Allen Lee reaches top of New Zealand surf lifesaving

Press, 12 August 1978, Page 18

Allen Lee reaches top of New Zealand surf lifesaving

Bv

RAY CAIRNS

Thirty years of involvement in surf lifesaving. as competitor, official and administrator, reach a new peak today for Allen Lee. The South Brighton and Canterbury stalwart will scale the heights election as president of tne Surf Lifesaving Association of New Zealand concludes for ‘‘Genera!’’ Lee. virtually nothing will l;e ahead of him. unless it is. ultimately, life membership of that body with the long-winded title. But he is not looking to such an honour — which would follow life membership of his club and association — but to his national years, and continued involvement with the sport when they are over. Certainly, the election, which takes place at today’s annual meeting and conference, is the culmination of an illustrious career at all levels, “but I sincerely hope it is not the finish.’’ said Mr Lee this ueek. “I certainlv hope I'll be involved administratively somehow in the future. I would drive everyone mad at home — not least myself — if I was not involved." I’he 48-year-old Mr Lee is a rare creature in the surf lifesaving movement in that he did not compete as a junior. His familylived in Queenstown in his youth, and his secondary education was a: a boarding school, Nelson College, a quiet area for the sport and community service. , “Yet, the funny thing,” he said, “was that I was introduced to surf lifesaving at Queenstown, in

the breakers of Lake Wakitipu. “About 1942-43, the Oreti club put on a demonstration in Queenstown, which I watched, but it did not stir any feelings towards surf in me.” His introduction to the report had to wait until the apprentice carpenter shifted to Christchurch with his family and, purely because his family lived ai the .Addington motor camp for a month or two while looking for a house, he joined the Spreydon swimming club, just down Lincoln Road. Keen on swimming while at school, Allen Lee found a large number of South Brighton club mem-

bers were members of Spreydon, and by his second summer in Christchurch, he was a member of South Brighton. Equally promptly, as happens in that drill-conscious club, he was drafted into the rescue and resuscitation B teams. Within three years, much to my surprise,” he was in the A teams, both six-man and four-man, and that was the start of 15 consecutive years as a competitor at national championships. Lucrative years they were for South Brighton, too. Four times, it won the Nelson Shield the blue riband of New Zealand surf lifesaving. for six-man R and R — and he was a member of three champion teams’ in the surf race, “and the odd march past winner as well.” But Allen Lee’s biggest

regret was that “we never even got close in the fourman. I was always disappointed that we never even won a place.” He invariably swam the belt, just as belt races, surf races and R and R were his principal events in the surf Mr Lee was into administration as quickly as he started the sport, joining the South Brighton committee and going through most administrative posts (not secretary or treasurer, though), and in 1954 being appointed a delegate to the Canterbury association. Five or six years service there were followed by appointment as chief instructor, at an im-

portant time in the sport and lifesaving movement. “Expired air resuscitation had just come to New Zealand, and my being chief instructor involved quite a lot of demonstrations to all sorts of bodies: Plunket, school committees, P.T.A. committees. Red Cross, the lot.” Then he became vicepresident, president from 1970 to 1973, and a life member three years ago. It was an imposing record of service which’ would have suited most men. but not Allen Lee. He also filled in as treasurer for six months, then turned his sights to the national council. He had been Canterbury’s council member in 1967, and returned to the post in 1973, a position from which he will retire, to be succeeded by Ivan Kilroy, also today. "You can’t be both (council member and national president), that’s for sure,” he says with feeling. Allen Lee became deputy president in 1976, the quaintly-named post which is that because all local association presidents are automatically vice-presi-dents. There was a little story behind that, too. Two years before, Mr Lee had been nominated

for the office, but tried to have his name withdrawn when that of George Perry was also on the ballot paper. “I thought hfe was the right man at the time, and I didn’t think he should. or would, miss out.” So it proved — even with Canterbury declining to remove the name of Lee from the list of prospects — but Mr Kilroy, a delegate of the time, mentioned to Mr Perry the wishes of Allen Lee to not stand against him: “T was pleased about that,” said Mr Lee, and he could have added that that act of fairness undoubtedly did him no harm two years later when he won office. Allen Lee has won a host of honours and competed in countless carnivals — “but I couldn’t tell you how many Canterbury titles I have won, I wouldn’t have a clue” — since that first national championship of 1953, when stormy seas at Gisborne means buoys had to be dropped from an aircraft. Yet, he recalls that last year’s inaugural carnival for over-30s in Canterbury

—■ in New Zealand, perhaps — "was the most enjoyable carnival for me for years.” It had nothing to do with Mr Lee being pre-eminent in the surf race for those aged over 45, “it was just that blokes arrived who had not been seen for years; it got them back interested. “It was a good day, that,” he says with more feeling than the bare words convey. “Let’s hope the weather is as good this season.”

There is little chance of (he Lee family slipping out of surf lifesaving. His daughter, Helen, competes for Spencer Park and there was modest parental pride in the old R and R competitor a year and a half ago when his daughter, competing in the fourman at Gisborne, unhesitatingly dropped the line to assist a belt swimmer in trouble in the heavy seas. His son, Robert, has already made his mark in R and R events, as well as swimming capably in his first season. The inexperienced South Brighton junior teams of which he was a member won third placings in both

four-man and six-man at this year’s natural championships. Both the Lee children have also shone in lifesaving competition. Last season, Robert was a member of the Christchurch Boys’ High School team which won the Sir John Hall Shield again, and Helen instructed Christchurch Girls’ High School to success in the Monica Thacker Shield event two years ago.

Back to Allen Lee, though, a prominent man at national level since 1967, when he finished Competing, and now its leader. Twice an announcer at national championships, frequently a judge, a national selector for the last four years, manager of a national women’s team on a tour to Sri Lanka in 1974, he is president when his club, South Brighton, is to play host to the national championships in its golden anniversary year. The coincidence or the sense of the occasion is not lost on Allen Lee, “though the weather plays a big part, and we can not hope for the weather to be as pleasant as at Waipu Cove last season. But with Dick Pocock at the helm, the organisation will certainly be there.” Coincidentally, too, the last championship meeting in Canterbury was at Waimalu in 1971, when Allen Lee was in his first year as Canterbury president.

He has set himself few immediate aims and objects as the sport’s national leader, but there is one over-riding desire. “I would like to see clubs retain some of their membership. Each year, round New Zealand, they’ gain about 600 new members, but the membership remains static as some of these, and some of the old members, drop off. I would like to see clubs concentrating on retaining a greater percentage of their membership.” And though Allen Lee believes in the important function of patrol and lifesaving, he is realist enough to admit that the competition aspect is important to the sport’s survival. “Without it, our numbers would plummet.”