The over-60s skaters chasing every UK ice rink

A group of ice skaters aged 60 to 78 from Slough are working their way around every ice rink in the UK – all having taken up the sport later in life.

Girls on Tour, made up of Deena Burgess, Delya Cowell, Sue Holloway, Anne Diamond, Janet Nooney and Rose Strachan, have visited 23 ice rinks so far, with 28 to go. Between their touring adventures, they still meet every Thursday for their class at Slough Ice Rink in Berkshire.

Anne Diamond, 73, from Bracknell, joined the British Ice Skating learn to skate programme when she was 50 as part of her birthday bucket list. The group decided to take on the touring challenge over a coffee in 2023.

"It's such a sociable thing to do, and you just make friends so easily at the rinks," Diamond says.

Janet Nooney, 66, also from Bracknell, started skating at 49. "It's just about being brave," she says. "It's also the inner child in you – things you wish you had done as a kid, and you didn't get a chance."

The skaters say the sport has helped them break out of isolation and form friendships later in life.

Gilbert