Summer Courses- Oustanding Success

Once again our Summer Fun and Fitness courses at Kiln Farm are proving to be an outstanding success. Already nearly 300 different children have been booked in, representing an increase of 50% on last year! Most days have been fully booked and unfortunately many children booking at the last minute have been unable to obtain a place. We refuse to compromise on the quality of our offering by overfilling the classes, as we want to povide each child with a great experience on the day. Our week-long course taking place Aug 23rd- Aug 27th  at the Willison Centre in Roade is also fully booked.

Club Manager Felicity said: ”For many children this is their first experience of gymnastics and they all have the opportunity to progress and learn through the British Gymnastics Badge Scheme.  Many have already booked their places for our regular sessions in the Autumn so I would advise parents to book those sessions now and avoid disappointment ”

MK Springers Annual Primary Schools Competition

MK Springers hosted their annual Primary Schools Competition on Sunday 4th July 2010. There were in total 16 schools from across Milton Keynes. Nearly 100 boys and girls, who only train one hour a week at their school, arrived at the MK Springers Gymnastic Club to show their mums, dads, family and friends what they had achieved over the last academic year. This year the club decided to use the English Gymnastic Key Steps Acrobatic Programme but also to add vault to the event.

The children were judged in key stage groups on floor and in year groups on vault.

Reception/Foundation boys and girls were the first to vault. In third place was Luke Scard, Tickford Park, second place Luca Blackwell and winning vault was Emily Boyce, Glastonbury Thorne. Year One winners were, in third place was Madison Sears, Tickford Park, and in second place, Isabel Jones, Aspley Guise and the winner was Bhargavram Athray, Ashbrook.

Year two were next to perform, third place went to Finnian Slanney, Haversham with Rohan Lakshminarsimhan and Ellie Morris both from Howe Park school taking second and first place respectively. Year three had Emily –Rose Nicholls from Bushfield in third place with Holly Clennett in second and Daisy James in first place both from Olney Middle. Year four medallists were in third place Rhysa Adomako from Bushfield, Summer Barry from Southwood in second and Natasha Poppleton-Roy from Aspley Guise in first place. Year five was Jasmin Potter from Bushfield in third place, Thomas Begley from StMary & St Giles in second place and wining was Phoebe Cuddeford from Olney Middle. Last to go were year six with Tiffany Trundell from St Mary & St Giles in third and in second was Laura Sythes and first place went to Akili Bramble both from Bushfield.

On floor the schools competed in teams and the results were as follows, in Key stage 1 in third place was Howe Park, second place was Penwith and the trophy winners were Aspley Guise. Key Stage 1 mixed was Glastonbury Thorne in third place, Tickford Park in second place and Havershame were awarded the trophy. Key Stage 2 lower in third place was Southwood A team followed by Southwood B in second place, with Aspley Guise the first place trophy winners. Finally in Key Stage 2 mixed upper in third place St Mary & St Giles, second place was Longmeadow and in first place was Olney Middle.

The children and their families were then given a treat with a range of spectacular acrobatic and gymnastics displays from our club gymnasts. Community Coach and competition organiser Sarah Carey said “This is was MK Springers is all about, we take gymnastics to the schools and offer all these children, who only have school equipment to train on, the opportunity to compete in a fully equipped gymnastics club. They have all been awarded certificates and hopefully given an insight through the displays we put on here today on how gymnastics can develop from grass root to county, regional national and international level” As community coach I am always looking for naturally talented boys and girls and we have seen many of them perform here today”

Kiln Farm Gym gets a makeover

Friday 25th June saw MK Springers gym transformed. We know we have a fantastic club with vibrant, enthusiastic and achieving members and coaches and now we have a gym that reflects that in its colour and design.

At 8.00am Sarah Marshall and her team of at least 15 colleagues from Santander Bank arrived at Kiln Farm. They worked tirelessly all day to paint gymnastic figures around the walls of the gym as well as painting vibrant pillars to match. Some of the blokes enjoyed showing off their electric saws and improved the stairs which have also been painted in bright colours. It was a case of don’t stand still or you too may be painted! The Santander team also revamped the changing room to a bright yellow.

Upstairs is the piece de resistance. Our party room is just “wicked” to quote one of our gymnasts. It has been transformed with bright colours and is a fun room. We just know that our parties will be even more popular now, thanks to the Santander team. Not only did their staff give a whole day to MK Springers but they also presented Jean & Felicity, club managers with a cheque for £250.00 towards the cost of materials.

The makeover came as a total surprise to parents, gymnasts and coaches as Jean and Felicity had kept it a secret, so by Friday 4pm the gym was back to normal; clean and ready to use. The reaction of the gymnasts and coaches was fantastic. With words like WOW, FANTASIC, WICKED! To name but a few. It was amazing to see how in just a few hours the gymnastic club had been transformed. MK Springers cannot thank Sarah and the Santander team enough for all they have done.

Massive Medal Haul in Andover

40 gymnasts from MK Springers travelled to Andover to take part in the annual Sports acrobatic and tumbling summer tournament. This event includes clubs from the entire southern region which reaches from Milton Keynes to the Isle of White. MK Springers had 40 acrobats and tumblers entered; This is the largest entry to date by the club in a regional competition.

Many of the young gymnasts have never competed before and there was a very large audience for their début performance. The day began early with a 9am warm up. The tumbling entry was so large that it was decided to compete the lower level tumbling on both floor and tumble track. MK Springers boys and girls had trained hard with their coach Tugs and it showed.

In Grade C aged 10 and under, MK Springers covered all the podium positions In 3rd place was Jada Braithwait-Scott, 2nd was Jai Harper and in first place was Jodie Blackhurst. In 11-12 Grade C Shannon Barby achieved 1st place. Grade D saw Imogen kingsman taking 1st place closely followed by Eloise Driscol who achieved 3rd place. In the older age group, a nervous Jessica Bright got 3rd place.

As the day progressed the tumbling levels became more difficult but Ella Turner showed why she had competed in the British Final a month earlier and again won gold. Megan Ellis was even more shocked when she was presented with her bronze medal. Harriet Evens slightly over-rotated her final summersault just missed out on gold but was presented with a silver medal.

National 2 level had the more experienced tumblers with Natalie Keyte achieving second place and her team mate Stephanie Parker just behind her in third place. Ruth O’Donnell in Elite 2 level showed too why she had tumbled in the British finals earlier this year, she again completed clean runs to receive a gold medal.

In all MK Springers achieved 13 tumbling Medals.

The club was not to be disappointed on floor. Prep A pair, Kyle Ayris/Kye Souster came away with gold and team mates Emily England/Jessica Candler received silver. Prep B groups Megan Ellis/Freya Clarke/Jai Harper showed why they were regional and inter-regional champions by again receiving gold medals. Level 1 pairs saw the MK Springers gymnast’s just missing out on medals. Level 2 groups the club faired better with Bekki Novack/Sian Evans/Jenny Becket achieving second place. Level 2 pairs MK Springers were back on the podium with Stephanie Parker/Abigail Maxwell receiving gold and Anna Ryan /Harriet Evans getting bronze. Our level 3 pair Rhiannon Owen /Katie Adams continued the medal haul by achieving silver place. The club in all picked up 21 individual medals on floor.

This competition also had team trophies, Novice floor team trophies were presented to MK Springers A team with their B team in second place. Novice tumble team also saw MK Springers achieving first and second place. In the junior team event on floor saw MK Springers just missing out on the trophy but on tumble they achieved 2nd place.

Head Judge & coach for MK Springers Helen Beaumont said” These girls & boys have trained hard many had exams during the run up to this event but they never missed their training sessions. This show how committed they are to their sport and how they are well able to manage their time. Their hard work and determination has certainly paid off today. Now we start preparing for the Bucks Open in October”

Fantastic Trio

MK Springers Acrobatic trio Megan Ellis, Freya Clarke and Jai Harper took part in the Sports Acrobatic Inter- Region competition held in Southampton on 25th April. This event saw the best of each of the regions in southern England competing against each other. Megan, Freya & Jai all attend local primary schools here in MK.

The girls had qualified for this event by winning the South Region competition in March.

In a large field of ten other trios the MK Springers trio were second last to compete their floor routine but they held their nerve by scoring a massive 25.86 and achieving first place. The trio have been training hard since February this year, showing fantastic commitment and they have been rewarded by winning gold at these two prestigious events.

MK Springers Sports Acrobatic coach Carolyn Evans said “We are so proud of the girls. It was fantastic to see their training team mates travel to Southampton to support them. We are a relatively young club and this year already we have achieved so much with our acrobatic trio winning the inter-regional competition and next month we have three tumblers taking part in the British Championships in Fenton Manor”