Arthur Herring: A reflection on my sporting achievements at the age of 86

My name is Arthur Herring and I am 86 years old. I’ve been profoundly deaf since the age of five (I was born hearing) and I don’t wear any hearing aids. This article is about my achievements in my life so far, notably in sports.

An interesting fact about me to begin with is how my residential school for the Deaf – East Anglian School for the Deaf – was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War and after the war I returned to school at the age of 12 after having spent 6 years in Wales without seeing my family.

It was actually at school that my Headmaster noticed my gift for good ball skills while I was playing football on the field with my Deaf friends. At the age of 13 he picked me for the football team and this is how my love of sport started and football has continued to be my favourite.

At 14, I was the only junior selected for the sports day trial for athletics against adults – who I liked to call, ‘the big boys!’ They were a mixture of Deaf and Visually Impaired athletes and I am pleased to say I won the 100 yards, 200 yards, 400 yards, High Jump and Long Jump and was awarded a medal which I still have today.

Then I was the only Deaf athlete picked to compete in the 1500m at Great Yarmouth Football Club. I never trained for the event or had any proper running trainers. I had to compete in tennis shoes and came 2nd against 15 hearing opponents.

I continued to play sport all my life with a mixture of Deaf and Hearing sportsmen and excelled in many with my Deafness never being a barrier.

I set up a Deaf football team for the Norfolk and Norwich Deaf Social Club as their Secretary and Captain. We competed in local leagues until many of us felt too old to play at that level and the club folded when Norwich City FC were promoted to top flight football as many of us wanted to watch the matches against their new opponents like Man Utd and Liverpool.

I also represented the Norfolk and Norwich Deaf Social Club at Table Tennis for 40 years ranking 4th out of 40 hearing players across Norfolk. I competed in a table tennis tournament for fun whilst on holiday at Skegness and beat all the hearing holidaymakers to win another weeks holiday at Caister-on-Sea.
Between the ages of 40 and 55 I even played tennis age for my local hearing club and won Deaf Wimbledon twice!

In 1965 I began water skiing with the Bluebird Deaf Water Ski Club and was also part of the support crew when we took two boats for the Cross Channel Water Ski race in 1977 and 1978.

I was Chairman of the East Anglian Deaf Sea Angling club and competed in many competitions from the local beaches and at sea from fishing boats.

I am still involved in sports now and play bowls for 2 hearing clubs at league level. I have represented Norfolk over 60s and at a Deaf tournament at Clacton-on-Sea I beat 2 players twice who play for the England Deaf Bowls Team. In a Triples short mat tournament of over 200 hearing entries in London, I played with a hearing couple from my team and as we were unbeaten at every round we won the Silver Plate.

I am also currently Vice President of the East Anglian Deaf Sports Council and my wife and I were VIPs at their 60th anniversary where I was presented with a commemorative plate. I was the EADSC Representative for Norwich Deaf Club for 25 years.

I aspire to continue to play bowls for as long as I can. My message to deaf children is to not let deafness hold you back. If you want to do something then you should put your mind to it and do it.

Translated from BSL to English by Sue Herring, Arthur’s daughter.

Many congratulations to Arthur on all of his achievements, from all at The Limping Chicken!