50 years of skill and speed at The Rink

The artistic, speed, and roller hockey skaters at the Wanganui Amatuer Roller Skate Club's 50th anniversary at The Rink on Saturday.

Some slap goals, others rush for speed, and others display graceful poise, but they all got their start on roller skates inside The Rink.

The Wanganui Amateur Roller Skate Club celebrated 50 years of being at their home on Hatrick St with an afternoon of festivities.

Ironically with extra participants, both new club members and old, they had to start at Jubilee Stadium to have enough room to showcase all facets of the club - with artistic skating, speed skating, and some roller derby.

"Everyone was able to take part in something they wouldn't normally do," said club spokesman Dave Dench.

From there, the action moved back to The Rink, where the roller hockey players, many of them New Zealand youth representatives, had a warmup game, which was followed by a pick-up match with the club's top players.

This was followed by a barbecue dinner, which included a 'fashion show' presentation where members display some of the old roller skating outfits which were worn as far back as the 1970's.

Dench estimated that hundreds of skaters would have come through the small, tight knit club in the previous five decades.

They have punched above their weight, as 15 of them went to Australia to compete in New Zealand junior, senior and veteran teams in the 2015 Trans-Tasman series.

The artistic skating side of the club has crown under the watchful eye of coach Hannah Smith, while Gary Clark has helped many speed skaters to national success, and only the night before the anniversary he was accepting the Masters prize on behalf of Krystine Davies at the 2017 Ray White Whanganui Sports Awards.

Davies was the world champion in her masters ladies grade at the world marathon championships over 42km at L'Aquila in Italy on May 28.