Weston Run on starting line
Village Voice February 2015 19
l John Cowell of Derby and District Table Tennis Association is pictured presenting the cheque for ÂŁ200 to Nigel Webster with coaches Mike Starkie and Stuart Uprichard and junior members looking on.
Table tennis fund boost
MELBOURNE’S recently fledged table tennis club is riding high after winning valuable funds to help more young people play the game. The Melbourne Swifts Table Tennis Club, which meets on Tuesdays at the Assembly Rooms, may have been going for less than two years, but it has already enjoyed plenty of success with three teams in the local league. The popularity of the club is so great its leaders have now been handed ÂŁ200 by the Derby and District Table Tennis Association to be spent on equipment for junior players. Co-founder Nigel Webster explained why he started the group in 2013: “I’ve been living in Melbourne for 10 years and I’ve played table tennis for a long time – since I
was a school boy. When I came to Melbourne there wasn’t a table tennis club and there weren’t any facilities to play the game. The emphasis seemed to be more on outdoor sports.� After establishing that table tennis could be played at Melbourne Assembly Rooms, word soon spread and now the club has 16 registered adult members (the oldest is 78!) and around a dozen juniors. It also boasts three coaches with Nigel and fellow members Stuart Uprichard and Mike Starkie having completed Table Tennis England coaching qualifications. Now the club is aiming to carry on growing and hopes to get a fourth adult team in the league this year, as well as kick-start a new Derby junior league to encourage
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younger players. Nigel says: “There’s an awful lot of people complain that there’s not enough for young people to do. Table tennis is a skill that if you play it when you’re young, you’ll carry it for life. It’s a winter game, and good exercise.� The club would like to shout out a big thank you to local businesses which have given their time and expertise to help it grow so quickly. They are The One Off, which have given huge help with marketing and branding, Paul Wilson from Melbourne Print Shop, Andy Heafield from Melbourne Assembly Rooms and the Derby and District Table Tennis Association. The club meets on Tuesday evenings, juniors playing 6-7pm and adults 7-9pm.
ON your marks for the 26th Weston Run, just one of a host of activities lined up for the 107th Derby Scouts in this milestone year. 2014 saw 107 years since Robert Baden Powell founded the Scout Organisation to develop the potential of young people and this milestone wasn’t lost on 107th Derby Scouts, a group which continues to go from strength to strength, providing fun and adventurous activities for around 120 young people aged 6-18, from Aston, Weston and Shardlow. In 2014, members of 107th camped on the site of Baden Powell’s first ever camp at Brownsea Island 107 years ago to the day. This year looks to be even more action-packed, with the group looking forward to hosting their US exchange partners from Derby, Connecticut, at Chatsworth’s international jamboree Peak 2015 camp. March 8 is the date for the annual Weston Run, organised by the 107th. This year a new group of volunteers has stepped up to help organise the run, now in its 26th year. The five-mile road race, run under UK Athletics rules, and twomile fun run, sets off from the Ukrainian Centre at Weston on Trent on March 8 at 11am. Full entry details can be found on the website www.107derbyscouts.org.uk Whether you’re already a keen runner, or indeed, if your New Year resolutions involve a pair of trainers and the great outdoors, why not download an entry form and set a milestone all of your own? We’re confident that, like the Scouting Association, this friendly, local event will just run and run.
Rugby double header
MELBOURNE Rugby Football Club is hosting Ashbourne RFC in a league game on Saturday, March 7, at Cockshut Lane (KO 3pm). There will be a heated marquee for spectators with a bar open from 12.30 until 9pm. The 1st XV game will be followed by the U14s taking on Ashbourne at 5pm under lights. There will be food available to purchase and a raffle with a cash prize. Admission is free.
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