community
January 2014
Didsbury
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Welcome
Contents
to the January edition of Community Index Dear Readers Welcome to 2014’s first issue of Community Index! We’re really excited about what the new year will bring for Didsbury. It’s a promising time for local independents in Didsbury. Building on the success of last month’s Small Business Saturday which highlighted a central role small businesses play in creating and maintaining thriving communities. So this year our new year’s resolution is to keep you informed about Didsbury community groups, events and businesses, along with our regular features. This month we speak to Sonia McCann about her work with Didsbury based charity The Vine Project on page 4 and we celebrate the publication of Chorlton artist John Hamilton’s children’s book on page 6. If you’re still feeling festive, there’s still time to catch Didsbury Players’ panto Aladdin, more information on page 21. Expect more exclusive local features throughout this year and we are setting our sights high to bring you an even more engaging community magazine. Stay classy, Didsbury!
Joe Beech Joe Beech Editor Lesley Swann Director Sam Paechter Accounts
Cover Image Pierre Grace Contributors Deborah Grace Nola Chesworth Billie Hall Andrew Simpson Katherine Watson Geoff Garnett Deadline for next edition 15th January 2014
Didsbury People
4
Local Artist Releases Children’s Book
6
Book Review
7
Gaiea
8
Didsbury Open Gardens
10
Southern Cemetary
11
Didsbury Physio Tips
15
Andrew Graham Shoes Rotary Club/Roy the Responder
16
Didsbury Through Time
18
Community Index
19
January In Your Garden
20
Didsbury Players
21
Sport In Didsbury
22
Business Index
23
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Community Index is delivered to 5000 Didsbury homes. You can also pick up a copy from the following locations Didsbury Library, The Parsonage, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee, Expo Lounge, Saints & Scholars, The Art of Tea, Giddy Goat Toys, Harriet & Dee
Community Index 149 Ayres Road Manchester M16 9WR T : 0787 589 5604 E: editor@communityindex.co.uk @communityindex www.communityindex.co.uk
Didsbury People Sonia McCann
Interview by Deborah Grace Sonia McCann is Chair of The Vine Project, a Didsbury-based charity that supports vulnerable children in an AIDS ravaged South African township.
www.thevineproject.org.uk Tell me about the charity. We are a group of eight volunteers who support the education of children and young people in a township in Kwazulu Natal. Most of the children we help have lost their parents to AIDS – now the leading cause of death in South Africa – and without support have no means of continuing their education. We raise funds to provide the basics both for survival and to get into school. We’ve set up a feeding programme and we help to make their houses safe and weather-proof. Then they need a school uniform, stationery, a school bag and even shoes. We also support a crèche so that school-age girls with babies can complete their education. Two of us go out to South Africa twice a year to work with the children and make sure everything’s running properly.
How and when did you get started? My family had grown up and after 27 years as a learning support teacher at Burnage High School I felt it was my time to do something different and inspiring. I undertook a year’s VSO work, teacher
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training in Vietnam in 2000 and a chance meeting with someone who’d worked in South Africa made me aware of the plight of the children there. After that, life was never going to be the same! For a few years we worked supporting the township’s grandmothers who were looking after their orphaned grandchildren. Then we were told about youngsters without family peering through school railings, desperate to get in but with no means of paying fees or buying even enough food to sustain themselves. And that’s how, in 2008, The Vine Project started.
What are the biggest challenges and rewards of what you do? In Africa bureaucracy and systems just don’t work efficiently. Often the children don’t get the grants they are entitled to; they are asked for school fees that should be free and obstacles are put in their way. Our greatest reward is to watch the children blossom and grow, learning to be confident and to speak up for themselves. This year we have five young people doing degree courses,
with eight at tertiary colleges and all the rest in school. Just a few years ago they were facing a bleak future.
What is the most important lesson that life has taught you? Children are what you make them; they need opportunities to blossom into the people they deserve to be.
What do you do to relax? I get fidgety when I have nothing to do! So I play golf, enjoy the theatre, read books and spend a lot of time networking and chatting to friends.
What makes you happy? My family, especially my six grandchildren. Having lots of friends and being able to travel. I love to go away, but I love coming home again.
Complete the sentence, ‘I love Didsbury because …’ … it is home. I was born here; I grew up on Clyde Road and Old Lansdowne Road. People often say you shouldn’t go back, but after years spent moving around the country, once I was married coming home was the best thing I ever did!
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Local artist releases book Inspired by son who who really, really, really, loves Lizards ‘The boy who really, really, really, loves Lizards’ is the first children’s book written and illustrated by Chorlton artist John Hamilton. It was inspired by frequent trips to Manchester Museum with his son Oliver, to see the live lizards, frogs and snakes in the vivarium. On one visit, vivarium curator Andrew Gray allowed Oliver to hold the frogs and lizards and see the back rooms where they're looked after. This increased Oliver’s fascination and gave John the idea for the book. Andrew liked it so much he decided he wanted the museum to publish it. Oliver says, “I think the book is amazing. It’s really good that I’m in a book!’ It's published by Manchester Museum and was launched at the end of October to coincide with the reopening of the vivarium, which has been closed for renovation. The Museum have also produced edition prints and greeting cards to sell along with it.
You can buy 'The boy who really, really, really loves Lizards' from Chorlton Book Shop, Manchester Museum and the Manchester Art Gallery.
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Book Reviews by Deborah Grace
Black Sheep Susan Hill Susan Hill piles on the misery in her tale of a mining family’s doomed struggle against inexorable fate. The setting for Hill’s novella is Mount of Zeal, a small
mining village ‘built in a bowl like an amphitheatre, with the pit winding gear where a stage would be.’ Rising up the hillside, rows of houses are divided into Lower, Middle and Upper Terrace, the last, known by the villagers as ‘Paradise’. By implication, the pit itself must be hell, but if the biblical imagery initially seems clunky it underlines with increasing irony the bitter hopelessness of lives trapped by poverty and lack of opportunity. Miner John Howker and his wife Evie harbour no ambition for their children beyond the narrow path prescribed by birth and circumstances. The four boys will follow their father down the pit while the only girl, Rose, can
look forward to a life of constant childbearing and domestic drudgery. The mysterious disappearance of the eldest son, Arthur, a thoughtful, solitary boy, is to his parents a shattering, inexplicable event. And when Rose and younger brother, Ted, embark on their own quests for personal freedom, the consequences are heart-breaking. Black Sheep is a story of unrelenting bleakness, but Susan Hill’s sparse, unsentimental prose gives the narrative pace, while ensuring that the pathos never descends into mawkishness. The writing is beautiful in its simplicity and hauntingly sad. Prepare yourself for a genuinely shocking ending!
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Sound advice for a secure future
Gaeia - Global and ethical investment advice Nowadays, as well as a return on their investment, more and more people are looking to use their hard-earned money responsibly and wisely. Olivia Bowen, Independent Financial Advisor for Gaeia – global and ethical investment advice – has the following tips
1. Make wise choices Make sure your financial choices reflect your ethical, social and environmental values. If you prefer to shop local and support companies with sound ethical principles, apply the same criteria to your finances. Collectively, we can make a difference to how and where the major financial institutions put their, and our, money.
2. Individual savings accounts Opening an ISA is a great way of saving money either as a lump sum or through regular contributions. What’s more, it’s tax free. Shop around and decide whether or not you need instant access to your money or whether you can afford to have your money tied up for a bit longer. For further information on ethical banks, credit unions and building societies offering ISAs check out www. moveyourmoney.org.uk for upto-the minute information.
3. Join the company pension scheme If your company offers a pension scheme then join. Not only will you benefit from what
you put in, but you’ll also gain additional benefit from your employer’s contributions.
If you’d like more information about ethical investments and the positive impact your money can make contact Olivia. bowen@gaeia. com, or telephone 0161 233 4550 to arrange an initial consultation
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Didsbury Open Gardens Does your garden meet the grade? Didsbury Open Gardens 2014 will take place on Sunday, June 8th. After taking a year off, organisers are excited to welcome back gardeners from previous years, but are also keen to attract new participants, opening their gardens to the public for the first time. The successful charity event, set up six years ago, has so far raised more than £30,000 for local causes, including St Ann’s Hospice. It’s become a highlight of
the Didsbury Calendar, attracting more than 1,000 visitors a year to enjoy al fresco music, art, tea and cakes, as well as the gardens themselves. Look out for programmes on sale from early May in local shops and for updates on the website.
If you would like to open your garden, please contact info@ didsburyopengardens. org
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Southern Cemetery
Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (1892-1919) by Nola Chesworth Sir Alexander Matthew Busby, born 26th May 1909 in North Lanarkshire, began his football career aged eighteen when he signed to play for Manchester City. He played for the team until 1939 when he was sold to Liverpool; a team he later went on to captain, before he took on the role of football coach in the Army Physical Training Corps during the Second World War. In 1945 Busby signed a contract with Manchester United, and stayed with them until he retired in 1969. During his time in
charge of Manchester United, Busby led his team to win the league championship on five occasions, the FA Cup in 1948 and 1963 and the European Cup in 1968; an achievement for which he received a knighthood. A year after winning the European Cup, Busby stepped down as manager, however he remained a director of the club for eleven years after his retirement, before being made president in 1982. Busby died, following a battle with cancer, in Cheadle on the 20th January 1994 and was buried alongside his wife, Lady Jean who had
died six years earlier. Their grave is surrounded by ivy, and red flowers; the colour of the team to which Busby dedicated much of his life.
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ThePurplePages
Sales & Lettings
Welcome
Happy New Year to everyone and we hope you had a great time over the festive period! As we head in to January, prospective tenants starts once again to think about ďŹ nding their perfect new home for 2014. The market has been very busy in recent months and the start of a new year usually brings an excellent level of activity and is prime time to focus on getting you investment property prepared ready to meet the demand. Our team are here ready to help with any advice and recommendations on sprucing things up and why not ask our maintenance department to quite for those minor jobs you’ve been meaning to do.
Call us today for a free no obligation valuation of your property, we would be delighted to help!
JP & Brimelow are proud to support
Lucy Brown MARLA Didsbury Lettings Manager
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Meet the Didsbury Team. We are dealing with a much more sophisticated, educated market place and it is our job to keep one step ahead, and this is how, in an industry saturated with competitors, JP & Brimelow has managed to consistently stand out. An independent estate agent run by qualified ARLA members of staff, who remain personally involved at all times.
DIDSBURY LETTINGS 721 Wilmslow Rd Didsbury M20 6WF
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Give us a call today on 0161 445 2300 to find out more.
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• All types of maintenance covered, including gardening, painting and decorating, plumbing, roofing works to name a few
Call our team today on 0161 445 2300 (option 4) to find out more. Sales 0161 448 0622 | Lettings 0161 445 2300 | www.jpbrimelow.co.uk Office also in Chorlton 0161 882 2233 and Withington 0161 445 9700
Didsbury Physio tips If you’re going skiing this year, Billie Hall has some handy tips Pain at the front of the knees is often caused by incorrect body alignment. Check yours by standing in front of the mirror in your natural skiing or snowboarding position. Now drop imaginary plumb lines from the centre of your kneecaps to the floor; they should land between your second or third toes. However, most people find one or both knees drop in too far. This causes an imbalance in the forces going through the knees, leading to inflammation and pain. To correct your alignment, practise bending and
straightening your legs, keeping your knees in the right position, first in front of the mirror and then away from it. Aim to do at least thirty gentle repetitions three or four times a day until the movement pattern becomes subconscious. The muscle responsible for maintaining good knee cap alignment is the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and a session with a physiotherapist will teach you how to activate it. Ask for a Ski Fit session. There are no sports that rely on external hip rotation as much as skiing so the importance of training your lateral hip muscles
Alexander Technique individual sessions and groups
Sue Fleming MSTAT www.alexanderteaching.co.uk ☎ 861 8848 mob 07796470163 Chequers Road Chorlton new 10 week group courses
start 14 January in Fallowfield
Pauline Leng
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www.alexandertechniquemanchester.net
☎ 445 8530 mob 07821470349 The Didsbury Holistic Centre and Lidgate Grove Didsbury
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cannot be underestimated. The ‘clam’ exercise is a classic one: lie on your side with your hips and knees in a skiing position. Keep your ankles together and your hips steady as you lift your top knee. You should feel the muscle working in the outside of your buttock. Repeat thirty times and then practise the same movement in a standing position so you can use the benefits when skiing.
For more information check out the full ski preparation guide at http:// didsburyphysio.co.uk/ downloads/
Village Physio & Sports Injury Clinic • • • • • •
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3 Warburton Street, Didsbury Village, Manchester M20 6WA 0161 448 7844 didsburyphysio@btinternet.com www.didsburyphysio.co.uk
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Doctor Who, JFK and Andrew Graham Shoes? Question: What do Doctor Who, The assassination of JFK and Andrew Graham Shoes have in common? Answer: They all had a 50th Anniversary in November Andrew Graham Shoes had something to celebrate in November of last year! Ecco a popular footwear manufacturer were celebrating 50 years of shoemaking and Andrew Slater owner of Andrew Graham Shoes was 50 years old on 18 November 2013.
On Saturday 16 November a celebration day took place with 10% off Ecco shoes, free gifts, balloons, homemade cakes and a raffle, with a first prize of £100 towards a pair of Ecco shoes or boots. Mrs Jepson of Didsbury won the first prize and got a pair of Ecco boots with just £20 to pay. Shop assistant Joanna handed out cakes and leaflets in Didsbury Village along with her sister Magda who had baked the fabulous cakes. The Ecco representative Louise was on hand serving customers with shoes, gifts, cake and drinks. The day was a great success with lots of customers joining in the celebrations.
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The Rotary Club Needs You! Chorlton & District Rotary Club needs new members in order to survive and continue its work locally and internationally. The Club meets every Wednesday evening at the Hough End Centre, Chorlton for a meal, for fellowship, to listen monthly to an invited speaker, and to organise the charitable actions of the club. The club regularly aids charitable local organisations such as St. Anne’s Hospice, and Francis House Childrens Hospice, gives illustrated dictionaries to primary school leavers, collects over 1000 second hand books
a year to give away in Literacy Week, and participates in a youth leadership scheme. It makes donations from time to time to such overseas bodies as Mercy Ships, Sightsavers, the Jaipur Limb Project, Disaster Aid, and Hope & Homes for Children. It supports Rotary International’s efforts to eradicate polio. This work is funded mainly as a result of house to house collections at Christmas with collections at supermarkets at other times and special events from time to time. Every penny raised is distributed.
If you are interested in membership or are prepared to help us in our fund raising contact:- Rosie.paver@gmail.com or gordonbennett.rotary@gmail.com
Call Roy the Responder! Roy Williams has lived in Didsbury for the last thirty years and for the last twelve of those he’s been a Community First Responder. Responders are trained volunteers who use their own vehicles to attend when a member of the public calls an ambulance. They’re contacted via pager and phone and as they live locally they’re very often first person on the scene. They’re never dispatched in place of an ambulance, but once on the scene they use oxygen, defibrillators and other items to give life saving support until the ambulance arrives. As if that wasn’t enough, every summer Roy travels to India to teach basic first aid to villagers in the Nagaraole National Park!
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Didsbury Through Time
by Andrew Simpson This is the Pump House. It has served as an educational institution of sorts since it became a boarding school around 1812. Later it was turned into a theological college and later still into teacher training college.
And before that was a private residence dating back to about 1744. The stone cladding to what was originally a brick building was added by the Wesleyans when they took it over in 1841. They also added the wings at either side and that is what generations of people from Didsbury have seen as they pass by. I remember it as the admin block when it was the Didsbury College of Education, where I attended meetings with teaching staff. But soon it will all change again as the M.M.U. relocates to Birley Fields. So for all of those who, like me, have not been inside since they graduated and for all those who just pass by and wonder what the inside is like, here are a couple of images from my old friend Pierre who works there and never ceases to enjoy both the place and his role as a teacher. Something of the grandeur of the building is there still from when it was home to the Broome family during the 18th century.
Images of the Pump House courtesy of Pierre Grace.
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Community Index Societies & Groups
Didsbury Village East Residents Association
Didsbury Over 50s Group 247 2323
dvera.co.uk
Acting For Fun Central
South Manchester U3A
Didsbury Village WI
Didsbury 431 4794
Didsbury Amateur Dramatics celestaplayers.co.uk
Didsbury Civic Society didsburycivicsociety. org.uk Didsbury Cricket Club didsburyccsports.co.uk
Didsbury Dinners
didsburyvillagewi.co.uk
Dolls House and Miniatures Group 2nd
Monday of each month, 8pm - 10, Whalley Range Venue. Ann 07814 861285
Friends of Didsbury Park friendsofdidsbury park.co.uk
Friends of Fletcher Moss Park Alan Hill 215
didsburydinners.wordpress. com For general enquiries/ Community growing group: didsburydinners@yahoo. co.uk
0971 awhill@globalnet. co.uk
Community cooking group community.
marielouisegardens.org.uk
cooking@yahoo.co.uk
Didsbury Good Neighbours Every Tues
10-11.45am coffee morning. Holt Pavilion, Didsbury Park 07749 504298 www. didsburygoodneighbours. org.uk
Didsbury Ladies Probis Club Alternate Monday
afternoons in East Didsbury. Joan Woodall 0161 434 2532
Didsbury Lawn Tennis Club Bob Peel, 01614 45 0465 didsburyccsports. co.uk
Friends of Marie Louise Gardens Manchester JKF Karate Club Didsbury
MMU Sports Centre, Tuesdays 8.30pm Ben Pollock, 07894108944
Oneness Deeksha Meditation Saturdays
11am-12 at The Didsbury Parsonage, Stenner Lane M20 2RQ. Donation £2 Christine 07734 072040.
South Manchester Camera Club Mondays
at 8pm - 10pm, Didsbury Methodist Church smcc. org.uk
1st Tuesday of the month 2pm, Emmanuel Church. Edna 434 2509
West Didsbury Bookgroup Meets every
four weeks at 7.30pm. Lively mixed group of all ages. Call 445 4483 leaving your name, address & landline
West Didsbury Residents Association Pam Siddons
445 5406 westdidsbury. org.uk
Social & Support Groups Manchester Diabetes Support Network Details/ venues/ monthly dates etc diabetesinmanchester@ gmail.com 0161 860 5688/07414 635992
New Family Social UK charity for LGBT adopters, foster carers and their children. Meets every month in south Manchester. newfamilysocial.org.uk email: nwdevelopment@ newfamilysocial.co.uk
Useful Numbers Didsbury Library 227 3755
Environment on Call 954 9000
Mersey Valley Countryside Warden Service 905 1100
Manchester City Council 234 5000
Didsbury East Councillors Andrew Simcock
cllr.a.simcock@manchester. gov.uk
Andrew Taylor
cllr.a.taylor@manchester. gov.uk
Bridie Adams
cllr.b.adams@manchester. gov.uk
Didsbury West Councillors Mark Clayton
cllr.m.clayton@manchester. gov.uk
Carl Ollerhead
cllr.c.ollerhead@ manchester.gov.uk
David Ellison
cllr.d.ellison@manchester. gov.uk
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19
January In Your Garden by Katherine Watson January is ordinarily our coldest month and for some, the longest; after Christmas and new year celebrations have passed and the garden seems to be locked in a dormant slumber punctuated only by the extraordinary plants that choose to flower at this time. One such is the Hellebore - often called Christmas or Lenten rose - although not related to the rose in any way and in fact part of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Families and Genera (genus) such as rosa or ranunculaceae denote the groupings that botanists have created to tie in certain plants that bear similarities. Clematis are also part of the Ranunculaceae family and there is a striking similarity between the flowers of many clematis plants and hellebores. Hellebores are an invaluable plant for the January, February and March garden and there are quite a few varieties to choose from. Some of the more common ones are the purple edged green flowers of Helleborus feotidus or stinking hellebore worthy for its name alone and Helleborus niger a
“...the Hellebore - often called Christmas or Lenten rose although not related to the rose in any way” semi-evergreen perennial lighting up many shady spots in British gardens. Helleborus argutifolius sports a profusion of tight green flowers with something of a 70’s swimcap effect. H. x sternii has similar attributes.
Perhaps the biggest variety comes with the hybrids with brilliant white blooms right through to near black; elegantly speckled flowers and blousy double apricots. One of the most fantastic hellebores is H. x hybridus Harvington Lime with, as you’d expect but will still wonder at, lime green, saucer shaped flowers. Luckily, most hellebores like the woodland conditions of some moisture and shade but are pretty hardy and reliable, clumping up after a few years to produce a definite presence in an uncertain month. Online stockists include Crocus and Ashwood Nurseries for a good range of hybrids.
Garden Design Planting Advice Consultation Service Project Managment
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Didsbury Players bring you their January Panto Missing Christmas already? Fortunately, it’s not over just yet! Didsbury Players have been hard at work and are almost ready to take you to the Far East with their coming Aladdin Pantomime! On January 17th and 18th, they’ll bring you great songs, brilliant dances, pretty princesses, screeching cross-dressing dames and wicked villains. Laugh at our eccentric Widow Twankey, boo and hiss the evil Abanazar and cheer on hero Aladdin as he saves the kingdom and wins the princess’s heart!
Aladdin 17th January 2014 at 8pm 18th January 2014 at 2.30pm and 8pm at the East Didsbury Methodist Church, Parrs Wood Rd, M20 5QQ
You can keep in touch with Didsbury Players here: www.celestaplayers.co.uk www.facebook.com/DidsburyPlayers Twitter.com/DidsburyPlayers
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Sport in Didsbury by Geoff Garnett World Cup glory beckons for Wacs star Ed Owen (pictured) has been a fixture at Manchester Waconians Lacrosse Club since he was seven and has graduated through their junior and senior teams and is now the first team captain at the club based at Didsbury CC. Now after months of trials and training Ed has been selected to play for Wales in the Lacrosse World Championships which will be staged in Denver, Colorado in July 2014.
Ed, who is a personal trainer working at Vigin Active in Didsbury, said: “I qualify to play for Wales as all of my Dad’s side of the family come from Wales. I’ve been trialling for Wales over the last six months travelling across the country for various training camps and two weeks ago it was announced that I was in the final squad of 23 for the world championships. “The cost of the tournament, which will be shown on ESPN, is not entirely funded for each player which means that I have
Pictured : Ed Owen, Labrosse captain
to find sponsorship. I’m looking for business sponsorship or any contributions to help fund me for the trip.” If you’d like to help sponsor Ed please email him at eddowen@hotmail.com.
Lights go on at The Albert Club Tennis players of all ages and abilities were able to celebrate in style at The Albert Club in West Didsbury as their new floodlights were switched on. Tennis coach David Chadwick said: “We received £50,000 from Sports England to replace our old floodlights. “It was a remarkable achievement to receive this grant as few clubs succeed at their first attempt. Normally the money is given for new facilities rather than replacements and our success was clearly in recognition of our bringing new players into the sport; both adults and juniors.
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“The club, although small, has a full range of activities from absolute beginners to National Level players. Children as young as four start playing and can be
Pictured: Albert Club members celebrate the switch on playing matches by the time they are six.”
If you have any stories about sport in Didsbury contact Geoff on 0161 881 7550 or ggggarnett@aol.com
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