January 2011 PS Parallel Sport

The newsletter of Disability Sport

Editor : Richard Brickley MBE Edition 9 January 2011

All the Very Best for 2011-Great Times Lie Ahead

A new addition to the Disability Sport Fife calendar of events is the Fife Schools Football League for pupils with additional support needs. The League is part of a national programme organised by the Scottish FA and Scottish Disability Sport. , and have signed up for the Fife League and the first in a series of three sessions was held at High School on Wednesday 24 November. Disability Sport Fife is indebted to the Rector and staff of Kirkcaldy High School for all the support they provided in staging the event. Buckhaven HS pupils will join the league in March for Series 3.

The winners of the Fife League will go forward to the National League finals on the afternoon of Friday 27 May at the magnificent new Ravenscraig facilities outside Glasgow. As an incentive to participating in the League, the Scottish FA have donated new footballs, cones, bibs and coaching leaflets to the three participating schools. Assistant Disability Football Officer, Greig Taylor of the Scottish FA handed over the kit to individual school representatives prior to the first match. On display also were the medals, shields and trophy that the individual schools were playing for and will be presented after the third series matches on March 2nd 2011.

It was the players from Balwearie High School, Kirkcaldy who completed series 1 of the League matches with 2 wins out of 2. Lochgelly High School and Woodmill High Schools shared second and third place respectively. There was recognition at the completion of the final game that in series 2 and 3 there could be result reversals. All participating pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day Disability Sport Fife (DSF) despite freezing cold temperatures. Series 2 League matches will be held on Wednesday January athletes enjoyed one of 19th from 13 00 onwards and the players cannot wait. their best results at the Balwearie High School – Steven White (Captain), Adil Salim, Atlanta Crawford, Ryan Dunwoodie, 2010 Track & Field Cham- Adam Faulds, Thomas Hutchison, Alexander Fisher and Ross Bowmann. pionships organised by Scottish Disability Sport at Lochgelly High School – Ryan Waugh (Captain), Michael Russell, Dylan Harper, Daryll Gibson, Grangemouth Stadium. Briony Clark, Jonathan Carr, Billy Davidson, Kieran Clough, Arran Morris. The large Fife team, Woodmill High School – Andrew Williams (Captain), Glen Fraser, Ben Malone, Ryan Cormack, Jamie Thomas, John Weir, Michael Taylor, Lewis Oliver, Dylan Stone. Photo courtesy of the Courier

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Inter Area Badminton Challenge

With support from the Celebrating Fife 2010 Flagship Programme, Disability Sport Fife (DSF) organised the first Badminton Challenge for players with a learning disability at the Cowdenbeath Leisure Centre. DSF invited teams from three other Scottish areas to be involved in the Challenge but sadly there was no interest. Undaunted, DSF progressed with the event and established a Challenge event involving players from each of the three areas of Fife. Players played singles and doubles for the whole day and the result was a massive thumbs up from the players for the format and this new event. The first Fife Badminton Challenge involved players with a learning disability only. The winning team was captained by Andrew Callander and included Lloyd Simpson, Josh Brown, Pauline Bryson and Cara Dunsire. The runners-up were Charlene Took, Mandy Robertson, Wayne Sammut, Philip Callander and captain Allan Robertson. The third place trophies went to the team captained by Stephen Burns and included Ryan Melville, Tom Grieve, Margaret Ann Penman and Margaret Wardlaw. All three teams feature on the front page of the newsletter. Badminton is a DSF priority sport and on a weekly basis there are coach led sessions throughout Fife. The top player of the tournament was Lochgelly North pupil Lloyd Simpson who was undefeated throughout the Challenge, winning all his singles and doubles matches. DSF is hopeful that teams from other Scottish areas will travel to Fife for the 2011 Inter Scottish Area Challenge. The 2011 Fife Championships are scheduled for Friday 18th March at the Cowdenbeth LC. More

Secondary 31st ASN Gala at Lochgelly HS Pupils were

involved in The thirty-first annual swimming gala for pupils with additional support needs was held at Lochgelly High School. Pupils from Lochgelly HS, Balwearie HS, Woodmill the 2010 DSF HS, Glenrothes HS, Buckhaven HS and Lochgelly North School travelled to Lochgelly for one of the longest running events in the annual calendar organised Events by Disability Sport Fife. As always the event was hugely supported by the staff of Lochgelly HS and on this occasion for the first time senior Lochgelly HS pupils Programme played their part with time keeping duties under the watchful eye of Scottish Swimming officials Bernard Pirie, Jim Drummond, Colin Wilson and Tom Foster. than any The results from the gala determined the composition of the Fife team for the Scottish junior championships organised by Scottish Disability Sport at Tollcross previous year Leisure Centre on 17 November. All swimmers were swimming for team points towards the Inter Schools trophy which on this occasion was won by the pupils from Balwearie HS with 94 points. The runners-up were Woodmill HS with 70 points and third Lochgelly HS with 64 points. The relays as always were a highlight of the 48 event programme and this year the girls from Balwearie HS and the boys from Lochgelly HS were the relay champions. Mr Campbell Wood, Rector of Lochgelly HS presented medals to individual race winners and brought the event to an appropriate end with his concluding remarks. The individual race winners were as follows:

100m IM – Ross Bowman (Balwearie HS) 50m free style back – Steven White (Balwearie HS), Carter Taylor (Woodmill HS), Shaun Rowcliffe (Lochgelly HS), Lloyd Simpson (Lochgelly North), Louise Rogers (Balwearie HS), Atlanta Crawford (Balwearie HS) 50m breast stroke – Curtis Prior (Woodmill HS), Thomas Hutchison (Balwearie HS) 50m free style front – Michael McMillan (Balwearie HS), Daniel Mitchell (Lochgelly HS), Shaun Rowcliffe (Lochgelly HS), Carter Taylor (Woodmill HS), Lloyd Simpson (Lochgelly North), Emma Sykes (Woodmill HS), Atlanta Crawford (Balwearie HS) Top Male Swimmer – Shaun Rowcliffe (Lochgelly HS) Top Female Swimmer – Atlanta Crawford (Balwearie HS) PS Parallel Sport Page 3

2010 Junior Swimming Championships—PD/SI

After an absence of one year the Scottish Junior Championships for sensory and physically impaired swimmers returned to Grangemouth. Fife’s Lucy Walkup marked the occasion with four Championship records in the section for deaf swimmers.

Lucy was voted top girl of the Championships for her record swims in 50m free style back, 50m adapted breast stroke, 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley. It has been a brilliant year so far for the Auchmuty HS teenager and she has another GB Championships still to come. Representing Great Britain at the European Deaf Championships in Germany has been the highlight but setting British and Scottish Championships records has come a close second. Lucy is a member of Glenrothes Swimming Club.

The Scottish Junior Swimming Championships are organised by Scottish Disability Sport and a number of less experienced young Disability Sport Fife members, who train at the Fife Sports Institute, also recorded fine performances. Newcomers Sean Hemsley (Denbeath PS), Lucy Penman (Kirkcaldy West PS) and Steven McCormick (Sinclairtown PS) improved considerably on their personal times on their way to winning medals and national titles in their respective classes. Fraser Wilson (Bell Baxter HS) lowered his freestyle time by a substantial margin and Martin Tennant (Beith HS) won two silver and one bronze medal. Craig Smith (Glenrothes HS) won two silver medals and set personal best times by 4 secs and 8 secs respectively in 50metres freestyle and 50 metres breaststroke.

Disability Sport Fife or one of its partners offers weekly training opportunities for disabled swimmers at various venues throughout Fife. DSF is always looking for new members with a DSF physical or sensory impairment in particular to train and perhaps compete for Fife. In addition to swimming, there are coach led opportunities for archery, table tennis, athletics, boccia, receives badminton, wheelchair sports etc. DSF works in partnership with Active Schools, Sports massive Development and the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust to encourage young disabled people to be more active more often. events

support Fife Carpet Bowls Championships 2010 from

bowling

club

members

throughout

Central Fife

DSF Annual Sports Council Nominations 2010

The following athletes and players have been nominated by DSF for the Disability Sports Award section of the Annual Sports Council Awards Evening. At the stage of publishing this newsletter the results are not known.

West—Owen Miller (athletics), Barbara McMillan (bowls), Billy Allan (bowls), Craig Rodgie (swimming), Darryl Stewart (bowls)

Central—Michelle Wallace (athletics and bowls), Craig Donaldson (bowls and table tennis), Eleanor Clark (bowls), Balwearie HS ASN (sports development- team)

Disability Sport Fife is a registered Scottish Charity Charity No SC020994

Administrator Contact via Administrator Development Officer

Disability Sport Fife is a member organisation of Norma Buchanan Hon President Anna Tizzard Scottish Disability Sport Fife Sports Institute Richard Brickley, MBE Fife Sports Institute Website: Viewfield Road Chairman Viewfield Road Paul Noble, MBE scottishdisabilitysport. Glenrothes Glenrothes com Fife KY6 2RB Hon Secretary Fife KY6 2RB Tel: 08451 55 55 55 + Ext 444989 David Thomson Tel: 08451 55 55 55 + Ext 444974

e-mail: norma.buchanan Hon Treasurer e-mail: anna.tizzard

@fife.gov.uk Alec Thorburn @fife.gov.uk

2011 Fife Sports Festival and 2011 Events Calendar

Entry forms for the Annual Fife Sports Festival which starts on Friday 18th Feb. with the Fife Swimming Championships and finishes on Friday 18th March with the Fife Badminton Championships have been distributed widely. Over a four week period members can compete in football, unihoc, archery, tug of war, table tennis, swimming, badminton, basketball and netball and the chance to represent DSF at a National Championships organised by SDS. The calendar of sports events for the year is also now available. Contact Norma for details. New DSF Bowls Coordinator Appointed

As was reported in the last newsletter long serving Alec McLean has retired as DSF Bowls Coordinator after over 30 years of service. A small presentation was made to Alec at the 2010 Fife Carpet Bowls Championships in November . Matt Thomson Past President of the Beveridge Park Club was introduced as the new DSF Bowls Coordinator. Matt was a key member of the team that successfully hosted the Bowls Test Match and First Inter Area Competition in Kirkcaldy.

BL Gives Clean Bill of Health to DSF

Almost five years ago DSF started preparing a submission to the Big Lottery under the Active Futures strand. The plan was to secure 100K to finance coach led sports specific sessions for athletes and players age 18 to 24. The bid was successful and Vortex was launched. In December 2010 three years of BL funding came to an end and a very positive final report was submitted to the funding partners. Vortex was recognised by the BL Case Officer for its impact on disability sport in Fife. DSF was praised for managing to secure 10K of new money from five sources to sustain the coach led programme throughout 2011. DSF now employs its own coaches. Fund Raising and Financial Support

The Order of St John in Fife has once again made a significant donation of £500 to DSF on the occasion of the Annual Carol Service which sadly was cancelled due to the severe weather. DSF received an anonymous donation of 5K in support of its coach led training programme. Significant contributions have been made to DSF in support of Performance and DSF Futures athletes Lucy Walkup, Caitlin Dodds, Stefan Hoggan ,and Owen Miller. Celebrating Fife Grant Aid of 3K enabled DSF to add three new events to the annual calendar . Thank you to all our supporters.