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Personal Background
Early Days
Dawn Started skating
on her 11th birthday February 3rd 1975 under the wing of coach
Pauline Lister at the Cosford roller skating club in Cosford, near
Wolverhampton.
Within four years Dawn was competing at senior level and had passed her inter-gold figure
skating test and a year later the inter-gold free skating test.
In the Family
Dawn's mother Mary was also quite a keen skater. The picture on the
right is a treasured family photograph of Mary Noad, as she was
then.
This photograph of Mary would have been taken around 1945 when she was about 11 or 12
years. In later years she signed the photograph making it all the more special.
When Dawn was 13 Pauline put her in for her
inter-silver figure and free skating tests, which she
passed. Unfortunately joy was short lived. A few days later her mother was diagnosed as having
Leukemia and died 3 weeks later at the age of 42.
This was a terrible blow to the whole
family. Dawn found much support from her coach and friends at
the rink which became her "skating family" and was able to
continue with her skating.
 One
of those friends was Paul McIlhone, six times British Figure, Free and
combined champion, one of British roller skating's star performers.
The photograph on the left is Paul in the late 1970's. Paul is now
a professional coach.
Competitions
Dawn's own skating career is reminiscent of
a rising star. Unfortunately events don't always reflect
this.
At the time Dawn competed all the girls and boys competed against each
other. Added to which the figure and free skating events were not
recognised as separate events. Only when they competed in the
National Senior Championships did this alter. This gave all skaters a distinct disadvantage as
developing girl and boy skaters have different strengths. Dawn
often played second fiddle to the top boys of the day.
Dawn's first major event was in 1976, the Novice Championships, where she
placed third. The next year she placed third in the Junior Championships
and Northern Intermediate Figure and Free Skating Competition.
In 1978 she was preparing for her début
in the following years
Senior Championships and competed in the Senior Silver
Competition and came fourth.
She attended the international training seminar in the spring of 1979 in
Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany. She trained with skaters like the reigning
world champion Natalie Dunn, European Champion Joanne Young and Men's
world and European champion Tommy Schnider. Dawn was taught by some
of the top international trainers of the day, German national coach Gunter
Köch, and other trainers from Germany, Frans Perringer, former world
champion Michael O'Brecht and Ingrid Barder.
Finally back home competing only against other women in 1979's Senior British,
that summer, she
received the bronze medal for figures and narrowly missed the bronze in
the free. This left her fourth in the combined.
Champion in the Making?
Training took on a new meaning for the
next season when the news was confirmed that reigning champion for the
past four years, Julie Hopkins (now Hicks) was retiring.
This left Dawn and
her main rival Karen Jones to go head to head in the 1980 British.
By now Dawn was already famous for what
had been dubbed the "Harrison Ball Spin". She performed
a back inside sit spin and curled up so her head and free leg were
tucked in, giving the impression of a furiously spinning ball. The
picture on the right shows the position but not the speed!
Pauline Lister though it would be good experience for Dawn to compete
in the 1980 Welsh National Championships, which was just over a month
before the British. It was a good day for Dawn she won the Welsh
National championships title beating her nearest rival Karen.
This was just the boost Dawn needed. It seemed the possibility of
her fulfilling her ambition and winning the British Senior Championships
may become a reality.
Sadly it was never to be. Two weeks before the British, while getting
ready to leave home Dawn slipped at the top of the stairs at home and
fell. The injuries she sustained, a fracture to the ball of the
foot, not only prevented her from competing in the British that year,
they ruined any chance of her ever competing again. It was the end
of a very promising competitive career.
Coaching
In 1983, finally recovered
from her injujry, Dawn moved to East Anglia and began her professional
coaching career at the National Roller Skating Centre, Rollerbury in Bury
St. Edmunds. Dawn worked at both Rollerbury until it closed on 17
June 2001, and at Solar
Skate in Norwich since 1992 at which she is now based. She
has enjoyed much success over the years, including the current (2000/2001)
men's Figure/Free and Combined champion, Neil Emms. Neil has been a pupil
of Dawns from a young age, read Neil's story.
You can also see more about Dawn's skaters,
past and present.
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