Title
Richard Goss Oral History Summary
Subject
Richard Goss
Description
Summary of an Oral History Recording with interviewee Richard Goss
Creator
Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
28 July, 2020
Contributor
Richard Goss; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Richard Goss Oral History Recording
Format
Microsoft Word Document
Language
English
Type
Typed Summary
Identifier
Richard Goss
Text
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Summary
Interviewee: Richard Goss
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 24 July, 2020
Location: Interview recorded via telephone
0:00 Name, place and date of birth (Richard Goss; Gravesend, Kent; 1948); Richard lived in Gravesend for 16 years, before moving to Folkestone in August, 1965; Richard met Colin Amos, the secretary of Folkestone Saints basketball club, at the rock shop in Folkestone in September 1965 – Colin encouraged Richard to join the team; Richard began playing basketball at Collier Road Secondary School in Gravesend; despite basketball being a minority sport, he managed to play at lunchtime and after school, and there was a school team, too.
3:00 Richard’s parents ran a self-service shop in Gravesend, then took over a hotel in Folkestone – the Testwood Hotel (now flats) - prompting the family’s move; Richard left school at fifteen, and began work at his parent’s hotel, in the dining room – ‘it was great fun.’
7:10 Starting basketball in Folkestone, in practices run by the Saints’ team captain and coach (and co-founder), Dick Steptoe; Richard began playing at the Harvey Grammar, but the Saints first started playing at Hillside School, Dover Road – ‘back then, full size courts I could count them on one hand, in east Kent. They just weren’t around’; the club was officially founded in 1953; the few full size courts in the area included Shorncliffe Army Camp; the existence of outdoor courts in Dover, where they played official matches in the 1960s; the formation of the east Kent League in 1961/2, and the teams involved; other basketball provision in Kent at that time.
12:40 The state of basketball in Folkestone when Richard joined the Saints in 1965 – there were two teams in the town at the time, the Saints and the Red Devils; the origin of the name ‘Saints’ (Dick Steptoe liked the song, ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’; the experience of going straight from school basketball, aged 16, to the men’s league (there was no junior basketball at the time) – ‘it was a problem!’; playing with a 30-second shot clock, and without a three-point line.
15:45 The success of the team when Richard first joined, including winning the East Kent Cup in 1967; being one of the younger players on the team; the social life around the team – ‘we went to the pub, Lifeboat Pub, after the games and played darts, it was every Monday and Tuesday we went, that’s what we did…it was a great social life then, lovely’; how the social life around the club diminished in the 2000s.
18:05 The state of the court at Harvey Grammar School – ‘it’s very small, just over the size of the badminton court…you couldn’t take a long shot…because the bars where in the way’; moving to Folkestone Sports Centre when it opened – ‘it was like a wonderland…a step-up’; how the style of basketball changed with the size of the court, how the team had to adapt to opposing team’s court; Richard describes the court at FCC –‘lovely rubber floor, the first we found like that’ – and how the FCC was, and still is, the best one around.
21:40 The Saints ran two teams when Richard first started in 1965; this rose to four teams at its height, in the 1970s/80s, including two women’s teams; moving to the sports centre in 1972; the tremendous success of the women’s teams (the Phantoms) in the 1970s – ‘they were quite some side’;
25:00 The influence of American and European basketball in the early seventies, and the lack of access to it at that time; leaving the hotel in 1975 to work in a shop in Folkestone, before beginning a job selling fire extinguishers on the road; Richard’s parents sold the hotel in Folkestone in 1977 to run a restaurant in Hythe.
29:55 Basketball equipment in the 1970s – ‘It was difficult, you could only buy certain things’; Richard remained with the Saints in various capacities for fifty years; he stopped playing in the eighties (in his late 30s) and began coaching when the previous coach, Pat Grove, died – ‘I stepped up and did it, and kept on doing it’; Pat Grove’s involvement with the team.
34:00 The popularity of the sport in Folkestone in the eighties – ‘at one time we had sixty players at training, quite a lot’ – and fielding four teams in response to this; why interest exploded in the eighties, including increased media interest and encouragement from local figures; the lack of outdoor facilities in Folkestone until the 2000s.
36:45 Richard said his strength as a player was rebounding and defense; the better players to come out of Folkestone, including Tim Lewis and Martin Clarke – ‘there was a lot of talent spread over a number of years’; Richard states Bob Ellis, who played in the seventies, was the Saints best player.
40:30 Joining the National League (Division 3) in the late 1970s, early-1980s, in the Southern Division; coaching until he retired in 2015; Richard’s proudest achievement – ‘Watching players join the club that hardly played, and then finishing playing good basketball, and enjoying themselves. The smile on their faces when they do something good is brilliant.’; Richard identifies the teams from the 1970s, when Pat Grove was coaching, at the Saints’ strongest.
43:50 Why basketball was Richard’s sport of choice – ‘It was a game I could play, I could compete…from start to finish it was enjoyable’; how Richard’s height was an advantage; how attendances at Saints’ games have typically been small, partly due to cost of providing seating/stands; the cost of referees, court hire, table staff, and the need for sponsorship – ‘it’s very difficult’.
48:00 How Richard filed match reports in the local paper every week, and the reaction to basketball in the town; how much of the club organisation and admin ‘fell down to a few…at one time I was the treasurer, chairman, secretary, coach, there’s no one else to do it so you do it…I didn’t find it hard work, I enjoyed it’; the difficulty of sourcing referees for matches; Richard was also instrumental to the organisation of the Kent League, sitting on its committee, and serving as its chairman in recent years; the composition of the Kent League.
53:20 How the women’s local league has waned - only fielding five teams in recent years - from its height in the 1970s/80s, when there was two divisions of ten teams; playing women in the men’s team when there wasn’t a women’s team – ‘they held their own’; coaching the women’s team, and the lack of girls’ basketball in local schools – ‘it’s whatever their teachers are good at really’.
59:00 The importance of playing in the National League for player development – ‘that’s when they started to learn…they had to learn by experience’; moreover, the importance of junior leagues for development – a luxury Richard did not have when he started playing.
1:01:50 How basketball coverage in the UK boosts local participation – Richard points to the importance of the Olympics in this regard; national players to have come out of Folkestone, including Francis Clarke (mother of Martin), with whom Richard used to train.
1:04:30 Fitting his basketball duties around his working life, which was most difficult when he worked as a postman (beginning in 1995); getting married in 1973 and having two children; how his son played a ‘little bit’ of basketball; moving from Folkestone to Dymchurch in 2014; being right-side disabled (following a stroke) and how this has limited his activity; staying in touch with teammates – ‘It was wonderful, we made friends for life, really have.’
1:09:00 The future of Saints basketball – ‘ there are a few things firstly: money, organisation, facilities…with luck it will still progress, we’ll unearth some more diamonds in the rough.’; the continued dominance of the Saints in the east Kent League; beating a team in the cup final by 98 points – ‘we had a strong team!’; rivalries within the east Kent League; Richard’s instrumental role with the team – ‘it had to be done’.
Interviewee: Richard Goss
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 24 July, 2020
Location: Interview recorded via telephone
0:00 Name, place and date of birth (Richard Goss; Gravesend, Kent; 1948); Richard lived in Gravesend for 16 years, before moving to Folkestone in August, 1965; Richard met Colin Amos, the secretary of Folkestone Saints basketball club, at the rock shop in Folkestone in September 1965 – Colin encouraged Richard to join the team; Richard began playing basketball at Collier Road Secondary School in Gravesend; despite basketball being a minority sport, he managed to play at lunchtime and after school, and there was a school team, too.
3:00 Richard’s parents ran a self-service shop in Gravesend, then took over a hotel in Folkestone – the Testwood Hotel (now flats) - prompting the family’s move; Richard left school at fifteen, and began work at his parent’s hotel, in the dining room – ‘it was great fun.’
7:10 Starting basketball in Folkestone, in practices run by the Saints’ team captain and coach (and co-founder), Dick Steptoe; Richard began playing at the Harvey Grammar, but the Saints first started playing at Hillside School, Dover Road – ‘back then, full size courts I could count them on one hand, in east Kent. They just weren’t around’; the club was officially founded in 1953; the few full size courts in the area included Shorncliffe Army Camp; the existence of outdoor courts in Dover, where they played official matches in the 1960s; the formation of the east Kent League in 1961/2, and the teams involved; other basketball provision in Kent at that time.
12:40 The state of basketball in Folkestone when Richard joined the Saints in 1965 – there were two teams in the town at the time, the Saints and the Red Devils; the origin of the name ‘Saints’ (Dick Steptoe liked the song, ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’; the experience of going straight from school basketball, aged 16, to the men’s league (there was no junior basketball at the time) – ‘it was a problem!’; playing with a 30-second shot clock, and without a three-point line.
15:45 The success of the team when Richard first joined, including winning the East Kent Cup in 1967; being one of the younger players on the team; the social life around the team – ‘we went to the pub, Lifeboat Pub, after the games and played darts, it was every Monday and Tuesday we went, that’s what we did…it was a great social life then, lovely’; how the social life around the club diminished in the 2000s.
18:05 The state of the court at Harvey Grammar School – ‘it’s very small, just over the size of the badminton court…you couldn’t take a long shot…because the bars where in the way’; moving to Folkestone Sports Centre when it opened – ‘it was like a wonderland…a step-up’; how the style of basketball changed with the size of the court, how the team had to adapt to opposing team’s court; Richard describes the court at FCC –‘lovely rubber floor, the first we found like that’ – and how the FCC was, and still is, the best one around.
21:40 The Saints ran two teams when Richard first started in 1965; this rose to four teams at its height, in the 1970s/80s, including two women’s teams; moving to the sports centre in 1972; the tremendous success of the women’s teams (the Phantoms) in the 1970s – ‘they were quite some side’;
25:00 The influence of American and European basketball in the early seventies, and the lack of access to it at that time; leaving the hotel in 1975 to work in a shop in Folkestone, before beginning a job selling fire extinguishers on the road; Richard’s parents sold the hotel in Folkestone in 1977 to run a restaurant in Hythe.
29:55 Basketball equipment in the 1970s – ‘It was difficult, you could only buy certain things’; Richard remained with the Saints in various capacities for fifty years; he stopped playing in the eighties (in his late 30s) and began coaching when the previous coach, Pat Grove, died – ‘I stepped up and did it, and kept on doing it’; Pat Grove’s involvement with the team.
34:00 The popularity of the sport in Folkestone in the eighties – ‘at one time we had sixty players at training, quite a lot’ – and fielding four teams in response to this; why interest exploded in the eighties, including increased media interest and encouragement from local figures; the lack of outdoor facilities in Folkestone until the 2000s.
36:45 Richard said his strength as a player was rebounding and defense; the better players to come out of Folkestone, including Tim Lewis and Martin Clarke – ‘there was a lot of talent spread over a number of years’; Richard states Bob Ellis, who played in the seventies, was the Saints best player.
40:30 Joining the National League (Division 3) in the late 1970s, early-1980s, in the Southern Division; coaching until he retired in 2015; Richard’s proudest achievement – ‘Watching players join the club that hardly played, and then finishing playing good basketball, and enjoying themselves. The smile on their faces when they do something good is brilliant.’; Richard identifies the teams from the 1970s, when Pat Grove was coaching, at the Saints’ strongest.
43:50 Why basketball was Richard’s sport of choice – ‘It was a game I could play, I could compete…from start to finish it was enjoyable’; how Richard’s height was an advantage; how attendances at Saints’ games have typically been small, partly due to cost of providing seating/stands; the cost of referees, court hire, table staff, and the need for sponsorship – ‘it’s very difficult’.
48:00 How Richard filed match reports in the local paper every week, and the reaction to basketball in the town; how much of the club organisation and admin ‘fell down to a few…at one time I was the treasurer, chairman, secretary, coach, there’s no one else to do it so you do it…I didn’t find it hard work, I enjoyed it’; the difficulty of sourcing referees for matches; Richard was also instrumental to the organisation of the Kent League, sitting on its committee, and serving as its chairman in recent years; the composition of the Kent League.
53:20 How the women’s local league has waned - only fielding five teams in recent years - from its height in the 1970s/80s, when there was two divisions of ten teams; playing women in the men’s team when there wasn’t a women’s team – ‘they held their own’; coaching the women’s team, and the lack of girls’ basketball in local schools – ‘it’s whatever their teachers are good at really’.
59:00 The importance of playing in the National League for player development – ‘that’s when they started to learn…they had to learn by experience’; moreover, the importance of junior leagues for development – a luxury Richard did not have when he started playing.
1:01:50 How basketball coverage in the UK boosts local participation – Richard points to the importance of the Olympics in this regard; national players to have come out of Folkestone, including Francis Clarke (mother of Martin), with whom Richard used to train.
1:04:30 Fitting his basketball duties around his working life, which was most difficult when he worked as a postman (beginning in 1995); getting married in 1973 and having two children; how his son played a ‘little bit’ of basketball; moving from Folkestone to Dymchurch in 2014; being right-side disabled (following a stroke) and how this has limited his activity; staying in touch with teammates – ‘It was wonderful, we made friends for life, really have.’
1:09:00 The future of Saints basketball – ‘ there are a few things firstly: money, organisation, facilities…with luck it will still progress, we’ll unearth some more diamonds in the rough.’; the continued dominance of the Saints in the east Kent League; beating a team in the cup final by 98 points – ‘we had a strong team!’; rivalries within the east Kent League; Richard’s instrumental role with the team – ‘it had to be done’.