Feature
“An Appreciation of a Remarkable Woman”
Feature
There was never a doubt that Betty Callaway was a strong willed woman. Yet that iron interior was cased in a very civilized exterior.
“I never saw her lose her temper,” revealed Marika Humphreys, one of Betty’s many pupils. Marika won the British dance title with three partners, and was an Olympic competitor in 2002. More recently she was the Technical Specialist for ice dance at the 2010 Winter Games.
Betty’s career was truly amazing, especially since she got a late start in skating. She had first tried ballet, but was turned down by the Royal School because she was deemed likely to grow too tall.
It was her convent school in London who directed her into the arena which would dominate her entire life. The nuns insisted their charges do some form of physical education on Wednesday afternoons and ice skating, at the Queens Ice Club in Bayswater, was on the approved list.
“From the moment I laced up my skates and stepped onto this wonderful, (then) very long sheet of ice, I was hooked,” Betty explained to this writer years later in an interview published in the Guardian newspaper in 1984. “There is nothing like the feeling of gliding. It’s like flying. “At 16, I applied and got a chorus position in the Blackpool Pleasure Dome’s annual summer ice show. My parents were shocked. I think they were quite pleased in one way – skating was looked on as an elite, glamorous sport in those days with the Sonja Henie films’ big successes at the box office. However, they were not at all pleased at the timing because they had already paid my non-refundable fees for my next term at school.
“When I returned home at the end of the season, none the worse for wear, they accepted that skating would be my life.” In Blackpool, she met Roy Callaway, a principal in the resident ice show. Many years later Roy clearly remembered when they first met. “You couldn’t not notice her. She was a real stunner – just gorgeous, but not a great skater. She could do the basics – a three jump, a short spin, that sort of thing, but she was game to learn. “I think that was why she became such a good teacher, because she had to study the mechanics of what the body had to do. “Top competitors don’t always become the best instructors because they learn the basics early on, and then have no idea how to convey the best way to do what came so easily to them. “Betty absolutely bowled me over the first time I saw her. I could never understand why we can’t get boys into skating. There are all these fit young girls wanting to throw their arms around a partner. You’d think they’d be lining up! “After the first season, we got together and made up an exhibition number, which she performed in addition to her chorus duties and that gave her a slight increase in wages. “The Blackpool arena burned down one year. Although it was rebuilt, and we did perform in subsequent years, we had to get another source of income and so we went into teaching.” Roy and Betty moved on to positions at the now-closed Richmond rink, where Betty remained for 19 years.
In 1949 they were married, a union which lasted initially for 27 years before they separated and eventually remarried in 2003. Roy said, “Considering that I was over a decade older than Betty, and I was making my living in a pretty precarious way, I think her parents took it very well.”
Though she was now a professional, Betty kept taking lessons herself and, in 1953, she passed her gold ice dance test. The writer first met Betty back when the British ice dance championships were still held completely separately from the singles and pairs title event – in part because most ice dance officials were interested only in that aspect of the sport.
Bus loads of knowledgeable spectators from rinks all over the country would descend on the aging rink in Nottingham on Saturday morning. A practise and all three sections – compulsories (with the emphasis on plural), original, when that was incorporated, and free – took place on the one day with only a very minimal amount of resurfacing.
Early Sunday, away from the prying eyes of the public, the top couples met with officials who would demand re-skates and give advice before deciding which couples would be sent to the European and World championships. Bernie Ford, who won four World, European, and British championships with partner Diane Towler, grimaces when he recalls those days: “Everyone was bleary-eyed and we hated those meetings. Sometimes they made us do our full routines over again on ground up ice. “One year they decided our costumes were too bright and had to be replaced or we wouldn’t be on the team, even though we were the defending world champions.” (They were orange, which was revolutionary in those days.) “Our coach, Gladys Hogg, would mutter under her breath. I never saw Betty be anything but gracious. However, I think Roy did some eye-rolling from time to time.” In those days in Britain there were almost always two, fifteen-minute, breaks during every public session, at which time music for compulsory dances was played. Patrons could skate in this period, only if they had a partner and did the appropriate steps. All the rink’s professionals were available for hire as partners and this comprised a good deal of Betty and Roy’s income. It kept them very fit and on their toes.
Betty once explained, “It was the privacy we had at the Richmond rink that attracted many celebrities. They could arrange to skate on the Arosa rink (a small, second ice surface reached through a set of doors at the back of the rink, which could be locked).” Many royals learned to skate in this rink, which had an attractive setting, with windows on one of the long sides overlooking the grass on the north side of the Thames River.
Betty’s pupils included Prince Charles “for six or seven weeks when he was home from school one year” and Princess Anne “for three winters”. As a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1984, Princess Anne was rink-side in Sarajevo to witness Torvill and Dean’s and Betty’s greatest triumph in the 1984 Olympics, and she hosted a celebration for them at those Games.
First International Success Betty’s first pupils to gain international success were Yvonne Suddick and Roger Kennerson, who won two bronzes and a silver in the European championships between 1964 and 1966. However, Yvonne and Roger never won the British title. Their nemeses in GB were Janet Sawbridge and David Hicks. Roger later emigrated to France, where he became the country’s top compulsory specialist, coaching such stars as 2002 Olympic champions, Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat. In 1968, Betty became the first female national trainer in Germany, stationed in the picturesque Alpine town of Oberstdorf. “I was looking forward to being able to ski, but soon learned I was restricted by a whole set of rules, which forbade me even putting on skis, as ‘far too dangerous’.” Her life’s biggest embarrassment, Betty later admitted to this writer, came during an introductory dinner in Ravensburg, the home town of her main pupils, Angelika and Erich Buck. Making small talk, she confessed she thought she had heard of Ravensburg before and casually asked what the town was famous for.
“The room went completely silent,” she explained. “I’d heard the name because there had been a notorious concentration camp built there during the war. What a faux pas!” She redeemed herself by moulding the brother-and-sister team to such a superior standard that they won gold in the 1972 European championships. It was the only defeat the Soviets, Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov, suffered in the 1970-6 period, during which they won six World titles and gold in 1976, in the first Winter Olympic Games to include ice dance.
Betty also helped the Bucks devise the Ravensburger Waltz, a routine which was accepted into the International Skating Union’s list of compulsory dances. The Torvill and Dean era Betty first noticed T&D during the 1978 season, when her pupils, the Hungarian champions, Krisztina Regoczy and Andras Sallay, won bronze at both Europeans and Worlds and the Britons were making their international championship debuts, finishing ninth in Strasbourg and 11th in Ottawa. Janet (Sawbridge) had matched up Chris and Jayne shortly after she turned professional in 1975. Almost no one in Britain thought, initially, the pairing would work.
In Canada, at the 1978 Worlds with Krisztina and Andras, Betty recognised the skating outfit Jayne had inadvertently left on a dustbin while waiting for the official bus from the arena to their hotel.
She took the dress back to the hotel and tracked T&D down, later revealing, “They seemed almost painfully shy. I don’t think they spoke to anyone. “I had watched them in practice. My impression was that they were very young and immature. On the ice, they definitely had a spark, but they were somewhat pair-y. There was too much stroking between moves but they had some speed and power.
“They didn’t have a coach there. I was surprised at that but learned that Janet was almost at the end of her pregnancy and had decided to give up coaching.” The sport was then controlled by many rule restrictions, which the Soviets were notorious for ignoring. They never seemed to get penalized and eventually the rules would be adjusted. At one point, Betty explained, the Soviets would “repeat a move if the music called for it, which we thought was a waste of time. They even used choreographers from the ballet world, to come up with something new. That was unthinkable in Britain at that time.” Moreover, newcomers had to ‘wait their turn’ to make advances. Yet, less than a year after teaming up, in their first international, T&D earned silver in Oberstdorf in the summer of 1976 behind the Soviets, Marina Zoueva and Andrei Vitman, with another British couple, Carol Long (now Lane) and Philip Stowell third. Marina, who with Igor Shpilband, now coaches the world’s top three ice dance couples, clearly remembers that event, “I definitely took notice of them. I knew they would go to the top. They really flew around the rink.”
In 1978, Betty said, “At that point I had mistakenly understood the Hungarians were going to leave competition and agreed to teach Jayne and Chris. In the end, we all ended up in Nottingham.
“It was a great opportunity for Jayne and Chris to learn how to conduct themselves by observing how Kris and Andy behaved.” The following season, 1979, Chris and Jayne advanced to 6th in Europeans and 8th in Worlds. However, the 1980 Games were a disappointment for both of Betty’s couples. Although T&D placed fourth in both Europeans and Worlds, they were only fifth in the Olympics. Also, the Hungarians lost out in one of the tightest decisions ever in ice dance, because of what turned out to be an error by Brenda Long, the British judge on the panel of nine. Much later, Betty admitted, “In the days of the Soviet Union, it was difficult because the International Skating Union had trouble controlling nationalism. That led to the total ban on Soviet judges for the 1978 season, and a threat to do the same for a longer period if the situation didn’t improve, but it certainly didn’t disappear.”
In Lake Placid in 1980, Brenda tied the Hungarians with the Soviets, Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, for first place. That caused the British referee, Lawrence Demmy, to give her a tongue lashing. He said, “Tying two couples for Olympic gold is not acceptable. It is a judge’s job to separate the skaters.” Her action meant that both couples had five votes of first place. All the judges except the Soviet official placed the Hungarians and top Soviets either first or second. However, the wily Soviet judge, Igor Kabanov patriotically put his other competitors, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, second, above the Hungarians. The Soviets thus won because they had nine votes of second or better, while the Hungarians only had eight.
“It was very hard for us,” Andras later admitted. “We actually knew Brenda very well. The crowd made it known who they preferred. “A few weeks later we dethroned Natalia and Gennadi in the World Championships, but it wasn’t the same as Olympic gold. “Betty absolutely insisted we never show any bad sportsmanship, so we just smiled and smiled till our jaws hurt. “In all the years we trained with Betty, I only ever heard her raise her voice once. She was at the barrier and we were mid-rink shouting at each other full force, and she yelled, ‘Be quiet!’ We were so surprised, we completely forgot what we were arguing about.” However, 1980 was a watershed year. Betty arranged for T&D to spend some time in Oberstdorf, while Nottingham was closed for repairs, and they loved that opportunity. The beginning of the 1981 season was again frustrating. Betty talked to Courtney Jones and they brought in Mike Stylianos, a former Latin American ballroom champion, who persuaded them to abandon their Cha Cha in favour of a new routine set to Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.
Chris hated the music, which he felt “is too well known and vulgar.” Nevertheless, with this music, Mike was able to open up a more emotional and expressive side of Chris and they made huge strides on the performance side. In the 1981 European championship, they won all three sections, pulling a surprise upset over the defending champions, Natalia and Gennadi, whom the Soviets immediately pulled off the World team, replacing them with a couple who had not yet competed at the World level. T&D easily won the 1981 Worlds in the United States; they were the first Britons to hold this title since Diane Towler and Bernie Ford’s last victory in 1969.
From then on T&D were never defeated until they returned to Olympic competition in 1994, where they earned bronze, a decade after they won gold in 1984 – again with Betty along with Bobby Thompson providing up-to-date technical expertise. Beginning at the start of the 1982 season, when they presented the Summertime Blues and their Mack and Mabel Free, through to their initial swan song performance at 1984 Worlds, they received 6.0s – the mark reserved for perfection – at every competition.
“Chris was the one who thought up amazing new moves and Jayne was the realist, translating his vision into what was actually possible,” Betty noted. In the 1983 season, he went too far. Their ‘levitation’ lift, devised for the circus routine set to music from Barnum, resulted in his pulling her shoulder out and they were unable to defend their European title.
In the 1984 Bolero season, they swept the titles at Europeans, Worlds and the Olympic Games. Noted Betty, “They deserved every accolade and honour heaped on them.
“They continued to improve each season solely due to their unstinting work ethic,” she said. “That was due to their talent, but it would not have happened if they had not been able to train full time in Oberstdorf, where there was far more available uncrowded ice because they had three ice surfaces. “They could not have given up their jobs without the support of the Nottingham City Council. Theirs was a British victory, but I do believe it would not have been possible without German cooperation.”
After T&D’s pinnacle season in 1984, Betty retired from coaching and was honoured with an MBE and was in demand for her expert commentary on television. “I felt I could retire because I had achieved with Chris and Jayne, everything I had wished for,” she said. “They received unanimous 6.0s and also got 6.0s for a compulsory, the Westminster Waltz, which had never happened before.”
Back to the Ice After Roy and Betty’s divorce in 1975, Betty remarried in 1978. Her second husband, Bill Fittall, was a British Airlines pilot, who died in a terrible fire at their home in 1988. It was Betty’s consideration for her husband that enabled her to survive that fire. “I was leaving on an early morning flight and didn’t want Bill to be disturbed, so I slept downstairs and was able to escape but he was trapped. “I don’t know how I would have carried on if I hadn’t been asked to come out of retirement to head an ice dance programme in Slough. I didn’t want to let those people down and they kept me from moping.
“When Chris and Jayne decided to return to Olympic competition (in 1994, ten years after they had won gold), I was able to help them, along with Bobby (Thompson). “Of course, my role, then, had completely changed and was much more minor.
“I was more of a confidante, a fresh pair of eyes, giving my opinion. It was a brave try. Although they were disappointed they finished only third, it was an amazing achievement. “They won the Rumba section, which was truly wonderful. Their rivals had the advantage of building on Chris and Jayne’s achievements. The sport had changed and become more athletic, and their main rivals were fresher and younger.
“But it was a wonderful try.” Betty was still giving advice to the British champions in 2002 when she and Roy drifted back together and they remarried in 2003.
She died unexpectedly of a fall while alone in her home in Sear Green, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, 27 June 2011, aged 83. Her first and third husband, E. Roy Callaway, had suffered a stroke, and was being treated in hospital at the time of her death. Though looking frail, he had recovered enough to attend Betty’s funeral. Betty Callaway (1984- 2011), Ice Dance Coach Extraordinaire Betty Daphne Callaway, was born to William and Elizabeth Roberts on 22 March 1928 in Reading. She died in her home 27 June 2011. A fitting, dignified, lovely funeral service was held at the Chilterns Crematorium in Amersham on 25th July, a beautiful, warm sunny day. Despite looking frail and very emotional, husband Roy Callaway, now 93, was present to greet and talk with all the guests. Many of her pupils attended, including Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Angelika and Erich Buck, Krisztina Regoczy and Andras Sallay and Marika Humphrey and Vitali Baranov.
Carrying the coffin into the Chapel accompanied by Johann Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’, were Andras, the Czech ice dancer Jiri Musil, and BITA Hon Secretary Peter Morrissey. Chris, who had flown in from the United States, was unable to perform this honour because he’d just had shoulder surgery and his appendix removed. Among the skating officials attending were the British dance judges, Hilary Selby and Lynn Huddlestone.
Krisztina gave a very moving speech. Chris and Jayne talked of their days with Betty. Chris held up a 6.0 in front of her coffin, and Jayne read a poem. Sundeep Pandya, a very knowledgable Briton, who is a former top Lithuanian ice dance official, read a letter from Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas, whom Betty had taught in the mid-90s. They had tuned into the service remotely from St Petersburg.
Following the service, the congregation gathered at Betty’s local pub in Sear Green in Buckingham, where photographs and press reports on Betty’s career through the decades – including pictures of her teaching Princess Anne and Prince Charles at the now closed Richmond rink – were on display.
Betty’s career was truly amazing, especially since she got a late start in skating. She had first tried ballet, but was turned down by the Royal School because she was deemed likely to grow too tall.
It was her convent school in London who directed her into the arena which would dominate her entire life. The nuns insisted their charges do some form of physical education on Wednesday afternoons and ice skating, at the Queens Ice Club in Bayswater, was on the approved list.
“From the moment I laced up my skates and stepped onto this wonderful, (then) very long sheet of ice, I was hooked,” Betty explained to this writer years later in an interview published in the Guardian newspaper in 1984. “There is nothing like the feeling of gliding. It’s like flying. “At 16, I applied and got a chorus position in the Blackpool Pleasure Dome’s annual summer ice show. My parents were shocked. I think they were quite pleased in one way – skating was looked on as an elite, glamorous sport in those days with the Sonja Henie films’ big successes at the box office. However, they were not at all pleased at the timing because they had already paid my non-refundable fees for my next term at school.
“When I returned home at the end of the season, none the worse for wear, they accepted that skating would be my life.” In Blackpool, she met Roy Callaway, a principal in the resident ice show. Many years later Roy clearly remembered when they first met. “You couldn’t not notice her. She was a real stunner – just gorgeous, but not a great skater. She could do the basics – a three jump, a short spin, that sort of thing, but she was game to learn. “I think that was why she became such a good teacher, because she had to study the mechanics of what the body had to do. “Top competitors don’t always become the best instructors because they learn the basics early on, and then have no idea how to convey the best way to do what came so easily to them. “Betty absolutely bowled me over the first time I saw her. I could never understand why we can’t get boys into skating. There are all these fit young girls wanting to throw their arms around a partner. You’d think they’d be lining up! “After the first season, we got together and made up an exhibition number, which she performed in addition to her chorus duties and that gave her a slight increase in wages. “The Blackpool arena burned down one year. Although it was rebuilt, and we did perform in subsequent years, we had to get another source of income and so we went into teaching.” Roy and Betty moved on to positions at the now-closed Richmond rink, where Betty remained for 19 years.
In 1949 they were married, a union which lasted initially for 27 years before they separated and eventually remarried in 2003. Roy said, “Considering that I was over a decade older than Betty, and I was making my living in a pretty precarious way, I think her parents took it very well.”
Though she was now a professional, Betty kept taking lessons herself and, in 1953, she passed her gold ice dance test. The writer first met Betty back when the British ice dance championships were still held completely separately from the singles and pairs title event – in part because most ice dance officials were interested only in that aspect of the sport.
Bus loads of knowledgeable spectators from rinks all over the country would descend on the aging rink in Nottingham on Saturday morning. A practise and all three sections – compulsories (with the emphasis on plural), original, when that was incorporated, and free – took place on the one day with only a very minimal amount of resurfacing.
Early Sunday, away from the prying eyes of the public, the top couples met with officials who would demand re-skates and give advice before deciding which couples would be sent to the European and World championships. Bernie Ford, who won four World, European, and British championships with partner Diane Towler, grimaces when he recalls those days: “Everyone was bleary-eyed and we hated those meetings. Sometimes they made us do our full routines over again on ground up ice. “One year they decided our costumes were too bright and had to be replaced or we wouldn’t be on the team, even though we were the defending world champions.” (They were orange, which was revolutionary in those days.) “Our coach, Gladys Hogg, would mutter under her breath. I never saw Betty be anything but gracious. However, I think Roy did some eye-rolling from time to time.” In those days in Britain there were almost always two, fifteen-minute, breaks during every public session, at which time music for compulsory dances was played. Patrons could skate in this period, only if they had a partner and did the appropriate steps. All the rink’s professionals were available for hire as partners and this comprised a good deal of Betty and Roy’s income. It kept them very fit and on their toes.
Betty once explained, “It was the privacy we had at the Richmond rink that attracted many celebrities. They could arrange to skate on the Arosa rink (a small, second ice surface reached through a set of doors at the back of the rink, which could be locked).” Many royals learned to skate in this rink, which had an attractive setting, with windows on one of the long sides overlooking the grass on the north side of the Thames River.
Betty’s pupils included Prince Charles “for six or seven weeks when he was home from school one year” and Princess Anne “for three winters”. As a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1984, Princess Anne was rink-side in Sarajevo to witness Torvill and Dean’s and Betty’s greatest triumph in the 1984 Olympics, and she hosted a celebration for them at those Games.
First International Success Betty’s first pupils to gain international success were Yvonne Suddick and Roger Kennerson, who won two bronzes and a silver in the European championships between 1964 and 1966. However, Yvonne and Roger never won the British title. Their nemeses in GB were Janet Sawbridge and David Hicks. Roger later emigrated to France, where he became the country’s top compulsory specialist, coaching such stars as 2002 Olympic champions, Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat. In 1968, Betty became the first female national trainer in Germany, stationed in the picturesque Alpine town of Oberstdorf. “I was looking forward to being able to ski, but soon learned I was restricted by a whole set of rules, which forbade me even putting on skis, as ‘far too dangerous’.” Her life’s biggest embarrassment, Betty later admitted to this writer, came during an introductory dinner in Ravensburg, the home town of her main pupils, Angelika and Erich Buck. Making small talk, she confessed she thought she had heard of Ravensburg before and casually asked what the town was famous for.
“The room went completely silent,” she explained. “I’d heard the name because there had been a notorious concentration camp built there during the war. What a faux pas!” She redeemed herself by moulding the brother-and-sister team to such a superior standard that they won gold in the 1972 European championships. It was the only defeat the Soviets, Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov, suffered in the 1970-6 period, during which they won six World titles and gold in 1976, in the first Winter Olympic Games to include ice dance.
Betty also helped the Bucks devise the Ravensburger Waltz, a routine which was accepted into the International Skating Union’s list of compulsory dances. The Torvill and Dean era Betty first noticed T&D during the 1978 season, when her pupils, the Hungarian champions, Krisztina Regoczy and Andras Sallay, won bronze at both Europeans and Worlds and the Britons were making their international championship debuts, finishing ninth in Strasbourg and 11th in Ottawa. Janet (Sawbridge) had matched up Chris and Jayne shortly after she turned professional in 1975. Almost no one in Britain thought, initially, the pairing would work.
In Canada, at the 1978 Worlds with Krisztina and Andras, Betty recognised the skating outfit Jayne had inadvertently left on a dustbin while waiting for the official bus from the arena to their hotel.
She took the dress back to the hotel and tracked T&D down, later revealing, “They seemed almost painfully shy. I don’t think they spoke to anyone. “I had watched them in practice. My impression was that they were very young and immature. On the ice, they definitely had a spark, but they were somewhat pair-y. There was too much stroking between moves but they had some speed and power.
“They didn’t have a coach there. I was surprised at that but learned that Janet was almost at the end of her pregnancy and had decided to give up coaching.” The sport was then controlled by many rule restrictions, which the Soviets were notorious for ignoring. They never seemed to get penalized and eventually the rules would be adjusted. At one point, Betty explained, the Soviets would “repeat a move if the music called for it, which we thought was a waste of time. They even used choreographers from the ballet world, to come up with something new. That was unthinkable in Britain at that time.” Moreover, newcomers had to ‘wait their turn’ to make advances. Yet, less than a year after teaming up, in their first international, T&D earned silver in Oberstdorf in the summer of 1976 behind the Soviets, Marina Zoueva and Andrei Vitman, with another British couple, Carol Long (now Lane) and Philip Stowell third. Marina, who with Igor Shpilband, now coaches the world’s top three ice dance couples, clearly remembers that event, “I definitely took notice of them. I knew they would go to the top. They really flew around the rink.”
In 1978, Betty said, “At that point I had mistakenly understood the Hungarians were going to leave competition and agreed to teach Jayne and Chris. In the end, we all ended up in Nottingham.
“It was a great opportunity for Jayne and Chris to learn how to conduct themselves by observing how Kris and Andy behaved.” The following season, 1979, Chris and Jayne advanced to 6th in Europeans and 8th in Worlds. However, the 1980 Games were a disappointment for both of Betty’s couples. Although T&D placed fourth in both Europeans and Worlds, they were only fifth in the Olympics. Also, the Hungarians lost out in one of the tightest decisions ever in ice dance, because of what turned out to be an error by Brenda Long, the British judge on the panel of nine. Much later, Betty admitted, “In the days of the Soviet Union, it was difficult because the International Skating Union had trouble controlling nationalism. That led to the total ban on Soviet judges for the 1978 season, and a threat to do the same for a longer period if the situation didn’t improve, but it certainly didn’t disappear.”
In Lake Placid in 1980, Brenda tied the Hungarians with the Soviets, Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, for first place. That caused the British referee, Lawrence Demmy, to give her a tongue lashing. He said, “Tying two couples for Olympic gold is not acceptable. It is a judge’s job to separate the skaters.” Her action meant that both couples had five votes of first place. All the judges except the Soviet official placed the Hungarians and top Soviets either first or second. However, the wily Soviet judge, Igor Kabanov patriotically put his other competitors, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, second, above the Hungarians. The Soviets thus won because they had nine votes of second or better, while the Hungarians only had eight.
“It was very hard for us,” Andras later admitted. “We actually knew Brenda very well. The crowd made it known who they preferred. “A few weeks later we dethroned Natalia and Gennadi in the World Championships, but it wasn’t the same as Olympic gold. “Betty absolutely insisted we never show any bad sportsmanship, so we just smiled and smiled till our jaws hurt. “In all the years we trained with Betty, I only ever heard her raise her voice once. She was at the barrier and we were mid-rink shouting at each other full force, and she yelled, ‘Be quiet!’ We were so surprised, we completely forgot what we were arguing about.” However, 1980 was a watershed year. Betty arranged for T&D to spend some time in Oberstdorf, while Nottingham was closed for repairs, and they loved that opportunity. The beginning of the 1981 season was again frustrating. Betty talked to Courtney Jones and they brought in Mike Stylianos, a former Latin American ballroom champion, who persuaded them to abandon their Cha Cha in favour of a new routine set to Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.
Chris hated the music, which he felt “is too well known and vulgar.” Nevertheless, with this music, Mike was able to open up a more emotional and expressive side of Chris and they made huge strides on the performance side. In the 1981 European championship, they won all three sections, pulling a surprise upset over the defending champions, Natalia and Gennadi, whom the Soviets immediately pulled off the World team, replacing them with a couple who had not yet competed at the World level. T&D easily won the 1981 Worlds in the United States; they were the first Britons to hold this title since Diane Towler and Bernie Ford’s last victory in 1969.
From then on T&D were never defeated until they returned to Olympic competition in 1994, where they earned bronze, a decade after they won gold in 1984 – again with Betty along with Bobby Thompson providing up-to-date technical expertise. Beginning at the start of the 1982 season, when they presented the Summertime Blues and their Mack and Mabel Free, through to their initial swan song performance at 1984 Worlds, they received 6.0s – the mark reserved for perfection – at every competition.
“Chris was the one who thought up amazing new moves and Jayne was the realist, translating his vision into what was actually possible,” Betty noted. In the 1983 season, he went too far. Their ‘levitation’ lift, devised for the circus routine set to music from Barnum, resulted in his pulling her shoulder out and they were unable to defend their European title.
In the 1984 Bolero season, they swept the titles at Europeans, Worlds and the Olympic Games. Noted Betty, “They deserved every accolade and honour heaped on them.
“They continued to improve each season solely due to their unstinting work ethic,” she said. “That was due to their talent, but it would not have happened if they had not been able to train full time in Oberstdorf, where there was far more available uncrowded ice because they had three ice surfaces. “They could not have given up their jobs without the support of the Nottingham City Council. Theirs was a British victory, but I do believe it would not have been possible without German cooperation.”
After T&D’s pinnacle season in 1984, Betty retired from coaching and was honoured with an MBE and was in demand for her expert commentary on television. “I felt I could retire because I had achieved with Chris and Jayne, everything I had wished for,” she said. “They received unanimous 6.0s and also got 6.0s for a compulsory, the Westminster Waltz, which had never happened before.”
Back to the Ice After Roy and Betty’s divorce in 1975, Betty remarried in 1978. Her second husband, Bill Fittall, was a British Airlines pilot, who died in a terrible fire at their home in 1988. It was Betty’s consideration for her husband that enabled her to survive that fire. “I was leaving on an early morning flight and didn’t want Bill to be disturbed, so I slept downstairs and was able to escape but he was trapped. “I don’t know how I would have carried on if I hadn’t been asked to come out of retirement to head an ice dance programme in Slough. I didn’t want to let those people down and they kept me from moping.
“When Chris and Jayne decided to return to Olympic competition (in 1994, ten years after they had won gold), I was able to help them, along with Bobby (Thompson). “Of course, my role, then, had completely changed and was much more minor.
“I was more of a confidante, a fresh pair of eyes, giving my opinion. It was a brave try. Although they were disappointed they finished only third, it was an amazing achievement. “They won the Rumba section, which was truly wonderful. Their rivals had the advantage of building on Chris and Jayne’s achievements. The sport had changed and become more athletic, and their main rivals were fresher and younger.
“But it was a wonderful try.” Betty was still giving advice to the British champions in 2002 when she and Roy drifted back together and they remarried in 2003.
She died unexpectedly of a fall while alone in her home in Sear Green, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, 27 June 2011, aged 83. Her first and third husband, E. Roy Callaway, had suffered a stroke, and was being treated in hospital at the time of her death. Though looking frail, he had recovered enough to attend Betty’s funeral. Betty Callaway (1984- 2011), Ice Dance Coach Extraordinaire Betty Daphne Callaway, was born to William and Elizabeth Roberts on 22 March 1928 in Reading. She died in her home 27 June 2011. A fitting, dignified, lovely funeral service was held at the Chilterns Crematorium in Amersham on 25th July, a beautiful, warm sunny day. Despite looking frail and very emotional, husband Roy Callaway, now 93, was present to greet and talk with all the guests. Many of her pupils attended, including Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Angelika and Erich Buck, Krisztina Regoczy and Andras Sallay and Marika Humphrey and Vitali Baranov.
Carrying the coffin into the Chapel accompanied by Johann Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’, were Andras, the Czech ice dancer Jiri Musil, and BITA Hon Secretary Peter Morrissey. Chris, who had flown in from the United States, was unable to perform this honour because he’d just had shoulder surgery and his appendix removed. Among the skating officials attending were the British dance judges, Hilary Selby and Lynn Huddlestone.
Krisztina gave a very moving speech. Chris and Jayne talked of their days with Betty. Chris held up a 6.0 in front of her coffin, and Jayne read a poem. Sundeep Pandya, a very knowledgable Briton, who is a former top Lithuanian ice dance official, read a letter from Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas, whom Betty had taught in the mid-90s. They had tuned into the service remotely from St Petersburg.
Following the service, the congregation gathered at Betty’s local pub in Sear Green in Buckingham, where photographs and press reports on Betty’s career through the decades – including pictures of her teaching Princess Anne and Prince Charles at the now closed Richmond rink – were on display.
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