AGM 2024
- Details
- Written by: Richard Keasley
The Annual General Meeting of Sussex Gymnastics was held on Wednesday, 8 May 20:30 at the The Jack & Jill Inn, Clayton, BN6 9PD.
Neither the Chair (Laura Wilton) or the Vice-chair (Emma Ballancore) were able to attend. Sally-Anne Warner (Hawth) agreed to act as chair on their behalf.
Present
Keith Walter
Mike Gevaux
Josie O’Connor
Kim Mirceta
Sarah Dyson-Bottle
Emma Pope
Richard Keasley
Sally-Anne Warner
Charlotte Wynne-Pennels
Lisa Jestico
Kim Kennedy
Nikki Huggins
Francesca Sherlock
Jessica Wildeman
Jeanette Sherlock
Beth Burchett
Emily Knight
Heather Sampford
Apologies for Absence
Jade Wadnam
Amanda Wadman
Emma Ballancore
Julia Belchamber
Mark Poore
Minutes of the last meeting
The minutes from the last meeting (7 February) were agreed to be correct. There were no matters arising.
Chair’s Report
Treasurer’s Report
The treasurer's report available here is quite brief. Please ask the treasurer if you need more details.
Club funding
It was agreed that Sussex Gymnastics will continue funding coach and judge education for the forthcoming year. This funding will be available for any BG recognised course (including Activity Instructor).
High interest account
Sussex Gymnastics has attempted to open a high interest account with Skipton Building Society. However, the previous minutes (7 Feb) did not record the details of this intention correctly. Keith Walter (Treasurer) and Sally-Anne Warner (Vice-treasurer) will act as trustees for this account. Two signatures will be required to operate the account. Sally-Anne and Keith will return the application back to Skipton Building Society next week.
Discipline Reports
General
The Sussex Championships for Novice and Intermediate was really successful. We hope to hold a similar event at the same time next year. This event includes a category for one hour gymnasts, which did not have many entries.
The criteria for Floor & Vault competitions will change. The new rules will hopefully be published in the Summer.
Festival
Acrobatics
Trampoline / DMT
There have been some trampoline competitions and there are more in the future.
Tumble
Team-gym
Men's Artistic
Women's Artistic
Welfare report
Welfare Officers are doing a lot of support visits for clubs for minimal payments (expenses). Sussex Gymnastics should create a schedule of fees for these support visits.
Clubs need to ensure they have a budget for the involvement of County Welfare Officers.
Election of Officers
Chair
Laura Wilton is not currently attached to a Sussex club, so is not eligible to take on a role within Sussex Gymnastics. She stated she was prepared to continue in role as chair.
Heather Sampford also said she was wiling to take on the role.
There was a vote by the clubs present (each club having one vote). The majority of clubs present voted for Heather Sampford.
Vice-chair
Emma Ballancore was not able to attend and is struggling to maintain involvement due to personal reasons. However, nobody else is willing to take on this role. Sarah Dyson-Bottle said she would stand in until such a time as Emma feels she can get involved again..
| Position | Candidate |
Proposed |
Seconded |
| Chair | Heather Sampford | [voted] | |
| Vice-chair | Emma Ballancore | Kim Mirceta | Heather Sampford |
| Treasurer | Keith Walter | Sally-Anne Warner | Lisa Jestico |
| Secretary | Emily Knight | Sally-Anne Warner | Richard Keasley |
Discipline representatives
Most discipline representatives were willing to stand again. They were agreed on block.
| Position | Candidate |
| General | Kim Mirceta Beth Burchett |
| Festival | Sarah Dyson-Bottle |
| Acrobatic | Charlotte Wynne-Pennels |
| Rhythmic | |
| Trampoline / DMT | Julie Belchamber Kim Kennedy |
| Tumble | Nikki Huggins Mark Poore |
| Team-gym | Sally-Anne Warner |
| Men's Artistic | Richard Keasley |
| Women's Artistic | Lisa Jestico |
Other roles
| Position | Candidate |
| Welfare officer | Mike Gevaux Dawn Hyland |
Any other business
Funding proposal
Lisa Jestico has put forward a proposal to help fund gymnasts who are part of a home nation or national squad system (read Performance funding).
This funding is only available to those representing GB, a home nation, or the gymnast's nation.
The total amount awarded needs to be capped per year. For this reason, funding will probably be awarded retrospectively at the end of the year.
Lisa and Sally-Anne Warner will put together the precise criteria for this funding. It will be brought to the next meeting (dates below).
Paying in cash
People are experiencing some difficulty paying cash into the bank after an event. It is inevitable that some cash will be received at events. There is a identity card that some bank issue to allow paying in of cash.
Sussex Gymnastics will try to obtain some of these cards.
Meeting dates 2024-2025
- 17 July 2024
- 16 October 2024
- 5 February 2025
- 7 May 2025 (AGM)
Richard will book the same venue (Jack & Jill PH) for all four meetings.
The meeting closed at 22:25.
- Details
- Written by: Charlotte Wynne-Pennels
Recently we had the national qualifiers for acrobatics which took place on the 4th/5th of March, at Tunbridge girls Grammar School held by Tigers gymnastics club. The competition was success as 26 south east Gymnastics qualified for finals in Stoke-on-Trent, 17 south east Gymnastics qualified for inter-regionals in Southampton. And within that number, 4 qualified for finals & 3 qualified for inter-regionals from Sussex. Finals weekend is 25th-26th of May & inter regionals takes place this weekend 11th-12th of May.
On March 24th a team competition was held at Hollington Gymnastics club. This was a competition for gymnasts not competing at qualifiers. Gymnastics were split into teams within their clubs. Team with the highest amount of points due to placings, win. At this event we made clubs aware of Sussex Champs 2024 and gave a save the date.
Since then the date has been changed due to clash of Level 3 Module 2 Acrobatics course. The date has hopefully been moved to the beginning of October (Date to be confirmed). This year we hope/plan to have many more entries into our Sussex champs competition. Lots of clubs have been taking full advantage of judging courses, with Hollington gaining a new regional level judge. We are also in process of registering our venue for acro and tumble coaching course. Which will be exciting & helpful to those clubs closer.
Thank you everybody for your continuous support.
Charlotte - Acrobatic representative
- Details
- Written by: Nikki Luke
Busy time for tumble as usual with lots of friendly comps as well as our usual qualifiers.
Sussex clubs have all attended every tumble comp available this past year including Sussex champs, held October 2023, South East Open, held November 2023, Hollington invitational, held January 2024, English silver qualifier, held March 2024, Inter regional qualifier, held March 2024 and the Inter county qualifier which is being held this Sunday.
English champs 2023
Sky High, Dyson, Be Gymnastics, Bevendean & Hollington all had gymnasts representing their clubs attended these finals in Telford. Personal bests, new skills and medals were achieved across the clubs, showing a strong Sussex front.
Inter Regional 2023
Again Sky High, Be Gymnastics, Dyson, Bevendean & Hollington all had gymnasts attend and we’re proud to represent their Region in Birmingham. For some this was the biggest competition to date and everyone did very very well, with some bringing home medals for all their hard work.
English champs & IRCC 2024
Like last year all 5 of the above Sussex tumble clubs have gained places with gymnasts in these finals. English champs will be taking place next month in Telford, with IRCC following in July back in Birmingham.
Judges
It’s been nice to see all clubs taking to opportunity to gain club level judges within the county, with Hollington, Be Gymnastics and Dyson also gaining Regional level judges for their clubs.
Coaches
Hollington, Be Gymnastics & Dyson coaches have attended their first module of their level 3, and will all be attending their module 2 very soon.
Most clubs have gained new tumble coaches both level 1 & 2 in the past year.
This year with Sussex champs we will be holding 2 competitions, club 5 & 6 and Regional 1-4 at one comp and then club 1-4 on another date. One of these dates will be a joint sussex champs with acro, both comps will be held at Hollington with dates to be confirmed very soon.
Sussex are looking forward to another busy and exciting year for tumble and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all clubs for supporting the County in the past year
Thanks
Nikki & Mark
- Details
- Written by: Mike Gevaux
Sussex Welfare Report 2024
We are both grateful for the support of Sussex Gymnastics in covering our petrol expenses when we are asked to visit a Club or attend a county competition in a welfare capacity.
We cannot give full details of the visits made in the last year but we can tell you that after visiting many clubs in the County over the last 12 months there are similar issues cropping up. Coaches and gymnasts wearing jewellery when coaching and supporting, Clubs having policies that do not include sanctions or disciplinary procedures if policies are not adhered to. This has been increasingly common with parents who are intimidating Coaches and seeking to take over the planning of training!
Other common occurrences relate to inappropriate social media use with younger Coaches and unqualified helpers being asked to take on Coaching of groups. The Gymnastics helper award is ideal to boost the number of helpers in your Club so the ratio of Coaches to gymnasts is kept within the guidelines. Please also remember that Coaches must not be coaching skills above their qualifications. British Gymnastics has a comprehensive library that enables all previous qualifications to be checked.
Syllabus Library (british-gymnastics.org)
Dawn Hyland
Mike Gevaux
- Details
- Written by: Sarah Dyson-Bottle
Within Sussex it remains just the two clubs taking part in festivals events, Dysons & Chichester.
Dysons attended the BG gala this year at the artistic championships and sadly due to a run of injured gymnasts was unable to perform as planned but enjoyed watching the other World Gymnaestrada clubs performing and of course the artistic championships itself.
Both clubs are due to attend Gymnasia in Birmingham this month with Dysons performing one routine and Chichester performing three.
For Chichester the next plans after that are to do the London Gymnastics Festival in Brentwood again. The team absolutely loved it last year and was their favourite event alongside Disney in 2022. If they get a big enough team, the plan for 2025 is to do Disney! Additionally Chichester has recently added events at the Blackpool tower and GymStarz in London to their itinerary this year.
Dysons are looking to take part in GymFusion near the end of the year as another chance to practice one of the 5 plus routines they will be taking to the competitive event of Gymnastique Magique in Disneyland Paris in 2025 in Disneyland Paris.
Both clubs would appreciate the chance to perform at county events to help them practice for bigger events so please do let us know if you have an event coming up that would benefit from some entertainment (perhaps while judges are sorting final positions), for a festival routine the only requirement is a full sized floor space.
- Details
- Written by: Laura Wilton
Many thanks for all your hard work in the county this last year, without you all we wouldn’t have been able to host and run events as smoothly as we have, and so many people enjoy them. Not only that, but it has helped increase the funds in the county which has enabled lots of clubs to be awarded grants to help with coaches and judges’ training. This can only be a good thing for our county.
Going forwards we would like to look at being able to host a multi-discipline Sussex event again, however we do have a lack of support from clubs in the county to be able to enable this, Which is such a shame as it was so well attended and loved by all.
The committee are always asking for helpers, even if you can’t commit to all four of the meetings we have through the year, we would much appreciate your help in any way! Please do let us know.
Once again a huge thank you to the committee members who take time out to help Sussex run competitions, events and training, and run as smoothly as they do .
- Details
- Written by: Sally-Anne Warner
Sussex Meeting AGM Team Gym Report May 2024
We welcome Dyson Gym Club, Hove into the world of TeamGym, hope to see you out and about at events soon.
Other clubs actively competing TeamGym in Sussex are Hawth, Crawley and 1066 in Bexhill.
Please see below for information of results and events - June 2023 to April 2024
Results
British Championships
July 29th & 30th 2023 Newcastle
Hawth Primary 6th
Hawth Youth Mix 5th
Hawth Juniors 2nd
Senior Mixed 2nd
Senior Men 2nd
Mid European Competition
Hawth Teams competed in the mid euros in Italy in 16th – 19th November 2023
Results
Hawth Junior Mix 2nd
Hawth Senior Mix 2nd
Clare Clarke from 1066 was a member of the judging panel.
Up and coming events
European Champs
Training has started for the Euro championships in Azerbaijan. October 14th to 19th 2024
18 Gymnasts and two coaches from Hawth have been selected.
Hawth Open TeamGym
2024 event will be held at K2 on Saturday (main hall) and Sunday (in the gym) 23rd and 24th November.
Sally-Anne Warner
Sussex TeamGym Chair
- Details
- Written by: Lisa Jestico
Funding Proposal
I would like to put forward a proposal of funding to assist Sussex based gymnasts who are involved in the high performance system.
Proposal
Sussex based clubs are now seeing more members achieving places on to home nation or national squads. Gymnasts who are members of these squads have to self fund many of the aspects involved with being a members of these squads. I am proposing that we could have a set amount of money (a figure of £5000 has been given by the treasurer as a figure to work with) agreed by the Sussex Committee to be equally shared amongst gymnasts who are involved in the high performance system for any discipline.
Gymnasts who are members of a home nation or national squad would be eligible to claim the amount to assist with funding of travel, kit, squad camps or competition expenses. They would be required to provide evidence of expenditure which they can then claim back. These gymnasts could apply for this funding if they are either a member of a squad, or if a discipline does not run a squad are selected to represent their home nation or national team at an international level (not representing their country as part of their club team).
I hope you will all consider this and if you have any questions please contact me
Lisa
- Details
- Written by: Lisa Jestico
Over the last year we have managed to get a return of both the Sussex Invitational competition as well as the Sussex Championships held over 2 weekends (149 gymnasts taking part from 9 different clubs).
In 2023 there was 1 England Squad member (Georgia Stables, Hor) who represented England in Norway and the Caledonia Cup in Scotland, achieving 5 medals at both of these competitions. Further National medals were won by Sussex gymnasts at Grades National Finals, Voluntary Finals as well as the Teams Championships.
There was a new grades system that has been introduced for 2024 with all information available through British Gymnastics for these.
Further achievements of a GB Junior Squad place (2024) for Georgia Stables (Hor) and an England Squad place (2024) for Amelie Beadle-Gates (Hor) have been announced recently.
Sussex County Squad continues to run with 40 gymnasts from 7 different Sussex clubs attending.
Further Squad dates are:
May 19th – Uckfield GC – 9-1
November 10th – Uckfield GC – 9-1
Competition dates are being organised for 2024 and will be published once confirmed.
- Details
- Written by: Richard Keasley
April 2023 – March 2024
Sussex Clubs
Hawth is the only club active in this discipline. There are 2 coaches and one judge at this club. There are around 15 gymnasts competing.
Hawth has 2 gymnasts in the Welsh squad and one in Scottish squad. We also have one gymnast in the Swedish national squad.
The discipline would benefit from more people getting involved.
Competition and events
There are quite a few events in the region, covering a wide range of ability and levels. Hawth entered the Under 16 British teams In June 2023. The club was placed 6th. Hawth had 8 gymnasts in the Grades finals (October 2023).
10 gymnasts from Hawth competed in either the Welsh or English Championships. From this Hawth had 7 gymnasts in the British Championships (March 2024).
Alfie Morgan was selected to represent Wales at the Caledonia Cup (April 2024).
Jasper Carminger has represented Sweden on three occasions since his selection last year.
The Regional Voluntary Championships was held on 28 April 2023. This event includes an introductory level for new clubs and less experienced gymnasts,.