Major Website Update

Hi - Christmas Eve.

I've just uploaded a substantial update to the Stafford Gym Club website, including a new menu/ navigation system running in JavaScript which ought to be more intuitive than the old hotchpotch. There's new content too: pictures and video from competitions in November and the Christmas 'Pirates' display from a couple of weeks ago.

The videos are both of Grade 2 Trios, who gained Silver and Gold in the recent West Midland competition at Wood Green.

Since last year the Club has undergone a few major changes. The High Level (Grade 4) competitors have left us, either through injury, retirement or having been poached by another club (on which subject I shall probably have more to say in due course).

Our ace Tops of last year, Daisy Dailly and Emily Kolk, are both now basing. For Daisy it's definitely a permanent shift, and she finds herself now Middling a rather good-looking Trio at Grade 2 with Rosie Darby & Lauren Jones. They hope to push that to Grade 3 after this season's comps are over. Emily is still looking for a suitable Base; last year she Topped the Grade 4 Trio, which was looking great until their so-so performance in the Nationals; meanwhile she also topped Sarah M-J, standing in for Daisy who was unwell and strolled away with a win (winning, as I remember, by two clear points). Though wouldn't award it though (how about that?)

Other partnerships to watch are Chlesie Cook and Daisy Stanier paired at Grade 3; also Heather Wills and Pippa Adams, two more of the Clubs 'old campaigners' (if you can call someone that at 15) are joined by Georgia, their ex-South Staffs Top. They are looking sharp with a very nice grade 2 routine. It will be interesting to see which of these groupings is more successful: Heather, Pippa & Georgia have the advantage of age and experience; Rosie, Daisy and Lauren are young (and will be in-age for Junior competition for some time). Daisy's a very experienced Top, but is finding that Basing isn't as simple as she thought.

I'll leave you with that and some videos. Happy Christmas and a prosperous and successful New Year.

S

Hello Again!

Well, it's been a little while, like about six months, but we're back in a new competition season.

I'm in the middle of a major website overhaul at the moment. I've just completely revamped the navigation system with a JavaScript-powered menu. During the next week or so I'll be uploading the new training and competition timetables; a review plus pics and vids from the recent WMAGA competition at the spendid Wood Green High School a couple of weeks ago and from the most recent Club Comp.

Then, in a few weeks we've got a pirate-themed Christmas display. They're currently testing face-paint. I didn't know you had to test face paint!

In the New Year, we have the Bristol Comp in Feb, preceded by (yet) another Club Competition, and the West Midlands championships are in March at Wood Green again.

All the groups have changed: some much-loved (if not exactly 'old') faces have moved on; others have come, and still others have moved around a bit.

All to come: stay plugged in.

S.

Water!

The extreme weather of the last week - specifically Monday and Tuesday - left the Riverside Centre with some water damage and ongoing electrical problems, which meant in turn an unscheduled break for the Club.

This has given me a bit of an opportunity to sort some pictures out on the Acro Gallery page. I've added video of Sarah and Emily's wonderful Pairs performance. You can find them on YouTube [ Dynamic ] and [ Static ].

I've also put some rather dodgy quality vidcaps of the routines on the page, pending the arrival of the official photos. Then there will be stills of the Grade 4 Trio and the Jenny and Daisy too.

This page is getting rather too big to be useful, so I think I'll chop it into smaller bits. Not much else will happen until the Autumn now, competition-wise, which will give the new partnerships time to get their routines together.

New Partnerships

There are some significant changes. We are truly sorry to see the departure of Jenny Dailly from the Club (she's retired from the sport), and also Abbie Callow and Jenny Wilson, who will be joining South Staffs Gym Club. These have all been regional champions and national finalists at several Grades. Daisy Dailly, also, is stepping down from being a top and will be working with a new Trio at Grade 2.

The higher level groups will now be Chelsie Cook and Daisy Stanier (G3 WP), Lauren Baines and Emily Kolk (G4 WP, and maybe some 'age group' stuff); Sam Reeves and Jodie Jeffries-Tipton (G4 WP). Hannah Mellor's been around recently, looking sharp. Possibly she might Top Sarah Mander-James - that would be exciting to watch - but the age differential would limit their scope.

The upshot of this is that several people who have perhaps been a bit overlooked are now coming to the fore, and among them are some very talented gymnasts. So watch this space.

S

Club News

Cheerio, Emma

One of the Club's key personnel is off to America to be a camp-leader and sports coach. Emma Hunt be over the pond until October and I'm not entirely sure what we'll do without her.

It will be opportunity for new talent to blossom.

Meanwhile, her coaching commitments are going to be taken over by Ellie Jenkins.

Tumble Trauma

You may have noticed the absence of the air track recently. It developed a problem and has to be repaired - this seemes to have entailed shipping it to Holland and back. As I write, I believe it's in a container at Felixtowe, hopefully inbound! Emma's been chivvying it along (or chivvying someone, anyway).

Web updates and images

I am still awaiting pictures and videos from the last couple of competitions. We actually had a photographer (as distinct from a bloke with a camera) at the Club Comp, with special dispensation to use a flash, no less. So I hope they turn out to be spectacular pictures.

I'm also hoping to add some content to the Adult Gym section. This - in case you hadn't realised it - is basically a Parcour group. They're not officially part of the Club (under BG rules) but they share the same space on Friday evenings and we're all mates.

If you fancy some high-energy, edgy acrobatics, give it a try.

I've also just received a bit of video from the last tumbling competition - and I realise that we don't actually have a tumbling section. Rather than posting a lonely disembodied video on a black page called 'Tumbling', I think I'll wait until I can get more info together.

S

Club Competition Results

Here are the results of the Club Competition held on the 13th May 07.

Results link

Here is a link to BG's results sheet for the full competition. Sarah & Emily won by a considerable margin!

Scores (opens in a new window)

Trouble at Top and A Star is Born

in the space of a week.

It started when Abbie, the mid-section of the Grade 4 Trio injured her foot and was unable to compete in the Club Competition last week. Everybody thought she might have broken it (though she wasn't sure how, which is odd): it was really painful and swollen. Euh.

We assumed that this would rule the Trio out of the Nationals (yesterday), so everyone was down in the mouth, like. A bit of relief was provided by Lauren Baines and Emily Kolk (the survivors) presenting spectacular pair routine at the Club Comp that they'd cooked up the evening before.

On top of this, Daisy Dailly, top half of the Grade 4 Women's Pair became unwell. They did the Club Competition, but looked a bit shaky and neither she nor Sarah were very happy about tackling the Nationals.

Then somebody suggested that Emily could replace Daisy as Sarah's Top. It seemed a long shot, but at Lilleshall after the Club Comp (it was a really long day!) they set to work and Daisy taught Emily her routines. In the space of five days and an evening, she had to learn two Grade 4 routines with all the balances and acrobatic moves - normally a six-month job.

During the week, Abbie recovered, and was sore but more or less functional by the Saturday morning.

Saturday, 19th May: NDP National Finals.

Preliminary Report

Three groups represented Stafford Acrobatic Gynmnastics Club: Grade 2 Women's Pair, Jenny Wilson and Daisy Stanier; Grade 4 Women's Pair, Sarah Mander-James and Emily Kolk (for Daisy Dailly), and Grade 4 Women's Group, Lauren Baines, Abbie Callow and Emily Kolk.

The competition throughout was tough and the standard very high. Jenny and Daisy presented an excellent routine and although they didn't manage a medal this time, they can be satisfied with a job well-done. They finished (we think) in about the middle of the competition.

The Trio, with Abbie not fully recovered from her injury, performed brilliantly. Their Static routine was pretty much flawless and looked polished and accomplished, though the dymanic routine suffered with a couple of tentative moments. Unfortunately that was enough to take them well out of the medals.

Sarah and Emily won their competition - a truly awesome achievement! To go from scratch to winning a National Final at Grade 4 in less than a week is something I've never heard of before. It's also worth mentioning that it's the first year that Emily has worked at this level (last year - you may remember - she won a Bronze at Grade 2 with Jen and Chelsie; so that's four national finals in two years, with top three positions in two of them).

Unfortunately, British Gymnastics in their unimpeachable wisdom didn't see it that way. At lower Grades, you are allowed to compete in more than one event - it's quite common - at at Grade 4 you can only do one. So because Emily was on the card to compete in the Women's Group event, they didn't recognise the Pair, though they allowed them to compete as 'guests'.

While it's true that we knew this before they arrived, I don't think anybody seriously thought that they would be competitive. As it turned out, BG's ruling is unfair at so many levels. It doesn't recognise Emily's astonishing achievement, or Sarah's (who has put in months of hard work). And the Pair who came second and were awarded Gold must feel pretty choked too.

Soon (a couple of weeks, I guess) we should have some pictures, maybe some video and some actual scores.

Steve

Happy in that we are not over-happy.

Things are going rather well at the moment, which is upsetting. It's always comforting to have something to whinge about.

The new timetable for training seems to be working well: the Squad sessions are sharper and less crowded, and everyone seems to be working purposefully and quite hard. And those who are unfortunate enough not to have a partner at the moment (a perennial problem in Acro, which depends upon stable and long-lasting partnerships) are being gainfully employed and taught new skills. I think that just about all of the issues that we faced last year have been sorted, or at least addessed. So that's good.

We have the Club Competition coming up next Sunday. This is a major event for us (Emma H. reckons that there are more partnerships competing than in the Regionals) and the coordination is a major logistical exercise. Parents and non-competing gymnasts (including some of the above) are being put on the judging panels, I think with the hope that, down the line, some of them will become qualified as judges. That's really good!

A photographer has also been arranged, who will take 'proper' pictures of the gymnasts and their routines; proofs of these will be displayed on the day so that pictures can be ordered there and then for a reasonable price. Excellent!

And the following weekend, there are the NDP Nationals at Fenton. Three partnerships from Stafford GC are competing there. In Grade 2 Women's Pairs, we have Jenny Wilson and Daisy Stanier. They have a wonderful sparkle on the floor and obviously enjoy every moment of what they're doing.

Two groups are competing at Grade 4. Abbie Callow, Lauren Baines and Emily Kolk make a wonderful trio, and quite a lot of space has been given on the Acro Gallery page to chart their progress this year. This will be Emily's second outing to the Nationals in 2 years. Last year she competed in a Grade 1 Pair with Chelsie Cook and won a Bronze against stiff competition with Chelsie and Jen Dailly in Grade 2 WG.

Finally, Sarah Mander-James will be partnered by Daisy Dailly. This is a relatively short partnership, so far. Daisy had been working with Dean when he retired from competition earlier in the year, and Sarah's partnership with Rosie had also just ended, so it was natural for them to work together. All this happened in February, so they've had to work hard to learn the high-level moves needed and put two routines together - but they've made it. The only picture I've got of them is a snap-shot grabbed in training a few weeks ago.

A couple of other friends who will also be at the Nationals, from South Staffs Gym Club: Rosie Robinson, Sarah M-J's former partner will make half of a Grade 1 WP - they did extremely well to qualify in the Regionals with little time to prepare; also Jess Perry will partner Carly Robinson (Rosie's sister, I believe) and Jessica Burlton at Grade 4 - which will put them in competition with Abbie, Lauren & Em (so that will have to be a Silver, then). If you know of any I've missed, please add a Comment.

Things are looking so damn chipper that I think I'm going to start blogging something else. Hopefully we'll see you at one or both of these events.

S.

Just a quickie -

I mentioned some time ago that we were saving our pennies and having a Sponsored Bounce in order to buy a new Air Track.

Some of us, who have come across these stange beasts before were a bit sceptical. An item we've encountered previously appeared a bit like a bouncy castle so it was hard to control the bounce. Plus, it had a kind of undulating surface, a bit like one of the aliens off Dr Who in the 1970s. And it sounded as if the fan had been purloined from a Harrier jet.

Well - this one's dead good. It's almost as firm as a gymnast's 6-pack and it bounces you roughly in a straight line. It's coloured to look like a tumble track (a bit less frayed than ours) and the fans kick in with a nice buinesslike hum. You can even adjust the pressure and therefore the track's bounciness. We now have a tumbling squad and everything.

I hope to get some pictures on the main site soon.

In very small print, at the end of the Track is a label that says something like 'somersaults can cause crippling injuries'. Nothing like raining on someone's parade - but actually, I don't think anyone else has noticed it. I'd have thought that somersaulting with an airtrack was less hazardous than somersaulting without one.

Hopefully, this will help our gymnasts sharpen their floor skills and develop the tumbling skills they need.

S

10th March saw what, for most, is the major competition of the year, the West Midlands Regional Qualifiers. The winners in each category go through to represent the Club and the West Midlands in the Nationals.

This year it was hosted at Menzies High School by West Bromwich Gymnastics Club. Apparently, this is where they filmed the John Cleese film Clockwise back in the 1980s - though the place is looking a bit tired and worn, now.

We entered in Grade 1 and Grade 2 Women's Pairs and Women's Groups, also the Grade 4 Trio gave an exhibition performance.

Competing in Grade 1 were: Rachel Radman, Katy Metcalfe; Louise Grujich, Grace O'Connel; Ellie Grocott, Lauren Jones (pairs), and Beth Beriet, Taylor Bagguley, Natasha Challinor; Melissa Cooke, Megan Shipton, Elinor Dyke (groups).

In Grade 2 were Jess Mee, Beth Giles; Elizabeth Cheal, Gemma England; Samantha Reeves, Jodie Jeffries-Tipton, who took the Bronze medal; Jenny Wilson, Daisy Stanier, who took Gold, (pairs), and Geneveive Stevenson, Rebecca Bridge, Eleanor Spenser; Chelsie Cook, Jenny Dailly, Ellie Greensmith; Pippa Adams, Elizabeth Cheal, Eden Davies (groups).

All our competitors did themselves justice, but particular praise must go to Jenny Wilson and Daisy Stanier (pictured left), and Sam Reeves and Jodie Jeffries-Tipton, who took First and Third in Grade 2 Women's Pairs.

It was interesting to see how Chelsie Cook and Jenny Dailly would fare with their new top, Ellie Greensmith. In fact, with Jenny recovering from illness, the trio did well to gain 6th in the Grade 2 competition. Ellie is a young gymnast with potential.

There was the opportunity to meet up with old friends. As former members of Uttoxeter Gymnastics Club, it was good to see Jade Hollins and Zoe Fallows, now with City of Stoke and CHANCE, respectively.

Rosie Robinson appeared basing a Grade 1 pair for South Staffs - having joined them from Stafford a scant few weeks ago - and won! Way to go!

The Grade 4 trio of Lauren Baines, Abbie Callow and Emily Kolk wasn't competing, as such. At Grade 4, there is no need to qualify for the Nationals. However, their routines were spectatular - and several images of both are available on the Acro-Gallery section of the site.

So, the following groups will be going to the Nationals: Jenny Wilson & Daisy Stanier in Grade 2, and Lauren Baines, Abbie Callow and Emily Kolk in Grade 4, and also Sarah Mander-James and Daisy Dailly in Grade 4, which will be their first outing together since they won Silver together at Grade 2 in last year's regionals.

Welcome back

This is a little different - but not that much.

We decided to start a new blog page - the old one was great, but perhaps lacking a bit of balance. Here we want to focus on celebrating what our gymnasts are doing rather than launching incendiaries at numpties in the Borough Administration. (Hopefully, that will no longer be necessary - but just in case it is - ssh! - the old blog is still open.)