A CHILDHOOD friend of Olympic ice-skating star Robin Cousins is backing his bid to open a winter rink in Weymouth.

Cousins Entertainment wants to set up the facility over the Christmas period to help bring people into the town.

A Weymouth pub owner who shared the ice with a teenage Robin Cousins has pledged her support and said she would help in any way.

Susan Sheppard, landlady of Duke of Edinburgh House of Sounds in St Thomas Street, was a regular at the ice-skating rink in Bristol’s Locarno Ballroom where Mr Cousins used to train.

Mrs Sheppard, 50, said: “I used to skate with my best friend Rachel, who was going out with Robin Cousins, and my other friend Susan who went on to Holiday on Ice.

“I remember him coming up to us and he said ‘I’m going to be famous on day’, and we all laughed at him, as you do. I will never forget that. I socialised there more than I got on the ice – I wasn’t any good.”

In comparison, the mother-of-two said Mr Cousins was very dedicated. “Although we were a large group of friends, he mixed, but kept that distance because he was more interested in doing what he was doing.”

Although she is no pro on the ice, Mrs Sheppard is backing the suggestions for a temporary rink. “I think it’s a brilliant idea,” she said. “It would get the kids doing something, instead of wandering around the streets.

“I think you would also get the adults bringing the kids and leaving them skating while they go around the town and spend money.

“If it was coming, I wouldn’t mind sticking posters and flyers up, or whatever I can do to support it, because I have known Robin from my past and I would like to help the town really.”

If the plans do come to fruition, Mrs Sheppard hopes to be reunited with her former friend, who she hasn’t seen since she was aged 15. She said: “When my friend moved away with Holiday on Ice I stopped going to the rink and I haven’t seen him since. I don’t know if he would remember me.”

There are no plans as to where the rink will go, although one Chickerell business owner has suggested use of her eight-acre site.

Angie Bennett, 57, co-owner of Bennetts Water Gardens, said: “It is something we have considered doing here. Depending on what it entails, they should know it might be worth getting in touch.”