The ice dance coach Betty Callaway might never have ventured inside an ice rink if she had been allowed to follow her original dream of becoming a ballet dancer. But when the Royal Ballet School turned her down because she was too tall, the 16-year-old convent girl decided to try ice skating, and became hooked following her first visit to Queens Ice Rink in London.
Within a few months her passion for the sport was so great that she walked out of school, and headed north to join the Blackpool Ice Show. She did not want to be a show girl, but yearned to one day teach and thought that two years in a show would give her some experience that she could pass on to others. Her parents were less than pleased, not least because they had paid her school fees in advance, and she was supposed to stay there until she turned 18. But there was nothing they could do to change her mind, and she joined the chorus of the show.
Betty Roberts — as she then was — remained in Blackpool for five seasons, progressing to a lead role and marrying principal skater Roy Callaway in 1948. Together they enjoyed skating for audiences in Blackpool, although they had a setback when they awoke one morning to discover that the ice rink had burnt down during the night.
After leaving Blackpool, Callaway and her husband took up teaching positions at Richmond Ice Rink in Twickenham, with Betty declaring: “If we can earn £20 a week between us we’re made,” She took skating tests to improve her coaching credentials and passed her gold medal in 1953. Callaway remained at Richmond for 19 years and her pupils included Princess Anne, who took lessons for three winters, Prince Charles and Viscount Linley.
Meanwhile, Callaway’s competitive ice dancers were progressing well, with Britons Yvonne Suddick and Roger Kennerson, whom she coached with her husband, winning bronze at their first European championship in 1964. That medal was particularly satisfying for Callaway who had taught Kennerson since he was a young boy in her Saturday morning children’s class.
Advertisement
Callaway’s next skating position saw her based overseas as national trainer to West German skaters. Her pupils Angelika and Erich Buck won the 1972 European title and world championship silver medal, and eight years later — after Callaway had returned to Britain to coach — her Hungarian pupils Krisztina Regoeczy and Andras Sallay, took silver at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games and won the world title a few weeks later.
During the 1970s, while Callaway was coaching Regoeczy and Sallay, a young British couple from Nottingham caught her eye. Their names were Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and she remarked to the Hungarians: “I think they’ve got something.” In 1978 Torvill and Dean asked Callaway to coach them and she agreed, believing that the Hungarians were retiring. However, that was not the case and, not wanting to let either couple down, she worked with both couples until the 1980 world championships, after which the victorious Hungarians retired from competition. The up and coming Torvill and Dean finished fourth.
Without doubt Callaway’s collaboration with Torvill and Dean was her most successful. Under her tutelage the couple won not only Olympic gold in Sarajevo in 1984, when 20 million Britons saw their Bolero dance achieve maximum points, but were also crowned European champions in 1981, 1982 and 1984, and won the world title four times — from 1981 to 1984 — with routines that were often awarded perfect scores.
She worked tirelessly on the technical and artistic aspects of their skating, ensuring that they reached as near to perfection as possible, althought it was the couple themselves who choreographed their medalwinning routines.
Callaway was also involved with their return to competition in 1994, when they won the European title, and finished third at the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. She also coached Marika Humphreys, who won five British titles with three different partners, and represented Great Britain at a number of European and world championships, and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
Advertisement
Known for her quiet but firm teaching methods, Callaway was always able to remain calm during stressful competitive environments, while her success both with Britons and skaters from overseas saw her receive a number of awards for coaching. She was also appointed MBE.
She always spoke highly of all her pupils, saying that she had been very lucky to work with nice people who gave her such pleasure. But the many skaters she taught claim that they were the lucky ones.
Callaway’s marriage to Roy lasted for 27 years and after they divorced she married Bill Fittall, a British Airways captain, but was later widowed. She was re-united with Roy and they re-married. There were no children.
Despite not being an active coach in recent years, Callaway remained in close contact with her many friends from the skating world, hosting a barbeque at her home in Buckinghamshire every summer.
She continued as president of the British Ice Teachers Association and enjoyed watching skating competitions from around the world on television, keeping up to date with the sport to which she gave so much.
Advertisement
She is survived by her husband Roy.
Betty Callaway, MBE, ice skating coach, was born on March 22, 1928. She died on June 27, 2011, aged 83