Philip talks about the formation and growth of Norwich City Korfball Club, and the time spent using the Sports Hall at Wensum Lodge.
The start
My wife Bridget and I moved from London to Norwich in 1987. In London we’d played this sport called korfball. I was keen on starting it in Norwich. There were one or two people who’d played in other parts of the country and we combined. We got people from places like the university, the City Hall (where I got a job), and Norwich Union. People got their friends in. Soon we had about four groups of people who formed teams. We played some local league games on Sundays at City of Norwich School (CNS).
Wensum Lodge Sports Hall
One of the big problems was a lack of a training facility. There weren’t many sports halls around so for the first year or two we had no place to train. Then somebody said there was a sports hall at Wensum Lodge. I phoned the person responsible for it. We could only get a Monday, which wasn’t the best day since we played on a Sunday and there wasn’t much rest between playing and training. But we used the Sports Hall as a training facility for about two or three years in the early 1990s.
The hall was a good size in terms of ground area, but the height wasn’t brilliant. Korfball is played by shooting into a basket which is 3.5m off the ground. The hall height was only about 5-6m, which didn’t leave much space for shooting high to get the ball in the basket. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. It helped us grow. When we started there it was used by all the korfball teams because it was the only training facility in Norfolk.
The people who used the hall were very friendly. I remember one occasion when we had a team come from Kent to play a match. We arrived at CNS on Sunday to find a big hole in the sports hall floor. There was some problem with drainage so they’d taken up the floor. My immediate thought was ‘let’s go to Wensum Lodge and see if that’s available.’ There was actually someone using the hall for badminton. We spoke to them and they packed up early so we could play our match.
The other thing I remember is because we were training at about 7.30pm on Monday, it was when the evening classes were underway. The car park was always full so we had to park out in the street, sometimes a fair distance away. Being in a red light area, walking in sports gear was okay for me, but Bridget in a short netball skirt felt a bit vulnerable at times. She was from Norwich, so she did know about the area and the history.
In September 1994, after two years of using the Wensum Lodge sports hall as a training facility, we decided to form a club. We did this on a Monday evening in Jurnet’s bar. We’ve got a recording of the minutes of that meeting and who was there. So it’s got a special meaning for us, Wensum Lodge.
Jurnet’s Bar and the importance of socialising
All the most successful clubs have their own social space, which is an important element of bonding the players and helping the club grow. That was a big advantage of Wensum Lodge as it had Jurnet’s Bar. When you finished training you could then go socialise in the bar afterwards. It was very atmospheric, being in a basement area with vaulted ceilings. Everybody loved going there. It helped build the club.
When we eventually got a place during the week at CNS, the social element collapsed a bit. We had to use my house as a replacement clubhouse which worked for a number of years. Wensum Lodge was a good central location, easy for people to get to. If we could’ve gone on a different day, and the ceiling had been higher, we would have been happy to stay at Wensum Lodge because Jurnet’s was an added bonus.
The social aspect of a sports club is very necessary. Look at rugby clubs, at how important their clubhouses are for mixing after matches and training. It also makes organising a club a lot easier as you don’t have to pull people back together to make sure they’re available for future matches and events.
Korfball is a mixed team sport with a team of four men and four women. We organised things like dinner dances, balls, discos, and trips abroad. Back in the 1990s, for about 15 years, every year we’d take a group of people between the ages of 15-35 to the Netherlands. It was a five day trip in the country where korfball first started and 100,000 people play. They have very strong club structures there, with clubhouses that help the bonding and stability of clubs. We’d stay at a clubhouse for free. It was a very good time.
Cost of sports halls
The cost of the sports hall at Wensum Lodge was reasonable. I can’t remember the exact cost, maybe about £20 an hour, but it was reasonable and we could afford it. All the school sports halls were also quite reasonably priced at the time. Things didn’t really change until about five years ago, when schools started to outsource their hire. Outsourcing it meant they had to employ someone to look after it, so there was a 50 percent increase in hall charges, to £35 an hour. Now we pay £42 an hour for a sports hall, it’s gotten expensive.
Growth of Norwich City Korfball Club
We started off with two teams and grew until we had six. Our first team got into national league and played one season there. Getting people to travel around the country is not the easiest thing, so that only lasted one season. But we’re still going 30 years on. We still run three teams and we’ve started to rebuild after covid, which had a detrimental effect. Most sports have reduced numbers of members and are trying to rebuild after that.
When we started I said ‘For korfball to work in Norwich, we ideally need at least six clubs.’ I encouraged players to form new clubs. One of the juniors, a guy called Ross Lenton, went off to university. When he came back with all his friends in contact he started a new club. That was club number five. A few years later some UEA students who stayed formed a sixth club. Then we had a good grounding. And once you have a solid league, the quality of your play and players improves.
We have a number of players in the national squads. We have two in the senior squad. I know there’s two in the under 17 going off to Prague this Easter. That will continue. Very proud of that.
Closure of Wensum Lodge
It is sad Wensum Lodge is closed. I’m a bit shocked. It’s got a lot of history and lots of memories for lots of people around Norwich. Given its location, I can’t see why it shouldn’t continue. It’s a real shame that Jurnet’s bar is closed too, because it’s unique. I don’t know any location like it in the whole of Norwich. There are one or two things like it in London, in the under crofts of churches and buildings, but it’s unique. I have fond memories of it and will always remember it.
Philip Buttinger (b. 1952) talking to WISEArchive on 23rd March 2025. © 2025 WISEArchive. All Rights Reserved.
