10 minute read
Sports & Clubs
Bowls Malcolm Davey 262704 Bridge Club Howard Waller 261693 1st Melbourn Rainbows Abigail Roberts 261505 Brownies 1st Melbourn Stephanie Clifford 220272 Brownies 2nd Melbourn Samantha Pascoe 261400 Cricket Martin Winter 262733 Croquet Janet Pope 248342 Football Club Andrew Edwards 223109 Dynamos Football Club Les Morley 07739 593771 gardening Club Helen Powell 245887 Judo Derek Coult 225004 Melbourn Sports Centre Graham Johnson-Mack 263313 Photographic Club Bruce Huett 232855 Ramblers Dave Allard 242677 Royston and District Round Table Michael Seymour 221398 Squash Club Nick Sugden 261064 Swimming Club Jenny Brackley 244593 Tennis (Melbourn) Dave Liddiard 07508 995 781 Tennis (Meldreth) Sue Davies 220174
A Winter Wonderland at MSC!
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We’re not going to let those long winter nights stop us from enjoying our exercise! As well as our indoor facilities like the swimming pool, squash courts and sports hall, we have loads of classes to keep you fit and healthy, including Boxercise, Core Stability, Swim Clinic, AquaFit, Pilates and Body Workout. We also now offer table tennis alongside our normal indoor racket sports. And they’re all reasonably priced, so the one thing that will stay plump is your purse!
Looking to book a birthday or Christmas party? How about bouncing those cares away with our new trampolining party, now available as well as our normal activities. We also have the adjacent Community Centre available for booking, with or without the pool facilities.
Trampolining is also part of our Olympic countdown lesson programme, offered to children at full-time school, as are the Saturday gymnastic lessons run by a qualified instructor, for children aged 3 and up.
With Christmas just round the corner, keep your eye out for our gift promotion – a fun and fit idea if you’re looking for something different to buy a loved one or friend (or treat yourself!).
For further details on parties, gift memberships or any of our activities, please drop in, call 01763 263313 or go online at www.melbournsports. com. We look forward to seeing you this season!
Graham Johnson-Mack, Melbourn Sports Centre
Autumn Review
After the success of our summer activities, including the ever-popular Pentathlons and holiday courses, we were looking for new and exciting ways to continue our community’s interest in exercise, as the nights grew shorter. This included a new gymnastics class on Saturdays, which was an instant hit.
We also ran tennis coaching sessions during the summer, funded by Sportivate, aimed at 14-24 year olds. They proved to be very successful, with a healthy number of attendants continuing to play tennis after the course. The Melbourn and District tennis club is still working hard to increase participant numbers, with Set2Play Tennis having been awarded the coveted Beacon status, which usually takes years to gain! They have also donated windbreaks, already erected and in use on the courts.
Attendance numbers for swimming seem fairly consistent, now that the summer holidays are over. We expect this trend to remain steady over the next few months. Why not get in some early practice for next year’s Swimathon and join our lane swimming or public swim sessions, in a nice warm pool?
We would like to thank MC-Splash Swimming Club and its members for generously donating approximately £150.00 toward the purchase of a new speed clock, which we believe will be an asset to both young and old pupils on our popular swimming lesson plan.
1st Melbourn Rainbows
During the summer term we worked towards our Roundabout Badge where we worked on activities based around the themes of Look, Learn, Laugh and Love. The girls have a choice of activities for each section and they choose which activity they wish to do. This is part of our encouraging the girls to make their own decisions and to accept decisions made by others in the unit.
The first activity was based around the theme of Look and the girls chose to look at and discuss their dolls. Each girl told the other Rainbows their doll’s name, how they got their doll and if there were any characteristics about the doll that were similar to themselves.
After this activity they chose for the theme Love, hand painting. The girls were asked to make creatures using
their handprints and some wonderful, colourful pictures were made of caterpillars, birds, butterflies, ladybirds plus many more. This is always a popular activity with the girls and I expect with the parents who have to try get the wet paintings home without covering themselves in paint!
This was followed by our Learn activity, which was how to make a smoothie. The girls designed their own smoothie recipes and then made them using strawberries, blackcurrants, yoghurt plus lots of other delicious ingredients.
For our last activity, Laugh, the girls decided to do foot painting. This was, as you can imagine, quite a messy and funny experience. I know I still had paint between my toes when I got home so I expect the Rainbows did too.
For our summer outing we visited Shepreth Wildlife Park where we had a fantastic day seeing wonderful animals, birds and insects including watching the tigers being fed, the birds of prey flying and having an educational talk. The girls behaved beautifully as you would expect from Rainbows.
Unfortunately during the summer term we did lose two of our most valued helpers Michele Hooker (Orchid) and Vanessa Merrick (Violet). We also at the beginning of the Autumn Term had to say goodbye to Tulip, Joanne Evans, who will be attending Winchester University and we all wish her lots of success for the future. We were all very sad to see them go and will miss them very much, but we hope they will still come back and visit us.
As usual we have lots of fun activities planned for the new Autumn Term and we are also busy preparing our Annual Sleepover for January 2012, which we all look forward to.
Although we do have quite a long waiting list, if your daughter wishes to become a Rainbow, please call Abigail Roberts, Unit Leader on 01763 261505.
1st Melbourn Guides
Whew, what a scorcher! OK, slight exaggeration, but we probably had one of the best weeks of the summer for our annual camp. Together with 2nd Melbourn and Steeple Morden Guides, we camped near Norwich and enjoyed kayaking and climbing, as well as firelighting, cooking and crafts. We did experience one afternoon of very heavy rain, but it was a valuable lesson in how to pitch a tent correctly!
We started the autumn term with 33 girls and formed new patrols, so settled in with an evening of patrol bonding activities, including drawing a friendship web, and trying to fit six girls onto an ever-shrinking sheet of newspaper. The following week we hit the High Street and Riverside Park armed with torches, compasses, and a patrol treasure hunt quiz. Despite there being a new moon and it therefore extremely dark in the park, we all got round and out safely, with 3 of the 6 patrols scoring 95%.
In October we enjoyed a visit from Lainie and Peter of the Shepreth Wildlife Park, who talked about the importance of conservation, and let us handle some of their creatures. High on the ‘yuk’ factor were the giant cockroaches, snails and huge black stick insects; the royal pythons tested the snake-o-phobes amongst us, but the finale of a brace of cute long haired skunks stole the show. A wonderful evening.
We currently have a full unit and a waiting list, and would welcome another adult leader. However if you would like to know more about becoming a Guide or a leader, or if you have any skills or hobbies which you would like to share with us, please contact me on: 01763 261443 or email: melbournguides@ gmail.com Hilary Marsh
Melbourn and District Gardening Club
Are you interested in gardening? Why not join the Melbourn and District Gardening Club on a regular or occasional basis.
We meet at 7.30 on the second Tuesday each month, at the Community Hall, behind All Saints’ Church (near traffic lights, lane by telephone box). January 10th – slides and talk by Richard Revel, photographer on Britain’s Wonderful Wildlife. A collection of recent pictures, taken of Britain’s wildlife. Birds, Mammals, Wild Flowers, Butterflies, and other invertebrates, together with the landscape of our varied countryside. February 14th – Richard Ayres, retired gardener from Anglesey Abbey, is an entertaining and very knowledgeable speaker, who will show slides and advise us on choosing herbaceous plants. March 12th – Pauline & Gerald Greenway from Priorswood Clematis Nursery near Ware, will visit the club to give a talk, with slides on on all aspects of growing Clematis. How to choose your ideal plant, where and how to plant, prune and feed. Plants from the nursery will be for sale. Outings
There will be an evening visit to Hopleys Nursery at Much Hadham near Ware in July. We are planning next year’s coach outing at the end of May, probably to the late Christopher Lloyd’s garden, Great Dixter in East Sussex. Non members are welcome to come with us, if there are spaces.
The 2012 programme, will be available for non members in November. 13 December 2011 – Christmas Social Evening. 10 January 2012 – Britain’s Wonderful Wildlife – Richard Revels. 14 February 2012 – Fun with Herbaceous Plants - Richard Ayres. 13 March 2012 – Clematis - Priorswood Clematis Nursery. New members and visitors very welcome. For more information telephone Helen 01763 245887 or Angela 01763 262793
Melbourn and District Photographic Club
This long-standing club of local photographers from Melbourn and the surrounding area meets weekly from September to April at Foxton Village Hall. Meetings are from 7.30 to 9.30 on Tuesdays. We have recently welcomed a number of new members, including some Duke of Edinburgh award students from Melbourn Village College. The programme December to April comprises: 6 December – Club evening: Critique of competition entries 13 December – Competition: Melbourn Trophy 3 January – Xmas meal 10 January – Lecture: Safari to the Back Garden and Beyond: Barrie Hattan 17 January – Competition: Panel Prints 24 January – Lecture: The Best of Ted Rowe: Ted Rowe
31 January – Competition: Melbourn v. Gamlingay 7 February – Competition: Melbourn v Bottisham and Burwell 14 February – Competition: Projected image 21 February – Lecture: Simple but not easy: John Bulpitt 28 February – Competition: Prints 6 March – Club evening: Landscapes 9 March – (FRI) Competition: Melbourn v. Saffron Walden and Letchworth 13 March – Competition: Projected Image of the year 17 March – (SAT) Competition: Melbourn Trophy Final 18 (SUN) March – Practical 20 March – Competition: Print of the year 27 March – Club evening: Judging 3 April – AGM
New members, of any skill level, will be warmly welcomed. For further information please ring the secretary: Bruce Huett 01763 232 855
Ramblers’ Association Royston and District
An invitation is extended to members of the public to join us for a 5¼ mile circular walk starting from the Black Horse Public House at Brent Pelham at 10am on Tuesday 3rd January or you may meet us at Royston Town Hall car park at 9.30am. It will be possible to pre-order bar snacks before the walk. It is hoped to visit the church at Brent Pelham to view the tomb of Piers Shonks, the dragon slayer. The walk is in pleasant rolling countryside. The walk is free. Festival of Winter Walks www. ramblers-herts-northmiddlesex.org.uk
Melbourn Dynamos Football Club
www.melbourndynamos.co.uk Our new 2011/12 football season is now well underway with a busy training and match schedule for all our young players. We now have a permanent base at Melbourn Village College, where we hold our training and home matches in beautiful surroundings.
MDFC is a friendly community football club and we give boys and girls the opportunity to play regular football regardless of their experience or ability. Our squads train weekly and play matches at weekends in the Royston Crow Youth League. Our younger members play 7 a side football on small pitches, moving through to 11 a side on bigger pitches for the older players.
MDFC is now 8 years old and is going from strength to strength. Starting out with a handful of local children and parents in 2003 we now have approximately 180 children aged 4–15 years signed up to our club.
