Sports & Clubs

Bowls Arthur Andrews 261990

Bridge Club Howard Waller 261693

1st Melbourn Rainbows Mrs Stef Cooper 07922053801 Brownies – 1st Melbourn Stephanie Clifford 220272 Meldreth Croquet Janet Pope 248239 Dynamos Football Club Les Morley 07739 593771 Guides – Ist Melbourn Hilary Marsh 261443 Melbourn Football Club Simon Gascoyne 07732 613555 Melbourn Judo Club Iain Reid 241830

Melbourn Karate Club Peter Khera 07866 374674

Melbourn Sports Centre Graham Johnson-Mack 263313 Melbourn Squash Jan Brynjolffssen 07730 406688 Melbourn and Meldreth Women’s Group Pat Smith 262575 Sue Toule 260955 Anne Harrison 261775

Photographic Club Bruce Huett 232855

Ramblers Dave Allard 242677

Royston and District Round Table Michael Seymour 221398 Swimming Club Jenny Brackley 244593 Tennis (Melbourn) Dave Liddiard 07508 995 781

Tennis (Meldreth) Tracy Aggett 243376

1st Melbourn Rainbows

We have really enjoyed being back in the hall since September.

The Autumn term not only brought new Rainbows but new volunteers! We welcomed Lilac, our new leader, and also Tulip and Peony – our young leaders.

The girls had a very busy term, starting by making thank you cards for a person that they had been helped by. Some made them for teachers, family friends and nurses. We also received one for the Rainbow leaders, which was lovely.

The Rainbows made the most of the ‘Cows about Cambridge’ event by visiting as many as possible. We created our own designs and earned a very special badge.

We also had activities on recycling, traffic surveys, safe camping, and the weather.

A highlight of the term must be Buttercup’s ‘armpit fudge’! The ingredients were measured into a bag, sealed, and then placed under the armpit to warm it up. Lots of kneading and warming then produced some lovely chocolate fudge, which the girls then ate on some biscuits.

In November, we celebrated the 50th Birthday of Anglia Guiding by having our own party. We dressed in rainbow colours and had rainbow cupcakes, and we had lots of crafts and games.

The Spring term has just started, and we have lots planned for the coming weeks. We started with songs and games, with Clover introducing some sign language to our Rainbow songs. The girls have been practising really hard to remember them and it’s lovely to watch them perform together. Last week they got very messy by painting some ‘Positivity stones’. These were finger-painted and will be varnished and hidden around the village for people to find and re-hide. Hopefully bringing a little positivity with it. Lavender, 1st Melbourn Rainbows

2nd Melbourn Brownies

In January we took most of our Brownies along with the Meldreth Brownie unit to see Aladdin at the Gordon Craig Theatre. Everyone had a great time, it was lovely to see the girls joining in with ‘it’s behind you’ and the usual panto

fun! We hope for this to become a regular outing for the girls. After many years of being a Brownie leader, Tawny Owl has decided to have a break from Brownies. We will miss her and hope to see her again in the future. Our young leaders, Caitlin and Ellenor, are a real asset to our unit, they help with all the activities we run. They also get the girls playing all sorts of games and give the leaders a chance to plan new things for the girls to do.

We have already celebrated Chinese New Year, we made dragons out of paper and toilet rolls. The girls had great fun making them: they were trickier than we thought but ended up looking really good. We have lots of other things planned for the coming weeks, including junk model monsters and pancakes.

For World Thinking Day we are going to make bird feeders, and hope to finish the term with a time travel celebration.

We were very proud of our Brownies when they took part in the parade on Remembrance Sunday. It is an important date in our calendar, and the girls learned about why we remember by making poppies and talking about what happened in the past. We strung up the poppies outside the United Reformed Church, where we meet.

We are looking forward to the warmer and lighter evenings which will give us the opportunity to run some of our meetings outside, go for a country walk and play games.

Next year we are planning on going away on pack holiday, after having to cancel our last one due to Covid. We haven’t as yet decided where we will go, but I am sure it will be lots of fun for the girls and leaders.

We meet on a Tuesday evening at the United Reformed Church from 6pm – 7.30pm. If your daughter is between 7yrs and 10yrs and would like to join Brownies, please go to girlguiding.org.uk and register your daughter.

If you are interested in being a volunteer at Brownies please email us at melbourn2ndbrownies@hotmail. com for more information. Snowy Owl

1st Melbourn Guides

Learning practical skills is the best bit about being a Guide, and we enjoyed several new topics in the Autumn term. To experience what Guides did during the war, the girls used the phonetic alphabet to spell their name, rolled and tied bandages, and competed to build a toy car and a tower from bamboo skewers and blu-tack.

Then came the Bake-Off competition: for the technical challenge, they whisked up a mousse, crème patissiere, and baked pastry cases or shortbread. They learned to separate eggs, how to ‘bake blind’, and that shortbread mix can get sticky if you over-work it! The girls showed great creativity with biscuits and coloured fondant icing to produce Showstopper themes of Beauty & the Beast and a nativity scene on a pre-baked sponge base.

With flowers kindly donated by Bury Lane farm shop, we finished the term making Christmas table decorations with a candle, oasis foam and lots of foliage.

We started the new year with the First Aid badge, as well as games and a session at the swimming pool.

Helping other people is also an important part of being a Guide, and every January we run a Coffee Stop session. The girls served hot drinks and washed up, and also sold home-made cakes and biscuits. We raised an impressive £60 which was shared between Macmillan Cancer Care and PDSA animal charity.

If you would like to know more about our Guide unit, please contact me on: 01763 261443 or email: melbournguides@gmail.com. You can also look on the girlguiding.org.uk website to find out more. Hilary Marsh

The 1st Orwell Scouts

The 1st Orwell Scouts, Cubs and Beavers were all immensely proud to take part in Melbourn’s Remembrance Sunday Parade back in November. All those involved invested time and effort to make sure their uniform was smart, and used the occasion to reflect on what the event means to them personally, but also more widely for the community. It is of course an honour to be involved in the Parade and the church service that follows.

The darker nights of winter mean primarily heading indoors for the young people involved in 1st Orwell Scouts. For the scout section the programme often becomes more creative at this time of year. Over the

past couple of months, the Scouts have been making, painting and holding battles with ‘Warhammer’ models. Warhammer is a table top miniature war game with a medieval fantasy theme that allows the players to simulate battles between armies of different factions. Needless to say, much fun was had by all.

Turning their attentions to a more modern form of creativity, the Scouts have been thinking during this time about what makes scouting great for them and others, and then using these thoughts to create short videos to promote scouting to other young people their age. Many of the Scouts talked about how the diversity of the scouting programme is one of the main things that makes Scouts so enjoyable for them.

In the more reflective element of the winter programme, the Scouts have also discussed issues around alcohol and drugs, and how even legal substances, when misused, can have disastrous consequences.

Needless to say, no time of year is one spent completely indoors by the Scouts, and their creativity has also been used outside to build camp gadgets, using the traditional scouting skills of knots and lashings to create washing up bowl stands, tables, bucket holders and flag poles. And, of course, winter is the perfect time for a night hike, an activity always enjoyed by both the Scouts and the Cubs.

In addition to a cold, wintry night hike, the Cubs have been conducting science experiments using, amongst other things, coins, cola and Mentos. They were also excited to receive a visit from two Cambridgeshire Police officers, who spoke to them about the work that they do, and of course let the Cubs explore their police car and try on a variety of different caps and hats. The evening ended, much to the Cubs’ delight, with their leaders being put in handcuffs!

Both the Cubs and the Beavers enjoyed an evening at Clip and Climb in Cambridge just before Christmas. The indoor climbing centre challenges the children’s resolve and determination across the variety of climbing challenges. They were able to race their friends face to face on a two-sided clear wall, speed climb against the stopwatch and channel their inner commando on the Jungle Gym. Many of the Cubs were also brave enough to take on the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as well as the vertical drop slide. 1st Orwell Scout Group meets on a Friday evening in Melbourn. The Group is currently full, but please do contact admissions@1storwellscouts.org.uk to add your child to our waiting list. We are really keen to hear from any adults interested in becoming a leader as this will allow us to accept more children and reduce our waiting list. As a Beaver/Cub/Scout assistant leader you could inspire our young people to grow in ability and confidence through a huge variety of activities and challenges, which is incredibly enjoyable and rewarding; why not give something new a go! Please contact GSL@1storwellscouts.org.uk if you are interested in finding out more.

Bridge Club

The Bridge Club has, along with other similar organisations, been affected by COVID restrictions.

We are pleased to say, however, that we are back running both Monday evenings and Tuesday afternoon sessions at the United Reform Church in Orchard Road. Numbers in attendance have dropped considerably, but in comparison with other Bridge Clubs in the area, we have still managed most weeks to support 6/7 tables. Like most Clubs, we welcome players who live outside the village.

As many will know, our Monday evening sessions are for advanced players, and Tuesday afternoons for those who are beginners and improvers. We are a very friendly and relaxed club, and, hopefully, no one finds it intimidating to play with like-minded people. As has always been the case, players are invited to come along on their own, and we will always find them a partner.

At the time of writing, we play with windows open, hand sanitiser available, and anyone who feels more comfortable wearing a mask can do so.

For further details, please contact Howard Waller – 01763 261693.

About Us Melbourn Football Club is a men’s football club with two teams competing in the Kershaw Cambridgeshire County League; home games are played at The New Recreation Ground at The Moor. The club offers affordable sport within the village to players aged 16 and above, with our aim being to be competitive on the pitch and offer a friendly, sociable atmosphere off it. We hold a variety of fund-raising and social events throughout the year, with 25% of all profit donated to our current chosen charity, CPSL Mind – www.cpslmind.org.uk.

Thanks to our fund-raising efforts and generous support from sponsors, we are in a very healthy position to be able to provide both excellent facilities and kit. We also have the highest level of player insurance cover against injury available from the county FA. Our signing on fee, which includes all playing and warm-up kit, is £30 per season, plus match fees at £6 per game. However, under 18’s, the unemployed and those in full time education are not charged.

New players and supporters are always welcome. Please contact the club secretary or one of the team managers using the contact details provided later.

Footballing Matters At the point of writing, the First Team sit at the top of Division 1A with 31 points, having played 13 games, winning 10, drawing 1 and enjoying a goal difference of +23. Great Shelford Reserves and Debden are our nearest challengers with games in hand, giving the promotion chase a tantalising end to the season!

The Reserve Team are in a similarly tight position in third place of Division 4. They have played 10 games, winning 7, drawing 1 with their goal difference showing +28. They have yet to play the current table toppers Ashdon United, and will be looking to avenge a narrow away loss early in the season to second placed Thaxted Rangers Reserves.

The Ressies have a game in hand on both, so it’s all to play for.

Recently there has been much disruption to fixtures, as often happens during this time of year, with games postponed due to unplayable pitches. Equally, the spectre of COVID-19 has reared its head, with ourselves and many other teams unable to fulfil fixtures due to infections in the squad. However, both teams are in an unusually fortunate position with the remaining league fixtures, with us not having to play those dreaded evening games during late April and into May!

We are incredibly pleased to announce that we have returned to winter training on Wednesday evenings at 8pm on the brand new 4G pitch at the MVC, a

fantastic facility provided through the efforts of many organisations within the village. It is a tremendous boon to have such a great resource available to grow communal sport in the village.

Those benefits have already been realised in the increased numbers at training! S-106 Grant Money Over the last two years, we have been severely hampered in our fundraising efforts for obvious reasons. The club would therefore like to thank the Parish Council for the assignment of some grant money so that the club can buy essential training equipment and first aid supplies. Milestones Ben Fox has surpassed the 70 goal mark for the club, having now scored 72 in 131 appearances, while Kieran Butler has now scored 40 in 43 appearances. Events Recently we took the decision to postpone our annual Quiz Night, which was due to take place on January 29th. It was deferred owing to the high and increasing case rates for COVID-19, which we felt presented a risk to all attendees; given our responsibility as a local sports provider, we did not wish to increase the threat of infection. We have since agreed a new date with our hosts, the Village College, of Saturday April 30th and, given the on-going reduction in infection rates, we sincerely hope to see as many of you as possible at the quiz, particularly as our wonderful new venue has a 300 capacity.

The quiz had become increasingly popular, so much so that our support of the Melbourn Church Hall had regretfully, run its course. As with previous Quizzes, there will be a licensed bar and informal snacks provided. Teams of up to six people at £5 per head, with a cash prize for the winning team.

All are welcome. For tickets, please contact Stuart Smith on 07789 468165, (chadders2000@hotmail.co.uk), or Simon Gascoyne on 07732 613555.

Before this date, however, we will have a Virtual Race Night at the Black Horse Public House on Saturday March 5th. There will be a betting system in place, with the races themselves being broadcast on TVs throughout the pub; the first race will start at 8pm. You do not have to book, but it would be wise to arrive earlier if you’d like to get a table and get your bets in on time. Memory Lane We have been representing the village for over 130 years, having been able to date back as far as 1891, and the date forms part of our new, updated, club badge – see image.

As previously mentioned, games are played at The New Recreation Ground. That has been the ‘Home’ ground since at least WWII, as we understand previous home fixtures were once played in the grounds of The Bury. One of our older team photos on the MFC website was actually photographed at that location. The Old Recreation Ground (site of the annual Fair and Air Cadet hut) was also used up until the 80’s, but we are extremely interested to learn of any other any venues that may have been used? If you can elaborate on any of the above or, perhaps, provide photos or memorabilia from the past for our web site and social media, with names, we would be very thankful.

Even stories from those days would be gratefully received. Please contact the club secretary for any submissions. Sponsors The club would like to extend our thanks to the following local businesses who support us with sponsorship: Conqueror Industries / Shire Trees Limited

TJ Plastering Contractors / PJ Deards Plumbing and Heating / MJF Construction & Maintenance If you are interested in sponsoring the club in any way, please contact the club secretary using the details below.

We would like to thank Steve and Kerry Harrington & team at the Black Horse pub for their warm hospitality. We would also like to wish Sarah Deans good luck for her future endeavours, having left the pub before Christmas. Contacts Club Secretary: Simon Gascoyne, 07732 613555, simon_gascoyne@hotmail.com First Team Manager: Chay Wilson, 07966 573008. Reserve Team Manager: Ben Hammond, 07402 777584. Website: www.melbournfc.com

Melbourn Sports Centre

For those of you who don’t already know, we have: • A state of the art fitness suite, offering a variety of membership schemes • A 20 metre swimming pool (kept ever so slightly warmer than most!) • A comprehensive swimming lesson programme, catering for all ages and abilities • Upgraded multisports courts for hire including tennis, football and squash courts • Water sports courses and activities • Traditional and modern exercise classes • Access to Melbourn Village College sports hall and gymnasium for activities such as trampolining, badminton and basketball • Supervised sports and pool parties

Looking back at Winter 2021–22 Though it’s been another tough Winter with COVID still prevalent, we’ve managed to enjoy a very successful swimming lesson programme as well as utilise the new Astro Turf pitch (see below!) and welcome back our popular trampolining activity in the form of parties. It’s been great to see customers using the Badminton courts more during the darker nights. We’ve re-introduced the Healthy & Active For Life scheme with the support of South Cambs District Council, and are pleased to have Emma working hard to ensure the centre can offer the best support for locals with this exercise scheme. We also welcomed new members of staff to MSC, who are both already shaping up to be great assets to the team, as well as Alice undertaking a training programme for intermediate to advanced swimmers on Monday nights. New astro turf pitch As announced in last edition’s news, the long-anticipated full size Astro Turf Pitch is finally completed! Clubs and organisations are lining up to make good use of this fabulous facility addition to the Melbourn site, including local team Melbourn Dynamos. It’s so nice to see so many groups involved, including smaller local clubs. For more information on how to book the pitch, and for prices, please contact robbie@mc-sport.co.uk. Spring into action at MSC We’re really hoping to bring back trampolining classes to the schedule, as well as an extra AquaFit session. Both activities are really popular, so fingers crossed! We’re also looking to introduce new classes such as circuit training, so watch this space… March/April 2022 It’s a universally accepted fact – Mums are great! So this Mother’s Day, how about treating her to her own gym membership or purchasing a gift voucher for our other activities here at Melbourn Sports?

We’ve got a bumper bag of Easter activities this year, including our OFSTED registered Play Scheme, where children can enjoy trampolining, swimming and creative crafts. Other holiday activities include Swimming Crash Courses. NB. These activities do require booking, as spaces are limited. May 2022 We welcome back the outdoor sports and tennis season this month. And for all you budding Wimbledon stars, courts can be hired mid-week and at weekends. Later this month, we will be running our children’s holiday activities once again to coincide with the Whitsun holiday, with Play Scheme and a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities available. June 2022 For something a bit different this Father’s Day, how about treating your Dad to his own gym membership or purchasing a gift voucher for our other activities here at Melbourn Sports? It’s a great way to help a loved one get fit!

Plus why not start planning your summer sports early this year, with our holiday courses like the Children’s Sports Camps and Swimming Crash Course on offer? Bookings taken from June onwards.

Other activities available this Spring and Summer include: • Our usual popular swimming lessons, both group and private • A range of aquatic exercise classes including Aqua-fit and Swim-Clinic (pool training session)

Indoor and Outdoor Court Hire

We’d like to end with a huge thank you for your continuing support. All leisure facilities, particularly smaller ones, are struggling to survive, but with your help and patronage, we will continue to thrive!

For further details on memberships or any of our activities, please call 01763 263313 or go online at www.mc-sport.co.uk. You can also follow us on our Facebook page (melbournsports).

We look forward to seeing you!

Melbourn Sports Centre, The Village College, The Moor, Melbourn, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 6EF 01763 263313