Golden years
IN DECEMBER LAST YEAR WE CELEBRATED OUR Golden Wedding Anniversary. We both started diving when we were 18 years old and were members of Droylsden British Sub Aqua Club, which is in Manchester. We enjoyed being involved with the club very much.
We got married in December 1975 and were surprised and delighted when we came out of St Mary’ s church in Droylsden to find a guard of honour made up of six DSAC members. This made our special day even more special.
We would like to thank all who took part in the guard of honour and all who helped organise it, especially the late John Parkinson. We lost contact with the club shortly afterwards as we went working in the South of France, teaching diving and snorkelling as a husband and wife team.
We would be much obliged if you could publish this photograph of our wedding day in SCUBA magazine as a way of thanking both past and present members of Droylsden British Sub Aqua Club. TREVOR AND Janice Hassall, Club Instructors 2422 and 2492
Trevor and Janice Hassall tie the knot in December 1975
Every club needs an Andrew
ON JUNE 3 THIS YEAR, 42 MEMBERS OF Sandwell Sub Aqua Club, including a few former members from our previous incarnation, Alpha Divers, gathered to celebrate the 60th birthday of our long time Chair, Andrew Bessant.
We don’ t really celebrate birthdays within the club as although we are quite a young dynamic club, many of us, including this writer, would like forget how many birthdays have past, much less remind others!
However we could not allow this milestone to pass without embarrassing... I mean celebrating with Andy.
Andy is the person every club needs, he is at the centre of everything our club does. A regular diver attending most of the club trips, an Assistant Advanced Instructor, Side Mount Diver and Diver Coxswain. He is our primary RIB tower and has overseen the modernisation of the club RIB, including a new engine, new trailer and new electrics. He has rewired the boat at least twice.
A couple of years ago, he steered us through the difficult decision to rename the club during the transfer from our old home to the recently built Sandwell Aquatics centre. In short, if Sandwell are involved, Andy is at the centre of it. With his quiet pragmatic approach, he carries people on the journey rather than telling everyone how it’ s going to be. We are a success in terms of both growth and training. Importantly, his work allows others to plan dives and dive trips. To thank him for all that he does in what was coincidentally Volunteer Week, we hired a local independent cinema The Royal in Sutton Coldfield, for a private showing of the recently rereleased Oceans with David
Attenborough. If you haven’ t seen this film, you should. In order to increase the cringe factor for Andrew, an edited video reel of current and former club members‘ thanking’ Andy for all the things he has done was aired before the main event. Even BSAC’ s‘ The Two Sophies’ made a special appearance, prompting Andy to ask the question with wide eyes...“ Was that the real Sophies or was it AI Sophies?”
On that note, thanks to the Sophies for their contribution, and most of all another huge thank you to Andrew, or Dive Dad as some call him, for being the beating heart of Sandwell Sub Aqua Club. LEE DUGMORE, DO, Sandwell Sub Aqua Club
Andrew Bessant at his birthday celebration
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