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I suppose the well-being of Southgate Hockey Club has been one of the major topics of conversation in the Willmott household from as early as I can remember. As a child growing up with weekly visits to the Walker Ground, I well remember the old wooden pavilion with its smoke-filled brown curtains separating the bar from the changing rooms. My mother Joan, Thelma Morphew, Shirley Ockenden, Bobby Parker, Sylvia Lickorish and many more wives were always a merry bunch in the kitchen preparing the team teas, with dear Jock Dunlop behind the bar. Those were the days!
The 1967 pavilion was our pride and joy. My father had been heavily involved in its development, and was appointed a Trustee of the Walker Ground. His resignation, prompted by the club's behaviour at a particularly notorious evening at the club, in some ways may have led to the move to Trent Park. We won't mention the Crossed Swords Club!
At least twenty years ago my father was saying that hockey and cricket could not go on co-habiting, but bringing everyone else round was to become a major challenge. Armed with a charitable mind and some extremely experienced and knowledgeable colleagues, namely Laurie Norman and Robert Watson as well as a keen son with a professional training in property and construction, Southgate Hockey Club embarked on an audacious undertaking, which has now been accomplished, against all the odds
November 1986 - my father wrote a memo about the future of the club, concluding that regrettably we would have to leave the Walker Ground, as the way hockey was moving, with the introduction of artificial grass pitches, we could no longer live alongside cricket. Strenuous efforts were then made by the then Secretary Andy Ockenden, and Walker Ground Administrator Chris Sexton to see if the provision of such a pitch at the Walker Ground would be possible.
January 1989 - the first meeting of the club's newly-formed Development Committee was held. This committee was chaired by Laurie Norman, and comprised Robin Willmott, Robert Watson, Andy Ockenden, David Lloyd-Williams, Susie Prosser-Harries (now Duthie), Mike Spray, Richard D'Souza and myself with Rowley Charlton, Warwick Hoyle, John Peel, Sean Kerly and James Duthie becoming involved later on. The work of this committee was two-fold: to establish what facilities SHC needed in the long-term and then to establish where this might be achieved. I can't exactly remember when, but there had been talk of the possibility of a National Lottery being created, which might help our plans.
Having established what facilities the club needed, Laurie circulated a letter to the entire membership entitled "Whither Southgate Hockey Club". This paper concluded that we had to leave the Walker Ground if Southgate were to remain pre-eminent in English hockey. This paper was well received, and with a mandate from the membership and a list of facilities needed, the big search for the right ground had begun.
Many sites were examined, most notably: the Walker Ground; Broomfield School; Aldenham School; Trent Park; Old Cholmeleians; Shenley; Grovelands, and several others in the London Boroughs of Enfield and Barnet.
February 1990 - we were invited by Middlesex University and Saracens Rugby Football Club to attend a meeting to discuss a joint venture for a major £2m redevelopment at Trent Park. This joint venture lasted for 2½ years, and whilst the project didn't go ahead, with the benefit of hindsight this was to our advantage. We learnt much about our partners, Middlesex University, and the site in particular, with its planning problems.
October 1992 - the club was formally invited by Middlesex University to participate in a two-way joint venture, without Saracens. Good progress was made in discussions with a team of University staff - all of whom have changed since - and the team fielded by the club - myself, Adrian Scott-Knight, and David Lloyd-Williams - to frame the outline of the deal: the "Draft Heads of Agreement". The 7th Amendment was the one negotiated which was then passed to our Solicitors. The basic deal was simple: in exchange for free use of the sports ground, MU would grant the club a 125-year lease at a peppercorn rent for the first 25 years, and provide £100,000 towards the cost of developing the site.
March 1993 - Middlesex University appointed architects to obtain planning permission. The simple plan we agreed was that if we were to demolish the existing building and put back a new one in its place, in exactly the same position, then we must surely receive planning consent! In addition we would expand its footprint slightly and excavate out the bank underneath, thus giving a second storey. With two artificial grass pitches, the total scheme cost was estimated to be £1.4m.
At this time I met with a representative of the Sports Council who gave us some absolutely invaluable advice - which believe it or not we have followed exactly. This assisted us in shaping the organisational structure that we see in place now for the management of the facility. This gentlemen's name is David Lawrence, and I wish here to pay tribute to him and the Sports Council for the superb help and advice that they have given us.
April 1993 - Southgate Hockey Club appointed Ashurst Morris Crisp as its solicitors.
May 1993 - the planning application was lodged. The approval process was to take 13 long months, complicated because the site is in a Country Park, is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, is in a conservation area - oh yes - and it's in the Green Belt! This period involved us in very extensive negotiations with Enfield Town Planners, but also gave us the opportunity to start fund-raising in earnest in order to provide the 35% of the cost of the project that we would need to raise ourselves. With several major donations from club members and successful applications to Sportsmatch and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts under our belt, a real momentum was building up.
June 1994 - planning permission was granted. Armed with a legal agreement, planning permission, and a plan for securing the requisite 35% funding, we could now go to the still quite new National Lottery Sports Fund. However, with the legal process was taking its lengthy course, and much financial planning needed, a whole army of experts was brought in to establish the best way forward.
November 1994 - the birth of a new charity: the Southgate Sports and Leisure Trust. The meeting of the initial subscribers took place on 3 November, with the first Board Meeting being held on 24 January 1995. These meetings were to become the most regular feature of our lives at this time and Charlie Mugggins here (yes with three g's) had to get ever so organised at least one week beforehand! I must thank Adrian Scott-Knight and his employers for their generous hospitality over such a long period. The pre-meeting get-togethers in the Bow Lane Wine Vaults in the City and the varied range of late night restaurants seemed to make it all worthwhile. Now in March 1998, we've just held Board Meeting No 32.
Shortly afterwards Richard Crawley of Geo. Little Sebire & Co. was appointed to provide financial advice and he was able to help us on a wide range of matters.
July 1995 - our application was submitted to the Lottery Sports Fund.
February 1996 - the Lottery Sports Fund approved a grant of £626,000 - £26,000 more than originally requested - towards a scheme estimated to cost £980,000 i.e. 64% of the total.
June 1996 - the final legal agreements were now in place - congratulations to Ashurst Morris Crisp! Our Quantity Surveyors Cotton Thompson Cole could at long last produce the tender documents.
July 1996 - we went out to tender for a design and build scheme for a building with a "Swiss chalet-style interior". As the fund-raising appeared to be going well the Board of Southgate Sports and Leisure Trust had agreed to a number of improved design features.
September 1996 - tenders were returned, all substantially over the original budget (although this was expected), so detailed negotiations were held in order to produce a working pavilion. Other items would be added to the scheme as and when further funding became available, e.g. plastered walls, doors and a bridge to the 'grassy knoll', and a full balcony.
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Middlesex University's Vice-Chancellor Michael Driscoll joins Sean Kerly, Robin Willmott and Michael Burman to celebrate the start of building works
A sequence of photos showing the replacement of the old changing rooms with the new building
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April 1997 - work started on the pavilion and two new floodlit sand-filled artificial turf pitches
July 1997 - David Vinson and John Shaw made a second trip to Holland to inspect some further pitch installations. The Trust took the decision to upgrade the pitch closest to the pavilion from sand-filled to water-based.
September 1997 -- the sand-filled pitch was completed, and the 'christened' with games attended by over 70 club members. Southgate Hockey Centre had opened, and the relocation was under way!
January 1998 - the pavilion opens for business, with internal fitting-out works still going on.
March 1998 - the water-based pitch has, as I write, just been used in our staging of our first major tournament.
The original expectation of the Trust that the pavilion would be no more than a shell when it was first opened was, unknown to us all, single-handedly rejected by one Trust Board Member.
Recently retired (at 50 mind you!), he set about working out how we could fit out the building without a budget. And - would you believe it - he then decided to personally supervise this task by begging, borrowing and bartering for everything and visiting the centre nearly every day for five months. Who could possibly imagine that we obtained a lorry in exchange for some fish, and when short of a lady for an opening photo of the new centre, he quickly donned some ladies' clothing to help out!
Needless to say, both I and the Board members will never really know the full story, but we must all pay tribute to the skill, determination and forward thinking of my great friend and confidante Warwick Hoyle. Many years ago when I was formulating the fund-raising strategy and finding some large gaps, he said to me "Listen lad, give everyone a target, a project that we can see and then don't worry, we'll find the money!". How right he was.
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The 'christening' of the sand pitch
in September 1997
The first Saturday night in the bar,
January 3 1998
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Looking ahead - Easter sees us hosting the European Club Championship for Women; we are staging a quadrangular weekend of full international men's hockey, and we have a whole range of other major hockey finals. An "Ultimate Frisbee Championship" is also booked! We are waiting to hear if we are to become a Regional Hockey Academy, and works are now in hand to install a new fitness suite. The Pistons Summer Hockey Club and the Trent Park Trotters (a running club) have both decided to relocate to the new centre - and a master plan for the longer term is underway.
In Southgate Hockey Club's long and successful history, the completion of this project will undoubtedly be seen as yet another major move forward. Southgate has always led the sport - we provide the lead that so many follow. We must never allow ourselves to think "Thank God that's finished, now we can relax for another twenty years". Having undergone such a difficult and complex process we must now continue to develop apace, as otherwise others will copy and overtake us.
I must here thank most sincerely the other Trust members both past and present: Michael Burman - for his continued insistence that we only produce the best and for his assistance with all printed matter; Ian Mixer for producing so many different versions of our business plan - each time with something changed; Adrian Scott Knight for somehow ensuring that everybody has been paid; Robert Watson for his help in ensuring that our voice was heard by saying all the right things in the right places, and to Keith Lewis for his meticulous financial help. I must also thank Laurie Norman for his vision and help in the early days, to Rowley Charlton for his support through the first half of the project. I would also wish (surprisingly some may say!) to thank Sandy White, who through his wholehearted rejection of the entire project at all times, kept me and my colleagues on our mettle, in order to ensure that we had fully researched all matters before presenting these to the club's committees, as we could always rely on him to ask some searching questions! All these and many more not mentioned have been a tower of strength.
Finally, I must here pay the largest tribute to my family. My mother and father seem to have injected this in-built drive in all Willmotts for Southgate Hockey Club to be a success and it is fair to say that my father is the only person who I appear to have consistently upset throughout this development, or put another way, he's the only person who has caused me any grief! Between us however we have always resolved our minor differences and somehow steered this often complex ship through difficult waters. My wife Rafia, as you can imagine, has at times been fairly cheesed off with the words Trent Park, as a result of my neglect on DIY around the home, etc. She has been a constant tower of strength throughout and probably knows more about the project than most. My last tribute is to my three sons, Scott, Rory and Cyrus (aged 15,13 and 1), all of whom show great interest in hockey and it is for them and to countless others of their ages that I dedicate this project - we shall shortly be looking to them to take on the mantle of ensuring that our charitable work continues and that this great club remains pre-eminent in the world of hockey.
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The watering system is tested, early 1998 |
