News & Events KARAOKE & RETRO EVENINGS AT YOUR LOCAL SPRINGS Springs are pleased to announce that they are providing members with the ultimate Karaoke nights which take place at South Shields and Kingston Park from 8pm every Thursday.
STUDENTS AND OVER 50's SAVE ON JOINING FEE, SAVE £100!!! All Springs clubs are offering a great saving on joining fees to anyone who produces a valid student card, or to any new member over 50. To make the most of these fantastic offers contact your local Springs club.
NEW NAME, NEW LOW FEES Good news for Springs members at the Kingston, Pandon Bank, and Low Fell clubs. Instead of fees being forced up by rocketing costs and the gloom-ridden economic downturn, they are dropping as low as £14.95 a month. Springs supremo Stan Henry has achieved it through an in-depth search to avoid what looked like significant rises in fees. “There have been new rises in the minimum wage, in community charges, huge increases in energy costs, and a host of other essential costs,” explains Mr Henry. “We’ve absorbed these costs for the past three years but to continue to do so was impossible. We recognised, however, that our members are also feeling the pinch so we set about devising this pilot scheme for the three clubs. If it succeeds, it may well be extended to the others.” Come the New Year, the Kingston, Low Fell, and Pandon Bank clubs will operate under the new name of Easy-Gym. Members signing a new 24-month fees contract will pay only £14.95 a month. A 12-months contract will cost £19.25 a month. The swimming pools at Kingston and Low Fell – the most costly and least used amenities – will be closed at the end of January and re-designed to provide new and additional amenities. “This venture is a radical change from our current operation but we hope it will appeal to existing and potential members,” says Mr Henry. “Those wishing to take advantage are asked to complete new membership contracts.”
BOOST FOR CHARITYSprings “aqua ladies” at the South Shields club have raised just under £2,300 for the Maggie’s North East Cancer Centre by organising a series of sponsored fitness and swimming challenges. They also staged a pie-and-peas supper at the club, plus entertainment, during which 80 donated raffle prizes were won by the 200 or so guests. Leader Margaret McDaid (67) presented the cheque to Denise Heron, community fundraiser for the charity. Denise praised the aqua ladies who, she said, were typical of North East charity workers whose determination to succeed was inspirational.
Watched by some of her fellow aqua ladies, Margaret (right) presents the cheque to Denise
WILL GOES PINK Kingston Springs fitness instructor Will Twigg is sporting a bright pink Mohican haircut for charity and is dead worried about the scoffing and leg-pulling he will receive. Not so much from Springs folk, you understand, but from fellow martial arts experts when he takes part in the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the Midlands. “They will scoff and pull my leg unmercifully when they see me,” confesses Will. “It won’t make much difference when I explain I am doing it for Cancer Research UK. They will still fall about laughing and, in their case, it will be no good me giving them a menacing look and advising them to shut up. “To be honest, I’m dreading meeting up with them, particularly suffering the ribald remarks when I compete with them.”.
Will Twigg has the finishing touches put to his new hair-do by stylists Rochelle Bowman (left) and salon manager Sarah Baxter.
LES IS OKAY FOR SOUND Forty-six-year-old Les Watts, entertainment manager at the Springs Billed as “Wake With Watts”, it is a lively mixture of chat, news, phone-ins, and competitions. A former Army regular, Les saw service in Germany and other parts of Europe. His CV includes being a radio presenter at garrison towns throughout the UK, long spells as a soccer player and a soccer referee, DJ, compere, and deputy manager of a hotel. He currently links his job at Springs with responsibilities for the club’s bars and its catering activities. He still referees but knee problems which resulted in surgery has put paid to his playing days.
Les practices his new task at the console at Springs. “GIBBO” WILL FIND SIX LUCKY BOXERSJohn Gibson, the Evening Chronicle’s “Regional Sportswriter of the Year”, whose widely read boxing column is a knock-out, has officially opened the Springs new boxing training gym at Low Fell. His reward? The chance to select six of Tyneside’s most promising young amateur boxers to receive a free one month’s membership entitling them to use the fantastic new facility. Springs, whose five North East clubs also include two at Newcastle, one at South Shields, and another at Hartlepool, say their thank-you was also prompted by their appreciation of the splendid medal successes of the region’s boxers at the Beijing Olympics and to provide an early spur to even greater achievements at the 2012 London Olympics. The superbly equipped new boxing training gym is the first of its kind on Tyneside. It is already proving a winner but Springs say that what surprises most is its steadily increasing popularity among women fitness enthusiasts.
Club manager Harry Ely holds on to the heavy bag as “Gibbo” unleashes a hefty left jab to open the new boxing training gym
LISA HITS MEDAL TRAILLisa Newton (pictured), the Hartlepool martial arts expert awarded an honorary membership of her local Springs club to help her achieve her long range target of appearing in the 2012 London Olympics, has quickly reaped the benefit. She has won a gold, two silver, and one bronze medal at the World Championships in California where she competed in three martial arts disciplines. Springs has an arrangement with the British Olympic Association to grant free fitness training to top athletes whose ambitions are fixed on Olympic glory. Pint-sized Lisa (5feet 1inch and weighing seven-and-a-half stone) is one of several to benefit from it. Lisa has since taken part in the FILA Great Britain Championships and won the Great Britain Title. She also secured her place in the Great Britain team travelling to Switzerland in December.
ANOTHER BOOST FOR HARTLEPOOL SPRINGS A new luxurious Sanctuary Spa designed to de-stress and invigorate has got off to a flying start at the Springs club overlooking Hartlepool Marina. Officially opened by Joy Yates, editor of the Hartlepool Mail, the spa attracted early bookings far in excess of the expectations of Diane Payton, Springs beauty area manager. “It is the first amenity of its kind in Hartlepool and the response has been most gratifying,” she reported. “We are all excited by the good start.” Said Stan Henry who hosted the official opening: “The Sanctuary Spa is another investment to widen the range of amenities available to members of the club and to the public at large. It’s nice to know it is appreciated, particularly at this early date.”
Hartlepool Mail editor Joy Yates cuts a ribbon to open the Sanctuary Spa. With here are Diane Payton, Stan Henry, and spa manager Margaret Haggerty.
Stan Henry and two patrons toast the success of the new venture.
SPRINGS' CAPTAIN HOOK MEETS JUNIOR CAPTAIN HOOK Harry Ely, general manager of Springs, Low Fell, was a colourful and villainous figure when he made a surprise appearance dressed up as Captain Hook to present graduation certificates to four-year-olds at the Ashfield Nursery which is adjacent to the club. The youngsters have been putting on their own version of Peter Pan. Harry, who volunteered to do the presentations, was a huge success with them and parents insisted upon their offspring being photographed with him.
Four-year-old Zavier Battour, who played Captain Hook in the kids’ version of the play is seen shaking hooks with the “real” Captain Hook.
SUPERGRAN A South Shields widow with a family of four children, 14 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren, is setting a remarkable example to old people suffering from arthritis. Three times every week, Lily Liston, works out at her local Springs, completing a wide range of exhausting exercises in the gym which, she says, eases the pain of her arthritis and lessens the mobility problems. “I feel great,” she smilingly declared after completing a 90-minutes training session. “I have arthritis in my hands, knees, back, hips, and practically everywhere, but by being positive and working to an exercise programme specially devised for me by Springs’ team of professional instructors I’m keeping it at bay. “I can cope with arthritic pains, but the prospect of complete immobility and being housebound is a nightmare scenario I have always refused to contemplate. “I know there are many arthritis sufferers who would find my kind of training physically impossible, but there are others who could easily benefit as I have. You have to be positive and pro-active.” Lily has two ambitions yet to be fulfilled – hopefully when she celebrates her 80th birthday next month – (1) to swim regularly in the Springs private pool, and (2) to learn the oriental exercise discipline Tai Chi.
Lily Liston works out at the gym under the watchful eye of Springs fitness trainer Kate Marchant.
OPEN DAYSprings, Hartlepool, held its first-ever Open Day in which a comprehensive programme of events were laid on to show visitors the type and range of amenities available. According to reports in the local Press it was an outstanding success which looks certain to be repeated.
All together girls! Andrea Douglas shows three visitors some of the moves in aerobics.
Jonny Cole takes a class in aqua-aerobics in the club’s private pool.
Exhausting but satisfying! Paul Adams leads a duo on a spinning “journey”.
Chris I’Anson demonstrates the kind of assessment all Springs members take when they join.
ITS NEVER TOO LATE!It’s never too late to shed huge lumps of weight and achieve fantastic new levels of fitness… even if you are 67 years of age and have physical disabilities which make it very difficult to devise an effective fitness programme. All you need is the expertise and encouragement of a Springs personal trainer and real determination to succeed! So says Mike Gray, a 20 stone-plus member of Kingston Springs who has so far lost a remarkable 3-stone of body fat in less than two months, and says he has never felt better in his life. Mike is a semi-retired salesman who has two gym sessions a week in the care of Will Twigg, one of Springs team of personal trainers, plus three (sometimes four) more under his own steam. Will reckons that Mike’s on-going progress has proved to be one of his greatest challenges and now promises to be his greatest success. “His excessive weight, plus damaged knees, made the planning of an appropriate series of exercises very difficult,” says Will. “But he was as determined as me to put together an effective programme and together we did it.”
Paced by his trainer, Mike Gray trundles a heavy punch bag end-over-end up and down the Springs gym, one of the exercises Will specially devised for him
JEMMA SPRINGS INTO ACTIONSprings is again extending a helping hand to North East athletes seeking Olympic glory. Latest to benefit is Hartlepool swimmer, 18-year-old Jemma Lowe who is currently enjoying free use of all the fitness amenities at her local Springs. Jemma will be eagerly seeking medals at the Beijing Olympic swimming events which begin on August 9. She qualified by winning gold and silver at the recent British Championships, then followed up by winning two bronze medals at the World Championships. Since then she has regained the British record for the 200m butterfly, a feat which places her 3rd in the world current rankings. Jemma reckons that her twice-weekly gym sessions with professional guidance at Springs add an even keener edge to her fitness, so she is making the most of the opportunity provided. Springs has had an arrangement over the years with the British Olympic Association to provide honorary memberships and training facilities to Olympic athletes nominated by the Association.
Jemma trains at Hartlepool Springs under the watchful eye of Brenda Bland.
THE TALK OF THE TOWN Everybody recognises and values the expertise of the Springs fitness experts – none more so than the readers of one of the region’s leading daily newspapers who are enjoying a series of articles written mainly by Lou Davidson, Springs gym manager, and Will Twigg, a leading member of her team. Lou and Will have taken their part-time excursion into journalism comfortably in their stride. What’s more, their articles are going down well with growing numbers of readers who appreciate the expert advice on achieving and maintaining top levels of fitness. One person who was so impressed that he decided to try the Springs training methods for himself is the newspaper’s own features editor. He has joined Springs and is currently undergoing a fitness and a weight- losing course under the supervision of personal trainer Chris I’anson. Now he, too, is writing a weekly article about working out at Springs. And thoroughly enjoying it, if his reports are anything to go by!
Lou and Will with some of the cuttings of their articles.
SUPER SATURDAY Monday April 7, 2008 Brainchild of gym manager Lou Davidson’s team, the inaugural “Super Saturday” event for members and non-members to have a fun day sampling old and new exercises and other gym amenities at Kingston Springs got off to a great start. So much so, “Super Saturday” is now virtually certain to be repeated and, indeed, likely to eventually become a regular feature of Kingston activities. It could even spread to the other Springs clubs at Low Fell, South Shields, and Hartlepool. Lou says the launch of “Super Saturday” received what she describes as “a great kick start in which everyone enjoyed themselves refreshing their bodies and trying out new things both in the gym and with healthy snacks and drinks.” She confessed afterwards that she and her team were “completely shattered” by their day-long voluntary stint but added: “We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. “It was a worthwhile experiment in which everyone enjoyed themselves and, incidentally, we also managed to raise a tidy sum for charity.”
Springs fitness trainer Alex Jordan helps a “Super Saturday” visitor with a stretching exercise.
Non-fattening, energy boosting and delicious! Three “Super Saturday” guests try the goodies on offer.
Chris Charlton samples his first-ever head massage by Springs beautician Renu Tugnet at the “Super Saturday”.
THE MARATHON MAN Springs fitness trainer David Colvin has created a unique half-marathon record by running the distance in 1hour 18 minutes… but without covering an inch of ground. One of a group of volunteers at the Springs club at Pandon Bank, Newcastle, who took part in the “Go The Extra Mile” charity challenge organised by Diabetes UK, he created the record by covering the distance using two of the gym’s static treadmills. Treadmills at the gym operate at top speed for only 60 minutes, but David ensured non-stop progress for his record bid by placing two of them side-by-side and jumping from one as it neared the end of its 60 minute cycle onto the other.
“It was a bit tricky but it all worked out smoothly in the end,” he said with a grin afterwards. “It will be interesting to see if anyone can better the record for a gym-based half-marathon.” The Pandon Bank members and staff took part in the Diabetes UK challenge in support of one of the Springs team of gym instructors, Jackie Knight, who has diabetes.
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