More tributes to Dave Lish

Many Salut! Sunderland readers have seen Pete Sixsmith’s warm tribute to Dave Lish, the SAFC fan who died suddenly on Nov 22.

Dave and Pete were chatting as usual at the Arsenal game the day before, when there was nothing to suggest Dave was other than in good shape and excellent spirits.

Following our obituary, a lot of other people have now added their own thoughts on Dave and these deserve to be repeated.

In particular, mention at Ready to Go of what Pete wrote has prompted a few more to offer sympathy and homage.

One supporter, signing himself The Fulwell, wrote these words:

Went to his funeral at Sunderland crem on Saturday.
Fantastic turnout for Lishy – vicar said it was the biggest that he’d ever seen at the crem in his 40 years in the business.
Rob Mason paid an absolutely fantastic tribute to him.

And Mike Amos had this to say in his Northern Echo column Backtrack (after referring to the death of Tony Parry, a former Hartlepool player credited with saving the club from extinction):

…. Less well known except to those of us on the Northern League circuit, Dave Lish has also died. A passionate football man, knowledgeable and opinionated, he held a Sunderland season ticket but still tried before Christmas each season to see a match on all 42 Northern League grounds.

Dave, who lived in Sunderland, was one of those people whom it was always a reassuring pleasure to see among the crowd or in the queue for the tea hut. He was just 50, and will be missed tremendously.

A death notice in the Sunderland Echo read simply:

LISH Grangetown Suddenly, on November 22, aged 52 years, David, son of Alan and the late Mavis (nee Lorraine). Cortege leaving family home at 11.40am, Saturday, for service in Sunderland…

For those who have missed it, here again is the link to Pete Sixsmith’s appreciation of his good friend (and the 10 comments left to date, some of them – Rob Mason’s included – are very moving):

https://safc.blog/2009/11/soapbox-dave-lish-rip-an-affectionate-farewell-to-a-good-man/