Alice Smith
Fast facts:
Born: 4th Nov 1935, Durham City
Lived: Durham ice rink
First skated: Age 4
Awards: N.S.A. Gold
Titles: 10 x Durham (Ladies’) Champion 1946-1955, British Junior Pairs’ Champion 1953, Laughton (Birmingham) Trophy 1953, Northern and Midland Counties Amateur Pairs’ Champion
Skating partner: Joe Dixon
Alice Maria Smith, the first grand-child of ‘Icy’, was born to John James Smith and his wife, (also Alice) on 4 November 1935 at Durham.
By the time the original temporary ice rink was opened in 1940, she was four years old and under the tutelage of her esteemed grandfather, took to the art of skating like a duck to water.
Growing up at the early rink, (quite literally) “Little Alice” became a popular figure among the rink’s patrons, and would regularly be engaged in “rattling the collection tin” for good causes including the Red Cross, Durham County Hospital, where she was adopted as the hospital mascot and proudly presented to The Princess Royal on HRH’s visit to the city in 1942.
In 1943, the National Skating Association held their first tests in Figure Skating and Ice Dancing at Durham. Naturally, first to pass was “Little Alice”, aged 7 in her preliminary figures and bronze dance tests. Sadly scuppered from witnessing the landmark occasion due to being bedridden with a broken leg, her Grandfather,Alderman Smith nevertheless insisted on having a telephone and line kept open by his bedside so that he could listen to a running commentary on candidates’ progress.
Happily, grandfather and grand-daughter were able to skate together in the following year’s tests, as 60-year-old Icy caught up with his eight year old protege by passing his own Bronze Dance assessment; while Alice added a Bronze Figures’ test medal to her own remarkable achievements.
At the tender age of 11, in 1946, Alice became the Durham Free Skating Champion for the first time. It would be a title that she would hold consecutively over an unbeaten 10 year period.
Two years later, as the youngest competitor by far, she competed in the British Junior Free Skating Championship at Richmond, and finished in a respectable eighth place. Incidentally, Alice’s future pairs-skating partner, Joe Dixon, also a prolific Durham skater, won the British Mens’ title in the very same competition.
By this point, the Smith family had successfully built and opened the second iteration of Durham ice rink - and one which was built for hosting ice hockey, but also grand-scale ice shows.In 1949 and 1950, the rink hosted two of these large scale theatrical productions, ‘Ice Capers’ in the summer of 1949, followed by ‘Ice Spice’ the following Christmas. Alongside an impressive cast, Alice performed in both productions as part of an ice ballet performance and alongside Durham skating coach Adolf Schima as “La poupée” (The doll) at the age of 14.
At 16, Alice made the switch to pairs skating, teaming up with fellow Durham champion Joe Dixon, seven years her senior. A lorry driver by trade, Dixon had also learnt to skate at the rink from day one. In their first competitive performance together, at the Northern and Midland Counties Championships held at Durham in 1952, the couple placed a credible third, behind skaters from Birmingham and Manchester.
A month later, they were set to skate in the Northern ice skating championships in Manchester. But the new partnership had hit a problem: despite playing over 50 records to base their routine one, neither could agree. Two days before the competition, after returning shopping trip to Newcastle to purchase some last-minute options on vinyl, Grandfather ‘Icy’ perused the collection, picked out Harry Davidson’s “On Leave” foxtrot and helpfully suggested “This one?” After trying it out on the rink, the couple immediately decided that it was the ideal number
.With musical differences resolved, the pair, now challenging for national honours hit another snag in December of 1952. While training 12 hours weekly for the 1953 junior pairs championship which was to be held in Nottingham the following March, the ‘wrong kind of ice’ resulted in disaster. But not on the rink - outside of it. After training, Joe had been pushing his car to free it on the icy snow-bound road outside the rink however he slipped in the process and the car rolled back down the incline, crushing his heel.
A subsequent x-ray revealed no broken bones however it put Joe’s and Alice’s prospects of winning the title at their second attempt in serious doubt.
Fortune however, was to shine on the Durham skaters’. By February 1953, the pair were back in a position to perform a skating exhibition infront of 5000 hockey fans, (plus cine-film cameras) at a Wasps v England game at the Durham rink, and the following month they finally achieved their goal by lifting the British Junior Pairs title at the old Parliament Street rink Nottingham.
This was followed by a “Laughton Trophy” in a second pairs competition in Birmingham just three weeks later.
As Alice and Joe’s partnership on the ice flourished, another freak accident off the rink threatened to put everything on hold once again. While working in the rink office during a Wasps game that October, Alice caught her thumb in the heavy safe door—severing the tip instantly.
Despite the injury, she remained undeterred. Just two months later, she and Joe competed at the National Championships in Streatham, London, skating in front of a crowd of 5,000. They claimed second place on the podium, narrowly beaten by Joan Higson and Robert Hudson of Liverpool. The pair would return to the same competition in 1954.
By 1955, Alice, now 19, took on the role of ‘artistic captain’ at Durham Ice Skating Club. Her leadership had an immediate impact, boosting membership from just 30 skaters to well over 100.
That year, Alice also competed in Nottingham—this time without Joe—finishing as runner-up in the women’s amateur free skating competition. Fellow Durham skater June Markham also secured a second-place finish in ice dancing at the same event.
Alice and Joe’s second major trophy finally came in 1956—but it almost didn’t happen. With the Northern and Midland Counties Amateur Championships set to take place at Durham’s ‘sister’ rink in Whitley Bay that April, the pair only decided to enter two days before the event.
It proved to be the right decision. After years of near misses, they finally captured the pairs' trophy they had long been chasing.
At 21 and now an N.S.A. gold medalist, Alice transitioned from competitive skating to coaching, teaching and judging at the Durham rink. Six years later, one skating-pupil would walk through the ice rink doors for a lesson—unaware that he would soon become her husband.
In September 1963, manager of a 300 acre farm estate, Ian Houldon had initially taken his younger brother Gordon for a lesson, but ended up himself being tutored by his future bride-to-be.
Speaking of their first meeting, he said: “I bought some skates from Alice who was serving in the rink shop and I have carried on skating ever since. But you might say it cost me £8 to meet her” he quipped.
Their marriage was arranged to take place in October 1964. But not only did the bride nearly ‘not make it to the church on time’, she almost didn’t make it at all - due to a nightmare combination of flu, a swollen jaw and toothache. The short drive to St. Godric’s church from the family home in the ice rink was the bride’s first outing in 10 days barring an emergency trip to the dentist.
Speaking to the local press, who described the occasion as ‘Durham’s wedding of the year’, Alice said: “I have had a bad time of it, but I am feeling much better today. I really thought I would have to call the whole thing off but my family have rallied round…”
The wedding itself was indeed very much a family affair, with Alice’s brother, Father Peter Smith conducting the ceremony and other brothers, sisters nephews and nieces taking roles in the proceedings, including a very young Paul Smith as an attendant’.
Alice passed away in 1987 in Essex at the young age of 51. Her skating legacy at Durham lived on, however, and she was always fondly remembered as the popular “10-times-Durham-champion” and an outstanding figure skater.
