According to my tennis friend who is a season ticket holder at Bromley, the club is being financed by a so called benefactor which has enabled the club to buy several professional players of a high caliber at Conference level and keep them on a professional contract.
Definitely high hopes for next season and promotion is a must rather than a possibility so Conference South proper it will be. If Goldberg had not mysteriously resigned after about 10 games of last season the club may well already be there as they were going great guns at the time. Goldberg is back and expectations are high.
Bromley really is my local team as I pass the ground everyday returning home from work and I have actually played there four times in cup-finals. My mate who I played tennis with on Saturday is expecting a Charlton reserve side out tonight but after seeing the squad I think he may well be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately/fortunately I am involved in a home tennis match tonight but if the wind is blowing in the right direction I may well hear the crowd.
Uxbridge Lido saved -Danson Park Open Air Pool -Dead and Buried
I was born in Hayes, Middlesex, being a suburb of North West London, which is next to Hillingdon and Uxbridge. One of my very first memories as a four year old is being taken to Uxbridge open Air Lido and having the time of my life splashing in the kiddies pool. After that I was a frequent visitor and as I got older my dad in the summer school holidays would drop me off first thing in the morning with my older sister for the day and he would pick us up on the way home from work. Oh what bliss! come rain or shine, with not a care in world we would spend almost the whole of the summer at the lido. My mum would prepare a packed lunch of sandwiches and squash and a daily allowance of 3d to buy a Wagonwheel at the Lido shop. By the end of the summer we were as brown as berries and quite proud of it as skin cancer hadn't even been thought of and sun cream was totally unnecessary (how misguided we were)
This Grade II listed lido was built in 1935. This is the only remaining example of a 12-sided 'star' swimming pool in the country and, at 220 feet, is the second longest open air swimming pool remaining in London. It has now been saved and over £50 millions pound is being spent on total refurbishment with an additional leisure centre and Olympic pool.
My dad who was a Civil Servant had the opportunity of a promotional transfer to Woolwich Arsenal, so the whole family including a very upset ten year old had to up sticks and
not only leave some great friends behind but was never to visit Uxbridge Lido again. Sidcup, Kent was to be where our new life began and to my surprise I settled pretty quickly, greatly helped by discovering Danson Park and its fabulous outdoor pool and great fishing lake and of course my beloved Charlton Athletic. The summers again were spent blissfully larking around sunbathing and meeting friends and having cheap fun at Danson open air pool . Memories come flooding back of a freezing cold pool which always made us look for the chalk board on entry which gave that days water temperature, if it was over 70f, we cheered and thought that was blissfully warm, in fact the water was always bloody freezing and I have since found out that the pool, which was built in the 1936, was originally heated, but the boiler broke down in 1956 and was never fixed . On particularly hot days, if you did not arrive early enough you could be turned away which sometimes caused a bit of aggro with irate parents who may have queued for hours in the hot sun with their children. The diving board was fantastic because the pool was built on the highest point of Danson Park, this meant the view from the top of the board was breathtaking, your breath was certainly taken away when you plucked up enough courage to jump into the pool . The one thing that really sticks in my mind is the Danson pool had a mangle, which, as kids we thought was great fun putting our trunks through several times after getting changed. Sadly the pool closed in 1979, demolished and landscaped over.
Those were the days we walked, ran, swam, played football and ate what we liked and never put on an ounce because we burnt it all off-fantastic.
7 comments:
You know? you have to be off a certain advanced age to recall memories like that.
My summers were the same, except we went to Gravesend open air pool.
I still say Wagon Wheels have shrunk. We used to transport ours in the manner of a hoop and stick !!
CND - I have very similar memories of Charlton Lido. I can remember free early morning swims when the ice had just been broken and you swam through it. I'm wondering how long the lido must have stayed open in the year for ice, but remember it I do. I can never understand why these lidoes (sp) cost so much to run and nearly always seem to need multi-millions to get re-opened. It's a concrete bath right? It's not as if they were any expensive fixtures or fittings. Turnstiles, basic changing rooms and, er, the pool. On yes, and a cafeteria that must have made enough money to keep the pool staffed. I'm sure it's not as simple as that but it can't be as difficult as the Councils pretend.
Daggs - hoop and stick? We used to dream of hoop and stick.
Used to like a Tizer with my Wagon Wheel.
Never spent much time in the water though, too bloody cold.
Wimp and proud!
Sometimes the water was so cold it took five minutes of swimming around before you felt your circulation coming back-We were tough in those days-Wagon Wheels where definitely twice the size they are now, with probably twice the E Numbers-nice though
Wagon wheels were twice the size as were boxes of rice krispies! Great story CND.
Great story
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