Tony Holles

Tony Holles started skating by accident when he was 11-years-of-age. He was travelling with his family from their Liverpool home to Wirral when their car broke down outside an ice rink. While he was waiting for the car to be repaired, Holles went into the rink, hired some skates, and that was the start of his career.

In 1952 Holles had a chance meeting with Joyce Coates on the rink and they started skating together, and so began one of Britain’s most successful pairs skating partnerships in the mid-1950s. Holles and Coates were runners-up in the British Junior Pairs Championship in 1953, and won the title a year later. They were also runners-up in the Junior Ice Dance Championship in 1955 and 1956.

Holles and Coates first entered the senior British Championship in the 1954/55 season and were second. The following season they won the first of four consecutive titles and immediately gained selection for the Cortina Winter Olympics, where they were placed 10th. Holles and Coates took part in three World Championships between 1956-58 with a fourth place in the last of those years being their best result. The pair also went to four European Championships 1956-59, finishing third in the latter two years.

Holles and Coates turned professional just before the 1959 British Championship, and the following year finished third in the 1960 British and World Pairs Professional Championship, a title they won two years later at Nottingham. The duo turned to coaching in their home town, and one of their first major successes was in coaching the local pair of Linda Connolly and Colin Taylforth to their first British title in 1965. Holles had first taught Taylforth when he started skating as a youngster at the Silver Blades ice rink in Garston, Liverpool.