Rochdale Sub Aqua Club
These are some of the photos that were shown at the 50th Anniversary of Rochdale Sub Aqua Club.
16 Jul 2009 admin comments off
Scapa Flow : 1987 – 1995
Photos taken at Scapa Flow between 1987 and 1995.
15 Jul 2009 admin comments off
Deep Sea Diver in Rochdale
From the Rochdale Observer, 10 September, 1927.
Deep Sea Diver in Rochdale. Repairing a Gas Holder
Deep Sea Diver working on Rochdale Gas Holder (1927)
Deep Sea Diver working on Rochdale Gas Holder (1927)
In connection with the repair of the Rochdale Corporation’s largest gas holder, the services of a professional diver have been requisitioned to examine the water tank which seals the holder. Our photograph was taken on Thursday afternoon when the diver emerged from the tank. Behind him will be seen Mr.H. Shewring, the Gas Engineer and Manager (left) and Councillor Holt, Chairman of the Gas Committee (right).
10 Jul 2009 admin 0 comments
Soggy hockey sticks
Laura Shannon
December 04, 2007
HOCKEY under water? Sounds odd, but reporter LAURA SHANNON went along to Oulder Hill School to find out more about this most unusual sport …
AFTER losing my teeth almost a decade ago after being at the wrong end of a hockey stick, taking up the game again wasn’t something I had in mind.
But after a night with the Rochdale Snorkelling and Underwater Hockey Club I may well change my mind – just as long as there’s a swimming pool involved rather than a playing field.
I was intrigued to find out just what underwater hockey entailed, so decided to strap on my snorkel and dive in.
Greeting me at Oulder Hill School’s baths were a passionate husband-and-wife team who told me of their long love affair with the unusual sport.
Former divers Mick Hyde and wife Helen run the club together with fellow enthusiast and Mr Hyde’s former tutor, Barrie Whitehead.
Mr Hyde, aged 45, said: “It started as a game to keep divers fit in winter, but now people dive all year round and lots of underwater hockey players have nothing to do with diving.
“I have been playing for 27 years and started when I left school. It suits people who like swimming, but want to play a team sport.”
Underwater hockey rules involves 10 players in a team with six playing at any one time, rotating without limit.
Equipped with a snorkel, glove, hat, small bat and flippers, the player must take a deep breath, dive to the bottom of the pool and navigate the puck to underwater goalposts.
When you need air you keep your face in the water and clear the snorkel by blowing out.
Keeping your face in the water allows you to locate the puck before diving back down to continue play.
Two teams are separated by the colour of their sticks and you can obstruct your opponent by turning underwater with the puck.
The turns are not easy and in my enthusiastic attempts I started to float towards the surface, looking more like a flapping wounded seal than an underwater hockey player.
Nonetheless my tutor, world championship competitor Mark Dawson, was very encouraging.
The 22-year-old played his first world championship underwater hockey match in Calgary, Canada when he was just 16.
Mr Dawson, with the lungs of a dolphin, can swim underwater for three lengths of a 25-metre pool without coming up for air.
He said: “It’s a great sport but you can’t expect to pick it up overnight, it takes some time.
“You can breathe all the time in normal sports but you have to learn to be able to hold your breath and not panic underwater.
“Swimming on your own can be quite monotonous, but with underwater hockey you make good friends really quickly.”
Giving it their all on Wednesday night were junior players Elliot Mottershead, Robert Scott, James Wright and Zach Tait, who put me to shame in their fearless attack on the puck.
James, aged 11, said: “My brother played underwater hockey and told me it was great.
“I have been playing for four years and would like to play in the world championships in the future.”
The club is looking to recruit new members and full training is given.
10 Jul 2009 admin comments off
Chris flips into sea rescue hero
FREE FLIPPER: Chris Bell untangles the line from the dolphin in the Maldives.
Chris Bell spotted the stricken pup in great distress off the coast of the Maldives during a holiday with his wife, Lynne.
The couple had taken an excursion trip to see the dolphins but, after a fruitless search, their boat was chugging back towards the harbour when Chris saw something out of the corner of his eye.
He said: “I saw a couple of dolphins thrashing about. The guy in charge turned the boat round and we went to investigate. When we got closer we could see something was wrong.”
As the boat pulled closer they saw the pup tangled up, while an adult dolphin alongside was frantically beating its head against the water, either to attract attention or, more likely, to keep predators at bay.
The crew managed to hook on to the fishing line, but they could not drag the pup aboard without causing it further injury and distress.
Suddenly Chris, a member of Rochdale Sub-aqua Club, leapt into action.
He grabbed a pair of flippers from the boat and plunged into the water beside the dolphins.
He said: “None of the crew seemed to have any intention of jumping in to unhook the fishing line because the water off the coast was shark infested.
“I didn’t think about it at the time though. All I was focused on was freeing the dolphin before it drowned.”
Chris, of Hilltop Drive, Kirkholt struggled to unhook the line in the water. But then he hit upon an idea.
He placed his hands underneath the dolphin before kicking his legs vigorously to propel himself and the pup out of the water to a height where the crew could tug the mammal aboard.
After the line was untangled, the pup was given back to Chris who had stayed in the water and he released the young dolphin back into the deep.
He added: “It was a really emotional moment. There is definitely some kind of connection between humans and dolphins.
“This was definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time.
“As we swung the boat around and set off back to shore, a couple of the dolphins leapt from the water in front of us and flicked their tails.
“It was as if they were saying thanks a lot.
“Now that really was amazing and it capped off fantastic holiday.”
10 Jul 2009 admin 0 comments
Looking back
Looking back at the strange and unusual
May 13, 2006
THE Observer’s pages have carried some unusual stories and covered many a strange sport down the years…
SNOW badly affected sport in March 1979, but Rochdale Golf Club’s intrepid new captain Eric Bamford beat the weather by driving in the season on skis.
ELEVEN members of Milnrow Sub Aqua Club celebrated the 21st birthday of the club in January 1980 by towing a “birthday cake” made out of car tubing 22 times across the water.
THE first canoe race to be held on the Rochdale Canal came in September 1980. More than 40 competed in an invitation marathon fun race for Division Nine British Canoe Union members. The course stretched from Firgrove to Littleborough. Canoes were carried over roads and round locks.
ROCHDALE Roller Hockey played in the Lancashire Rink Hockey League in 1937. Their first win saw them beat Cheetham Hill 4-3 at Spotland Bridge. The rink was in the former Reliance Garage.
ALAN Campbell stuck the boot into his opponents at the Liverpool Show in July 1974. He won the Dunlop Gum-Boot Throwing title with a pitch of 118ft 4in.
STOCK-CAR champion Stu Smith won the Daily Mirror Grand Prix title at Bradford in 1979 then promptly gave away the trophy and £100 prize-money to long time series leader Willie Harrison who had broken a leg in a pits accident before the meeting.
PETER Radcliffe and Brandon Parker set a new world record then went on to beat an unofficial world record for non-stop snooker. They played more than 200 frames in 187 hours 11 minutes at the Norman Leisure Centre in Shaw.
THE CHURCH Inn (Spotland) bowls club claimed a unique record in June 2000. They fielded two teams on the same night in the Central Lancashire Men’s League and every player won.
ROCHDALE is not exactly noted for snow and ski-slopes, but in January 1993 James Lambert became Britain’s No 1 ski jumper after outclassing Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards in the European Cup. Lambert, at the time, was holder of the British ski-jump record at 78m. He had achieved the best ever result by a Brit and was the first Englishman to have won a ski-jumping contest.
BAMFORD born jockey Andrew Heywood, riding Equinoctial, won a race at Kelso at 250-1 in November 1990. It was the longest priced winner on record. He rode for Arthur Stevenson of Bishop Auckland.
TODMORDEN Swimming Club held a New Year’s Day contest at Lee Dam, Lumbutts, in 1967. Rochdale’s Peter Miller explained the rules “If there is no ice there will be a race. If there is ice on top the winner will be the man who stays in the water the longest.” Barrie Fielding was the winner of a light-hearted race.
MOUNTAINEER Paul Braithwaite, who had a shop in Yorkshire Street, Rochdale, was in a British team which had to abandon an attempt to climb K2 when one of the team died following an avalanche.
IT NEVER came about, but in February 1970 plans were made for an artificial ski slope at Bank House Farm, Norden.
DURING July 1937 a baseball match for the blind was held at Waithlands. Ferranti Sparks beat Rochdale Emeralds 3-2.
DOUG Middleton finished second in the Northern Grass-Ski Championships at Werneth Low in 1970.
IN MARCH 1937 Belgian chess champion and International Master Georges Koltanowski played 10 local players simultaneously at Champness Hall – with his back to the room and never once seeing the boards. He won nine games and drew the other.
DURING August 1986 Rochdale fireman Frank Burke did the John o’ Groats to Lands End walk in 29 days, beating Ian Botham’s record of 32 days. He said: “I had to do it in 29. They wouldn’t let me have any more time off work.”
ROBERT and Michael Plant received backing from British Gas in their bid to win the 1994 Network Q RAC Rally. The brothers, of RP Engineering (Motor Sport) Rochdale entered a Mini Cooper 1.3s which would be run on natural gas.
SPRINT handicaps due to be held in Rochdale in June 1921 were cancelled when police said no betting could be allowed on the ground. The promoter cancelled the meeting as there was no prospect of a good crowd if bets could not be placed.
FORMER Rochdalian Bert Gaffney, living in St Annes, was prominent in sand yacht racing in 1959. He won the Flying Mile event sponsored by the Fylde International Sand Yacht Club.
IN February 1950 local boxer Chris Adcock went down for three counts of eight but won his middleweight contest when Bill Carroll of Doncaster was disqualified for a low blow.
KIRKHOLT Amateur Rugby League Club players were hypnotised by former stage professional Richard Payne before their Close Cup away tie against Saddleworth Rangers. They lost 6-5 after having a man sent off.
WRESTLING returned to the Athletic Grounds in July 1967 and prompted complaints about women being on the bill. An Observer reader wrote: “We have reached a very low level when members of the female sex intrude on what is definitely for men only. It is back to the days when men fought with wild beasts.” On the bill were Mad Molly Malone and Judy Stirr.
A PIG caused havoc at Rochdale Golf Club in 1938 when it swallowed a ball on the second green. The player was allowed a free drop.
GORDON McIver of Bamford won the 1977 European Endurance Championship and the Marlboro Jubilee Cup in a 1750cc catamaran. The 191.37-mile race started and finished in the River Thames.
SAMANTHA Knott, Angela Riley and Donna Smith won trophies in the 1994 national roller skating championships held in St Helens. They represented Rochdale’s Roller City.
CAROLINE King was crowned as the North of England dry ski-slope ladies’ champion in 1992. She already held the North West and North East titles.
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