SPORT AFTER 1700
The sports played and watched in modern Chester have
been influenced by the city's social character and by
two natural assets, the Roodee and the river. (fn. 1) The
Roodee was the setting not only for horse racing, (fn. 2)
but also for bowls, and in the 19th and 20th centuries
for amateur athletics, soccer, cricket, hockey, and polo.
The stretch of the Dee above the weir enabled rowing
and later canoeing to develop to a high standard, while
skating was possible in the occasional winters when it
froze over, as in 1822, 1895, 1917, and 1929. (fn. 3)
Among the sports long established in county towns
bull baiting and cock fighting (the latter closely
associated with Chester races) were in decline at
Chester before they were banned in the earlier 19th
century. From the 1840s the city's numerous middle
classes gave an early impetus to amateur rowing and
beagling. In the late 19th century and the Edwardian
period the typically suburban games made a strong
showing, especially golf, hockey, badminton, and lawn
tennis. (fn. 4) The small size of the city's industrial working
class did not prevent the growth of amateur soccer or
working-class participation in swimming and rowing,
and there was even pigeon racing, (fn. 5) but it did affect the
provision of commercial mass-spectator sport.
Chester's professional football club was a weak latecomer; there was little professional boxing; and the
greyhound track was built late in the pre-1939 boom.
In the later 20th century aquatic sports and middleclass team games like hockey and lacrosse were relatively popular, but otherwise Chester's sports lost something of their distinctiveness, for instance with the
appearance of newly fashionable minority sports like
squash, basketball, and American football.
Public Facilities
The city council allowed the Roodee to be used for
team games from the mid 19th century, (fn. 6) but did not
have the power to let any part of it for permanent
occupation. In 1900 it thus turned down a proposal
from Chester Football Club and Chester Cycling Club
for the council to build an enclosed football ground
within a banked cycling track, to be rented to the two
clubs. (fn. 7) The council opened swimming pools at the
Union Street baths in 1901, and from 1911 it and
Hoole urban district council provided public bowling
greens and tennis courts. (fn. 8) From 1968 the Chester Area
Sports Advisory Council organized an annual sports
week (later a fortnight) during which clubs held their
own events. The event was run after 1986 by the
Chester Sports and Leisure Association, to which
individual clubs were affiliated. (fn. 9) After 1966 the River
Dee Water Sports Association co-ordinated the interests of rowers, sailors, canoeists, anglers, and motorboat enthusiasts. (fn. 10)
Figure 160:
Northgate Arena
The city council was concerned about playing fields
by the 1920s. (fn. 11) In the 1970s it opened a floodlit allweather pitch and a 9-hole golf course at Westminster
Park, (fn. 12) public squash courts, (fn. 13) and the Northgate Arena
leisure centre. The last, a striking building opened in
1977, included an 1,800-seat sports hall and practice
rooms, but its pools did not meet the needs of serious
swimmers. (fn. 14) The Arena was mainly used for practice
and leisure activities: in 1994 the only competitive
sports played there regularly were netball, squash,
and professional basketball. (fn. 15) In 1991 the city council
appointed a sports development officer for the first
time. (fn. 16)
Chester's main sports ground in the late 20th century grew out of Cheshire County Officers' Sports
Club, which began by 1936 on a large site off
Newton Lane (fn. 17) and provided for soccer, hockey, cricket,
tennis, and bowls. In 1975 the county council reopened
Brookhirst Switchgear Ltd.'s former private playing
fields in Upton as Cheshire County Council Sports
Club, for the joint use of a nearby school, the County
Officers' Club (which moved from Newton Lane), and
the public. It provided for a wide range of competitive
sports and attracted existing hockey, soccer, athletics,
fencing, and lacrosse clubs. By 1994 the county netball
and badminton teams were also based there. Outdoor
pitches for cricket, soccer, hockey, tennis, and netball
were supplemented in 1993 by a floodlit all-weather
artificial pitch. (fn. 18)
Association Football
Soccer was played at Chester College and on the
Roodee by 1867 (fn. 19) and was well established in the city
by the early 1880s, when several clubs used playing
fields on the Roodee provided by the council. (fn. 20) Two of
the clubs, Chester Rovers and King's School Old Boys,
amalgamated in 1885 as Chester F.C. The club at first
played in Hoole, moving to Whipcord Lane in 1904
and Sealand Road in 1906, when a limited company
was formed. The first board of directors included a
corn merchant, a baker, a butcher, an accountant, a
stationer, a doctor, a clock maker, and an insurance
manager, (fn. 21) but the largest shareholder was Alfred
Mond of Brunner, Mond & Co., M.P. for Chester
1906–10. (fn. 22)
The club was a founder member in 1890 of the
Football Combination, turned professional in 1902,
and was admitted to the stronger Lancashire Combination in 1910, being promoted to the first division in
1911. After a hiatus during the First World War
Chester resigned from the Lancashire Combination in
1919 to help form the Cheshire County League, which
it dominated throughout the 1920s. After a new grandstand was opened in 1920 matches against local rivals
Connah's Quay attracted crowds of over 6,000.
From 1930 Harry Mansley as chairman and Charles
Hewitt as the first full-time secretary and manager
improved the ground and the club's finances and
playing staff, and Chester were elected to the Football
League (Division III North) in 1931. The club's most
successful years followed, marked especially by a 5–0
win over Fulham in the F.A. Cup 3rd round of 1932
before a home gate of 14,000, a feat regarded by some
as 'the greatest thing that had happened since the
Romans evacuated the city'. (fn. 23)
Promotion from the bottom division (IV after 1958)
eluded the club even in its heyday, and the years after
1946 saw poor results, falling attendances, a retrenchment to part-time professional players, and two reelections to the League. (fn. 24) Chester won promotion to
Division III in 1975 and a new stand was opened in
1979. (fn. 25) Its name was changed to Chester City in 1983.
The club's finances, however, continued to deteriorate,
and in 1990 it sold Sealand Road for development,
shared Macclesfield's ground for two seasons, and
returned to Chester in 1992 to the new 6,000-capacity
Deva Stadium in Bumper's Lane. In the 1980s and earlier
1990s the team fluctuated between the bottom two
divisions, but in the later 1990s the standard of playing
and the club's finances both took a turn for the worse.
The club was rescued from financial administration in
1999 by a new American owner with a controversial
approach to management, team selection, and coaching,
and was relegated to the Football Conference in 2000. (fn. 26)
Amateur soccer in Chester was represented by a
Hospital Saturday Cup competition, organized intermittently from 1890, (fn. 27) and by the Chester and Runcorn
Football Association and the Chester and District
Football League, formed in 1893 and 1894 respectively.
The latter included nearly 60 clubs in 1949. (fn. 28) In the
1990s the league had three divisions with 33 teams, and
a Sunday league catered for 48 teams. (fn. 29) One of the
strongest amateur clubs in the city was Chester
Nomads F.C., formed in 1904, which settled at
Boughton Hall in 1913 and was still playing there in
the 1990s. (fn. 30) A women's team connected with Chester
City was playing league soccer by 1994. (fn. 31)
Foot races for prize money were staged in the 18th and
early 19th century, commonly on the Roodee and often
attracting large crowds. (fn. 33) Amateur athletics were first
organized on a large scale during the 1860s boom in
the form of the Chester Autumn Sports, held annually
on the Roodee from 1863 and owing much initially to
the support of W. Maysmor Williams, a prominent
councillor. The event lapsed after 1893, was revived in
1925, and continued in 1993. Attendance in the 1930s
and 1950s (when it was held on August Bank Holiday)
occasionally topped 30,000, and the meeting was once
regarded as one of the foremost in the North, (fn. 34) but the
creation of proper athletics stadia in other towns had
greatly reduced its importance by the 1990s. One of
several 'athletic' clubs existing in the later 19th century
(catering mainly for an interest in gymnastics), St.
Oswald's, formed a group for runners ('harriers') in
1889. (fn. 35) Chester and District (later Chester and Ellesmere Port) Athletics Club, formed in 1967, at first used
the track at Chester College, (fn. 36) moving to the County
Sports Club at Upton in 1992. (fn. 37)
Bowls
There was a bowling green in what became the Groves
by 1630 and another on the Roodee in 1636. (fn. 38) A third
at Bowling Green Bank at the east corner of the Gorse
Stacks was new in 1700. (fn. 39) The Roodee green was
restored to use after 1660, (fn. 40) and was still in use in
1800. (fn. 41) Those at the Gorse Stacks and in the Groves
continued into the 20th century. (fn. 42) The Groves bowling
green was used in 1910 by Chester Bowling Club. (fn. 43)
That at the Gorse Stacks was attached to the Bowling
Green House (later Hotel) by 1750. (fn. 44) In the 1860s and
1880s its members included city councillors, professional men, and successful tradesmen. (fn. 45) The green
remained in use in the 1960s but was neglected when
taken over and restored in 1975 by a Roman Catholic
social club. (fn. 46) Other greens were attached to hotels or
public houses. One at Flookersbrook in Hoole existed
c. 1750, (fn. 47) and by 1818 the extensive grounds of the
Albion Hotel in Lower Bridge Street included a green
which continued in use until 1852 or later. (fn. 48) The Queen
Hotel in City Road had a bowling green in 1889, (fn. 49) and
the Egerton Arms in Bache (later the Bache Hotel) by
1923. The Deeside Bowling Club, established in 1868,
had a green in Souters Lane, (fn. 50) and the Hoole and Newton
Bowling Club played at Vicarage Road, Hoole, by 1910. (fn. 51)
Apart from the Catholic club they all fell out of use
during the mid and later 20th century. (fn. 52)
The first municipal greens were opened in 1911 by
Chester city council near the Hermitage in the Groves
and by Hoole urban district council at Alexandra
Park, (fn. 53) and others followed at Buddicom Park in
1921, (fn. 54) Tower Fields in 1922, (fn. 55) and Cherry Grove in
1925 (moved to Stocks Lane 1974). (fn. 56) Buddicom Park
closed during the Second World War. (fn. 57) The Hermitage
green closed after 1966, (fn. 58) but a new green was provided
in Upton (Wealstone Lane) and two at Westminster
Park. In the 1990s Chester and District Bowls League
included teams representing the five municipal greens,
Bache, and the Catholic club, besides others from
outside Chester. (fn. 59)
Cock Fighting
The place name Cockfight or Cockpit Hill at the north
end of Frodsham Street was recorded from the late
16th century. (fn. 60) A circular thatched cockpit was built in
1619 by William Stanley, earl of Derby, near the walls
south of Newgate. (fn. 61) By 1789 it had been replaced by an
oval cockpit north of the same gate, (fn. 62) which in turn
was succeeded by a brick building on the old site, put
up as a commercial speculation in 1825. (fn. 63) There were
also cockpits in the yards of inns, including the White
Talbot, Eastgate Street, in 1738, (fn. 64) the Elephant and
Castle in the same street, which probably closed before
1796, (fn. 65) the Ship, Foregate Street, in 1776, (fn. 66) and the
Feathers, described as new in 1815. (fn. 67) The inn cockpits
presumably held matches all year round, but the high
point of the cocking year was race week. By the 1730s
matches took place on the mornings of race week and
until c. 1760 were contested by individuals or between
the gentlemen of Cheshire and Flintshire. From c. 1760
to 1800 gentlemen representing other counties in the
North-West, north Wales, and the Midlands also
participated. Private matches were again the rule
from 1800 to 1834, but the last three race-week cock
fights (1835, 1837, and 1839) were between Cheshire
and Lancashire. From c. 1800 cock fighting by the
gentry in connexion with race meetings was in decline,
leaving Chester among the strongholds of a sport
restricted to south Lancashire, Cheshire, and north
Staffordshire. (fn. 68) The keeping of cockpits was made
illegal in 1835 and cock fighting itself in 1849. (fn. 69)
Throwing at cocks was a traditional Shrove Tuesday
sport which survived until the 1710s or later. (fn. 70)
Cricket
Cricket was played on the Chester club's ground at
Blacon Point by 1820, (fn. 71) on the Roodee by 1850, (fn. 72) and
at Chester College before 1867. (fn. 73) The strongest club at
first was Chester C.C., which went out of existence in
1898; (fn. 74) others included the Cestrian club by the 1840s
and the Deva club by the 1860s, with annual subscriptions in the 1870s respectively of 1 guinea and 5s.
reflecting a difference in social tone. (fn. 75)
Boughton Hall C.C. was formed in 1873 by John
Thompson as an invitation eleven playing in the
grounds of his house, Boughton Hall. (fn. 76) By the 1880s
the club was financed by its members and had become
the leading team in the city, dominating the short-lived
Chester and District League (1894—c. 1900) and playing fixtures against teams in Cheshire and south
Lancashire. Its early members were drawn from
Chester's professional and commercial élite. In 1923
it joined the Liverpool Competition and made a
consistently good showing in its unofficial rankings
until 1939. The club became a limited company in
1925, bought its ground in 1945, and changed its name
in 1955 to Chester Boughton Hall C.C. After 1945 the
season was dominated by the Liverpool Competition
(which evolved into a regular league) and from the
1960s there were also Sunday and evening matches in a
variety of knock-out competitions. A second pitch was
in use from 1974, allowing the club to field four teams
in the 1990s. The club never employed a professional
but in the 1990s had the services of a succession of
junior players from the West Indies, several of whom
graduated to Test cricket.
Cheshire first played at Boughton Hall in 1910 and
held an annual minor counties match there between
the wars and again from 1969. The county team often
included Boughton Hall players.
City teams representing churches, offices, and commercial and industrial firms played in an annual
knock-out competition at Boughton Hall from 1913.
Crowds up to 1,000 before 1939 fell sharply in the
1950s and the competition was discontinued in 1966,
though it had been resumed by 1994. Chester
Women's Cricket Club played at Boughton Hall by
1994. In the 1970s the council provided pitches at
Blacon, Hoole, and Westminster Park. (fn. 77)
Golf
The first Chester Golf Club began playing in 1892 on
an 18-hole course 6 miles from the city in Sealand
(Flints.); it disbanded in 1940 when the land was taken
for agriculture. Its namesake at Curzon Park began in
1901 as Bache Golf Club on a 6-hole course north of
the county lunatic asylum in Bache, but moved the
following year to a 9-hole course on the Bache Hall
estate, then occupied by one of the club's founders,
Major John MacGillicuddy. The club had over 200
members and employed a professional by 1906, and
had a ladies' section by 1909. A search for a new site
began in 1910 when the owner of the Bache Hall estate
proposed to sell the land to the asylum, and the last
round was played there in 1912. In 1913 the club
bought 108 a. at Brewer's Hall from Earl Howe, built a
9-hole course, removed its existing clubhouse from
Bache Hall, and adopted the name Curzon Park Golf
Club. The course was enlarged to 18 holes in 1920 and
was modified several times thereafter. The club was
called Chester (Curzon Park) Golf Club from 1923 and
Chester Golf Club from 1964. (fn. 78)
Upton-by-Chester Golf Club was founded in 1934
by C. J. F. Owen on a 9-hole course, enlarged to 18
holes in 1937. (fn. 79) An 18-hole course opened at Blacon
Point by T. B. Gorst was played only in 1937 and 1938;
after it closed the land was used for an Army camp. (fn. 80) A
9-hole municipal course at Westminster Park was
opened in 1976. (fn. 81)
Rowing
By the earlier 18th century fishermen and boatmen
were racing professionally on the Dee, (fn. 82) and rowing for
prizes continued into the earlier 19th century as a
popular spectator sport. A regatta first organized in
1814 to celebrate the Peace of Paris became an annual
event; prize money was offered in races for men,
women, and boys, watched by crowds reckoned up to
10,000 strong. (fn. 83) Races for amateurs in 1832 still
excluded only those actually employed on the river, (fn. 84)
allowing other working men to take part, while the
1843 regatta included a race for 'mechanics or fishermen' besides one for gentlemen. (fn. 85)
From the 1840s, however, rowing became a principal
focus of the cult of amateurism, (fn. 86) and in common with
other rowing venues Chester soon had separate clubs
for gentlemen amateurs and working men. Its distinctiveness was that the amateur club was especially early
among provincial towns (fn. 87) and that it clung tenaciously
to social exclusivity into the 1950s. (fn. 88) That club, formed
in 1838 as Chester Victoria Rowing Club and renamed
Royal Chester Rowing Club in 1840, (fn. 89) was the earliest
gentlemen's boat club in the North. (fn. 90) It drew its
patrons from landed society, (fn. 91) went in for elaborate
banqueting, (fn. 92) and in 1843 even had its own chaplain, (fn. 93)
but the rowing itself was also taken seriously, albeit at
first by small numbers: 70 joined the club in 1838 but
there were only c. 20 rowing members in 1841. (fn. 94) Crews
competed on the Dee, widely in other northern
regattas, and at Henley occasionally from 1855 and
regularly after 1874. (fn. 95)
The club built a boat shed on the north bank of the
Dee upstream from the Groves, (fn. 96) moving in 1877 to a
new boathouse near by. (fn. 97) It bought the site in 1959. (fn. 98)
The club's regatta was first held on coronation day in
1838; a committee separate from the club took it over
in 1840, and it was revived in 1862, becoming a regular
event thereafter. (fn. 99) The regatta course was fixed c. 1851
from Heronbridge downstream to the boathouse. (fn. 100) The
Royals hired a professional trainer from the Thames in
1841 (fn. 101) and another from the Tyne in 1854; while at
Chester the latter, Mat Taylor, was influential in the
development of shell racing boats and in training
oarsmen in the new style of rowing which they
required. (fn. 102) Standards of rowing fluctuated: there were
several strong periods up to the 1890s, but not again
until the 1930s. (fn. 103)
In 1876 the Royals were counted among only 10
rowing clubs catering exclusively for the 'upper class of
amateur', (fn. 104) though the ethos was only then being
finally refined: in 1872, for example, completely against
the spirit of gentlemanly amateurism, there was heavy
betting on the outcome of a race with the Mersey
Rowing Club of Birkenhead. (fn. 105) In 1882, however, the
Royals were a founder member of the Amateur Rowing
Association, designed as and long remaining the
guardian of a strict amateur code. (fn. 106) Chester was the
only provincial club with a member on the A.R.A.'s
management committee. (fn. 107)
The club remained exclusive until the mid 20th
century. In the 1930s it was said to interpret A.R.A.
rules 'to the letter' (fn. 108) and stood firmly against allowing
ladies' rowing clubs to use its boats or premises. (fn. 109) It
lifted an outright ban on manual workers and weekly
wage earners in 1950 only in order to secure a grant
towards a new eight from the Ministry of Education. (fn. 110)
In the 1950s new members were closely vetted by the
committee (fn. 111) and the main annual social event was a
white-tie ball. (fn. 112)
The tone of the club began to change in the 1960s.
Boys from the King's school had begun to row for the
Royals in the 1950s, (fn. 113) but in 1963 the club was still
refusing to train oarsmen from scratch, (fn. 114) presumably as
a means of excluding those thought socially undesirable.
The demand for junior rowing and its importance in
maintaining the club soon led to change, and a coaching
scheme was put in place in 1968. (fn. 115) In 1975 the club
admitted women and comprehensive-school boys as
rowers. (fn. 116) In the 1980s the vitality and success of the
club was largely dependent on student rowers from local
schools and Chester Law College at Christleton. (fn. 117)
There were many other boat clubs in Chester besides
the Royals. The Cestria club existed by the 1830s, had a
boathouse behind Sandy Lane, and survived to the
1940s. (fn. 118) The Deva club competed for prize money in
1840, (fn. 119) and the True Blue Rowing Club was a rival of
the Royals in the 1850s. (fn. 120) Small working-class rowing
clubs based on a trade or a workplace flourished until
the 1930s, (fn. 121) and there was an annual watermen's
regatta in the 1920s. (fn. 122) The Grosvenor Boat Club was
founded in 1869 for clerks and others who were barred
from the Royals (Fig. 161, p. 266). (fn. 123) It had a boathouse
in the Groves by 1892 (fn. 124) and long remained the Royals'
fierce rival, (fn. 125) surviving in 1994. The Athena club for
junior women rowers was formed c. 1977. (fn. 126)
Competitive rowing events on a large scale were at
first confined to the boat clubs' own regattas, of which
the Royals' was the most prominent. From the mid
20th century other events of at least regional importance were devised: the North of England Head of the
River for eights (1935), the Dee Autumn Fours (1948,
organized by Grosvenor B.C.), and the Long Distance
Sculls (1955, by the Royals). The Head and the Sculls
were both rowed over 3¾ miles from Eccleston Ferry to
the Royals' boathouse. (fn. 127) The new events kept Chester,
if not always its own clubs, at the forefront of
provincial rowing in the later 20th century.
Figure 161:
Grosvenor Boat Club members at their boat house
Other Sports
American Football
Chester Romans American Football Club was formed
in 1986 and from 1987 played in the national league,
initially in Westminster Park but from 1994 at Wrexham. (fn. 128)
Badminton
A club representing Chester affiliated to the Badminton Association in 1911. (fn. 129) It remained a strong sport in
the city: the Chester and District Badminton League
was formed in 1948 with 12 teams, growing to 78 by
1974. (fn. 130)
Basketball
In 1993 the semi-professional men's team Cheshire Jets
and its sister women's team Cheshire Cats moved from
Ellesmere Port to the Northgate Arena and were
renamed Chester Jets and Chester Cats. (fn. 131) The venue
was highly regarded but the men's team was initially
weak and poorly supported. (fn. 132)
Beagling
Beagling attracted a small but well-heeled following
after the formation in 1854 of the Scratch Beagle Club,
which had kennels in Brook Lane and social meetings
at the Hop Pole Inn. The club was renamed the Chester
Beagles in 1856 and Cheshire Beagles in 1890. It
originally hunted over most of western Cheshire and
eastern Flintshire, though gradually abandoned its
outlying meets. New kennels were built in Lache Lane
in the 1880s, from where they were removed outside
the city to Dodleston in 1957. New members and
subscribers after 1918 were overwhelmingly from outside Chester. (fn. 133)
Boxing
Pugilists performed in the city in the early 19th century
(Fig. 162), probably mainly at the Exchange. (fn. 134) Amateur
boxers trained at a gym under St. Paul's church in
Boughton in the later 19th century. (fn. 135) The Manchester
fight promoter Harry Furness included the American
Roller Rink among his venues c. 1940, (fn. 136) and there were
contests at the Northgate Arena in the 1990s. (fn. 137)
Bull Baiting
A civic bull bait took place at the Cross as part of the
annual mayor-making ceremonies in the early modern
period. The corporation withdrew its sanction from the
event in 1754 and ceased to attend in its official
capacity, but failed in an attempt to suppress it in
1776. The Chester Chronicle came out against bull
baiting in 1796, and in 1803 a clause in the Chester
Improvement Act banned it within the city boundary.
In October of that year, the first time that the ban was
imposed, the police commissioners also printed and
distributed a handbill warning against bull baiting,
concentrating on Cow Lane (later Frodsham Street)
and the flesh shambles, an indication that butchers
from Chester and the countryside remained prominent
in its support. 'Bull Bait Monday', however, was
revived at Boughton heath just outside the corporation
limits in 1811, and evidently continued there until the
sport was made illegal by national legislation in 1835.
In 1822 a bull was baited on the foreshore of the river
Dee below the high-water mark, also outside the
mayor's jurisdiction. (fn. 138)
Figure 162:
Pugilism advertised at the Cross, c. 1820
Canoeing
Chester Sailing and Canoeing Club was formed in
1957. The canoeing section produced several worldclass competitors. Its main annual event in the city was
the Chester weir slalom, held during Chester sports
week from 1968. The national canoe marathon championship was held in Chester in 1992. (fn. 139)
Croquet
Hough Green Lawn Tennis Club also played croquet
until c. 1920. (fn. 140) Chester Croquet Club was formed in
1977, playing at first on the former municipal bowling
green at the Hermitage before moving to a purposemade lawn in Westminster Park c. 1980. (fn. 141) Both were
still in use in 2000.
Cycling
Cycle races were part of the Chester Autumn Sports on
the Roodee in the later 1870s, when the city was also a
popular venue for touring cyclists to visit. The Chester
Cycling Club was established in 1888 at the Coach and
Horses Hotel; its members toured the countryside and
took part in an annual cycle parade to raise money for
the Chester infirmary. (fn. 142)
Fencing
Fencing was taught as a social accomplishment in
Chester until the 1850s. (fn. 143) It was re-established as a
sport after the Second World War. A club formed in
1957 met for many years in the cathedral refectory, (fn. 144)
moving later to Overleigh school and in 1993 to the
County Sports Club in Upton. (fn. 145)
Fives
There was a fives court at the castle in the later 1850s. (fn. 146)
Greyhound Racing
A track was opened in Sealand Road next to the
football stadium in 1935 (fn. 147) and closed after 1986. (fn. 148)
Hockey
Chester had a hockey club by 1895, and by 1900 a
second club was based in Hoole. Both played on the
Roodee, but the Chester women's team had faltered by
1912 and the men's followed suit c. 1920. (fn. 149) During the
First World War staff at the Army Pay Office played
mixed matches, leading in 1919 to the formation of
Chester Casuals Hockey Club. About 1926 its men's
teams disbanded and the women formed Chester
Ladies Hockey Club, which moved to a new ground
in Panton Road, Hoole, in 1930. Other clubs were the
Chester and District Ladies from 1922 and a men's
team representing Chester United Banks from 1925. (fn. 150)
By 1964 the clubs which belonged to the county hockey
associations were the County Officers (men and
women), Chester and District (women), and Chester
Ladies. (fn. 151) By 1992 there were two clubs catering for both
sexes, Chester and County Officers. (fn. 152)
Hunting
In 1750 the Chester Hunt had as its kennels a building
outside the Northgate which it rented from the corporation; the hunt master at that time was apparently
Sir Richard Brooke, Bt., of Norton. (fn. 153)
Lacrosse
Chester Lacrosse Club had begun playing by 1975 at
Boughton Hall cricket ground, moved to Cheshire
County Council Sports Club at Upton in 1991, and
in 1994 was the only club to have a team in both
divisions of the Northern League. (fn. 154) An international
match was played at Upton in 1995. (fn. 155)
Lawn Tennis
Chester Lawn Tennis Club was founded as Hough
Green L.T.C. in 1890 in Wrexham Road, where it
built a substantial wooden clubhouse. Its original
three shale courts were later supplemented by tarmac
and then by artificial grass courts, numbering seven in
1994. (fn. 156) Hoole L.T.C. began in 1896 in Vicarage Road
and moved in 1904 to Hoole Road. (fn. 157) By 1908 other
private clubs with their own courts included Glan Aber
in Hough Green, Brookside in Sealand Road, and one in
Liverpool Road. The last two did not survive. Other
courts appeared between the wars in Newton and
Upton. (fn. 158) In the 1930s ten clubs had their own courts (fn. 159)
but the number later fell and in 1964 and 1993 only the
Chester, Hoole, and Glan Aber clubs were affiliated to
the county association. (fn. 160) Public courts were opened in
Tower Fields in 1922, (fn. 161) and later in Hoole Alexandra
Park and Wealstone Lane, Upton. (fn. 162)
Netball
Chester had a strong netball club in the 1990s. (fn. 163)
Polo
Chester County Polo Club was formed in 1874 and
polo was still played regularly on the Roodee c. 1900. (fn. 164)
Quoits
Quoits was played by a club on a ground in Westminster Road, Hoole, in 1910. (fn. 165)
Rackets
There was a rackets court at the Brewer's Arms in
Foregate Street in 1822; (fn. 166) another had been built by
1872 in the grounds of Arnold House school, Parkgate
Road, but had gone by 1898. (fn. 167)
Real Tennis
A real tennis court on the south side of Foregate Street
was probably in use between the 1680s and the 1710s
but apparently fell into disuse before 1735. (fn. 168) The
building, afterwards used as a theatre, survived in the
1860s. (fn. 169)
Rugby Union
A club existed from the late 1870s to 1884. The game
was introduced to Chester College in 1889 and the
college club affiliated to the Rugby Football Union, but
none of the schools in Chester took it up and there was
thus no firm basis for club rugby in the city. Chester
R.U.F.C. was formed only in 1925, playing successively
at Sealand Road, Blacon Point, and Bumper's Lane
before moving to Boughton Hall alongside the cricket
ground in 1932. (fn. 170) In 1959 it moved to its own new
ground at Hare Lane off the Tarvin road, (fn. 171) outside the
city, and after the creation of a divisional structure for
the English game in the 1980s played at first in NorthWest Division One.
Figure 163:
Opening gala at Union Street baths, 1901
Squash
The first squash court in Chester was built at the castle
by the Army and remained in use in 1994. (fn. 172) The 1970s
boom led to increased provision of both private and
public courts. The West Cheshire Squash Club opened
in 1974 in Wrexham Road with six courts and became
the base for the Cheshire county team. (fn. 173) Two private
courts were built by the rugby club at Hare Lane before
1978, two public courts at the County Sports Club in
Newton in 1976, and four more at the Northgate Arena
in 1977. (fn. 174)
Swimming
Nude male bathing in the Dee and the canal was
regarded in 1822 as a nuisance which the mayor and
J.P.s intended to eradicate. (fn. 175) In 1901 Chester Amateur
Swimming Club was playing water polo in a roped-off
section of the Dee near the Groves. (fn. 176) Swimming was
popular in the Edwardian period and several
workplace- and church-based clubs used the Union
Street baths opened in 1901. (fn. 177) Chester Swimming Club
had a successful water polo team in the 1920s. (fn. 178) The
baths, managed after 1977 by Chester Swimming
Association, continued in use for training in 1992,
when Chester Swimming Club had over 500 members
and was reckoned one of the strongest in the NorthWest. (fn. 179) Competitive events had to be staged outside
the city, however, as neither the city baths nor the pool
at the Northgate Arena met the standards required by
the Amateur Swimming Association. (fn. 180)