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club history | |||||||||
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The club was formed early in 1953 after a notice was placed in the Durham County Schools Newsletter by Noel Hedley. The inaugural meeting was held in the C.C.P.R. office overlooking Durham Market Place, chaired by Ted Scott, County PE Organiser and the original name was 'Durham Teachers' Hockey Club'. Over the years this tradition has been continued with many teachers both from local schools and Durham University becoming members of the Club. The original colours were white shirts (because it was easy to get something white) and the first game was against Furness Athletic at Haverton Hill. Durham only had ten men so Furness provided a player and Durham won 8-0! This was an auspicious beginning. Durham's first full season was 1953-54 and their first home ground was at West Stanley. A number of the original members can still be found in Durham and one, ex-Club Chairman, Harry Brook, was still playing in 1996, at the age of 63. At the recent Golden Anniversary Dinner in April 2003, five founder members were able to attend – Harry Brook, Noel Hedley, Jack Hartnell, Harry Barlow and Jim Standish. It was very interesting for some of the younger members to listen to their anecdotes of earlier days. The fact that before each game the balls had to be painted with whitewash caused a stir of wonderment. The Club has had a nomadic history, playing at Brancepeth Army Camp and Durham Technical College, (now the Framwellgate Moor site of New College), before moving to Durham City Cricket Club in the early 1970s thanks to the efforts of Alan Bisson, a lecturer at Bede College. This home lasted for around seven years and provided an excellent if very small playing surface. But the social facilities were a little poor and at the end of the seventies Durham moved in with the Tennis Club, thanks to the efforts of Mel Kilner. Through a deal brokered by Don Ratcliffe and John Redman Durham City Hockey Club was able to play on what was then the best all-weather pitch in the County at Neville’s Cross College in return for subsidised membership for college students. Throughout these years many members were still teachers or recently graduated Durham students who brought with them young talented pupils such as Brian Lowe, Mike Iveson, Ben Batey, Graham Badell, Steve Lovell and Neil Richardson. Neville’s Cross College provided the Club with a number of students, such as Ken Jackson, Mike Sharland, Dave Penman and John Redman, some of whom continued their membership after qualifying as teachers. The nomadic nature of meetings because of the lack of a permanent clubhouse allowed the club members to visit a number of local hostelries including The Marquis of Granby, The Lambton Hounds, The Elm Tree and The Duke of Wellington and more recently The Rose Tree. Durham City Hockey Club enjoys its beer. In 1979, under the auspices of Chairman John Redman, a ladies’ section was set up and the committee meetings changed character although beer was still consumed in plenty. It was not long before the Club was chaired by a lady member, and Di Woodings, who has just left office at the April AGM was the latest of a group of hard-working and conscientious lady Chairs. Thanks to the efforts of Alan Instone, Graham Beck, John Redman, Dave Miller, Kelvin Cox, Tony Taulbut, Paul Worsnop and the committees in the 1980s the club finally found a home at Brandon in 1989. This was when Brancepeth Cricket Club joined with the Hockey Club to form Brandon Sports Club with our present grass pitches. This was celebrated at Christmas with a grand ball at Durham Castle organised by the Club’s social secretary, John Redman. This became an annual event and, like the Men’s Dinner which was also held at the Castle, was one of the high spots of the year. The Club owes a great debt to Tony Taulbut who, with a little bit of help from a few volunteers, all but built the excellent clubhouse at Brandon himself. This move to a permanent base was welcomed by Club Members as was seen as a starting point for moving forward with strength. As Ed Potter, the chairman at the time said: "We are entering the most exciting phase of the club's history, and thanks to the hard work and dedication of a few, we have a sports facility the envy of many clubs in the area." At last we had found a home of our own. However, joy gradually dissipated because we had developed our new grass pitch just when the game was moving from grass to plastic. Our dozen or so years at Brandon allowed for a range of social events, including such things as an annual Burns’ Supper, a children’s Christmas Party, our own discos and even a car boot sale. Hockey on the grass pitch, however, was gradually diminishing as the first and second team needed to play more and more games on astro-turf, something that also gradually became a requisite for the third team. This, combined with the difficulty of manning the Clubhouse bar, caused some frissons between hockey and cricket members of Brandon. By 1999 all of Durham's 1st and 2nd team games, plus some of the 3rd and 4th team games, were being played on the astro-turf pitch at Biddick School, Washington. The women’s section plays all their games on the astro-turf pitches at Silksworth in Sunderland. Training moved from Brandon to Maiden Castle, Durham, and began to take off in a big way. The Club is indebted to people like Derek (Degsy) Aspinall, Dave Tudor, Di Woodings, Mike Lacey and Dave Carter for organizing training and giving up a lot of their spare time to coach all members of the club. This has been particularly effective for developing a strong youth base for the Club. In such ways as finding new young talent, one of which now plays England women U18. In 2000 Durham City Hockey Club became part of the Durham University Sports Clubs set-up and began playing men’s home games at Maiden Castle. This arrangement was beneficial in that we were once more based in Durham. Players, particularly in the men’s 1st team, benefited from the newly laid down water based pitch. The Club also developed training further because of the extra facilities. During its history Durham City Hockey Club has not had a great deal of playing honours. A number of players have reached the edge of County Representation including Harry Barlow, Mel Kilner, Kelvin Cox, Roger Carpenter, Rod Pass, Paul Wilkinson and Dave Miller. A number of County Schoolboy Honours have come to the club. In 1999 two young first team players, Asa Taulbut and Andy Johnson, both represented the County and the North East Division at under seventeen level. Both also had England Schoolboy trials and both were active members of the new North Regional Academy, based at Durham University. On the team front, Durham City has the reputation of being a bit of a yo-yo side. 1978 saw promotion as 2nd Division Champions under Roger Carpenter, relegated in 1980, promoted in 1981 and relegated in 1983 all under Tony Taulbut, Promoted in 1984 and relegated again in 1985 under Tom Read, promoted in 1987 and finally relegated yet again in 1988 under Tim Glen. Ian Wilmot, Steve Lovell and Patrick Steel have given some stability in recent years and in the 1990s the first team was well established in the North East 1st Division. During the current season (2004-2005) the 1st team gained promotion to the Northern Hockey League, as runners up in division 1 of the North East League, while the 4th team gained promotion from division 5 to division 4 as champions. Tournaments have always been important to the City club. For a number of years the Club was represented at the Bridlington Festival. John Redman organized two mixed sevens tournament at Neville’s Cross in the early 80s while the Golden Anniversary year saw a revival with our own mixed elevens Festival which was successfully organized by Miles Hudson and held at Maiden Castle. In the 1990's the club is also gained a reputation as an outstanding veterans side, winning the Billingham Tournament on several occasions. The ‘vets’ also toured Holland twice, Liverpool and Wales. Over recent years, with the help of Pat Steel’s organization, the Club has been represented by both men’s and ladies sections at the Chester Festival. The Golden Anniversary celebrations were organised by a committee led by John Redman and events included a pre-season competition with arch rivals Sunderland, a Christmas Ball in Durham Castle, the Men’s Anniversary Dinner and the Durham City Mixed Festival at Easter. This latter has become an annual event and it is good to see younger members, such as Chris Brown, Nigel Hornsby and Ros Spark becoming more actively involved in organisation. What does the future hold for Durham City? The Club has a growing youth policy and runs four men’s sides and two ladies. It has now entered the County U14 League and boasts an active and growing youth development squad. The new pitch developments at Durham University have resulted in the City Club returning to play in Durham at Maiden Castle Sports Complex and forging ever closer links with Durham University. These developments are set to carry on as the centre plans for a brand new sand dressed astro turf to be laid in the summer of 2005. The club will then be playing on the best surfaces North of Sheffield. During the Golden Anniversary celebrations Noel Hedley, founder member, wished the Club success during the next fifty years. This has begun with the promotion of the men’s 1st and 4th teams. We need to build on this success and ensure these two teams remain in their new leagues. There has been a move to enlist a men’s 5th team, which would be a first for the Club. However, if this happens it will need support from senior club members. We also need to ensure support for our ladies’ section and aim to attract new players, both female and male, to join our Club. Under our new Chair, Miles Hudson, the Committee needs to be proactive in ensuring we develop and prosper. It is important that individual Club members not only ask what the Club can do for them, but also ask what they can do for the Club. Then we can move forward in strength. John Redman, Club President, June 2005 (with thanks to Dave Miller for his history of October 1999). |
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