on HuddWeb about the awarding of Life Membership of the Veterans League to David in recognition of his huge contribution to the running of the League over many years. That contribution continued to his hospital bed from where he logged into the Bowlsnet system to keep things in order, his practice over many years, which he had to do. Late in life that became too much for him and I know he will have been very frustrated at leaving the system behind mid-season.

David was a straightforward fellow who never thought about his own limitations to solving any problem but knew what needed to be done even if he didn't always know how to do it. That included the Bowlsnet system but also personal matters that we shared over the years. I will miss our phone calls and our honest swapping of views and opinions. He was generous with his time to bowling which will leave the sport short of a great supporter and his family and friends short of a really nice man. Rest in Peace David Sykes.