sportMoray News Page

Kaizan School of Karate have been successful in their application for funding from sportMoray, to assist with costs of competing at the World Kickboxing Association Championships in October. SportMoray representative Kim Paterson recently attended a squad training night to hand over a cheque for the sum of Ł432. This will assist in funding 13 members of the club to compete at the Championships.

Fllowing the AGM of SportMoray - held on the 7th of June 2010, we are pleased to confirm that affiliation fees are to remain as they are.

Attached is the affiliation form for the 2010/2011 period. They must be returned by the 30th of August 2010.

We are also going to take this opportunity to remind all clubs that if you have received a grant award from ourselves you must renew your affiliation for three years following this - to remain within the terms of the funding.

We look forward to receiving your forms.

Affiliation Form

Further information regarding this year's Pinto 3K Series can be found HERE.

Are you sick of the snow and cold, well I have the ideal event to get you motivated and all warm for the summer!!

Please see below for an entry form and information for the Walk, Jog, Run Moray 5k and 1.5k Summer Challenge which is to be held on Sun 13th June in Elgin.

This event is ideal for all ages and abilities and people can opt to walk, jog or run the course. Two events will take place, a 1.5k event for juniors, walkers, fun runners and wheelchair users and a 5k event for people
aged 14yrs plus who would like to walk, jog or run the route. This is an ideal day out for all the family!

This year the event entry fees and sponsor money will go towards a very worthwhile cause, the sportMoray Pinto Fund, which is helping children in the Moray area that may be heading down the wrong track in life to get
involved in sport/physical activity. This fund has been set up by Sarah McGregor, who was running partner of the late Alistair 'Pinto' Sim who was a motivated and enthusiastic member of the Moray Road Runners who passed away in February 2008.

This is a great opportunity for everyone to set a goal for June and work towards it over the forthcoming months!!

Does your club require transport on a regular basis to compete, then sportMoray in conjunction with Moray Council may be able to assist, find out more here.

Last October, Hamish Du Pon, Crerar Eight Acres Hotel Gym Manager approached sportMoray to enquire about the potential of working in partnership to offer 12 free annual gym memberships at the hotel between Oct 08-Sept 09. This opportunity is specifically targeted at sports people that are striving to reach national level in their chosen sport.

Unfortunately since Oct 2008 only four recipients that have met the criteria have been nominated for these free memberships. The final deadline for nominations for the remaining eight memberships is set for 30th September 2009 and it would be fantastic if we could allocate worthy recipients to all eight places available.

Moray has a large number of very talented sports people/athletes at world, international and national level but there are even more at regional level and this scheme is specifically targeting athletes at this level. By providing an excellent training facility through this free membership scheme it is hoped that those athletes at a regional level will progress to a national level through this additional support.

The four lucky recipients of this membership scheme to date are Lee Millar (rugby), Alan Frew (football referee), Stuart Gray (cross country skier) and Sofie Cruickshank (women's football).

If you are aware of any sports person that is competing at a regional level but striving to reach national level then this free gym membership scheme is ideal. For further information or a nomination form please contact the Sports Development Officer on 01343 563 657 or email kim.paterson@moray.gov.uk.

Scotland’s most-capped player, Chris Paterson, and his international colleagues arrived at the Scotland rugby camp to meet around 80 young rugby hopefuls at Moray rugby club in Elgin.

One of three Scottish Rugby camps running across the country, children aged between eight and 15 took part in the three-day camp geared towards having fun with rugby.

The camps, which generally attract youngsters already familiar with the game, warm-up with multi-sport activities before focusing on game sense and game awareness skills – encouraging the youngsters to question their decisions in game situations.

However, it wasn’t all hard work as midway through the second day, the campers were rewarded with a visit from fans’ favourite Chris Paterson and fellow Scotland players Dave Callam, Ross Rennie, and Scotland 7s internationalist of the season, Roddy Grant, who all joined the on-field action before answering a barrage of questions from the eager young players, signing autographs and having their picture taken.

Paterson said: "This is a fantastic way for these kids to sharpen up some of their skill. They really got stuck in, it was obvious that they were having a great time and were making lots of new friends as everyone of them was running around with a big smile on their face."

Alistair Hay was competing in the The Scottish Disability Golf Partnership at the Dukes Golf Course in St Andrews representing sportMoray.

Alistair did not have a team so was slotted into the SDGP team. He had a good and eventful round and scored 22points for his team. He was a wee bit rusty but you expect that at the beginning of the season. On the first hole he literally 'lost his head' with the head coming off his favourite 5 iron.

The head went further than the ball at his second shot. I think that upset him a wee bit. On the 16th hole they blindfolded the golfers but Alistair managed to hit it and we found it as well. There were superb views from all the holes over St Andrews. Teams that participated were from the Guide Dogs for the Blind association, SDGP, Voluntary organisations North East Fife and Sense Scotland. We were the first Group out and therefore finished early about 3.45pm. Had to wait a while until 6.15 to wait for teams to come in. Had a nice meal and presentations. Although Alistair did not win a prize he won many friends. Some of the men who had won raffle prizes took sympathy on him and gave him their boxes of golf balls. A superb gesture and as usual he did not leave empty handed.

Training and competing in sports at any level will cost money. The further you wish to develop and compete in your chosen sport will inevitably mean increased costs for training, equipment, entry fees, clothing, travel, accommodation and food...

Your own club and sportMoray may be able to offer some assistance but it will probably be limited as both needs to be fair to others who are also looking for assistance.

What can you do to try and help your case when you are putting forward funding requests to various bodies and organisations? For More Information Click Here.

Free Leisure Membership at Crerar Eight Acres Hotel in conjunction with sportMoray

As we have seen throughout the summer at the Olympics, athletes these days need as much help as possible to get to that highest level. Once they have reached that level the funding is often in place with accommodation, facilities and wages, however reaching this level is extremely hard to achieve unless you have the right backing.

The Crerar Eight Acres Hotel in Elgin is now in a position to offer free use of its leisure facilities for a number of potentially talented athletes/sports people in the area. This will hopefully allow them to get to that next level of fitness/development which will help them make that step closer to improved funding, participate in top level competition and raise their recognition which will help them achieve their ultimate goal.

Crerar Eight Acres Hotel have teamed up with sportMoray (local sports council) to promote and administer this promotion. There are twelve free places available, which will be distributed on a quarterly basis. The first two recipients have been pre-selected by sportMoray drawing on their experience and knowledge over all the sports in the area.

Lee Millar from Elgin is a rising rugby star who plays for Moray Rugby Football Club. Lee has been an extremely influential member of the Moray under 18 team as well as holding a regular place in the senior team in the Caledonia North Division 2 League. Last year Lee was selected for the under 17 Caledonia squad which was an excellent achievement.

Alan Frew is a local Scottish Football Association referee who has refereed many Junior and Highland League matches in the area. This year Alan was selected into the SFA referee academy where he will attend regular training weekends and workshops led by Hugh Dallas MBE, retired SFA and International Soccer Referee.

If you are aware of anyone that would relish this opportunity then please contact the sportMoray secretary on 01343 557146 for an application form. The deadline for the next selection of recipients will be 31 January. For sports people that are already representing their sport at national or international level, Moray Council offer a Gold Card Scheme which entitles athletes free access to Council leisure facilities to enable them to continue at this level. For further information on this scheme please contact the Sports Development Officer on 01343 563657.

Hamish Du Pon, Crerar Eight Acres Hotel Leisure Club Manager; Allan Frew; Lee Millar and Ann Rossiter

On Saturday, 9^th August 2008 sportMoray hosted their first Junior Golf Competition at Kinloss Country Golf Club. For a report on the Day's events click here.

The Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils’ Annual National Inter District Boys Golf Tournament supported by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrew’s was held at Torrance House Golf Club, East Kilbride. To see how the team from Moray performed click here.

GRANTfinder – by far the UK’s largest and most comprehensively supported database of its type – is a user friendly database carrying in excess of 4,000 UK and EU funding programmes – a reservoir of information that is constantly growing and continuously updated.

This years sportMoray Annual General Meeting took place at Moray College, Moray Street, Elgin on Monday 16th of June 2008 at 7:00PM.

Elgin Figure Skating Club

sportMoray have recently awarded Elgin Figure Skating Club a Grant to compete at the Magnum Open Competition at Irvine in March. Councillor Douglas Ross handed over a cheque for Ł200 to the club members recently

A big thank you to all of you who supported last Saturday’s Quiz Night at Elgin Golf Club. 63 people took part split into about 14 teams.

Elgin Golf Club was a perfect venue for this event and the staff looked after us so well. A big thank you to James MacPherson, Secretary and Manager of the Club who helped put everything in place and to Eddie and the bar staff and the ladies who did the catering. Everyone was very friendly and very helpful.

In first place came Forres Harriers (Dennis Cameron, Hamish Cameron, Alan Hunter, Doug Cowie, Caroline Cowie and Mike Milmoe). In second place came a team called ‘Prince Harry Relocation Committee’ made up of Ian, Gray, Maureen Gray, Anne Wood and Tim wood and third place went to a team made up of Carol Flett, Celia Armitage, Geoff Armitage, Neil Smith and Kevin Bruce who called themselves ‘One Short from Speyside’.

Once again Sandy and Jan Duncan, the questionmasters provided an entertaining quiz and made sure all went smoothly. A huge thanks to them.

Raffle prizes were donated by the sportMoray committee as well as a bottle of Chivas Regal donated by Chivas Brothers.

After paying out the 3 cash prizes plus catering costs we were still left with Ł210 which will be put into sportMoray funds.

Because the event was so successful, we hope to hold it again maybe in September or October.

sportscotland and Children 1st have commissioned the Sport Industry Research Centre at Sheffield University to explore the opinions - be they positive, neutral or negative - of club members, parents and volunteers towards child protection legislation and disclosure checking. This research is important as it will allow sportscotland and Children 1st to appropriately support SGBs, clubs and volunteers in the lead up to, and following, the imminent legislative changes in child protection and disclosure checking.

We have been in contact with some SGBs and clubs regarding your help with this project, but in light of feedback we have amended the methodology. The main survey can be accessed electronically here: http://sircspss.hwb.shu.ac.uk/sportscotlandchildren1st/ and we would be grateful if you could distribute this link to your member clubs as well as placing the link to the survey on your websites (if you have one). The survey will also be available in paper format and we will provide as many copies and pre-paid envelopes as you request.

The questionnaire should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and is aimed at club members, parents of junior members and volunteers.

The returns are completely anonymous and cannot be linked to the individual completing them, but we will enter all completed questionnaires into a draw and one club will win Ł200 of sports equipment as appropriate to them.

Should you wish to discuss the research further please contact Eilidh Nicolson on 0131 472 3218 or by email eilidh.nicolson@sportscotland.org.uk.

Are you an experienced coach who would like to improve your coaching qualifications? Are you an interested volunteer who would like to work with the youth section of your sports club? Perhaps you are simply helping out in your organisation but would like to go further and feel more confident in your efforts? Please help us to help you. By completing the questionnaire you will provide the information that we need to:

Another successful year of the OCS Young Sports Person Awards has now passed and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support. 2007 saw our tenth year of giving awards to young, talented sports people, and the winners this year were no exception.

Norman Anderson from Buckie and Jackie Cayton of Lossiemouth were part of a four-strong team which finished third in the British Open wheelchair curling competition at Kinross against Scottish & Welsh teams. Jackie has also been competing on the International Stage over in Canada playing for Scotland against World class teams.

The link below will take you to the latest Child Protection in Sport newsletter which is aimed at everyone who works with children and young people in sport. To make it as relevant as possible, contributions are welcomed for future editions. The producers of the Newsletter wish to make sure that the content reflects the interests of readers!