Recent Event Highlights: Squash: EG gains Silver Charter Award, Squash: EG gains Silver Charter Award, Astro courts 12 & 13 opened, Clubhouse extension is opened, 1998/99 Grass Courts get watering system, Hard courts relaid, and 35 more...
Created by eastglos on 12/05/2009
Last updated: 08/06/10 at 13:34
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/EastGlos/EastGlosWinMenSLadiesNCLTitle2006#
An audience of over 50 people welcomed Henry Elwes, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire to East Glos Club on 21 April 2006 to watch him present Club President Mary Eyre with her MBE.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/EastGlos/MaryEyreMBEInvestiture21April2006#5058259866276089890
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/EastGlos/HeadGroundsmanStuartDomineyCelebrates25YearsAtEastGlos#
In 2002 after seven years of debate and planning, funding was finally secured for EG's most ambitious project to date. The extending and total refurbishment of the clubhouse, the construction of two new astroturf courts, conversion of the four shale courts to clay and the opening of a dedicated Kids Zone area. The project finally came to fruition in June 2003 and culminated in a grand reopening weekend.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/EastGlos/RelaunchWeekend2003#
4 Grass Courts converted to Astroturf with grant from Foundation of Sports and Arts, gift from members and loans from members. These floodlit from the edges which allowed hockey to be practiced from them. Hockey competitions now had to be played on Astroturf so the grass pitch was seldom used.
Archers shot happily on the ground for 49 years. Then one day in 1982 a novice shot a wild arrow which went through the trees and fell onto a tennis Court narrowly missing a player. It was regretfully decided that the Club was no longer big enough for the sport, and in view of the obvious danger it was immediately stopped and a years rent returned.
The dawn of the sixties saw a determined move to replace the old wooden pavilion and verandah with a new Club house. Plans went ahead and by 1967 the new building stood in the ashes of the old. It had cost £11,000 and had been paid for with the aid of a 90 per cent loan from the South West Sports Council and a £3,500 Government grant.
It was in 1966 that the late Mrs Pam Bocquet, a former tennis International, became the official Club Coach. She was asked to take on the job as Secretary as well.
In 1957 Club finances were in bad shape so it was decided that it was no longer possible to pay for the player's expenses or cover hotel bills as in previous years. It was the beginning of the end, for players became increasingly reluctant to accept home hospitality, and in the ensuing years the Club found it difficult to attract financial backing for the Tournaments.
It was in the fifties too that the Club bestowed an honour on one of its exceptional members Mrs Margaret Eyre was made an honorary full playing life member as a tribute for services to EG. As Margaret Lidderdale she was, in 1913, selected to play for England at hockey and in 1938 became the first woman professional tennis coach in this country. She was EG's official coach from before the war until she handed over to the late Mrs Pam Bocquet in more recent years. In 1977 Mrs Eyre won National recognition for her voluntary work in sport when she was awarded the Torch Trophy by the National Playing Fields Association. Her sister, Kate, also an EG member, was an English hockey International at 16. She also played Wightman cup tennis and in 1924 was a finalist in the Wimbledon Ladies Doubles with fellow Club player Mary McIquham.
In the early fifties, the Club's Open Tournament grew in popularity with top International players viewing the event as ideal for pre-Wimbledon practise on grass. Big name players from all over the world then played at EG, but alas, those glorious summer days were not to last.
During the Second World War American soldiers were permitted to join EG. Somewhat inevitably, during this period base ball was played but it was not allowed to become a habit. Ideas for regular matches were stumped when ground fees asked for were thought to be prohibitively high.
EG spluttered into the mechanical age more or less by accident in 1938. Up till then the groundsman's horsepower had been a pony purchased five years previously for £30. It was injured and rather than replacing it with another a motor roller was bought.
Members first talked of building covered tennis and squash courts. It was to be discussed 10 years later too but members of the day felt them to be a distant goal.
The wind of change blew strong in 1931 when for the first time play was permitted on Sundays, but in the afternoons only.
The continuing demand by the tennis players for still more courts cost the Club one of its hockey pitches in 1929. The layout of the Club was rearranged and the hockey members kept happy with improvements to the remaining pitch.
In 1926 the Committee decided, after a long discussion, that Club matches should continue to be played despite the General Strike.
In 1925 a resolution was passed that some of the cricket pitch was to be taken over to provide more courts. It does not seem such a controversial decision when it is realised that by then there were only 15 cricket players but 234 tennis members.
By 1924 the men's hockey fever was over and with only six members the team disbanded. The cricket section was struggling too.
Two hard courts costing £110 each were laid in 1924. Members were obviously keen for winter tennis was being played at the Club fox the first time.
The year 1920 was destined to be a crucial one for the Club. Up till then the grounds had been leased from the Charlton Park Estate which was then up for sale. Faced with the option to continue to lease or to buy, a far seeing Committee decided to purchase even though the price tag was a daunting £18,000.
In 1914 a policy decision was made to allow more ladies to Join the Club and by the end of the First War there were actually three serving on the Committee.
The tea pavilion was built in 1909. By this time the Club boasted a cricket pitch, six tennis courts and two hockey pitches.
Women, in the early days definitely had their place as highlighted in an entry in the minutes of 1906. The men complained that the woman were not keeping to their designated part of the pavilion and, in the same breath, decreed dogs should be kept out.
Club member, Mrs Barbara Kelly, was selected to play for one of the earliest England hockey teams in 1904. She was the first of 19 hockey internationals produced by EG in the ensuing years.
Croquet was introduced into the sporting line-up in 1899 but was destined to split from its parent Club a few years later.
Records show that men's and women's hockey was first played in 1898. Whilst this was a perfectly acceptable game for the men, it was not regarded as such for Victorian ladies and thus EG players must be regarded as pioneers.
EG started out purely as a Cricket Club in around 1883, although the exact date of its inauguration has not been recorded. It was not until 1885 that tennis, the game with which the Club is now synonymous, was played there and for many decades it took a back seat to cricket and hockey.
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