MONICA PHELPS
(NEE RUTHERFORD)

I  began participating in gymnastics by chance. My P.E. teacher started an after school club at the secondary school which I attended. My Dad encouraged me to join, telling me that he opened the first gym club in Sunderland YMCA, where he taught swinging clubs and parallel bars. He proceeded to demonstrate his swinging club skills using two silver tablespoons, it was very impressive, on reflection quite amazing!

As the youngest of five, I remember being adored by my much older siblings, two brothers and two sisters. In 1953 prior to my starting Fulwell Secondary Modern, my Mum had been very ill, she had a mastectomy and was fragile for a couple of years, so our family had been through a very stressful period.  They were keen for me to use my excess energy.

Early gymnastics

I do remember that I very quickly fell in love with gymnastics….. Floor and Vault is what we did at that time. I now realise that I was part of a very talented group of girls and I don’t recall being the “best”, but was probably the most passionate.

Each lunch-time I ran home at noon, gobbled down my lunch then ran the half mile back to school for gym practice. I never missed a practice and was always first in the queue at the gym door. Well, I say ‘the gym door’, it was actually the assembly hall, which doubled as a dining hall and was also used for PE.  It had a solid, block wood floor, one side was skirted by classrooms. The other wall had radiators and windows which over-looked the playground. At one end was a stage, and each end had a corridor leading to the cloakrooms.

Our vault run was one corridor and the vaulting box/ horse was placed in the opening of the opposite corridor, the hall was a mere 30′ x 30′!  After a few months my teacher, Miss Allison (who became Mrs Groom and my Coach and mentor),  asked if I would like to enter a competition in Warrington, I didn’t know where that was! I was required to perform two vaults on the full height box, and two agility routines with five linked skills.  Apparently, I was quite good because Mr Byers & Miss Bagley whose clubs I visited often told me that I was……. ‘a clever girl’.

The competition was called The British Junior Vault and Agility Championships, which really meant very little to me. I had never travelled outside of County Durham and was like most 13yr old post-war children from the North,  rather parochial and naïve.

Life changing camp at Bisham Abbey

Our club participated in the Festival of Movement and Dance at the Wembley Arena……..a huge event for a group of parochial school girls; none of us had ever been to London. June took us to Cambridge for a week, we stayed in Youth Hostels, went punting on the River Cam and visited Kings College Cambridge. She arranged for me to meet my fourteen-year-old cousin Christopher Catterick who sang in the Kings College Choir and was a recipient of the Maunday Money from the Queen. June provided our little team of gymnasts with an education far beyond the aspirations of our parents. We lived in the days of post-war rationing and money was scarce; families could not afford holidays, but our parents were delighted to subsidise our involvement in these activities.

On reflection, our week’s stay at a Bisham Abbey gymnastics summer camp in 1958 was my life-changing experience. I think June had taken a group of us to a Coaching Course leading to an examination and we were the students. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of Abbey and its situation. The weather was amazing. We slept in dormitories, had midnight feasts and told ghost stories about Lady Hoby who was supposed to haunt the Abbey! I met wonderful people. I met fellow gymnasts and coaches from all over the country. These were people I grew to love and respect, they were like big sisters or aunts and uncles. We all felt loved by them and safe in their company, I grew to respect them……forever.

Jim and Pauline Prestidge came into my life. I met Pat Hurst, multiple British Champion, who was so kind and helpful. She could do the splits on beam, she was skilful on swinging rings and I was so impressed. What I was unaware of at the time but appreciated much later in life, was that these people were also impressed by my talent. Whilst I can accept that I had some, I was not the most talented amongst my peers, but definitely the most dedicated. Thankfully the Bisham Abbey summer camp was held annually and it was the base for national training prior to Lilleshall, so I enjoyed many more visits.

When we returned home after that first camp, our eyes had been opened. June wanted to coach Olympic Gymnastics as it was referred to back then; Educational Gymnastics was taught in schools and the divide between the two was significant!  For years the Educationalists retarded the growth of gymnastics, calling it ‘formal’ because skill acquisition had a structure. They considered that it limited creativity, but to me, Educational Gymnastics was akin to attempting to write a story before learning the alphabet! When I had my practical assessment on my final teaching practice, I manipulated my lesson to a more skill oriented lesson than was the teacher training policy back in 1965. I firmly believed that it was better suited to the children’s development, thankfully, my forward thinking examiner approved and I passed with Distinction.

Winning my first British Championship

I qualified for the 1961 British Championship final at the Royal Albert Hall. My main rival was Denise Goddard, she and I had already enjoyed a few close encounters. Nothing was different about this one; Denise was more powerful and had superior tumbling and vaulting skills, I was more flexible and gained on artistry. In the end, I won by the smallest margin. This was the best moment ever. The experience of being watched by 5000 supporters including a huge group from Sunderland …….and standing on the top step of the rostrum holding that beautiful trophy is a precious memory. I can recall looking at the names engraved on it and felt so proud to be considered their equal. Becoming a local celebrity was not easy, I learned about the very best and worst traits of human nature, but had plenty of advice along the way. On my dressing table, I have a treasured china dog, bought for me by my headmistress when I won my first Senior Women’s title. Shortly before the championship, our dog died, so when she took me to the jewellers to choose a gift, I chose an ornamental dog.

The next few years were the most challenging, even though they were exciting.  During 1961 I had more exams, and when they conflicted with major events I was permitted to have alternative arrangements, I sat alone in an attic room in Newcastle to take two GCE’s.  It really wasn’t an exam atmosphere, but I coped and got good grades.

Jim Prestidge team manager, June Groom coach, Audrey Bates judge, Denise Goddard and myself made up the team for the 1961 European Championships in Leipzig. This was a huge eye-opener. We realized how poor we were in comparison to the rest of Europe, but we did not feel intimidated in the company of such amazing gymnasts; despite being awestruck by sharing the stage with our heroes, we managed to live every moment with utter enthusiasm.

During the European Championships, we were cared for by Herr Bachmann, an interpreter and Director of The Leipzig High Institute of Sport. My coach June Groom and I were invited to spend some time training at the Institute under the direction of their coaching team, the people who trained the great gymnast Ute Starke. We took up the invitation in 1962 after the World Championships. I had never worked so hard, it was tough and the conditioning was unreal. Beam training included tightrope work and strengthening included running up sand dunes. I learned the truth about real tiredness, exhaustion and muscle soreness…we needed a tougher training regime!

Monica Phelps
November 2018