sports club for the last time By Tania Theriault When Fred `Dickty' Trott wiped down the bar at the National Sports Club in Devonshire for the final time recently it was with a sense of melancholy.

When he turned off the lights, as he has been doing for the last 29 years, the lights went out forever on a happy period in his life. "It's the last dance,'' he said with regret.

As preparations began for Montessori Academy to begin operating from the property, the club's bar closed on January 31st to make room for the transition, leaving the 64-year-old bartender without a job.

The bar's closing has left him out of sorts and with mixed emotions. "I've been here since April 2, 1972,'' he said on that final night as he cleaned up for the last time.

"It's the end of an era. It's disheartening really.'' Mr. Trott said his long association with Nationals actually began in 1971 when he was playing cricket on its pitch.

After he took a year off from cricket, he was asked to come back to the club as the bartender.

"I was working as a caddy at Mid Ocean,'' he said. "A friend came by and asked me to come out to Nationals as the bartender. I told them I had no experience as a bartender, but he said it didn't matter. I've been here ever since.'' "I am going to lose so many friends,'' he said of the club's closing. "I have made so many over the years -- from rugby, hockey, cricket -- so many, both black and white, and from all over the world.'' Mr. Trott said all his memories of the club have been happy ones.

In three decades of service, he has watched many players come and go and some have even grown up before his eyes.

"One of the guys who plays for Wolves and also in Cup Match, Mark `Beaver' Ray. I gave him his nickname because I saw him playing here when he was just this high,'' he said while gesturing to his waist level. "He was so small. He and his brother John were both so small when they first came here.

"And Darren Lewis who played cricket and Jason Lewis, they all grew up on this field. They're like my sons really.'' With the closing, Mr. Trott plans to semi-retire. "I hope to go back to what I've always liked -- house painting,'' he said.

Despite rugby's rough and rowdy reputation, Mr. Trott said his patrons were pretty well behaved over the years and bar rules -- though few -- were respected. He did once have to play tough with a club president however.

"The ladies used to play darts here on Fridays. At quarter to twelve I had to tell them it was last call,'' he said. "Then at midnight, the club president comes up to the bar and asks for a vodka and tonic. I say, `sorry, but the bar is closed' and he walked out. He's my boss but the bar was closed.

"The next week, I found myself in front of the committee,'' he chuckles.

"But rules are rules.'' Mr. Trott had to admit he had his favourite teams over the years.

"Wolves used to come down here and they were very good to me, always very cooperative. They used to have parties here. I'm going to miss them and I wish them success in the future. In rugby, the Mariners were my team, then the Teachers, then the Renegades and then the Police. And my hockey team was the Canaries early on, but I've changed from them to the Swallows.

"But really,'' he laughs, "I've loved them all.'' The traffic in the bar dropped over the last few years, he said, with the loss of cricket in 1995 and an international hockey tourney that used to be held every year.

But the Rugby Classic was always the busiest time of year. "I will miss it immensely,'' he said.

But mostly, he said, he will miss his many friends, too numerous to mention.

"It's the last dance for me,'' he said. "It's all over. I've enjoyed every minute of it.''