Peter Waddell and TWISTERS
DOVER-based cheerleading club Vista Twisters will compete for gold at the prestigious Cheerleading Worlds in Florida, USA, next weekend.
As current UK Coed Level 5 class champions (male and females aged 11-18) after winning the sport’s nationals two weeks ago in Nottingham, they now take on the best of the rest of the world.
The Dover group will also field a younger Mi5 category team in the contest at the huge 220-acre ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando (Friday to Monday 25-28 April).
But the Twisters’ journey to the top had been threatened several times by the lack of a suitable HQ in Dover, until local businessman Peter Waddell stepped in and created The Base in 2019 , their very own home in Hollow Wood Road, Dover in 2021.
Vista Twisters’ spokesperson Kalvin Clapson, explained: “The group started in 2009 in the old leisure centre in Townwall Street and though Dover council ensured our move to its replacement went well, we didn’t have the exclusive space or room we needed, or the option to run six days a week, so we hunted for something better. COVID and the lockdown also threatened our survival, but then we had a conversation with Peter.
“He offered us a disused plastics factory warehouse with exclusive use and spent around a quarter of a million pounds on refurbishment to create The Base, a 550 sq metre space including a gym area, dance studio, new toilets and reception, at a manageable rent. Though we are a registered charity, we had previously come too close to folding, so The Base has been a lifeline from Peter.”
Multi-millionaire Waddell built the nationwide Big Motoring World car supermarket from a Kent start-up, holds a large Kent property portfolio, and recently rescued Dover haulier AE Chilled from bankruptcy to create the foundation for a new nationwide trucking operation, Big Transport.
But he is modest about his gesture to the Twisters: “It’s still a business transaction, but they are a great group doing great things for young people and needed a proper home so I spent out to give them one, because I know what it’s like to be homeless – I lived on the streets as a teenager after being brought up in a care home.”
Cheerleading is one of the UK’s fastest growing sports with some 89,000 participants, driven by UK success internationally and 37% of English schools now offering it in PE lessons.
The Twisters’ Florida party comprises 44 athletes aged 16 to adult , plus six coaches and staff, and any idea that cheerleading is simply cheering, chanting and waving pom-poms is quickly dispelled by Kalvin, whose wife Ruth, is the group’s Programme Director:
“Our top teams need at least 12 hours’ practice every week plus gym work, and the best routines need high levels of athleticism for the tumbles and lifts, and even then, participants will be blowing hard at the end of a typical 2½-minute routine.
“Ligament damage to ankles and knees, plus bad bruises and broken noses are familiar issues for the most senior athletes. In fact, stats show cheerleading is more hazardous than women’s rugby.
“The Cheerleading Worlds is the sport’s ‘Olympics’ and the USA is the dominant power, with many top athletes making a living from the sport attracting big sponsorships, whereas the UK is still developing. The sport of cheerleading has now been officially recognized by Sport England. This opens the door to becoming an Olympic sport in the future.
“British teams now regularly win gold medals internationally and Vista Twisters is now one of the most popular in the country. We had two members compete for Team England in 2024 and one of our Mi5 athletes competing next week is Millie Reeve, 17, also now an England international.”