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2014
Scroll down to have a look over ClubSport Stirling's news stories of 2014.


Forth Valley Orienteers retain UK title

December 2014

Forth Valley Orienteers travelled all the way south to Aldershot to retain their UK club trophy last Sunday on 14th December. This event was the final of the interclub competition with two sections; the Compass Sport Cup for large clubs and The Compass Sport Trophy for small clubs. Forth Valley Orienteers have won the Trophy for the last seven years in a row and being a long way to travel it was important to field a small but quality team. Twenty one athletes in total travelled south (14 on whom flew down and back on the day), from all age groups from under 12 to over 70 years. The team all performed to a high level showing the experience and depth within the club. It is the ability to field a high quality team at all age levels that sets FVO apart from other clubs. Having achieved the title for 8 eight years the club will now move itself up to the Large Clubs Section even though the membership still qualifies them as a small club. Next year the club hope to win through the Scottish final in order to go head to head with the biggest clubs in the country in true David and Goliath style. 

Positive Coaching Scotland Workshop - Dunblane Soccer Club

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December 2014

Dunblane Soccer Club coaches recently went through a coaches workshop to continue to support their members further with positive messages to impact players and teams.  Scott Kinross, Scottish FA Football Development said “Dunblane Soccer Club were very engaging in helping set up this workshop and the volunteers on the night were very enthusiastic taking on board the key messages that Positive Coaching Scotland provides.  The club are currently at “Standard Level” of Quality Mark and the aim is during 2015 to assist them in reaching “Community Level”.


David Dale, Chairman, Dunblane Soccer Club" With 21 coaches attending the PCS workshop, it showed a fantastic commitment to the ethos of positive coaching within our club. Our aim is to create a learning environment where kids want to come and play. Every session should be enjoyable, fun and challenging ensuring they want to come back for the next session. The PCS workshop was great chance for everyone to come together to discuss how to move forward as a club with great facilitation and support from Scott Kinross. The positive messages delivered by Scott were very much aligned with the positive culture we are trying to create"


Forth Valley Orienteers Ross McLennan rewarded for excellent course planning for the Race the Castles Event. 

November 2014

World of O (the worlds leading magazine/news site for orienteering) ran a competition for the best planned courses of 2014. There were two categories Long and Middle /Sprint races. For the Middle /Sprint section Ross McLennan's men's elite course from the Race the Castles event held in October in Stirling achieved 2nd place just behind the World Championship Middle Course from Italy. Ross has received many comments from the athletes praising his course planning, however to be voted 2nd best course of the year by the world's top elite competitors is an excellent achievement. 
This years World Sprint Orienteering Champion Soren Bobach from Denmark said the 'Race the Castles in Stirling is definitely one of my favorites this year. The reason why I chose this is because it had so many good elements. We started out in the castle of Stirling with a lot of tricky legs where you really had to find the right balance between running fast and reading the map. Later on in the course there were some good route choice legs. Especially the last long leg was tricky. I had to use a lot of time to find a route. So overall I think it was a great sprint and really awesome to run in the castle'.

Well done Ross.
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Funding for Stirling Knights

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November 2014

Well done to Stirling Knights Basketball Club who managed to successfully secure £1,250 of funding from ClubSport Stirling, to purchase additional coaching aids supporting their junior members.

The club have been working very hard to cope with the rapid growth of the junior section, which has risen every year since the club established in 2009. With more and more juniors coming along every year and gaining national caps, the club have made it a priority to make sure that their coaching sessions are of the highest standard. Currently the club are struggling to utilize the coaching aids that they have among every junior member, so hopefully this funding will make sure that every junior will have the opportunity to develop their full potential as a basketball player.

Stirling Knights Head of Youth Development, Les McGlasson, spoke of how the equipment will be used towards coaching aids such as tackle wedges; SKLZ D-Man; foam rollers; speed ropes; and SKLZ shot spots; which will help to allow players to have more opportunities to develop their basketball playing within the club with more advanced drills with specialised equipment.

Well done to Les and the team for their successful application - see their photo in the Funding Library.

Remember if you would like your club to make a funding bid to ClubSport Stirling please get in touch with your Club Development Officer.



Forth Valley Orienteers- Race the Castles

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October 2014

Forth Valley Orienteers hosted the Stirling stage of the Race the Castles series last weekend which saw elite orienteers from all round the world running around the Castle and the Top the Town. Over 25 different countries were represented at this showcase event, taking part in orienteering races at Edinburgh, Stirling and Balmoral Castles. The event which received funding from Home coming Scotland gave the worlds top elite orienteers a chance to sample the delights of Scottish orienteering as a warm up to next years World Championships being held near Inverness. After the elite event, open races for all age groups were available with approximately 700 people competing in total. For a full race report, results and courses go to http://www.racethecastles.com/

Local Club's British Junior Canoe Slalom Championship 2014 success

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September 2014

Peter Linksted became British J14 C1 Champion in the British Junior Canoe Slalom Championships at the Tees Barrage International White Water course last weekend.  Peter, 14, from Polmont is a pupil of St. Mungo’s High School and races for Stirling and Falkirk Canoe Club.  He also achieved 3
rd
place in the British J14 K1 Championships at the same event.  This result puts him in a very strong position moving toward the Scottish Championships to be held at Grandtully on 18th October.


This success was achieved through the club successfully applying and receiving £2,000 for the purchasing of new equipment in February of this year. Steve Linksted the Clubs Chairperson and also proud father of Peter commented "hope that this helps demonstrate the importance of funding for clubs, the opportunities such funding provides and the success it may bring".


Stirling Spiders Funding sees them hit the heights in Glen Nevis!

September 2014

Check out the article below to see how ClubSport Stirling's funding helped young climbers from Stirling Spiders experience new challenges in Glen Nevis.

stirling_spiders_article.pdf
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Funding Success for Forth Valley Speed Skating Club

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September 2014

Forth Valley Speed Skating Club secured £1873 from ClubSport Stirling for new beginner speed skating equipment and coach education. This grant money will be used to buy new boots, blades, helmets, guards and gloves.  This equipment will be available to those new to the sport. 

The club will also be sending 6 new volunteer coaches on a NISA level 1 coaching course to help cater for the increased demand for Speed Skating following the Winter Olympics in Sochi where club member Elise Christie competed.

Club Secretary Brian Reid said “This grant is a terrific boost for our club as we look to bring in new talent to our club.”

Speed skating is the fastest self-propelled sport in the world.  If you are interested in trying speed skating please contact Brian Reid on
brianreid@freeuk.com.


McLaren Community Sport Hub Job Vacancy

August 2014

Are you aged 16-19 years old and interested in a career in sport?  The McLaren Community Sport Hub has an exciting opportunity for a young person to take on a Modern Apprenticeship in Sport.  The job will see the postholder working with McLaren Leisure Centre, Active Stirling and a network of local clubs creating opportunities for more people to get engaged in sport!

For more information just click here or to check out the job description click here

Now you've seen what a great opportunity this is and you want to apply just get the application form here

2014 Women in Sport Conference

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August 2014


Check out the 2014 Women in Sport Conference run by our partners The University of Stirling.

For more information and to book just go to http://shop.stir.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=12&catid=15&prodid=21




Stirling Provost Awards 2014

August 2014

The 2014 Stirling Provost Awards are open for nominations with a closing date of 5th September 2014.  There are 3 great categories that you can recognise individuals from your sports club:

Community – open to residents of the Stirling Council area who have made a significant contribution to the local community.

Sport – open to residents of the Stirling Council area or (including those based in Stirling) who have gained Scottish, British or higher recognition in sport.

Volunteer Sector – open to voluntary sector workers in the Stirling Council area who have made a substantial contribution in their field.

For more information and to download a nomination form please go to http://my.stirling.gov.uk/news/view/30154/date:08-2014/type:all?theme=MyStirling



Bridge of Allan Golf Club - Junior Golfers

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August 2014

Bridge of Allan Golf Club has been running well attended Clubgolf coaching sessions for local youngsters every Sunday afternoon since April. The photo here shows Tim Mitchell, PGA professional and volunteer coaches with a cheerful group of junior golfers, all under 10 years old.

On Sunday 17th August, they participated in a sponsored 6 hour putting marathon to raise funds for the Club's Learn 2 Play Golf Academy.

Well done the club and their hard work over the summer towards their growing junior section. 


Funding success for McLaren RFC

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August 2014

Over a hundred club members and supporters attended McLaren’s Rugby Force event on Saturday, 9 August which was enriched by the attendance of three of Scotland’s emerging international rugby stars – outside half Finn Russell, scrum half Henry Pyrgos and lock forward Tim Swinson. 

The event kicked off with the opening of the club’s new strength and conditioning suite at the Leisure Centre, thanks to the generous financial support from the centre itself, ClubSport Stirling and the Council’s Community Fund. Everyone then moved outside onto the new artificial ‘3G’ pitch where the club’s oldest and youngest players enjoyed a lively session of touch rugby with our international guests, who are professional players with Glasgow Warriors, enthusiastically joining in. 

The morning’s activities were rounded off with a lunchtime barbeque hosted by the club at Callander Youth Project. Not a scrap of food was left, testament to the amount of energy expended by one and all earlier in the day! 

“We were thrilled that three up and coming rugby stars came along to show support for this grass roots event sponsored by RBS” enthused club secretary, Drew Leslie. “This was an occasion, the first for a long time, where all sections of the club - players, parents, committee members and rank and file members – came together to celebrate the growth and development of McLaren rugby club as a force for good in the community.” 

The club will be celebrating its quarter century this season and will shortly resume playing home fixtures on the new pitch next to the primary school.


Funding success for Killearn Tennis Club

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August 2014

Killearn Tennis Club managed to secure £184 of funding from ClubSport Stirling to go towards new equipment so they could set up new tennis programmes. With the appointment of Hannah Pickford as their head coach, the club have been working hard to have more opportunities available to children in the community to play tennis. The club have specifically been establishing a pre school section of the club to help create a pathway into the junior section of the club. It's been very popular among parents in the area who are delighted that younger children now have the opportunity to play tennis so close to where they live.

Well done to them! If anyone is interested in trying out the classes at the club please contact Hannah Pickford on
hannahpickford@hotmail.com.


Successful Funding Bid for Kippen Tennis Club

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July 2014

Well done to Kippen Tennis Club who managed to successfully secure £2,000 of funding from ClubSport Stirling. The club are working on a project to improve their court floodlighting to meet the requirements of evening tennis at the club. The club has had a successful time increasing tennis participation at all age levels. However, the combination of coaching, team training, team matches and social tennis has resulted in peak court use during much of the tennis season. The floodlighting is pretty poor and has meant that much of the tennis activity they want to put on is not possible with the lighting they currently have. They hope that new floodlighting will enable the existing facilities to be used for longer periods during the evenings. 

Well done to them and we wish them all the best of luck with the project.

Remember if you would like your club to make a funding bid to ClubSport Stirling please get in touch with your Club Development Officer.


Funding for Stirling County Cricket Club

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July 2014

Congratulations to Stirling County Cricket Club who were awarded £1,000 from ClubSport Stirling to go towards their coaching development project.

The club have been running a coaching project in partnership with Cricket Scotland to pay UKCC Level 3 performance coaches to come along to the club to mentor and support newly qualified and inexperienced coaches.

Through a series of workshops and practical demonstrations, the club hope that high level performance coaches can help their coaches to expand and improve their work experience, which will enable their knowledge to be passed onto club members (new and old) and the community of all ages and ability. The project is a great stepping stone for coaches at the club to expand their knowledge and performance of coaching, before potentially progressing to a higher coaching qualification in years to come.

Well done to all involved and we wish them the best of luck! 


Funding for Bridge of Allan 76 Angling Club

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July 2014

Very well done to Bridge of Allan 76 Angling Club who have been working hard over the last few months to secure funding for their development project on their Loch.

They managed to secure £1,000 funding from ClubSport Stirling and an additional £3,000 from Awards for All to go towards their £7,000 project on their Loch. Click here to see the photo of the club in the funding library.

 The club deliver many projects and events for disabled anglers, providing wheel chair friendly paths, casting platforms as well as a wheely boat which is specially adapted for the use of wheelchair anglers.

However, their Loch had a very serious increase in weed growth which made almost 95% of the Loch unfishable. It meant that the club members couldn't use the Loch properly and that disabled anglers were restricted to what they could do.

The funding went towards specialised equipment called Truxor to remove weeds on the Loch - which is a unique piece of equipment used by only a few companies in the UK. They are delighted with the project and how the Loch is fishable once again. The pictures below shows the difference that this project has made to the Loch. 

Remember if your club would like to make a funding bid to ClubSport Stirling please get in touch with your Club Development Officer.


Bridge of Allan Judo Club host Commonwealth athletes

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June 2014

Active Stirling have been welcoming athletes from the Solomon Islands and Pappa New Guinea who are participating in the Commonwealth Games to Stirling this week, who are using facilities in the area as their training camps. Bridge of Allan Judo club welcomed with open arms Tony Lomo of the Solomon Islands, along with his coach Douglas, who is competing in the Men's -60kg category for the Judo in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Tony will be training will the club over the next couple of weeks before he hits the spotlight in Glasgow. Tony and Douglas even helped out with the children's sessions and were a great help on the night with some star stunned kids. We hope that Tony and Douglas enjoy their time with the club and their stay in Stirling before the Games.


Dunblane Fencing Club Summer Camp

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June 2014

Dunblane Fencing Club are offering a fantastic come and try beginners fencing course during the school holidays from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th August. The course will be aimed at children aged between 8-12 and be two hour sessions aimed at providing the children with the basic moves and skills in the sport. The cost is £40 and the sessions are led by former GB international and Commonwealth Gold Medallist Charity McArdle who is also the club coach at Dunblane Fencing Club.


If interested please contact Charity by email:
charitymcardle@hotmail.co.uk



Brand New McLaren Community Sport Hub Website

June 2014

Check out the brand new McLaren Community Sport Hub website here http://mclarencsh.weebly.com/

The website has been developed as part of the Community Sport Hub project from Scottish Government's Legacy Investment through sportscotland in the McLaren Community.  The sporting stakeholders in the community have worked together over the last 12 months around a variety of projects aimed at growing sport in this community.  One of the key challenges that they identified was being able to promote themselves in a simple yet effective manner.  Through support from Active Stirling's Community Sport Hub Coordinator, Lindsay Campbell, a new website has been created to let people see the wide range of opportunities for them to participate or compete in sport in their community!  For more information on Community Sport Hubs please contact Lindsay on 0300 0280101 or campbelll@activestirling.org.uk

Active Schools Bowls Legacy Festival 2014

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June 2014

As part of Active Stirling's 2014 Legacy Programme, the Bowls Festival was hosted last night at Dunblane Bowling Club. Bowling clubs across Stirling have hosted after school clubs for different primary school children to attend for the past month. We were delighted to see those clubs bring teams to participate in the bowls festival and working together to put on a great event for children completely new to the sport. They all had fun games against each other and made new friends in the process. The clubs involved yesterday were: Airthrey Spa Bowling Club; Bannockburn Bowling Club; Causewayhead Bowling Club; Dunblane Bowling Club and Strathblane Bowling Club. Well done to all involved in co-ordinating the event and bringing the teams of children along on the day. We hope to see more of bowls in the future and these clubs continuing with their successful after school clubs.


Primary Schools Tennis Competition - Finals Day

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June 2014

On Tuesday 3rd June 2014, Adam Brown hosted the Primary Schools Tennis Competition - Finals Day. All of the winners from each cluster tournament of Dunblane, Stirling and Wallace came along to the Gannochy Tennis Centre and played some brilliant tennis. Well done to St Mary's Epsicopal Primary School in Dunblane who won the competition overall, with Beaconhurst School as runners up.

Thanks once again to Adam Brown and his coaching team for hosting a brilliant event, and the staff at the University for allowing us to use the facility last minute (unfortunately we can't control the rain!). Well done to all the schools!


Skating Success for Stirling New Figure Skater Megan Carroll

May 2014

Megan, age 11 and a P6 at Dunblane Primary School, started Skate UK at the Peak when she was 7 years old.  She joined Stirling New Figure Skating Club during the SkateStar programme.  Her then Coach, Fiona McGiff introduced her to National competition at Beginner Level.  Megan is currently skating at NISA Level 4 with Coach Gemma Stark and has enjoyed podium success at each level.   In 2011, Megan attended the Madrid Skating School under Joanne Conway who recommended she take Ice Dance lessons to improve her basic skating skills and shortly after she started training with Robert Murphy at Murrayfield.  In 2013 she won the Beginners Free Dance at Murrayfield Opens and then decided to work towards qualifying for the British Solo Ice Dance Championships the following year. This has involved sitting National Tests and competing in the national qualifying competitions. During May,  at the Murrayfield Opens she won silver and at the Skate Southern in London she won gold in Free Dance, pictured below.    Megan will be representing Stirling New Figure Skating Club and going into the Championships, in Sheffield from 30th June to 4th July, she is ranked 6th in the UK overall and 3rd in Free Dance.  

Bumper Crop for Forth Valley Orienteers at the Harvester Trophy Relays

May 2014

Forth Valley Orienteers continued their excellent form this season and combined to reap a bumper crop of trophies at the Harvester overnight relay race, which took place in the scenic Surrey Hills over the weekend of 17/18 May.

The long journey south to the second UK Relay League race of the year was well worth it for the dedicated FVO team; with a dominant overall victory for the men and a first ever win for the ladies.

The format of this prestigious race is very similar to the legendary Jukola race in Finland - an all night, overnight, relay for teams of seven. First held in 1978 in the UK, overall victory had proven elusive to Forth Valley until 2009, when a brave team performance in the treacherous pits in the open fells of Wales saw them secure a famous victory.


Will Hensman was chosen to lead off the strong FVO team, handing over to club captain Jon Cross to chase down the leading Nottingham runner.  Jon handed over to FVO's secret weapon; former World Champion and current British number 1, Graham Gristwood. Graham put in a typically world class performance of controlled but aggressive orienteering, to complete the 10km course in the dark of night. It was then the turn of Irish international Marcus Pinker to consolidate the team's now 13 minute lead. This he did with aplomb, with the fastest time on his 8km leg 4 course.

Ross McLennan was next up on the challenging 10km dawn leg - starting in the dark, finishing in the light, testing not only night and day navigation but adaptability too. Jon Marsden was able to put in a similarly safe performance on the sixth leg and then club president Roger Goddard brought home the bacon with another steady performance for Forth Valley's third Harvester victory in six years, almost certainly the most comprehensive yet.

In the competitive ladies race,  FVO were fielding a strong team, but it was very much anyone's race. Scotland team stalwart Fiona Berrow kicked things off for FVO at 1.30am, handing over to Janine Inman. Frances Brown then had a storming run on the short leg and pulled the team through into the lead, with Rosalind Hussey keeping the team in the mix on leg 4 with an exciting battle with Southdowns, first losing and then regaining the lead at least once. It wasn't much of a lead though that she gave Hungarian international runner Fanni Gyurko - only 20 seconds after four hours of running! However, Fanni continued her great form to stretch the lead to a huge 8 minutes and earn FVO a first ever victory in the ladies category of this great race.

Truly a Harvester to remember, hopefully sowing the seeds for a memorable 2014 season for this crop of talented athletes.

This spring there is a series of fun local events every Wednesday evening – find out more on website www.fvo.org. The next event will be taking place at the Laigh Hills in Dunblane on Wednesday 28 May. £5 for adults and £3 for kids – please come along, all welcome and coaching for beginners is available.
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Bowling After Schools Club - 2014 Legacy

May 2014

Local bowling clubs in the Wallace and Bannockburn Cluster have been hosting after schools clubs this month for children from local primary schools to try out the sport in part with the 2014 Active Schools Legacy Programme. The clubs involved are Bannockburn Bowling Club, Polmaise Bowling Club, Causewayhead Bowling Club and Airthrey Spa Bowling Club. Some clubs have been extremely popular and we hope to see some thriving junior sections in some of these clubs soon. All of the After School Clubs will play each other at a Festival in Dunblane Bowling Club on Tuesday 3rd June. Well done to the clubs for hosting them - even if it's in the rain!

Primary Schools Tennis Competition - Dunblane, Stirling & Wallace Clusters

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May 2014

A massive well done and thank you to Fiona Bennie (Dunblane Sports Club) and Adam Brown (Head Coach at Stirling Lawn Tennis Club and Bridge of Allan Tennis Club) for organising and hosting the cluster tournaments for our (first ever!) Stirling Primary School Tennis Competition.   

The Competition has been extremely popular within the primary schools involved, with those in the Dunblane, Stirling and Wallace clusters, and we hope we can continue it every year with more primary schools from other clusters.

Congratulations to the winning school teams: Dunblane Primary School; St Mary's Primary School (Dunblane); Cambusbarron Primary School (A Team); Cambusbarron Primary School (B Team); Cornton Primary School; and Beaconhurst School. These teams are now through to the 'Finals Day' on Tuesday 3rd June, at the Peak.


Bridge of Allan Golf Club host Schools Golf Festival

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April 2014

Well done and a good job to Bridge of Allan Golf Club who volunteered their time this morning to host Riverside Primary School at the University Golf course for their Schools Golf Festival.

The Golf Festival has been set up by the club to give P5 pupils the chance to try out and have a taste of golf. The club brought along their very own PGA professional golf coach, Tim Mitchell, who set up all the activities on the day.

Alongside Riverside Primary School, they are also hosting Cornton and Bridge of Allan Primary Schools later on this week.


The club are putting on FREE COACHING for adult and junior beginners. These sessions are on:

- Every Sunday Afternoon, from April until end of September 2014
- 2pm – 4pm
- Bridge of Allan Golf Club


If you fancy a taste of golf and getting involved, contact Stewart Cameron on 01786 832228 or email him on dstewartcameron@btinternet.com.


Stirling Karate Club launch a brand new class

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March 2014

Stirling Karate Club have launched a brand new karate coaching session. It’s an introduction to karate session for children and adults aged 7+ years.
 
Sunday 2 March 2014
9.00am – 10.00am
The PEAK - studio 3
 
Other sessions on every Wednesday evenings -
 
7.00pm – 8.30pm
The PEAK - sports hall
 
Only £4 per week per person to attend both sessions at no extra cost or
 
£6 per week for both classes for both parent and child!
 
For more information and to get involved, contact Michael on Michael.aitchison@prudential.co.uk or phone 07769 958662.



Successful funding bids from our local clubs

February 2014

Well done to Stirling Rowing Club and Bannockburn Bowling Club for their successful funding applications to ClubSport Stirling. Check out photos of the clubs being given their cheques on our funding library. Watch this space as more photos of our successful clubs will come over the next several weeks to keep you updated.

Stirling Rowing Club received £550 to help support the purchase of additional oars to coach and support new junior members that they have gained since the success of Team GB in the 2012 Olympics. They are doing their best to build on the success of rowing in the UK - and we look forward to see how the club will develop in time to come. 

Bannockburn Bowling Club received £585 towards their project of developing their junior section at the club. The club had no bowls equipment suitable for children so applied for support to go towards purchasing junior bowls, targets, cones and tunnel gates. The club, having now gotten the junior bowls equipment, are now excited to capitalise on this with the 2014 Commonwealth Games around the corner in which they will be hosting after-school clubs in Bannockburn in line with Active Stirling's Schools Legacy Programme. We wish them all the best of luck!

Would you like your club to be successful with a funding bid too? Get in touch with your local Club Development Officer to find out more information. 
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Dunblane Fencing club goes from strength to strength over a series of competition

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January 2014

The club as a whole in recent months have benefitted from excellent performances from the young club members.

The biggest performance has been that Louis Bryson qualified to represent Scotland at an U15 international competition in Poland.  He will be fencing two weapons, foil and epee and will be one of the 17 personnel traveling with the Scottish Poland.  Louis’s recent results include a silver medal for epee in the Scottish Schools U16’s, a top four in the U15 qualifier for foil and second place epee in an U15 qualifier. Fellow Dunblane Fencing club member Alex Papadopoulos narrowly missed out on representing Scotland despite gaining a bronze medal in the last and most challenging qualifier.

More recently Louis, Alex and team mate Leo McArdle have been working collectively as a team and came seventh out of 15 teams at a Stirling University in a team event. This achievement was made despite the age disadvantage of being the youngest team in the competition.

Two of the youngest girls within the club are making headway in the Youth Development Series. Emily O’Brien and Keira Papadopoulos have shown steely determination, Emily achieving a silver and a bronze over the series and Keira gaining a bronze.

The club is also performing well at the youngest level with the club having representation at a recent competition in Edinburgh. The Plastics competition which is aimed as an introduction to competitive fencing and the club performers did excellent with  Xander Taggart coming second overall in the competition in addition to that other high level performances saw Isaac McKerr winning a Division B Silver medal,  Adam Byson won division C, Jonah Corbett won bronze in Division D, Lewis Worbey achieved a fifth place finish in Division D and Felix Sowerby who was a previous Silver medallist in the series gaining a fourth place in Division E. In addition to the individual performances the club and Newton Primary came in Overall Second Place

Another club member Megan Gouw achieved bronze in foil, epee and sabre and achieved the master at arms trophy at the Schools individual championships.

Coach Charity McArdle commented “As coach of all these young people, what makes me most proud is their ability to conduct themselves well at the club and at competition. They are polite and willing to help. They are also resilient, an important skill in any sport.”

Charity also mentioned about the support the club receive “the club couldn’t function without the support of our sponsors Nelson Solicitors and the Doune and Dunblane Wind Farm and a key partner Club Sport Stirling”

If you are interested in trying the sport of fencing, feel free to contact charitymcardle@hotmail.co.uk



Bridge of Allan Judo Club host 2014 Legacy Event

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January 2014

A big thanks to Bridge of Allan Judo Club who came along to the Peak on Sunday to host Judo for the Active School's 2014 Legacy Programme for the Commonwealth Games. The club volunteered their time to over 25 school children from Stirling to learn the Commonwealth sport. It was a great success with children smiling throughout the whole event and desperate to continue with Judo.

Club coach, Kevin Douglas, said "even if this event manages to get one more child actively involved in Judo, it has been completely worth while."

Active Stirling's Club Development Officer for the Wallace Cluster, Ruth Henderson, said "this programme has allowed children to interact with Commonwealth sports in the lead up to the games in 2014. Many children at the end of the event couldn't wait to take up Judo. That is what it's all about." 

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