The Jacques Paloumé Festival

Three clubs, one festival

1950 first festival at East Grinstead · 1951 first in Rouen · 1952 not held · 1956 Flottbek join, in Rouen · Whitsun 1959 first festival in Hamburg

Hamburg, 17 May 1959 — the three founders: Hans Borkmann of Grossflottbeker HC, Dennis Leman of East Grinstead and Jacques Paloumé of Rouen.

East Grinstead, 1950s — Dennis Leman, Charles Veber, Roger Stampowski, Patrice Hazard, not known, Jacques Paloumé, Arthur Ormsby and Mike Dickson. Photo: East Grinstead Courier.

Rouen, Easter 1954 — an East Grinstead festival XI, from Robin and Yvonne Kennard's collection.

In 1950 Dieppe came to East Grinstead as guests, bringing with them some players from the Hockey Club de Rouen, including Jacques Paloumé. The same year Dennis Leman joined EGHC. The two found they had much in common and formed a firm and enduring friendship, and Rouen invited East Grinstead to Rouen in 1951. From then on East Grinstead took part in an Easter festival every year except 1952.

Hamburg arrived by a roundabout route. In 1951 a Rouen schoolboy, Jean-Claude Beaurepaire, spent three months in Hamburg on an exchange with the family of Hans Borkmann of Grossflottbek, who enlisted him, a footballer, in his hockey team. A few years later Hans's first team wanted an Easter tournament; Jean-Claude asked Rouen, and Jacques, then President, agreed. The painful memories of the war were still vivid, yet the two became close at once. “We were 23,” Hans recalled. “The English and French saw that we know how to play, and they found us sympathetic.” East Grinstead first met Flottbek in Rouen in 1956 and again in 1958.

In 1959 Flottbek came to East Grinstead for the first time, “one very pleasant precedent,” noted EGHC President John Howeson, and at the end of the festival they invited both clubs to Hamburg for Whitsun. The East Grinstead party flew in a chartered plane from Southend, arriving in the early hours, and most were seeing Germany for the first time; they were amazed at the devastation that still remained. It was a most enjoyable festival, even if Tom Buckley's wallet vanished in the Zillertal beer hall on the Reeperbahn. From that year the three clubs took it in turns to host.

At home East Grinstead still played at the Cricket Club's West Street ground, where Grantland Rice's words were painted above the pavilion door: “He marks — not that you won or lost — but how you played the Game.” Seeing Rouen's own pitch and clubhouse on visits in 1951, 1954, 1956 and 1958 convinced the club it needed a ground of its own, and with a bank balance of only £27 it bought the land at Saint Hill, with Dennis Leman providing the £1,750 for it.