There is lots going on at the moment with the third of the Super Series events on Saturday in Sheffield followed by the Nationals and the AGM in a few weeks time and of course the all important preparations for London 2012. On top of that many of you have been helping us with putting together our funding submissions to Sport England by giving us your views in our telephone canvassing initiative. This has provided us with really valuable ideas of where you want to see the sport go. We have used this information and have now presented our initial plans for the next 4 years to both Sport England and UK Sport and we wait for the next stage of a process which will end with us presenting in ‘Dragon’s Den’ style format separately to the Sport England and UK Sport investment boards in October. We will know in December whether we have achieved funding for the next 4 years and at this point we will be able to either push ahead with our ambitious plans or go back to the drawing board and think again! The current high visibility of the sport is a great advantage to us at this time as it gives the sport a profile which can only help when we are trying to gain funding from the lottery and taxpayer. Understandably, the organisations who decide who gets this money need to be assured that it will be wisely used to provide sporting opportunities, grow our game and achieve international success. Talking of success, congratulations to Dave Woods on being selected to referee at the Paralympic Games – this is an enormous achievement and one which I know he has worked hard to gain. And well done also to those selected as Table Officials, all have taken part in a rigorous period of preparation as well as officiating at our domestic events. Finally, the IWRF General Assembly takes place ahead of the Canada Cup on 19 June and I will be there to represent your interests. If you go to the IWRF website www.iwrf.com you will see the resolutions being proposed many of which have an impact on the game. If you want your views heard on any of these proposals then let your DMG representative know so that I get a good idea of what you all think and am able to pull together a GB position. A great bit of news for us is that Richard Allcroft is standing for one of the positions on the IWRF Board – we all hope he will be successful as this is an important role for the future development of the game across the globe.
Enjoy the Super Series
David Pond
