Category: A News

First Fife CP Athletics Squad

I came across this old 80s photo of the first Fife squad of athletes with cerebral palsy to compete in the Scottish Track and Field Championships organised by the Scottish CP sports group. At the time the sports group was part of the Scottish Council for Spastics, now appropriately renamed Capability Scotland.
The driving forces behind these championships and others were Commander Archie Cameron, Mary Aitken and Jim Thomson from SCS. They paved the way for a significant involvement of Scottish athletes with cerebral palsy to be involved in international track and field for the next three to four decades. There was early engagement with Scottish Disability Sport (SSAD at the time) and the two organisations planned and helped shape the futures of outstanding Scottish athletes/swimmers/boccia players with cerebral palsy including Colin Keay, Caroline Baird MBE, William McQueen, Maxwell McKay Gordon Robertson MBE, Jimmy Sands, Stephen Payton, Richie Collins, Keith Gardner, Pauline Latto, Anne Woffinden, Carol Johnston, Jimmy Maxwell plus many others.
From this early group of nine Fife athletes Colin Keay from Kirkcaldy and Ann Swann from Methil were selected for the Paralympic Games in New York in 1984. Each was a multi medallist in Nassau County at Hoffstra University in the very first SCS/SSAD partnership involvement in a Paralympic games. Commander Cameron was the President of the International Paralympic movement at the time, a huge honour for Scotland and the SCS. Ronald Raegan was the President of the United States and together they welcomed all of us proud Scots as members of a wonderful 1984 Team GB. Nobody appreciated at the time how important these Games would be in the development of local, national and international Para sport.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

First Fife Carpet Bowls Championships

In searching my photo archives for the next article for the Facebook page, I came across one of the oldest pictures in the 40 years plus history of Disability Sport Fife.
The photo was taken at Lynebank hospital in Dunfermline and the occasion was the first Fife Carpet Bowls Championships. Alex McLean and some of his bowler friends turned out as markers and we had entries from adult bowlers with a physical, sensory or learning disability. The photo is of the section winners and the year was 1977, almost two years after I moved to Fife to take up my post at the Fife Sports Institute.
Sadly almost all of the section winners have passed away but Pamela Mitchell and Robert McMahon who appear on this historic picture are still competing in the Fife Championships. The full list of winners was as follows:
Eilleen Fairgrieve; Robert McMahon; John McConnachie; Pamela Mitchell; David Laing; Mair Scott; Sadie Dunnigan; David Thomson. Sadie is proudly holding the Val Harley Memorial Trophy which is one of the most sought after and classic trophies in our movement. Carpet bowls is played extensively throughout Fife and in 2020 we had a full line up of juniors taking part from Fife secondary schools.
In 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, Disability Sport Fife collaborated with Fife Council and Scottish Disability Sport to introduce carpet bowls to the national calendar of events. The first Championships were held at the Lochgelly Centre in Fife and next year will be the 40th anniversary year of the championships. The recognised home is now the Dundee International Sports Centre (DISC) and Dundee City Disability Sport is the key partner along with Scottish Disability Sport.
Over the years the Scottish Carpet Bowls Championships have been hosted by the Lothian, Forth Valley, Glasgow, Highland, Fife and Dundee branches of SDS. Carpet bowls offers the opportunity for bowlers to progress to indoor and outdoor bowls where further competitions exist plus of course the opportunity for mainstream club membership and all that this offers.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Fife Junior Para Swimmer Rising through the Ranks

Continuing on the theme of “Fife Futures” and the ones to watch, the focus of this article is on teenager Cameron Hemphill from Ladybank and Bell Baxter HS. Cameron is a member of Carnegie Swimming Club, having started out in DSF sessions at Cupar and Glenrothes, before moving to Cupar and District and then on to InCas. Cameron is Fife’s leading physically disabled Para swimmer living in Fife.
Throughout his career, Cameron has been tremendously well supported by all members of his family and more recently his strength and conditioning programme has been supervised by Stuart Bizzarri from the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust. Cameron was introduced to competitive swimming at the Disability Sport Fife swimming championships.
Cameron’s 6 year journey to date:
  • November 2013 First SDS Junior Swimming Championships Grangemouth
  • November 2014 Second SDS Junior Champs November Grangemouth
  • Cameron’s first classification in June 2016 = S10 SB9 SM10
  • Following classification Cameron is invited to join Scottish Squad
  • National Para-swimming Championships 2016 in Manchester
  • Move to InCAS to train under Garrie Roberts, and an increase in training intensity
  • Awarded most improved swimmer trophy at the 2017 Disability Sport Fife Annual Awards
  • Cameron with Garrie at the Scottish Open Swimming Championships in 2018 at Tollcross – Glasgow
  • Cameron competing at his first British Para Swimming International Meet 2019 at Tollcross.
In six years Cameron Hemphill has progressed brilliantly in para swimming and is currently a young ambassador with Scottish Swimming. Commitment, determination and strong family support are key to success and Cameron has it all in abundance. Disability Sport Fife is proud to have played a part in Cameron’s journey to date and recognises that this young man still has so much to offer.
These are challenging times for para swimmers without access to water but Cameron is fully committed to his home based land training and this hopefully will keep him on track until normality returns.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO ) Board of Charity Trustees

Young Fife all rounder is one to watch

The story of Owen Miller, Sam Fernando and Carter Taylor, three of Fife’s very successful T20 athletes with additional support needs is similar. Identified early on in their school careers that they were athletes with potential, the tried and tested Fife support network kicked into action.
In the case of these three athletes, Woodmill HS and Bell Baxter staff met with Disability Sport Fife, families and club representatives to action appropriate transitioning between school, DSF sessions and club coaching. For Owen, Sam and Carter the role of families can never be underestimated. The sport in each instance is athletics and local club Fife Athletic Club, with its team of inclusive coaches, has taken all three athletes to the very highest level in track athletics and road running.
Zoe MacNulty from Balwearie HS is a young all-rounder starting out on a journey that may one day lead to involvement in club activities and who knows where thereafter. Tracy Barber (nee Wiscombe) and Rebecca Lee were at one time in a similar position and went on to excel in swimming at the highest level.
Young Zoe is currently showing promise in cross country, track, swimming, badminton and unihoc and was recently selected for the Disability Sport Fife Sportshall team that retained the national team title in Grangemouth. Like the others Zoe has strong family support. Prior to school and leisure centre closures, Zoe attended the Wednesday swim improvers session at Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre that was part of the GOGA in Fife programme supported by Spirit of 2012.
DSF swim/athletics coach and Balwearie HS teacher Gabby Doig now transports Zoe and her school friends Sam and Brooke to Tuesday run, jump and throws session at Pitreavie Athletics Centre. The next stage in the journey of young Zoe is hopefully club membership and discussions are already at an early stage. Zoe is definitely a youngster to watch and her enthusiasm and involvement in physical activity, including sport, with encouragement from family, school and DSF coaches to date has been exceptional.
Richard Brickley OBE MBE Chairman DSF (SCIO) Board of Charity Trustees

Scottish Disability Sport Young Persons Quiz Night

On Thursday 2 April, SDS held its very first general knowledge virtual quiz with members of the Young Persons Sport Panel, Young Start Programme and Scottish Boccia Squad. There were 22 teams in total playing to win the title of quiz champion. The winner of the quiz was Scottish Boccia player, Ross Munro, closely followed by Young Start programme member Abby Cook in second position and Colette Martin from the Young persons Sport Panel in third place. It was great to see so many smiley faces during this strange time and fantastic that lots of other family members got involved too.

During these unprecedented times SDS is exploring various ways online to ensure our programmes can continue in some shape or form and make sure the wellbeing of our participants is at the centre of this. Watch out in the coming weeks for more ways in which you can get involved. Roll on the next quiz!

Lothian Disability Sport AGM & Awards

Due to the ongoing situation with Coronavirus, Lothian Disability Sport have decided to postpone our AGM for the time being. However we would still like to invite nominations for our Annual Awards which we will present at a later date.

The aim of the Annual Awards is to recognise individuals and teams who have achieved particular success or achievement in their sport over the previous 12 months.  Nominations are welcome in the following categories –

  • Young Sports Person Award
  • Senior Sports Person Award
  • Team / Club Award
  • Volunteer / Coach Award
  • Endeavour Award

Please find the award nomination form below.  Deadline for entries is Friday 29th May 2020.  Nominations can be emailed to admin@lothiandisabilitysport.co.uk.

Annual Award Nomination Form 2020

If you have any questions surrounding this information, please contact Jack Brodie on 0788 554 9173 or admin@lothiandisabilitysport.co.uk.

Tayside Regional Round-Up

The Tayside Regional Round-Up is now available with news about recent events including:

  • The hugely successful 6th Tayside Parasport Festival
  • Dundee United Community Trust goalball session
  • Regional competitions in badminton, boccia, swimming, powerchair football, sportshall athletics and many more
  • Regional Sports Awards
  • Disability Inclusion Training workshops
  • Link-up with Scottish Student Sport

You can download the Round-Up here.

If you or anyone you know has a disability and would like to get involved in sport in the Tayside Region, please contact Graeme Doig – graeme.doig@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Tokyo Paralympic Games: New Dates Confirmed

The Tokyo Olympic Games will start on 23 July, 2021 and run to 8 August after being postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board met on Monday to make the decision.

Full article on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/52091224

SDS Bids farewell to Norma Buchanan

Tuesday 31st March is the final working day for Norma Buchanan as part time administrator with Scottish Disability Sport. Since 2000 Norma has worked part time for SDS and part time for Disability Sport Fife. From 1st April 2020 Norma will retain her part time post with DSF but retire totally from SDS.

Norma has always worked in the Fife office of Scottish Disability Sport where her responsibilities lay largely in the areas of events and finance. Initially Norma worked closely with the late David Thomson from Glenrothes, who was treasurer of SDS for many years.

More recently Norma’s responsibilities centred wholly on the events side of SDS business and she became the named person for all issues relating to the comprehensive SDS events programme. All SDS branch representatives dealt directly with Norma and she became a highly respected and hard working SDS officer. Norma was the name on the events entry form and there was very little about the programme that she did not shape and develop. She is a consummate professional in every sense and highly respected by those she worked with. Mark Gaffney is well and truly the man in the driving seat in events these days and Norma has enjoyed immensely her time working with him.

Although no longer working directly with Scottish Disability Sport, we are delighted that Norma will remain within the wider Scottish Disability Sport family.  Norma‘s work will continue to contribute to everything we all do – as it has done over the many years.

Live on Curious Coaches Website

Curious Coaches’ Club

What are the things that separate good coaches from great coaches? Well, we know that one of those elements is curiosity; it is the urge you feel to know more about something. Alongside this is the knowledge that the more we learn and find out, the more we realise we don’t actually know as much as we thought! This is where the ‘Curious Coaches Club’ comes in!

Each week we will be holding a conversation about a particular coaching topic that we know is important to coaches and one that many would like to learn more about. You see, we are all coaches as well and are fascinated by the process and art of coaching, helping people to learn and grow whilst using sport and activity as the vehicle to achieve this. Sometimes this might be helping another person get better at a specific technical or tactical outcome or it could be to support someone else to increase their confidence or communication skills.

The ‘Curious Coaches Club’ will have three parts to it:

  1. Watch ‘A Conversation About…’ between expert coaches live on a Monday or on-demand via UKCoaching.org or our You Tube channel.
  2. Engage and take part in a more in-depth conversation about the topic on Wednesday or Thursday via smaller informal gatherings of coaches hosted by one of our team.
  3. Continue the conversation via the community aspect of ‘Connected Coaches’ hosted on our website.

Over the coming weeks we will be following this process to talk about all sorts of different topics and feel free to share with us if there are any specific topics, discussions or coaches you would like to hear from and we will see what we can do!

Our First Theme is Coaching from your Home to their Garden  where we will be discussing remote coaching all week

Curious Coaches’ Club – Open Webinar

  • Monday 30 March, 14:00 – 15:00

Join Mark Bateman and Andy Bradshaw for a conversation about remote coaching. They’ll share practice, explore some of the essentials and discuss how you’ll be able to support the people you coach during this challenging time. They’ll also look to draw on some positive consequences from having to work in a different way and how these may also become staple parts of our coaching craft.

Click here to book your place

Curious Coaches’ Club – Community of Practices

  • Wednesday 1 April, 11:00 – 12:00
  • Thursday 2 April, 18:00 – 19:00

Join some of the UK Coaching Team to engage and take part in a smaller more in-depth community of practice style conversation around Monday’s ‘Coaching From your Home to their Garden’ webinar. To attend this session you must have attended the live session on Monday or watched it on demand via UKCoaching.org. Places are limited so get in quick to secure your place.

Click below to book your place