IT WAS never a problem for me to fill one of those large pages in the old Evening Sentinel with a week's news from the youth clubs.

You could find them wherever there was a room available in a school or chapel. I wrote about one club in a place near Leek called Berkhamstych, which I couldn't find on the map.

But in the Potteries, large and flourishing youth clubs such as Queensberry, Bethesda, Grove, Harpfields and Summerbank became household names.

At Summerbank, there was even a waiting list. If any member missed three club nights in a row they risked being thrown out.

In the 1950s, I was young enough myself to identify with North Staffordshire's huge network of meeting places which kept thousands of youngsters off the streets. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. Anyone of my generation will remember the swarm of kids who spent their weekends on the 'monkey run' in Hanley, but let's leave that for now.

You might think I'm wearing rose-coloured spectacles, but I've always felt the youth clubs I knew were founded on high ideals and tried to make their members good citizens.

As one of my old pals says, they taught us some big lessons. Callow lads with pubescent fantasies learned to grow up. It was like completing their education.

If you think I mean their sex education, think again. Sixty years ago we were still living in an age of romance and courtship. Compared with today, we had lower expectations.

In my case, this bridge into adulthood was the Rotary Youth Club at Shelton. Perhaps the name made it sound a bit posh, but it was no place to put on airs and graces. We enjoyed simple pleasures like dancing to records by Glenn Miller or Woody Herman. I was besotted by two girls named Ruth and Jean, who were wonderful be-boppers. But it wasn't all records and table tennis. We had weekly debates and staged plays. At the Rotary Club, I found my own appetite for performing comedy acts.

As we couldn't vote until we were 21, I have a feeling party politics never came on to the agenda in youth clubs, apart from one run by Burslem Co-op. I think its members were persuaded to distribute leaflets for Labour.

There was certainly a city youth council in the 1950s and a lot of interest in it, too. I recall meetings in the old council chamber at Hanley attended by as many as 50 members.

Their deliberations were taken seriously by the education authority, but I doubt if there were many incipient politicians among them.

Back at the clubs, the lads were far more interested in football. Most of us had our sights on playing for Stoke or Vale.

At 17, I had a trial for Vale. The manager, Gordon Hodgson, said afterwards he'd let me know. I never heard a thing.

Perhaps someone had told him I was playing at centre-half when the Rotary team lost 16-0 to Grove. Thank goodness I didn't report on football in my Sentinel youth page.