NO STRANGER to students keen on volleyball at Exeter College, Arthur Mosley is a familiar face around its corridors on Thursday evenings when he comes back to his former workplace to teach the sport as part of the College’s Enrichment programme.

Yet the coach, who worked for 21 years full-time in the Sports, Leisure and Tourism faculty, at various times as Acting Head of Faculty or Deputy, has a past which has earned him admiration on both a national and international scale over the years.

It culminated this month with his induction into the Don Anthony Hall of Fame – aimed at paying respect to some of the greatest sporting heroes in the history of the game in Britain.

And with a professional history which includes being Captain of the British team between 1967 and 1969, playing for England at international level until 1971, and in that time achieving 51 international caps, Arthur certainly has the credentials.

Not one to rest on his laurels, however, having just returned from the Hall’s official launch in Kettering which saw him reunited with friends he’d not seen in decades, it’s back to the sports hall for 66-year-old Arthur who recalls how his own passion for volleyball began on a school trip to Paris when he was 16.

Arthur says: “We were staying at a boarding school when we saw some students playing a game in the school playground which we’d never seen before. We didn’t know what it was, so we went to have a look and before we knew it they were inviting us to join in.”

Returning home, Arthur soon began playing volleyball recreationally in Chelmsford where he grew up. But it was when he began his teacher training at Aviery Hill College of Education in Eltham that a happy coincidence would see him take his hobby to national level. The PE lecturer was Don Anthony, who was also the Chair and Founder of the English Volleyball Association.

Arthur began to take the sport seriously and, playing more and more, made it into the England team.

“My first international trip was to Belgium to compete in a Western European tournament,” recalls Arthur. “For the next six years, I repeated that experience all over the world, everywhere from Finland to Israel.

“I was 22 years old. To have an opportunity to do all that travelling with your peers and friends who all shared the same interest at that age, and to be able to do so playing the sport you loved, was just fantastic.”

Encouraged by the players he sees rising through the ranks year after year at Exeter College, he says: “Some of my past students at Exeter College have gone on to play at international level, or have been selected to play for England’s junior training teams, so I always consider that a possibility with each new intake.

“What really excites me about having the opportunity to continue teaching volleyball to new generations is that I have always gained a great deal pleasure out of the sport, and I love being able to give others the chance to do so too.

“Not all of them will go on to play at a high level by any means. But even for those who won’t, it is nice to know that they are having a thoroughly enjoyable time engaging in an activity which they may otherwise never have had a chance to try.”

Of being inducted into British volleyball’s official Hall of Fame, he adds: “It was a great experience. I met up with a lot of old friends and it was a tremendous day. Don was, and remains, a huge inspiration to me, so I feel particularly honoured to have been recognised in this way.”