THERE cannot be too many clubs in their 70th year who have two founder members active, let alone still actively involved in the club. However Pinehurst is a club with a long and proud history.

Club president and founder Doreen Willcocks MBE is no ordinary netball club president. The 87-year-old has been recognised in almost every way for her commitment to her sport and for raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity. Most notably Willcocks was presented with an MBE in 2009 and Torch Award in 2008 for her efforts.

“That’s my favourite, you know Bobby Charlton, you must know him,” says Willcocks pointing to the picture of her being presented with her Torch Award by England’s record goalscorer. “My dad played football (for Sheffield Wednesday), so that’s my favourite.”

Willcocks maybe be approaching 90 but has no plans to reduce her involvement with the club, she’s just as active now as she was when founding the club all those years ago.

“I go to watch as much netball as I possibly can,” said Willcocks. “I go every Tuesday evening when it’s training at the new Academy from 6.30pm till 8.30pm, sometimes I go to the senior training at St Joseph’s, I always go games on a Saturday and occasionally on Sunday for the kids as well.

“As president of the club my job is to watch as much netball from eight and nine-year-olds up to 60-year-olds and, I think, to bring back into the club what I’ve done over the years.”

Willcocks founded Pinehurst Netball Club in 1944 aged 15, entering the the club in the Swindon & District League.

It is not just Willcocks who remains involved with Pinehurst from that first team. Her great friend and former England netball international Jean Neville still attends matches regularly having retired formally from a 15-year-old in wartime Swindon.

“I remember our first match, it was against the Bluebells, who were the police, and they were all about twice as big as us and we lost 40-2 I think it was, though the next season we walloped them didn’t we?” Neville asks the, gaggle of Pinehurst elders, Willcocks, Val Holborrow and Joan White, who are gathered at Holborrow’s home in Pinehurst.

Assisted by Pinehurst youth leader Bill Bryant, Willcocks and Neville expanded the club to two teams in 1945 and by the early 1950s were one of the most dominant sides in the Swindon & District League.

At one point in the early years of Pinehurst, five of the seven Wiltshire county players were from the Club.

The club continued to grow through the 50’s and 60’s and as Willcocks, Neville and Holborrow moved into coaching they ensured the club they had built kept going.

“We’ve all thought about why the club has lasted so long and it’s because we all stuck together. It’s a big family thing and Doreen is the cog and she keeps us together,” says White.

“We’ve never had a Shrove Tuesday, it’s always a Shrove Wednesday because Tuesday is our training night.”

“Wonderful days we’ve had but we’ve always been dedicated to the game when we’ve been on the court,” chips in Holborrow.

“You don’t have babies during the netball season or get married,” she declares proudly.

“Doreen was the one when she was bridesmaid, she went off played a match and came back and had to put her dress back on again,” quips White to a fit of giggles, “If it’s in your blood it’s in your blood.”

They can laugh about it now but that is the level of dedication and enthusiasm that has maintained Pinehurst over the years.

In 1968 the club needed a new challenge so they decided to join what was the highest level of national netball at the time, the Polytechnic League.

They would play their home games in Chiswick because the league was based in London and travel all over the capital to play.

In 1988 the cost of all that travel meant that Pinehurst had to withdraw from the Polytechnic League joining the Western League, now known as the Regional League where their first team remain to this day.

The club also has four teams in the Swindon & District League, as well as an over-35s team, and junior sides from nine to 16.

Obviously as the years have gone by most the work done by the likes of Willcocks, Neville, White and Holborrow is off the court. Their enthusiasm for their sport is still evident though and Pinehurst feeds from that.

That passion has been passed on and the club’s ongoing development is ensured by the constant production line of coaches from the playing squads.

“The coaching has been most important up at Pinehurst really, I think that’s where we’ve got the progress from,” says Holborrow.

“The club develops coaches as well as players, we’ve sent four coaches on courses since Christmas,” adds White, “If you actually maintain all the coaches they will go on to Pinehurst to train all the players.”

One aspect the club always want to keep in their coaching is the element of fun in the sessions, it’s something that White stresses is key to how the club wants its coaches to provide.

“It changes the way you coach, when you go for a coaching course it’s something they tick off (the element of fun), it’s something we’ve always tried to bring from coaching and the social side as well.”

Pinehurst is celebrating its 70th anniversary on Saturday, May 17 at the De Vere Hotel in Eastleaze. Having had so many players over the course of their history the club has not found it easy trying to get in contact with some of the older players who they would like to come along. As a result the club are encouraging any former members who would like to come and celebrate the club’s anniversary to get in contact.

The club’s email address for enquiries is richmondz_1409@hotmail.com, or you can call the club’s committee: Val Holborrow 01793 616496, Joan White 012793 72223, Pat Harris 01793 750250 and Doreen Willcocks 01793 534417.