10.
What? Hartford School of Gymnastics turns 20
When? June 24
Where? Winnington Hall
Hartford School of Gymnastics, a club run by husband and wife Charlie and Michelle Oakes, threw a party in the summer to celebrate an anniversary.
They had opened the doors to a space on School Lane 20 years earlier to realise a dream, and invited everybody they had met along the way to a reunion.
It is unusual perhaps to pick a ‘Best of’ moment that isn’t attached to a competition or match, but the duo’s ‘family’ – which has more than 250 active members – is part of the sporting fabric of Northwich.
That simply can’t, and should not, be ignored.
Michelle Oakes, left, and husband Charlie cut a commemorative cake during Hartford School of Gymnastics' 20th birthday part earlier this year
How we reported it: Gymnasts party to mark club reaching milestone
How we Tweeted it:
💬 "The gym is our second home, the gymnasts our extended family."@HartfordSOG has turned 20.
— Andrew Simpson (@simmo_on_sport) June 30, 2017
📰 Story 👉🏻: https://t.co/xqrJGNdTzz pic.twitter.com/lb70rWipmp
How they Tweeted it:
#SaveTheDate #20thanniversary 💚💚💚 pic.twitter.com/36SEgD7YiY
— Hartford SOG (@HartfordSOG) March 31, 2017
Our sports writer remembers:
“I went to spend the afternoon with Charlie and Michelle a couple of weeks before the party at Winnington Hall.
“For me it was important to talk to them at the club’s base at Anderton Business Park – their ‘second home’ as he referred to it – because that is where so many of the memories they shared with me were made.
“It felt less and less like an interview as time went by though; I was a new audience for tales they’d likely told many times, but that wasn’t a deterrent to them reliving every detail.
“Hartford School of Gymnastics is somewhere I visit as often as I can, and I always leave with a smile etched on my face.
“And that day was no different.”
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