Some of you will have seen the news today and the discussion which has started about the future funding of sport //www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/33767555. Although there is lots of talk about disappointing participation figures and a failure of the 2012 legacy, we are bucking the trend, and achieving our growth and increase in clubs through the success of our strategy and the hard work of our development team and many volunteers – thank you everyone! We cannot be complacent though. If we want to enjoy the benefits of exchequer and lottery funding it is important that we continue to look ahead and find new ways of attracting new faces into our game, and ensure we provide great experiences for those who do join us. It also means hastening our work to provide variations of the sport so that more people can play a version of the game. Recently we recruited Luke White who many of you will know. Luke is currently assisting with the development of the youth game but after the BT Community Festival in October, he will lead on the work to develop other versions. Luke is well placed to do this having experienced the Paralympic game and suffering the disappointment of being classified out of a game he loves.
There are lots of great participation opportunities going on around the country throughout the summer. Do read the piece on the website about the Super Sports Saturday which took place in Chiswick last weekend where wheelchair rugby was certainly a hit. Thank you to Hounslow Council who also supported this. A similar event is planned in Feltham on 22 August. We are also supporting the Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour and Fan Zones where we will be delivering even more opportunities to experience the game. Alongside this our regular programmes continue. Jinx is coaching in the military recovery centres and invitations have now gone out to six of the centres for the tournament which will feature as part of the BT Community Festival on 11 October. The new Liverpool Lions club is gaining interest and will be having an open session on 9 August with the aim of attracting new players and volunteers.
The GB squad is pretty much flat out with training camps as they prepare for the European Championships now only 5 weeks away. They had a good run in Europe having won both the Metro Cup in Poland and the Swiss Preparation Tournament, both providing good opportunities for the coaches to trial new lines and tactics. Equally busy is our work to deliver BT WWRC15. We are really into the details of this now with regular meetings of the organizing committee as well as meetings with ITV and our title sponsor BT. A great deal of our focus is on the ‘look and feel’ of the tournament as we want to offer something that is very attractive to our spectators and TV audiences and also something which gives them the opportunity to play a part. Please do help us to promote the event – tell everyone, re-tweet our tweets and draw everyone’s attention to ticket sales. We will be starting our serious marketing of tickets at the start of September and our aim is still to fill the Copper Box Arena.
David Pond
