Get Berkshire Active Week, 1 to 9 June - Don’t Miss Out!
The aim of Get Berkshire Active Week is to provide hundreds of sport and physical activity opportunities across the whole county, for all ages, providing Berkshire residents with the opportunity to kick start a more active lifestyle or to try something new. Like other sports weeks that have been run in the past we would like as many free and open sport/physical activity opportunities to be taking place during this week as possible. A countywide Sports Week will allow for a coordinated approach between districts, creating a greater impact - and we need your help please.
To get involved in Get Berkshire Active Week please register at www.getberkshireactive.org/register. Once registered you will be able to add details about your club/organisation and any sessions you run. Sessions that feature as part of this week can be your existing sessions that you open up to newcomers or you may like to run a dedicated ‘Get Berkshire Active week’ session, tailored specifically to complete beginners in your sport.
Fox’s Gold - A Sporting Exhibition at the REME Museum of Technology in Arborfield
A temporary exhibition charting Jim Fox's route to Olympic Gold in 1976. Jim Fox was a REME soldier whilst he competed on the international sporting stage. Soon after his Olympic success in 1976 he was commissioned as a Captain.
Fox was introduced to the Modern Pentathlon in 1960. In 1963, at his first attempt, Jim Fox won the British Championship, the Army Individual and the Inter-Service Individual Championship. He went on to be captain of the successful Modern Pentathlon team who won a Gold Medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.
For more details visit the museum's website.
Wokingham Borough Sports Council AGM - 2013
The Wokingham Borough Sports Council held its AGM on 4 February 2013 with representatives of local sports clubs, associations and facilities in attendance. WBSC Chairman, Roland Mear, made the following statement at the AGM in relation to 2012:
“During 2012 we have refined our website and are now receiving around 100 hits per month. With our Local Sports section highlighting most of the Sports Clubs in the area it does give people a directory of what is on offer in the Borough.
The banner on show tonight has been on display in Sainsbury's for around two months and this, together with the leaflets we have produced, are aimed at getting people to find a Sports Club via the website. This is seen as one of our attempts to promote the Olympic Legacy.
Also as part of the Legacy, Angus Ross, who is a Borough Councillor and one of our Committee members, has managed to get the Council to agree to double the funding to the Sports Sponsorship Fund over the next three years. This means that up to £7000 per year should be available to help support young sports people in the Borough up to the age of 18.
As in previous years we have continued to provide Child Protection and First Aid Courses for Sports Clubs and we aim to do the same again this year.
We are currently seeking to access funds from the Primary Care Trust which will help provide assistance for those with long-term health problems.
We are keen to help all Clubs to continue to flourish and we will always provide active support where it is needed. In this connection we recently supported Reading Rugby Club with a planning application very much on sporting grounds.
We have become involved with the user group at Cantley Park where the Council, in conjuction with the Developers, are planning improvements to the playing areas and the changing facilities.
We have created a link with the Get Berkshire Active group and we hope this will be beneficial in the longer run.
We continue to enjoy an excellent relationship with the Sports Development Section of Wokingham Council via Bev Thompson, who remains an important member of our Committee.
Finally we ran our usual Sports Awards in early December at Bearwood College and not only did we have Olympic Rower Alex Partridge to present the awards but we also had Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Watkins in attendance. Thanks go to Jack Sulman and his son Matthew who provided the audio visual presentation on the evening.
Turning to the future we have a number of aims:
- We would like to increase our representation on the Committee into as many sports as possible as we want to be a voice for all sport in the Borough;
- We have contact details for many of the Olympic Gamesmakers and we want to explore ways in which they might continue their involvement with sport;
- We are planning a Girls' Football Tournament in 2013;
- As part of our liaison with Get Berkshire Active we hope to provide Clubs with a guide to obtaining grants within their sector. We are also hoping to explore Insurance issues where it may be possible to reduce costs by Clubs acting as a group rather than individually. Again this is something we hope to liaise with Get Berkshire Active about;
- We plan to provide more First Aid and Child Protection Courses;
- We hope to improve our website and continue to liaise with the local Press so that Clubs know they should contact us if they are faced with major Sporting issues; and
- Our annual Sports Awards will be held on the 29th of November this year at Bearwood College and we will be seeking Nominations in September.
Finally we are open to any constructive comments which would improve our effectiveness in the years ahead and should you decide after the AGM that you would like to join us then you are welcome to contact me through the website.”
News ...
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 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 or follow them on Twitter.
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.
November 2011 - Annual Sports Awards
For details of the awards presented, the nominees, winners and photographs, click here. Note, the pictures are presented in a Word document so to see them in more detail just use View > Zoom.
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