Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome back to Redcar Gym Club for what we hope will be a brilliant year in all sorts of ways. First of all, thanks so much to everyone involved with the Reach For Gymnastics day held on Friday 4th January.  The idea was to demonstrate the skills of our gymnasts and to show why we need a new building.  The display was absolutely brilliant, and our invited guests were all thoroughly wowed! 

As you know, the first stage is to get provisional approval for our proposed site, and we hope the council will make a formal decision on this within the month.  The councillors and council officers present all expressed their support, and so we really hope for a positive decision.  You may have seen the article in the Gazette on Monday, which we hopewill also generate some support.  We have already been doing a fair bit behind the scenes, and the image here shows you how the new building should look.  If we get the go ahead on the site, we hope to be ready with detailed designs by the summer and to be looking for full funding support.  Then we will need the full support of eveyone in the club to raise funds and help out.

Our architects, Roger and Guy Hansom, have brought together a project team who are currently working on the detailed designs and costs.  The architects have been doing great work for us and have produced some brilliant animations of how the gym will look, and even images of the building in place on our preferred site.  If you would like to see these, please come along to the parents meetinbg on Friday 18th January at 6pm in gym.  This is also your chance to help decide on how the gym runs over the next year and how you could help us achieve our aims.

Below is a report from the Challenge Cup held in november last year.  Sorry it is late, but it got lost in cyber space temporarily!

Report from Challenge Cup. 24th and 25th November 2007

What a fantastic Competition, Vicky Fowler, Lottie Hoggarth, Dana Murray and Rebecca Boal competed in the Espoir Section.  Stunning gymnastics from all and some very high level scores. As a  coach I have never been so proud; these girls sailed around the apparatus, looking smart and at ease.<BR>
First came beam; wow girls, you looked great with massive leaps from Dana, who with her tuck produced a clean routine to score well. She was followed by Rebecca and then Lottie; all clean and clear with no falls. Vicky had a good time on beam, unfortunately falling, but it was full of difficulty and some new skills. She still produced a high score.

Next was floor; the girls had competed the week before and it had given them added confidence.  Clean, skilled routines and safe firm landings all had  a great competition here.

Vault was next, massive huge tzuks from Dana and Lottie to get them in the 12 score zone with massive and clean landings. Vicky performed half half with a huge score of 11.30, followed by Rebecca with a lovely half full; I'm impressed girls.

Bars was interesting; they needed 7 moves, and since sole circles are not counted unless they have straight legs, lots were loosing the 5 mark penalty. Vicky and Lottie and Dana were included in this, so not so good on bars although in gym we have been targeting beam so I think bars will have to be sorted now.  Rebecca was 9th on bars overall. I think I will call her the queen of bars, but even she needs some new skills.

The girls were happy competitors, showing the great respect they have for their sport. They showed how hard they can work and what they have achieved this year and they smiled all the way around.  Vicky, you have tried hard to achieve this year and competed a lot of new moves; Lottie you have come back from injury like you never had one; Dana, thank goodness you are at RGC what a truly lovely young lady you are, smiling and always happy. Becky, you have no idea just how good you could be, and how good you are; if you had Tzuked you would have qualified for British Championships. How well you have done!

It was also lovely to see  friends from other clubs support each other, and thanks to Kate, Zaylee, Steph and South Durham for their best wishes and hugs before we started. I can’t think of anything else to say, except thank you to all the travel buddies, thank you to all the Coaches of RGC for producing these fine gymnasts and thank you to the girls for working so hard, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Diane x
9th January 2008