A Brief History of CMIG

Colin Leigh

1971 – Coaching Director Colin Leigh, who was then employed as a P.E. teacher at Moston Brook High School in North Manchester , developed a highly successful boy's gymnastics team.


1973 – The school club extended into the evenings and soon started to involve local children including girls. This then became known as The North Manchester Gymnastics Club and became a British Gymnastics affiliated club. The Club soon grew gaining upwards of 40 children with the school gym overflowing with apparatus much to the annoyance of other sports.

1978 – After seeing a film of a Soviet gymnastics club, Colin planned a five year strategy in which he would acquire a large, suitable building for a base where all apparatus would be laid out permanently, similar to the soviet model. Monies were raised; local politicians and sports councils were approached.

1983 - The Old Gorton Baths on the Hyde Road was revamped into a permanent gymnastics centre and was officially opened in 1984 by Sir Bobby Charlton. This became the spiritual home for the now renamed Central Manchester Institute of Gymnastics . At the time this was the first purpose built pitted (foam blocks in large holes to safeguard landings) gymnasium for a club.

A full programme was eventually pieced together involving beginner's classes through to international level with a membership of over 300 gymnasts. Over the next 20 years the club worked hard and some of our gymnasts went onto amazing achievements.

John Smethurst

1991 – Our first British Senior Champion – Paul Bowler
1992 – Two gymnasts go to Barcelona Olympics – Marvin Campbell and Paul Bowler
1993 - Marvin takes our 2 nd British Senior title.

Also in 1993 - the team became Senior Team Champions of Great Britain.

These where significant achievements as they set the future standard. Our gymnasts represented Great Britain at European and World Championships on many occasions.

1998 and 2002 John Smethurst won 2 consecutive gold medals at the Commonwealth games in Kuala Lumpur and Manchester also gaining two bronze medals on the apparatus.

Mark Freeman

2002 Mark Freeman put the icing on the cake by taking Britain 's first ever European Title on rings and is now completing a sports scholarship in America . Paul Bowler has become an institution in The Cirque De Soleil in Las Vegas with his own specialist act.

Because of our successes we were designated a High Performance Centre for British Gymnastics in 2000. This included a National Coach. permanently sited in the gym. Part of this award was a large capital grant from Sport England to upgrade the facilities. However the poor Old Baths was on its last legs with water features on walls from a leaking roof. After all it was 110 years old.

2001/2002 – From discussions with the City Council and Sport England it was decided to abandon any ideas of refurbishment. Therefore the search was on for a different building and strangely the answer came in the guise of another redundant swimming pool. Neptune 's Kingdom on Garratt Way , just 800meters away and adjacent to the Gorton Library, became the third site for the gym club. The City Council offered financial aid to help with the conversion adding to the Sports Council grant. The club also raised £100,000 towards the project from many fund raising events.

Work started in January 2004 and the new state of the art gymnasium was finally completed in September that year. Our name changed once more to become The City of Manchester Institute of Gymnastics and the Club moved in during October. In December 2004 The Lord Mayor of Manchester officially opened the New Gymnastics Centre.

The City of Manchester Institute of Gymnastics 2005

Nearly 35 years later Colin Leigh has achieved his major ambition - a gymnastics training centre better than the Russian prototype. This has been a history of hard work, love and a desire to produce gymnastics for all - from the beginner to the top international.

Foundation Gym	Dance Studio / Community Room	High Performance Gym

Manchester is very proud of another fantastic sporting achievement.