October 2013 – Aerobic Gymnastics British Championships and NAC Cup Competition
Bulmershe Gymnastics Club gymnasts had a fantastic weekend at the 2013 Aerobic Gymnastics British Championships and NAC Cup Competition recently held at the Rivermead Leisure Complex, Reading, coming away with 15 British Champion titles together with 10 Silver Medal and 5 Bronze Medal positions.
Chloe Farrance, returning from injury, was desperate to regain her British title of Senior British Champion and did so with an excellent score of 20.75. Sisters Olivia and Sophie Goves had a very successful weekend bringing home 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze Medals between them.
In the National Aerobic Code Competition local girl Celine Payne won the NAC Cup Trophy having produced the highest score of that competition.
Many personal best scores were achieved throughout the weekend and the Coaches are delighted and so very proud of all the Bulmershe gymnasts.
The British Championships was also the final trial for the forthcoming 8th Aerobic Gymnastics European Championships to be held at Arques, France from 4 – 11 November 2013.
A total of 15 gymnasts from Bulmershe were entered for these European Championships and all have qualified to compete for Great Britain: Ella Augier, Emily Boyce, Crerar Antony, Myfi Mountford, Stella Vinet, Sophie Goves, Jessica Kirkpatrick, Niamh Keane, Katie Dean, Amy Watts, Sophie Julian, Chloe Farrance, Beth Martin, Hannah Owen andKeimoy St Hill.
Additionally, our Senior Group from Bulmershe, comprising Chloe Farrance, Beth Martin, Hannah Owen, Keimoy St Hilland
The gymnasts are continuing to train very hard and are extremely motivated. We congratulate them on their achievements to date and wish them all Good Luck over the coming weeks.
November 2012 – Shinfield Tennis Club Opens New Clubhouse and Floodlit Courts
STC is pleased to announce that four new floodlit courts and a new clubhouse were officially opened by the President of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Peter Bretherton alongside the Mayor of Wokingham Borough Council, Cllr Bob Wyatt. In addition Ian Clarke a previous Chairman of the Shinfield Parish Council, Cllr. Charlotte Haitham Taylor, Executive Member for Children’s Services and member for Shinfield South, Hannah Bladen and Mark Lawrie from Sport England also joined our celebrations.
Jo-Anne Downing, the LTA’s Tennis Development Manager for Berkshire, said: “We’re delighted that Peter has seen the progress being made to grow tennis here and how the LTA investment in Shinfield Tennis Club has transformed the venue into one of the best in this part of Berkshire.”
The club’s major development has been funded with support from the LTA, Sport England-Inspired Facilities, Shinfield Parish Council as well as Wokingham Borough Council. Our new unique facility for the local community will be able to extend the amount of tennis that can be played now that we have floodlights. In addition we can offer some new sessions for all ages including Cardio-Tennis from November regardless of whether you are a member of the club.
Please check our website www.shinfieldtennisclub.co.uk for details for Cardio-Tennis.
Shinfield Tennis Club was Clubmark accredited in 2011 – a Sport England accreditation programme that recognises clubs who are delivering quality tennis programmes in line with best practice – and our membership has reached more than 240 and continues to grow. The club also boasts more than 140 juniors on the coaching programme thanks to the numerous school and community links.
For the Autumn/Winter our eight adult teams have started their league matches with mixed results for the first and second teams. First team – promoted to Division 6 (Hurrah) had success with the first match against Cholsey. A close win despite having to concede 1 round as one of our players was late due to a car accident. We reckon we would have won 3-1 if the incident had not got in the way, well done Anna, Mindy, Sai and Jan. Second team – a loss against Caversham Park unfortunately, but score indicates that it was a bit of a fight, well done Nic, Liz, Kelly and Sheelagh. The ladies third team, first time out lost but had a great afternoon’s tennis and I’m told a lovely tea at Ascot, so well done to Sue, Annabel, Tor and Fiona.
Then in November we start our Junior league matches where our coach Dani Seddon has developed the children who come for coaching regularly and entered 8 boys and girls teams with more teams to come in the Spring across all our age ranges.
June 2012 – Boost for Girls’ Football in Woodley
Local people in Woodley will be putting on their boots following a £5,000 Grow the Game grant, from the Football Foundation, the country’s largest sports charity. The grant will allow Woodley United Football Club to grow from six to eight female teams over the next two years with an additional team being run at Under-12 level in the 2012-13 season and an Under-15 team in the 2013-14 campaign. To ensure players receive the best possible coaching the club is committed to developing eight coaches at FA Levels 1 and 2 and providing support in local schools.
The core objective of the Football Foundation’s Grow the Game’s programme is to increase participation and enable more people to play our national game through supporting the development of grassroots clubs. The programme is delivered in partnership with all of the 46 County FAs and funded by The FA and Government. So far Grow the Game has awarded 894 separate grants worth £4,354,926 to grassroots football clubs. Analysis of the monitoring and evaluation so far predicts that this will result in the creation of 3,716 brand new football teams competing in FA-affiliated leagues, 70,489 new players participating each week and 14,111 new qualifications or courses being completed.
The key strength of Grow the Game is that its participation increases are sustainable rather than transient. Its grants create a solid infrastructure of teams and newly-trained coaches in which new people can start playing the sport, rather than simply providing temporary activity sessions, which are then vulnerable to drops in participation once the programme ends.
The Football Foundation is the country’s largest sports charity, launched in 2000 and funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government (via Sport England). Since then it has awarded around 8,000 grants worth more than £420m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520m.
Chris Cartwright, Woodley United Club Secretary and Development Officer, said: “I’d like to thank the Football Foundation for this grant which will enable Woodley United FC to build upon the success of its inaugural season that saw many girls playing football for the first time while female volunteers were attracted to the club. This grant will enable the club to increase playing and coaching opportunities within the club while enabling support in the local community via after school coaching.”
Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “I congratulate Woodley United for receiving this Grow the Game grant, which will increase sport participation and support football development in the region. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Berkshire & Buckinghamshire FA for their help in making this happen.
The new teams and players generated by the Grow the Game scheme, since its launch three years ago, will go a long way towards helping The FA to achieve its growth target of 150,000 new participants by 2013. It is also helping government and Sport England get more people engaging in regular sport.
The Football Foundation is committed – with funding provided by the Premier League, The FA and Government – to improve grassroots community sporting provision and help make this legacy vision a reality.”
For more information about the work the Football Foundation is doing all over the country visit their website – www.footballfoundation.org.uk – or follow them on Twitter @FootballFoundtn
December 2011 – Local Archers Shoot for Success
Wokingham-based Tom Duncan won the 2011 UK National Indoor Archery Championship on 4 December. Duncan, from Wokingham’s Bowmen of Burleigh Archery Club based at Cantley Park, qualified 30th from 109 UK archers at the National Championships.
The competition, held at the International Conference Centre in Telford, had a very competitive line-up which included archers that represent England and Great Britain.
The top 32 archers from the qualification round (60 arrows shot at a triple spot 60cm face at 18 metres distant) went through to the head-to-head phase of the competition. This is where Duncan worked his way through the field taking some notable scalps on the way. In the head-to-head competition ends of three arrows are shot, 2 set points for a win and a tied match attracting 1 point each, with the match winner the first to 6 points. A tied match at 5 all is decided by a single-arrow shoot-off with the arrow nearest to the centre of the target taking the match. Duncan’s match scores were: 7-3; 6-2; 6-5; 6-2 in the semi-final and 6-4 in the Gold Medal match.
Luke Wanden, from Crowthorne Junior Archery Club also excelled at the UK National Junior Indoor Archery Championships held at the same location on 3 December when he won the first session of the day with a score of 575 (maximum 600) and went on to win the silver medal for the under-18 age group. The format of this competition is 60 arrows shot on a 60cm target face at a distance of 20 yards.