Jules Broens (73) was the driving force behind the ice rink at the Mariaschool in Budel for no less than forty years. He wanted to stop and searched in vain for a successor. “I did my best, but there was no one to be found.” On such a beautiful cold day as Tuesday, it hurts quite a bit: “It’s an eternal shame.”
So there is no beautiful ice floor of sixteen hundred square meters in the middle of the village for skating enthusiasts this winter. “I was looking for people who are crazy about skating and building skating rinks,” Jules muses. “But there is no one left for it. Some people wanted to help out for an afternoon or an evening, but that is not enough. You have to be present at the ice rink all day.”
“Some wanted to help out for an afternoon. That’s not enough.”
Now that it’s freezing this week, the heart of ice cream master Broens will beat a little faster again. But he sticks to his decision to quit. “The three of us have always done it with great pleasure. When I said I wanted to stop for health reasons, the other two also stopped.”
A number of basketball courts have now been constructed on the schoolyard of the Mariaschool. “To put an ice floor there now would be difficult anyway.”
A call to succeed Jules as ice cream master did not yield the desired responses. He was also disappointed at the municipality of Bladel. “Nothing came loose.” It was announced on Tuesday that after a call last year from the skating association KNSB, four hundred and fifty new ice masters had recently been trained.
“I am already 73 years old, I have to take that into account.”
Of course it still tickles Jules. Especially when it freezes. “I still have my skates. I have had major heart surgery in the meantime. Fortunately, I am doing well, but I am already 73 years old. I also have to take that into account.”
Many people from Brabant developed a soft spot for the emotional ice cream master Jules Broens. In his last year as ice master it was ice skating weather, but there was no ice rink in Bladel.
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