Stepping Up In 2018
Hailsham Active is all about improving sports facilities in and around Hailsham. Hailsham has experienced a lack of facilities, a major contributor to this is the fact that there is no legal requirement for government or councils to provide facilities. The lack of facilities is a significant factor in the poor health of the town’s residents and there is a financial cost to this. It is estimated that if the health of local people was to improve to the national standard, the NHS would save £10m per annum.
The whole community needs to change their attitude and change from a poor perception to a more positive outlook using peer pressure to start and continue the change. The attitude must be “what we can do”.
This year we have launched THIS TOWN CAN, I CAN an initiative to raise awareness of sports and lifestyle changes. The concept also helps raise awareness of the bigger projects Hailsham Active want to achieve including ‘The Big Path Project’. Getting people more active by creating a network of paths in and around Hailsham. The paths would be 2.5m wide and there is an opportunity to create around 8.5km of paths. These can be used all year round for walking, cycling and running. Hailsham Active are also championing the “Daily Mile” which is a path around a school playing field to encourage children out of the classroom.
We kick start the year with development on the Western Road Recreation Ground, which has been identified to secure £5,000, from Fields In Trust to fund an activity programme starting in the spring for around 30 – 50 weeks. The activity will take place on a Saturday morning and will target groups including the young and disabled. There is a further grant of £25,000 that can be applied for; that if successful can be used to help finance a path around the Rec. The overall cost will be between £75,000 and £100,000. Other funding will be sought from local councils and businesses and from developer contributions already secured by Wealden District Council for the provision of recreational facilities.
Watch this space for more updates and news, or better still get involved! Contact us for volunteer roles.
Sport In School Must Be Increased
Great to see more high profile sports celebrities raising the profile of sports in schools. England rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio says the government must take immediate action to improve physical activity in schools.
“We have a serious problem in this country,” Dallaglio told an audience of ministers, health professionals, sports leaders and health club operators at the ukactive National Summit. “Some schools have less than two hours physical activity a week and I don’t think that’s fair on young people.
“There’s way too much pressure put on academic results and nowhere near enough pressure on schools to give students a good education on what to eat and what constitutes good physical activity.
“I urge the government and the people who make policies: you need to bake metrics of physical activity and sport into how schools are governed and measured. We need to do something drastic and it has to come from government, right from the top, baked into the whole school curriculum.”
http://www.leisureopportunities.co.uk/news/Lawrence-Dallaglio-ukactive-physical-activity-National-Summit-National-Curriculum/334870
Please Help us
We are looking to gather support and information in order to help us improve the pavilion at the Horsebridge Recreation ground. Responses will contribute towards the compiling of grant applications that could help us with renovations. We want our pavilion to be a real asset for the community and want to open the facility up for local groups to run meetings, events and functions. Thank-you for your help and we will keep you informed as to any progress that we make. Our survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.
Please take a couple of minutes to fill out this survey we need a grant to improve facilities for clubs that use the Pavillion at Horsebridge recreation ground. Click here to help.
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Grant Opportunity
Hailsham Active are keen to add new facilities for the community (not just sports), and an opportunity has arisen to upgrade the pavilion/clubhouse at Hellingly Sports Club (Horsebridge rec). There are a number of improvements we want to do, including replace the roof and insulate the upstairs fit fire escapes for the upstairs (to create a warm and fairly large room for clubs/functions) opening up the downstairs function room to accommodate more people/more open space. This should allow a good range of activities, from regular meetings, to potentially ‘activities’ for a variety of clubs/associations or even family functions.
We are also looking at the opportunity of opening a youth club on a Friday night, probably starting in the spring. We would intend to keep this low cost for any participants/clubs using the facility, we are non profit making organisation, run by voluteers.
If you think this may be useful in the future, please can you confirm this to us by email (stating your position/club etc) all this information will help us in our bid for grants.
Any successful application information will be shared for the benefit of all clubs/associations in the future.
Many thanks for your support, and look forward to hearing from you.
Steve Wennington
Meeting with MP’s and Health Professional
News update from our Chairman, Steve Wennington:
Just a quick update on Hailsham Active’s meeting on the 12th October with MP Tracey Crouch (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage), myself and Scarlett McNally (consultant orthopaedic surgeon). Also in attendance was our local MP Nus Ghani and her colleague, Josh Still.
Unfortunately, there appears to be a lack of connectivity to enable a co-ordinated approach by taking responsibility for the plan of having new schools as the centre of the community (whilst the principle is sound… it crosses too many departments … sport/health, schools), and it went down the route of ‘you need to contact the relevant department, rather than we can co-ordinate things…’
The bottom line is that the decision for sports facilities, health facilities and education facilities mainly rests with our local District Council, Wealden and East Sussex County Council.
The interesting comment being that the minister is unable to insist on the recommended actions they have. The relevant documents will be forwarded to us, but ultimately it is down to the leaders of these Councils to decide if they want to follow the guidelines. We will do our best to highlight these to the people/departments concerned and add our own local knowledge and views on how these can be implemented cost effectively.
I would like to add we are grateful to Nus for arranging this meeting and enthusiastically supporting us, now and for future work.
I will keep you updated on any follow up action we get.
Hellingly Mini Rugby
Teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline & sportsmanship at Hellingly Mini Rugby. Join now.
Hellingly Mini Rugby, aka Hellingly Hornets, was re-launched in 2012 and is Hailsham’s
best kept secret for team sport. They train and play on Sunday mornings between
10am-12 at Horsebridge recreation grounds. The club is affiliated with the RFU and
promotes the core values of Rugby union. Teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline &
sportsmanship. Rugby is a unique sport that is suitable for all and at Hellingly rugby
club, everyone is made to feel welcome within the community oriented club.
Hellingly mini and junior rugby are actively recruiting new players to join our existing
squads, the age range is from 5-14 years old, each age group is trained by RFU
qualified coaches, and the teams regularly take part in rugby festivals and friendly
fixtures both home and away. Fees are just £2 per week for a two hour session or
just £50 per year. Taster sessions are free and you can enjoy a coffee and bacon roll in
the warm clubhouse whilst your child burns off energy and has some fun.
Mini Rugby is taught incrementally. From 5 to 8 years old players are taught tag rugby,
a Velcro belt is worn with removable tags. This is non contact and teaches evasion and
ball skills. The contact element of the sport is introduced slowly from the age of 9 as
recommended by the RFU and their age grade rugby rules of play.
Why not go along and give this exciting, fun, sport a try. You can either turn up on
Sunday morning between 10am and 12 at Horsebridge rec. BN27 4DJ and try a free
session.
Give them a try! Click here for more information.
European Champions!
CMA Karate based in Hailsham and the surrounding area have just returned from the WIKF European Karate Championships in Rotterdam.
Taking nine of their students as members of the England team many of whom come from Hailsham.
CMA return with 3 European champions and 2 silver medalists.
This is their best result yet at international competition. Congratulations go to:
Max Colbran – European Champion ,
Rafferty Knight – European Champion,
Keeley Taylor – European Champion,
Dominic Savage – European silver medalist
Ollie O’Regan – European silver medalist.
Hellingly Lions Cycle Speedway End Season on a High
HELLINGLY END SUCCESSFUL SEASON WITH A WIN
Hellingly Lions Cycle Speedway entertained Norwich Stars for their final fixture of the season, with the track having taken some serious rain on the Saturday a good dry day helped to produce a decent surface.
A shared first heat was followed by a couple of 6-4 advantages that saw the lions 4 points up after 3 heats, Norwich bounced back in heat 4 though with a maximum 7-3 courtesy of Chris Cullum and Paddy Wenn. The home club then set about regaining the advantage and with two 6-4s, a shared heat and a 6-3 due to a tapes exclusion for Jamie Medler before the interval were 7 points up (43-36) when the half time cup of teas were taken.
After the interval the home side continued in the same vain, a 6-4 from Jesse Moore and Etienne Patel saw the lead increase to 9. Hellingly maintained the 9 point advantage until heat 12 when Jesse and Martyn Hollebon secured a 6-4 advantage to increase the gap to 11. Neil Hollebon and Eddie Ridley took the following heat with Hellingly’s first maximum advantage of the day in heat 13 and with the lead now increased to 15 with just 3 heats to go had all but secured the valuable 2 league points. Heat 14 saw captain Jesse Moore score his 5th race win of the day with Jamie Morley taking a good 3rd to put the home side 17 in front. Norwich were not done with though and a 7-3 in heat 15 via Chris Cullum and Lee Grange closed the gap to 13 before team manager Martyn Hollebon led the way home, Norwich rider Lee Grange finished in front of Jesse Moore with Paddy Wenn taking 4th. The final score of Hellingly 87 Norwich 72 was after a great spirited match something the club have found both home and away this season in their first season in the South East region after the winter switch.
The second team match was a very youthful affair for the home club, the 7 riders used saw a 4 riders under the age of 14 with 2 of them making their club debuts alongside a rider having his first appearance of 2016 due to injury. A 5 ride maximum from Etienne Patel and some great scoring throughout the card saw the Lions go down by 8 points (75-83), one sore point was a painful and nasty looking fall for outstanding club member Jamie Morley which saw him taken to hospital with what was diagnosed as a twisted back, everyone at the club wishes Jamie a swift recovery.
Club Chairman Barry Carpenter said “We have, as a club, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this season, we have ridden on some new tracks and against new clubs and it has all been positive, what was great today was not only the performances of the riders but the fact that newcomers were riding round after the meeting and with a couple of youngsters aged 12 and 13 making team debuts in the second team match the future is looking good, we are still on the look out for new riders and with us celebrating our 70th year of racing next year what better time to get involved. Anyone interested in coming to join us and finding out what we are all about can, weather permitting, come down to the track on Sunday 9th October at 2.00 for a come and try it session”. Please email [email protected] for more information. Link to the website here.
