For 80 years Cinderford's YMCA has played an active part in the town's social scene. Today it is as strong as ever with a membership of 90. Here, president Arthur Edwards – who joined in 1941 – outlines the latest developments and tells of recent successes.
THIS year Cinderford YMCA celebrates its 80th anniversary by opening up new facilities for young people and the disabled.
A new kitchen has been fitted and £10,500 has been spent on new toilets while the four snooker tables have been brought up to match play standards. Each of our two lounges has two full sized tables.
A great effort has been made to attract more young members with a satisfying degree of success. Indeed, all are welcome regardless of age or gender – providing they are tall enough to play on the tables!
We welcome new members from grandfathers down and we stress grandfathers because we do need older members to assist in the running of the organisation.
The club is run by a small management committee and is an affiliated member of the YMCA Movement. The committee raises money by a number of activities such as jumble sales and sponsored walks.
The present membership stands at 90 and we open from 6pm onwards.
On behalf of the committee I would like to extend special thanks to the funding officer of the Forest of Dean District Council who helped raise money from a number of sources including the National Lottery. A donation from the Cinderford branch of the Oxford and Swindon Cooperative Society helped towards the refurbishment of two tables and Cinderford Town Council has helped with the running costs of the building.
Now I would like to introduce you to some of our successful young players.
ANDREW Williams is our billiard and snooker champion.
Besides being winner of the individual billiards and snooker championship of the Forest of Dean and District Billiards and Snooker League, Andrew is also a joint winner of the pairs knockout competition partnering Richard Telling.
Andrew, 17, is still a student at Monmouth Comprehensive School. His father Dave first brought him to Cinderford YMCA when he was 12 years old to learn the game of snooker and I introduced him to the game of billiards at the age of 15. Andrew is the captain of the Bullock Cup Inter-Town under-23s snooker competition and captain of the Inter-Town Billiards competition and also captain of Cinderford YMCA A-team which plays in the Forest of Dean League.
THE Cinderford YMCA snooker A team have won the Forest of Dean Summer League 2001, Winter League 2001-2002 and Team Pairs Knockout Competition, 2001-2002.
Three members of this team were regular members of the winning Lampard Cup team which is an inter-town senior snooker competition. They are Tom Iemboli (captain), Matthew James and Andrew Williams. A member of another YMCA team, Andrew Baldwin, also played an integral part in the winning of this cup. His father, Alan, also introduced him to the YMCA at a very young age. This is the first time a Forest of Dean League team has won this competition in the last 10 years.