Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

41 Bring back Evans David Bedford had said that “ he totally agreed that the offer was good and could be accepted ” and Eric Shirley that “ he was most grateful that we had such a talented team ”. There was widespread incredulity that the General Committee had not supported my re-election and, once again, John Rodda summed it up, writing, “ To the outside world this must seem a bizarre move ...” Ken Mays wrote in the Daily Telegraph that, “ Only hours after Mr Lister was congratulated... for his part in bringing the sport back from near bankruptcy more than three years ago, he was outvoted 13-12 in favour of Welsh Treasurer Hedydd Davies ”. During the 48 hours after the General Committee meeting, I received dozens of messages of support with countless urgings “not to give in”. I also received a hand written letter of commiseration from Arthur McAllister in which he said that he had tried hard to prevent the coup and hoped that Hedydd Davies would withdraw. Presumably fearing a backlash and in the face of a massive build up of support for me, Hedydd Davies did indeed withdraw his name 10 days later and I was duly re-elected as the sole candidate at the AGM on 2 December 1989. I had known and been friendly with Hedydd Davies since we had competed together as Welsh athletes and, indeed, one of the most unsavoury parts of this episode had been that his nomination had been made by the Welsh AAA; and was made even worse by the fact that Bill Evans, as Welsh secretary, had himself signed the nomination paper. I took the opportunity, during my financial report at the AGM, to publicly criticise Bill Evans for his part in the fiasco and was pleasantly surprised to receive standing ovation; while his wife, Kath, sat at the back of the audience quietly knitting. But Bill Evans’ action created a rift between us that was never to fully heal even though it would not be a factor in our continued work together in athletics and towards the objective of a single governing body.