Tony Maxwell: RIP
As previously reported, the Club is very sorry to learn of the passing on Friday 4th November of Life Member and Past President Tony Maxwell after a short illness. We are pleased to be able to pay our tributes to Tony’s immense contributions to the club over many decades and to pass on our condolences his wife Carol, son Stuart, daughter Petra and their families. In lieu of a funeral, the family are organising an event in the clubhouse in December to celebrate Tony’s life.
Tony joined the club in 1957 while a pupil at Sir George Monoux Grammar School. Initially a high jumper, he switched to middle distance events and at various times was ranked nationally at distances between 880 yards and 3 miles and over barriers at 440 yard hurdles and Steeplechase. At University, first at Durham and then at Cambridge, Tony ran for the universities including matches in Europe and won a Blue for the mile while at Cambridge.
Tony was club Track and Field Captain in 1963-64 and raced very successfully for the club in the 60’s. 1966 was perhaps his best track season and he won an international vest. From 1964-70 he organised Woodford’s participation in bi-annual matches in Europe. Not such a fan of cross-country, he nevertheless enjoyed some good performances, but preferred to run longer distances with tarmac under his feet.
Following on from his stint as T&F captain, Tony filled many posts within the club, including Young Athletes Secretary from 1968-70 and again from 84-90, Club Secretary from 1979-88 and social secretary 1976-79. He also assisted with the British League Team management, was Co-ordinator of Athletics and organised quizzes for the club. Tony was awarded Life Membership in 1982 and elected President from 1988-90.
It was while starting his teaching career that Tony first took an interest in coaching, both at his school and at the club. In the 1980’s Tony coached a very successful group of youngsters, including his son Stuart, who went on to win many individual and team medals at County, Area and National Level. By now Head at Barking Abbey School, their teams were very successful too.
Tony worked tirelessly for the betterment of the club. In the late 1980’s Tony helped persuade a sponsor on board to help improve the fortunes, first, of the BAL team and then other sections of the club. As chairman of the Trustees of Vision, Tony was instrumental in persuading Redbridge to upgrade the facilities at Ashton Playing Fields in 2006 and also, together with Ted Wilsher and others, in acquiring funding for the Conditioning Room.
After retirement from teaching, Tony took to editing and producing the club’s newsletter “The Woodfordian”, which before the internet became prevalent was still the way that most of us got our fix of club news. He published statistical studies of Woodford’s participation in the Metropolitan Cross-Country League (from 1966-2003) and in the British Athletics League (from 1969-2003). In 2008 on the club’s centenary Tony published an 800 page history of the first 100 years of the club.
Tony’s family are organising an event in the Clubhouse in December to celebrate Tony’s life and will be notifying those who knew Tony well. They have also very kindly decided that they would like any donations in his memory to help the club and his daughter, Petra writes “If you would like to make a donation to Woodford Athletics Trust in dad’s memory, you can do this via our JustGiving fundraising page https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tony-maxwell. This will help to make sure more athletes (young and old!) will get to benefit from the sport dad loved so much in the years to come”.
