News:
Help Us To Help You
The Executive Committee of sportMoray would like to give Clubs the opportunity to suggest ways that sportMoray could assist them in developing their club. The following questionnaire may help you to identify areas that you would like to make comment on, find out more about or would like to consider to opt into in the near future. We would appreciate any feedback to allow us to plan for this coming year so that support is given to the clubs in areas that have been highlighted.
Walk, Jog, Run Moray 5k and 1.5k Summer Challenge
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!!
sportMorayClub Network Evening
The next sportMoray Club networking evening will take place at Moray College, Elgin on Monday the 22nd of March 2010. This event is free of charge and there will be a number of workshops and presentations throughout the evening. Proceedings get underway at 6.30pm, If you would like more information
Mini Bus Hire
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.
Still free gym memberships up for grabs at Crerar Eight Acres Hotel.
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.
Alternatively download a nomination form Here.
Scottish Rugby Training Camp
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."
sportMoray Recognition Awards
sportMoray have started making plans for their annual Recognition Awards for 2009. The event is scheduled to take place on Thursday 12th November to be held once again at the Crerar Eight Acres Hotel in Elgin. The format of the evening has still to be finalised however, it will run similar to previous Awards nights.
This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the sportMoray awards and these Awards have been growing in stature since its formation in 1999. This year’s event will be compered by Ian Allanach, former Depute Rector at Forres Academy who has been involved in Scottish Squash for a number of years. The Awards night is an opportunity to recognise individuals and teams who have contributed or achieved a great deal in their chosen sport at either recreational, regional, national or international level.
There are nine categories of awards that individuals/teams can be nominated for and these are SALSC (Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils) Local Service to Sport Award, Junior Sportsman Award, Junior Sportswoman Award, Junior Team Award, Senior Team Award, Coach Award, Club Level Award, Special Achievement Award and Sportsperson of the Year Award. For the Junior Sportsman, Junior Sportswoman, Junior Team, Senior Team and Sports Person of the Year Awards, these nominations must be for sporting achievements attained during the period November 2008 to October 2009. Nominations for all categories will only be considered for individuals or clubs that reside in Moray. Last year’s winners of the various awards were as follows; the SALSC Local Service to Sport Award was joint won by Lesley McConnell (Tennis) and William Cook (Bowling). The Junior Sportswoman Award went to Chloe Hunt (Lacrosse) with the Junior Sportsman Award going to Lee Millar (Rugby). Junior Team winners were the Elgin Ice Hockey Club with the Senior Team Winners being the Atlantic Challenge Team of the Moray Gig. The Coach Award was shared by swimming coaches Grant McPherson and Alan Thompson. The Club Level Award winner was Mary Bell (cycling), Special Achievement Award winners were the Moray Wheelchair Curling Club and the Sports Person of the Year crown went to Frankie Barton (Athletics).
Nominations for any of the above awards need to be submitted by Thursday 22nd October. For further information on this event or for a nomination form please contact the Sports Development Officer on 01343 563657 or e-mail: kim.paterson@moray.gov.uk
Issue 14-Spring 2009 edition of the Child Protection in Sport newsletter
The Child Protection in Sport newsletter 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. You can find the latest edition Here.
Moray Volunteer Service Organisation
The Spring Newsletter from the Moray Volunteer Service Organisation can be found Here.
The Scottish Disability Golf Partnership The Dukes Golf Course St Andrews
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.
FUNDING - Hints to parents and athletes.
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
sportMoray Junior Golf Competition
On Saturday, 9th August 2008 sportMoray hosted their first Junior Golf Competition at Kinloss Country Golf Club. For a report on the Day's events click here.
SALSC Golf Tournament
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.
Grant Finder
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.
sportMoray AGM
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 £200 to the club members recently
SportMoray Quiz Night
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 £210 which will be put into sportMoray funds.
Because the event was so successful, we hope to hold it again maybe in September or October.
The questionnaire should take no
more than 10 minutes to complete and is aimed at club members,
parents of junior members and volunteers.
Grampian Coaching
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:
· Quantify the number of active coaches across the region
· Identify volunteers willing to give their time
· Prioritise their needs
· Clarify methods of communication in the future
OCS Young Sportsperson
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.
Wheelchair Curling
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.
Child Protection In Sport
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!