Written and researched by Charlotte Day.
Sport
Marlow of course is well known for its water sports and summertime regatta. Geoffrey Baker and Michael Spracklen of Marlow not only competed in but won the double skulls gold in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games of 1958. Michael went on to become one of the world's foremost rowing coaches.
On dry land football, cricket, darts, lawn bowls, hockey and lawn tennis continued to be popular. The Rugby Football Club was formed in 1948 but were yet to secure their own premises in the 1950s. For most of this decade they used the Sports Club facilities as they were officially a section of that club but unhappiness with the quality of the pitch they were able to use saw the rugby players eventually leave there. We have seen passing mention of a Rugby team called the Marlow Swans during the 1950s. We are uncertain if this was a nickname for the main Rugby Club team or a second, since lost, rugby side in Marlow.
There were at very least around a 100 racing pigeons in the town in the late 1950s belonging to members of the Marlow and District Racing Pigeon Club. The club existed earlier and later than this but probably had never been more popular than in the 1950s.
The boys at Borlase School apparently loved basketball. They played in an inter-Borlase league between themselves. This might imply that the sport was not generally so popular as there doesn't seem to be any matches organised with other schools. Borlase basketball club started in 1957, soon after the school had also formed a badminton one. There was no longer a football team at the school, it having been ditched in favour of rugby some years previously, to apparently warm parental approval. This move however sparked criticism from those connected with Marlow F.C who felt they had been cut off from a vital source of future players.
Bisham Abbey Sports Centre across the river was managed by the Central Council For Physical Education. It had a mission to provide residential and non-residential training courses for youth leaders, teachers, young people themselves, budding professional sportspeople, and members of the public in general in the fields of sports, fitness and outdoor recreation. Peak time for the Abbey was the summer when visitors (sometimes whole sports clubs) arrived from all over the country to spend their holidays as residential pupils there. Activities included camping, sailing, canoeing, gymnastics, athletics, netball, tennis and judo. The Bucks County Tennis Championships were held at the Abbey at least once in the 1950s, as were local fencing competitions. Weekly fencing lessons were offered to Marlow people at the centre by 1950 as we're ballroom dancing ones as this activity while not seen as a sport, was recognised as good physical exercise.
Billiards was for a very long time a craze in Marlow. Not to call our Marlow predecessors heathens but the main reason many people visited the Literary and Scientific Institute was to make use of it's billiards table or enter the billiards competitions held there rather than read books or hear lectures. This was the case for decades. Eventually even the income from the billiards tables, and the newer craze for snooker, couldn't keep the Institute going and it folded in 1958. The library now occupies that building.
An Amateur Boxing Club for schoolboys (10 wasn't seen as too young) and adults met at the Drill Hall in Institute Road for training and it's members of all ages had some success in local competitions.
Marlow had a Motor Cycling Club in 1953 which organised road races.
