Cobourg

In the 19th and early 20th centuries in Cobourg tennis was played by the well to do people. The working class had neither the time nor the money to participate. Tennis was played on grass. The dress code was white for men and long dresses for women. One of the first games of tennis actually recorded in Cobourg was in 1879 on Colonel Chambliss’ grass courts located on Green Street. Don Armour and Jack Cruso were the singles players.

Private courts were also located on the ‘Lawn’ at the southwest corner of Queen and Henry St. There were also two on St Peter’s Church property east of the church. In the west end of Cobourg, the Fullerton’s had lighted courts at their Bagot Street residence.

At the beginning of the 20th Century there was a growing demand for public courts. So in 1910 the Town Council committed to putting in two lighted clay courts in Victoria Park. They would be just west of the lawn bowling club and in the vicinity of the cenotaph.

This dramatically increased interest and participation in the game. A tennis club was formed and Cobourg participated in the Lakeshore League with Port Hope, Bowmanville and Peterborough. There were upwards of 50 active and enthusiastic members.

Theses courts remained the center of tennis in Cobourg until the arrival of Hurricane Hazel in 1954 which caused extensive damage to the courts. It was decided the cost of restoring the courts was too prohibitive and the courts ceased to exist and never returned to the park.

Players of note during the latter part of its existence included such notables at Paul Leonard, Del Dillon and Sol Margles. Of particular interest was Jim Burnett who, in one year won the Junior championship and the Senior one as well. Quite a feat!

Tennis went into the doldrums for a period. Players gravitated to the Port Hope Club to play and to the private clubs around the Town. In 1959 Major Ernie Carey and Major Waters had courts put in at the Army Depot on D’Arcy Street. The Depot raised funds to have the courts paved. The first indoor court in Cobourg also on Depot property in 1960 was a converted shipping bay. In 1959 St Michael’s Church constructed two new permanent tennis courts on its asphalt school yard. But they had limited success in keeping tennis alive in the Town.

It was not until the Rotary Club of Cobourg under Ted Prosser proposed to build and pay for three lighted courts at Sinclair Park in 1972 that interest came back. The cost was $30,000. Both the West and East Collegiates put in courts and Jim Burnett put up a trophy for annual competition between the two schools. Of note, the Burnett trophy was won by Peter Cameron for three consecutive years. No other student has ever done this.

The Cobourg Tennis Club had re-formed in 1969. Club teams competed in the Lakeshore League which included five other centers. In 1971 the first Cobourg Tennis Open took place with over 250 participants including the Ontario Men’s Champion.

In 1976 the Rotary Club of Cobourg fundraised another $30,000 to build three more courts in Coverdale Park in Hamilton Township, just east of Cobourg. The President that year was M.A. McLeod and the building was done in conjunction with Wintario Lotteries. The Coverdale Athletic Association was formed to supervise all activities. Membership was 150. The building of all these courts stimulated a golden age for tennis in the Town.

Today tennis continues to prosper at the two parks. New members are always welcome.

As a footnote to the tennis history is the success story of Michelle Tuma. She is a local young lady who graduated from St Mary’s High School. Michelle learned to play tennis in the community and went on to play at Ohio Northern University on a tennis scholarship. While there she held the number one tennis position in both singles and doubles. She is now a pharmacist practicing in the United States.

At the 2019 COSSA regional tennis championships finishing in top 3 were: Girls Singles – Chloe Leguard of CCI; Girls Doubles – Brooke Hoskin/Ashley Landsley of CCI; Boys Singles – Matt Enns of St Mary’s; Boys Doubles – Lewis Odurny/Ethan Fishlock of St Mary’s; Mixed Doubles – Neve Lehtinen/Jamie Slessor of St Mary’s.

Updated August 2020

Layton Dodge Loved His Home Town, Sports

By Cecilia Nasmith Dec 10, 2013 Northumberland Today

Layton Dodge's chair at Sommerville's is empty.
Dave Sommerville, owner of the downtown Cobourg sporting goods store, has been reflecting on what to do with it since hearing of Dodge's passing on Sunday.

Since his retirement as Cobourg's premier sports reporter, Dodge has been a regular in the store, taking the chair Sommerville's father Clarke used to occupy. It started out as a chance to enlist the Sommervilles' help in identifying the rafts of old sports photos he was giving away, and evolved into one of his favourite places just to hang out and visit with people.

Sommerville was one of those legions of Cobourg kids who grew up looking forward to the Wednesday paper because of Dodge.

"We ran home, grabbed the paper and opened it to the sports page to see if our name was there," he recalled.
Born March 14, 1937 to parents William and Kathleen, Layton Dodge grew up in Cobourg and attended Cobourg District Collegiate Institute (currently CDCI West) when it was the only high school in town. He went directly from high school to working for the Cobourg Sentinel Star, a precursor of Northumberland Today, his friend Rosie Bateman said.

By virtue of his life-long attachment to his home town, Bateman added, he always had a story to share — such as the fact that Col. Gordon King, after whom the library is named, was his Latin teacher.

Retired councilor Bob Spooner first encountered Dodge as a reader. He had been involved in sports reporting himself before he and his wife began looking to move to Cobourg in 1970. They picked up a copy of what was then the weekly Cobourg paper and, turning to the sports page, Spooner recalled, thinking, "Whoever is writing this is really doing the community a service."

Little kids hitting a home run, young goalies making a save, minor athletes who might never rate a mention in a bigger paper had their names there in print, Spooner said. "I thought, 'I have to meet this guy, because he writes so honestly and his information is really accurate.'"

That winter, Spooner got his chance when he began coaching minor hockey. They became instant friends, he reported.
Doing play-by-play hockey coverage for the local radio station in 1972, Spooner often met up with Dodge. Together, they broke down the barrier between print and electronic media when Dodge began doing occasional guest commentary.

"The public liked his analysis, his accuracy, his honesty. He never had a bias if he liked a coach or a player from the other team," Spooner said.

Longtime close friend Rod Baker remembers Dodge's support of the Cobourg Cougars Junior A hockey group, as well as for the young people in town. He remembers how much Dodge contributed to his own three children's lives when they were growing up in Cobourg through his work at the home-town newspaper.

"I think he was one of the best sports writers in this area and could have gone further. But he was very happy in Cobourg," Baker said.

"Layton was probably the biggest promoter of a lot of good athletes in Cobourg, but he would always find a way to get the average athlete — the kid who would never get noticed — to get his name in the paper if they had a good hockey game or made a good catch playing ball. He made the average athlete important. He had an uncanny way of doing that," Sommerville said.

He was also impressed with the range of sports his friend covered.
"If it was out there, he covered it," Sommerville stated.

Dodge would even hold off on his summer holidays so as not to miss covering the giant annual ball tournament in Grafton, where he would help with the announcing or do whatever else they needed.
"The only way you knew Layton was on vacation is, there was no sports in the paper. He would still be at all the games, but no sports in the paper.

"Cobourg has been so fortunate to have someone who cared so passionately about the town, so passionately about the youth of the town, and he showed it in many different forms," Sommerville said.

A modest individual, Dodge made substantial donations to organizations but also made the quieter substantial donations — paying for the high school wrestling tournament, for example, or even making significant contributions to the university and college educations of young people in need.

"He did so many things for so many people behind the scenes, the stories could be endless," Sommerville said.
A few years before Dodge was forced to retire earlier than he perhaps would have liked for health reasons, the editor combed old newspapers for a compilation of his best work for a book that was titled Spotlight On Sports.

A later publisher, Darren Murphy, found that Dodge remained deeply involved in the newspaper regardless.
“He would stop by regularly with some kind of a news tip or just to say hello to everyone," said Murphy, who is now publisher and regional advertising director of Eastern Ontario for Sun Media.

"He had a way of brightening up the entire building when he entered, and his contributions to the Cobourg sports community will never be forgotten.”

Cobourg Mayor Gil Brocanier said Dodge was an icon in the town.
"For so many years, he gave so much to so many people," Brocanier said.
"It's incredible, the work he did and the way he made so many young people growing up in Cobourg playing all sports feel important. He made it his mission to give almost every athlete — regardless of the level they were playing in — he made every effort to give them their 15 minutes of fame by mentioning them or something they had done in a particular game.

"It's a terrible loss to the sports community, and the community as a whole," the mayor stated.
"What really makes me happy is that he lived long enough to see the new sports complex," Spooner said.

As council's parks and recreation head during the project, he recalls how thrilled Dodge was with news of the facility and how he supported it with a donation that paid for the press box.

The Layton Dodge Press Box is the second town amenity that bears his name. Spooner recalls sitting down with the parks and recreation advisory committee prior to the opening of Legion Fields in July 1996 to name the three diamonds.

"The first name that cropped up for one of the diamonds was Layton Dodge," Spooner said.

In the end, the vote was unanimous to name the diamonds after Dodge, Clarke Sommerville and Jack Bevan.
Dodge will be missed very much, Bateman said. "I know how devoted he was to the youth of the town, and sport and the community. I think his legacy is that he inspired the youth of our town to be the best they could be in sports, and in life in general," she stated.

From seeing his friend spend so many pleasant days in that special chair in his store, Sommerville would characterize Dodge as the voice of reason.

"He could always find some middle ground and come up with a logical and reasonable solution. It's something I saw a lot of times that I found fascinating. He would sit back and watch it all and, in a heartbeat, come up with the right answer," he said.

Fairness extended to his sports coverage, which would occasionally single out a visiting player from a big city like Toronto. If a friend or relative sent a clipping to the young player, Sommerville said he would get a call to ask for 15 more copies, because that player would never get that kind of recognition in a bigger community.

And when a local player deserved a wake-up call or a slap on the wrist for any reason, Sommerville added, Dodge could deliver it in such a way that the player would remain on friendly terms with him afterwards.

"I think that gift was born out of his love for the community," he said.
In the end, he said, Dodge earned a singular honour — being known by a single name.

"In Cobourg, everybody knows Layton. It doesn't matter if you're 12 or 100, everybody knows Layton as Layton — or, in our case, Scoop. Nobody asks about Layton Dodge. It's Layton or Scoop. I think, over the course of time, with everything he's done for this community, he has gained that kind of recognition," Sommerville said.

"He deeply loved his mother and his family. He deeply loved Cobourg — the sports community and Cobourg in general.
"His legacy will live on and on and on, not only as a sports writer and member of the community, but also as a human being. There are not many people like Layton."

At Dodge's request, there will be a private graveside service at Cobourg Union Cemetery. A funeral service will be held in Trinity United Church Thursday at 1 p.m., and a celebration of his life will be held at the Cobourg Community Centre at a later date.

Reviewed August 2020

By Jack Kernaghan – written by Doug Johnson approx. 2010

During the 1930’s, before the war started, the East Northumberland Baseball League was in operation and consisted of four teams – Grafton, Colborne, Brighton and Warkworth. Members of the Grafton team included Jim McMahon, Jack Reymes, Harry Landymore, Max Smith, Hart Immel, Harold Sabins, Lloyd Sabins, Ed Lawless, Roy Goody, Chick Cochrane, Jerry Simmons, and Walter Johnston. Grafton games were played in Rogers Field which was located on the west side of the existing ball field.

Although the East Northumberland Baseball League still existed in the 40’s and early 50’s all of the teams were depleted due to war service. From this period on, all Grafton games were played on the present-day fields, but it should be noted there is no baseball field in Grafton at the present time as all (5) five diamonds in the Complex are for softball.

During the late 50’s and early 60’s the South Durham Baseball League was formed consisting mostly of semi-rural teams. They were Welcome, Kendal, Garden Hill, Newcastle, Newtonville, Coverdale and Camborne. Coverdale consisted of the east end of Cobourg and their games were played in Grafton.

Members of the Coverdale team included Bobby Parnell, Fred Goody, Fred McMillan, Dick Turpin, Jack Kernaghan, Paul Currelly, Ross Beatty, Jim Irvine, Bob Bazay, Jim Ingemalls, Jerry Lawless, Fred Maybee and Don Ball. The Camborne team was put together by Norm Dolley but folded later due to a shortage of players.

Some members of the Welcome team were Barney Mills, Don Lord, John Choiniere, Floyd Bebee and Vern Meadows. Long John Holman and Jim Gilmer played for Newtonville.

There was also a girls’ softball team out of Cobourg sponsored by Town Cleaners which was owned by Mr. Hobbs and the team was managed by Alf Minaker and coached by Bus Cane. This team also included at least three members from Haldimand Township who were Pat and Shirley Harnden and Jean Clouston. Some of the girls from Cobourg were Toots Brisbin, Maizie Jenkinson, Ivy Cockburn, Helen Caine, Eileen Goody, Reta Slater, Ruth Brooks, Winnie Twitchett, Ruth Stillwell, Alice Guy, Jean Allen was Captain, Ruth Bolderstone, Jackie Kadan and Marilyn Jenkinson was the mascot.

In 1946 the Town Cleaners team won the Eastern Ontario Intermediate Softball Championship over Belleville. They eventually went on to play for the Ontario Championship where they won the first game in Sunnyside (Toronto) but lost the last game back in Cobourg.

There was also a Haldimand Township softball team which included Pat and Shirley Harnden and Jean Clouston, Marg and Kathleen Tunney, Ann Heenan, Florian, Mary, Kathleen and Ann Lawless. This was strictly a fun team.

During the late 30’s and early 40’s, I believe, Grafton, Colborne, Warkworth and Baltimore each iced an intermediate hockey team. Members of the Grafton team were Manager Roy Bone, Gordon Locke, Jack Turpin, Wib Thomas, Jack Heenan, Cam Harnden, Hart Immel, Jack Beatty, Mike Heenan, Harold Knight, Jack Kernaghan, Jack Reymes, Dick Beatty, Ed and Mike Spears, Tom Walsh and Tommy Hogan. In the early years, games were played on outdoor rinks, but in later years, they moved to covered areas such as church sheds and eventually to artificial ice in proper arenas.

Reviewed August 2020

Lauded for Contribution to Cobourg
By Mandy Martin and Jim denHollander
Cobourg Star August 20, 1997

Cobourg sports enthusiast, businessman, family man and all-around nice guy Clarke Sommerville will be greatly missed in the greater Northumberland community, friends and family said following his death Monday.

Born in Toronto, as a teenager, Mr. Sommerville was drafted as a goalie to play junior hockey. In the late 1940s he was playing in Galt, Ont. “I was a rink rat and I’d go to see him play in my home town” recalled Cobourg Deputy Reeve Bob Spooner. Mr. Spooner was friends with Hugh Whittington, the younger brother of Dorothy Whittington, who later became Mrs. Sommerville.

Mr. Sommerville went on to play semi-pro hockey in Philadelphia and Washington, earning the nick name “Eagle Eye”. “They called him ‘Eagle Eye’ or ‘Sieve’ depending if it was a good or bad game” Mrs. Sommerville recalled. Son Dave said Cobourgers affectionately called his father Sieve.

The travelling life of hockey had lost its appeal by 1951. In 1952 the Sommervilles came to Cobourg. They converted the former Galbraith’s radio shop (where Pizza Pizza is today) into a sports store. In 1961 Sommerville’s Sporting Goods moved to its current location on the north side of King Street West. Cobourg Daily Star sports editor Layton Dodge remembers Mr. Sommerville reviving his hockey career to play in the intermediate league.

During the first game of the 1957 playoffs against the Lakefield Lumber Kings, Cobourg was up 5-1 but Mr. Sommerville had been subjected to Lakefield battering all night. Finally, he raised his stick and caught a Lakefield player right across the forehead. “It touched off quite a riot” Mr. Dodge recalled. The Cobourg team was restrained to the bench except the five players on ice who bore the brunt of the Lakefield melee.

But despite the aftermath, the next day Mr. Sommerville telephoned the Lakefield player to apologize. Only his wife knew he had done so. As a boy, Town of Cobourg administrator Bryan Baxter recalls watching Mr. Sommerville as goalie of the intermediate team in the 1950s. “He was an outstanding goaltender. I looked up to him.” Mr. Baxter said.

Mr. Sommerville was also active in local baseball. He was instrumental in the success of the Cobourg Juvenile A 1958 provincial baseball championship team, coach Paul Currelly recalled. “He’s been a good friend ever since he came to Cobourg” he added. In 1965 Mr. Sommerville and John Rolph founded the Cobourg Cougars. Today, the Cougars are in their sixth year as a Junior A hockey team.

Gord Kelly was one of the original Cougars. He recalls the first-year team. “Let’s face it. It was tough going” he said. We had a limited budget, but with Clarke in the background he made sure we had everything we needed. He always wanted to stay in the background” he added.

Mr. Kelly also worked in the sports store and recalled people stopping by after work or during the day, “spending time at the hot stove lounge around the pop cooler.” Gus Bambridge of Cobourg was another original Cougar. He later became the coach with Mr. Sommerville managing the team. “I remember when they wanted to fire me and Bryan Rose and Clarke didn’t want them to fire us” Mr. Bambridge recalled.

Mr. Sommerville was president of the Cougars in 1971 when the team won the Ontario Hockey Association championship. In 1972 when his daughter Susan wanted to play hockey, Mr. Sommerville helped out by organizing a four-team girl’s league. He was also active in organizing minor league baseball, girls’ softball and played in the Cobourg softball league. “He believed in sports for anybody that wanted to play regardless of sex or age,” his wife said.

As a mother of four boys active in local sports, Bev Helps of Grafton agreed. “There are a lot of kids who would never have played if not for him” she said. “He never questioned your income. If you said something was beyond the budget, he’d find something that was. If you had several kids in sports, he’d work out the best price possible. I don’t think Cobourg could have survived without him.”

Mr. Dodge fondly recalled one quirky feature that betrayed the fact that Mr. Sommerville placed the playing of sports well ahead of his commercial involvement in it. “Here he (was selling) ball gloves and he used this old flat piece of leather himself” he said.

Mr. Sommerville was a natural athlete, Mr. Dodge recalled: the type of guy who goes golfing for the first time and scores well. Last year, the Clarke Sommerville baseball diamond was dedicated at the new Legion Fields softball complex in Cobourg. Harry Jeschke, who manages Legion Fields and the Cobourg arenas, recalled Mr. Sommerville as “a terrific gentleman.” “He was always there for the youngsters in the community. How do you put it into words? He was a true sportsman.”

Mr. Spooner remarked that he was “doubly glad” that Mr. Sommerville lived to see the dedication. Mr. Baxter said that in later years he was acquainted with Mr. Sommerville as a businessman on the main street. “I found him a warm, gentle person, with a soft spot in his heart for all young people” he said. “He always had a smile and a warm greeting for you which uplifted anybody’s day.

He was a well-respected individual in both the sports and business communities of Cobourg and Port Hope. In his business, he attracted many people to Town with his knowledge and expertise.” Mr. Currelly remarked on the “tremendous amount of work” Mr. Sommerville devoted to the Town’s youth. “He sponsored many clubs. He always helped everyone,” he noted. “The whole family have been pillars of strength in the sporting fraternity.”

Mr. Spooner recalled that Mr. Sommerville “could never say no to anyone. He donated trophies, prizes, dinners as well as sponsored teams. And I’m sure he did lots of things for other groups that most of us never know about.” Mayor Joan Chalovich who knew Mr. Sommerville since the 50s, recalled “a terrific father and husband. He’s left an awful void.” she said. He had a strong commitment to his family, his business, the Cobourg community and the larger Northumberland community. He was a great citizen of Cobourg.”

Mr. Sommerville is survived by his wife Dorothy, children David and wife Mary of Cobourg, Nancy and husband Kevin of Belleville and Susan and husband Bill of Illinois. Sister Mary McLean lives in Peterborough. There are eight grandchildren. There will be no funeral service. Instead the family plans a later private celebration of his life. Donations to the Cobourg Hospital Foundation are requested in lieu of flowers.

Reviewed August 2020