We all know how it's gone for places like this. Up and down the country, the local has been quietly disappearing — costs up, habits changed, and one by one the doors close. Stoke's lost more than its fair share. So when people ask why we'd take on a place like Trent Country Club, the honest answer is: because somewhere has to be the place you go. The place you book for your mum's 70th. Where the quiz team argues over the last answer every Thursday. Where you have the wake, an

Before the club was ours, it was Bernard's. He and his family ran the squash courts here for years, and since we took the place on, the thing locals mention most isn't the building — it's him. The welcome at the door, the tournaments, the way he made anyone picking up a racket for the first time feel like they belonged. That tells you everything about the man. We were lucky enough to get to know Bernard in his last few months. His son Andy would tell us how his dad followed e

There's been a bit of chatter online about social housing being built on our site. We want to put it plainly: there are no plans to build housing of any kind here - not now, not down the line. As one local rightly pointed out, you don't fit 38 new windows, 19 new doors and put fresh roofs on a building you're planning to knock down. We've spent over a million pounds bringing this place back to life as a club. That should tell you everything about where we're headed. We think

A post popped up on Facebook the other week reckoning we were opening a "sunbed gaff" - or at least remembering the one that used to be here. We had a good laugh at that one. And fair enough, because back in the day this place did have sunbeds, right alongside the spin classes, the boxing and the squash. Whatever was the thing at the time, the club had a go at it. But no - the sunbeds aren't coming back. We all know a bit more these days about what they do to your skin, and t

Someone summed up the old place on Facebook in a single word the other week: "Damp." We can't argue with that. By the time we took it on, the building was in a sorry state, and damp was the half of it. The roofs had had it. Rain had been getting in for years, into the walls, the ceilings, the woodwork, and you could feel it in the air the moment you walked in - cold and clammy, not exactly the welcome you want. It's the same story as plenty of clubs round here: when money's t

This is one of our favourites. Word went round that the club was being turned into one of those dodgy call centres - the kind that ring your nan about a car accident she never had. We can see how it started. We've set up some temporary offices in the old carvery so we've somewhere to work from while the refit's going on, and someone's clearly clocked the desks and a bit of wiring going in and put two and two together to make five. Fair play for the imagination, but no. Here's

When you lose someone, the last thing you want is the stress of finding somewhere to bring everyone together afterwards. And round here, that's often easier said than done - there aren't many places close to the crematorium set up to do it properly. That's something we'd like to put right. When the club reopens, our function room will be available for wakes and celebrations of life, and we'll look after the details so families don't have to. It's a comfortable, private space

It's one we get asked a lot, and we don't mind it at all. Taking on a place this size and spending over a million pounds doing it up is bound to make people wonder. We've heard a few guesses - everything from a gaming firm to who-knows-what - so here's the straight answer. The money comes from software. For years we've built and run a software business that makes the computer systems housing organisations use to manage their homes and tenants. It's not glamorous and you'll ne

There's been a fair bit of guessing about who's taken the club on - and somewhere along the line a few people decided we must be a couple of investors down from London. We had to laugh. There's nothing remotely southern about us. We're two friends who've known each other more than 30 years. Michelle is Stoke born and bred - grew up here, never left, knows the area inside out. Simon's from Sunderland, so between us there's a fair bit of friendly North-versus-Midlands banter, b

Why We're Putting Our Energy Into Leisure When we first took the building on, we had a couple of ideas for the leisure side - including turning part of it into workspace for small local businesses, the sort of thing that might bring a few jobs to this corner of Stoke. We still think it would've been good for the area. The council saw it differently. Their planning policy steers that kind of thing towards the city centre rather than out here, and some neighbours had concerns t

Of all the rumours that have done the rounds about this place, this is the one that made us properly laugh. Word went about that the club had been bought by some religious group as a base of some kind. We promise you it hasn't. The club's owners are us - Simon and Michelle - two friends who've known each other 30-odd years and wanted to bring this building back to life for the area. That's the whole story. No group, no organisation, no hidden anything behind us. The only cult

We've heard you on the car park fence. A few people have said it's too high and a bit of an eyesore, and honestly, you've got a point. So here's where we're up to. First, why it went up at all: before we got hold of the place, the car park had become a magnet for trouble - including drug use - and it wasn't a safe spot for anyone living nearby. The police were keen for us to secure it, so we put up fencing and cameras to draw a line under it. It's done the job, and things hav

There's been a rumour going round that the club's been sold and is being turned into accommodation. It isn't. Same as we've said about every other version of this story: the building is becoming a club, and nothing else. We're not a housing project, we've not sold up, and there are no plans to change what the place is for. We're spending over a million pounds turning it into a bar, a function room and somewhere for the community - the very things this rumour would have it not