End of an era for West Tarring Boys' Club

The Tarring High Street-based club is at the threshold of a new era as it waits for the imminent introduction of girls and rebranding as a youth club.

But the celebration on Friday, March 23, was all about the group's history, with cackles of "look at those hairstyles" audible, as a photographic slideshow of the club's rich history and achievements played on a large screen.

One of the eldest of the 'old boys' was 80-year-old William Snewin, who was one of the founder members in 1937 at the club's original site, the Old Palace in Glebe Road.

He could still remember enjoying gymnastics at the club and happily passed around a photograph of himself and several other boys taken in the early 1940s.

He said: "I was one of the first to join. It's nice to see so many people."

Others laughed as they remembered raucous Saturday night dances at the club and a man described as the "driving force" behind the club gaining its own premises, Skip Morris.

Andy Sharp, 63, from Sompting, was a member in the mid-1950s when members of the club raised money for the move.

"We used to do physical training and played games like British Bulldog, all the games that are banned now.

"We went out fundraising to build the building that's there now. Skip Morris was the driving force. It's down to him that the club's there."

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