METRO
Opening doors to sport
Metro Newsletter Issue 55 June 2016
Website: http://www.metroblindsport.org
Twitter: twitter.com/MetroVISports
Metro would advise to always phone or email the Event contacts, to confirm that there have been no changes to the event time or date to avoid possible disappointment.
Metro Members, Partners and Friends, welcome to Issue 55
TheMetro Athletics Open isnearly upon us,only 24 days to go!
46Athletes have already entered but we still need moreto make it a truly fantastic day.Please help us reach as many blind and partially sighted people in your local area. Youcan either download theEntry Form 2016: http://bit.ly/22r10My
or ring Ian Francis on Tel. 07814 751643and enter over the phone.
Bring the whole family and celebrate with us all
Do not miss out on the free souvenir’s, free t-shirts, medals and plenty of food for all, justlet us know,so we have enough for everyone. Contact:Ian Francis Tel. 07814 751643or Email:
Invited ParaAthletes attending the Athletics Open 2016!
Haseeb Ahmad Bio
Haseeb,46 years old, has been competing in triathlons since 2008. Starting as a novice triathlete unable to swim the front crawl, he took part in his first triathlon at Woodhall Spar, Lincolnshire in the same year! He joined the GB development Paratriathlon squad in 2009 and has since won a number of National and international medals including Gold at the National champs in 2011, World Silver in 2011, World Bronze in 2013 and International Gold in France during 2014.
Other sporting highlights include:
Completing 5 marathons including a sub 3 hour marathon in 2.59.23 at London during 2014, ran London this year in 3.01.58.Qualifying for the GB squad for the world marathon champs in 2015
This year’s big goal is to break the World Blind Ironman record in Barcelona on 2 October 2016 which currently stands at 11 hours 10 minutes. This involves a 3.8 k swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run.
Zac SkinnerBio
Zac, 18 years old, has always loved athletics from his school days. Keen to take the next step he joined a local club, Tonbridge AC. From there he was able to compete for an Affiliated Club and record official times and distances. The following season he was interested in getting to know more about the disability side of the sport due to his visual impairment.
BBS sight classification enabled him to compete in domestic competitions in the T13 class. Last year in his first season as a classified athlete he qualified and competed in the National Disability Championships - Bedford.
Other sporting highlights include:
Selected to represent England South East in the UK School Games in Manchester coming 4th in the 100m.
UK Schools Games champion at Long Jump 2015.
This year he travelled to Dubai to compete in the IPC Grand Prix with the aim of an international classification. Zac is currently training and competing hard and looking forward to the National Disability Champs and UK School Games again this year.
EnglandAthletics Officials Courses - 10 Places Left!
Who should go on this course?
Anyone aged 14 or over interested in gaining an insight and introductionto the key areas of officiating that will enable them to assist at track andfield meetings under the supervision of a qualified UKA Technical Official.
There are only 10 places Left, Do not miss out!
Short link to Course Flyer in PDF formathttp://bit.ly/1ORl5E5
More info on England Athletics http://www.englandathletics.org/courses
1. Metro Tennis News and Events
Metro Blind Sport helps launch blind tennis in Germany!
Metro Blind Sport Chair Amanda Green and its Tennis Committee Chair Odette Battarel held the German Blind Tennis workshop in Cologne from April 29 to May 1 – the first time blind tennis had been played in Germany.
Odette, SELVis Project Development Manager, said the workshop in Germany was a success, with participants from towns all over Germany, as well as Austria and Turkey attending.
She said she and Amanda gave an introductory talk about blind tennis before playing and coaching for two days, which included teaching details about the net, how you decide who serves and the orientation of the court. Odette said the main reaction they received was that people didn’t believe they would be able to play tennis and the fact that they were playing it was amazing. “Some of the participants were totally blind and had no clue about tennis. But a number of the people do listen to tennis on the radio or television so it was a bit of a revelation that it was possible,” she said.
Read the full article on thishistoric event here: http://bit.ly/1TzLt6R bySarah Anderson
You can View a YouTube video of the Event in German (and some English) using this short Link:http://bit.ly/1smzqDt
Metro introduce Blind Tennis at the Dublin Mayfest 2016
METRO Blind Sport has continued to serve up aces on its mission to introduce blind tennis to more countries.
Metro Blind Sport Chair Amanda Green and its Tennis Committee Chair Odette Battarell travelled to Dublin, Ireland on the weekend to hold blind tennis workshops at Vision Sports Ireland’s MayFest – a sports festival for vision impaired people and friends.It comes after the duo, both former blind tennis champions, travelled to Germany earlier this month to introduce the sport, which was developed in Japan more than 30 years ago. Tennis Ireland invited Odette and Amanda to attend MayFest to teach tennis coaches about blind tennis as well as hold workshops for participants on Saturday, May 21.
Odette and Amanda met the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins and his wife, Sabina, who attended MayFest.
Odette said she and Amanda gave an introductory talk to the coaches about setting up blind tennis in Ireland, including where to promote it, how to guide someone, how to do orientation of a tennis court and what drills to do.
“It’s not a sport that’s traditionally for blind people so it’s harder to reach the blind community,” Odette said.She said 20 to 25 partially and totally blind people from all over Ireland took part in workshops. “There were a couple of ladies who used to play tennis when they had their sight and had given up tennis because they didn’t think they’d be able to do it so they were very excited and surprised they would be able to play.”
“They were amazed that there were tournaments in other countries and people around the world are playing.”
Odette said some of the participants had never heard of tennis and needed the concept to be explained from scratch. “It’s exciting to introduce something new to someone.”“It was successful. People were smiling and asking questions and wanting to play, not letting go of the racket.”Odette said a six-week pilot program would be started in Dublin to get the sport running in Ireland.“The coaches seem to really get it and they were confident they would be able to start it off.”
Article by Sarah AndersonMay 24, 2016Pocklington Voice
http://bit.ly/1RvOnIc
Metro B1s do Well in the NE Tennis Tournament!
Congratulation to all who took part in the NE Regional tennis tournament and as usual a big thanks to all the volunteers!
Metro should be pleased with its B1s, Masuma Ali and Lara Green where the runners up in the doubles, beaten by Dawn Fradgleyand Nikhil. Nikhil won the singles and Masuma was a runner up.
· Paul Ryb B3 ultimately showed why he is a three-time National singles champion as he took the North East title 4-1, 4-2.
· Fortescue’s victory brought her a second successive B3 Women’s Singles title after her women’s singles victory in Edgbaston.
· There was another five-way round-robin competition to decide the B4 Women’s Singles as Rosine Pybus also produced a series of dominant performances to secure a local North East victory.
Below is a Short link to full Article on the Tennis Foundation website:http://bit.ly/1NJ2q2e,
Results available Herehttp://bit.ly/1XJeu5p
Tennis Foundation’s blind and visually impaired tennis camp
Tennis Foundation’s blind and visually impaired tennis camp at Hills Road Sports Centre, Cambridge on the 11th June
“A great way to get started in the game is to come along to one of the Tennis Foundation one-day tennis camps for beginners/intermediates. You can expect a day full of fun and friendship, at the end of which you’ll be able to play tennis. Specially trained LTA-licensed coaches will take you through a range of games and activities designed to get you started.”
Short link below to download the Online booking forms
B1 players –http://bit.ly/25cdsoq B2-B5 players – http://bit.ly/1Thch1m
2. Metro Cricket news and Events.
No – We Have Not Been Here Before; Sadly - 7th May 2016
Yes, all good things have to come to an end and on Saturday the Metro Devils long unbeaten T20 match run was ended by the Gloucestershire Growlers in an exciting game at Highgate. This was a first as the Devils had won every game they played in the South & East T20 trophy since its inception in the 2014 season. On a day with warm sunshine making for a pleasant cricket playing day in stark contrast to the conditions endured by the Devils at Hampshire the week before, did it all go wrong from the start? The coin when tossed rolled along the ground for several seconds before dropping with its tail down after the call had been heads. The visitors put the Devils in to bat and wasted no time in taking an early initiative as Elyse bowled Brenda with the first ball of the day.
This start was backed up by good bowling from the visitors that contained the score well as David Burt joined Gary in the middle, so that at drinks after 10 overs the score had only reached 80.
The visitor’s total, Mike, took a second wicket with the penultimate ball of the next over as David hit wicket bringing the home captain to the crease.
This resulted in a period when the Devil’s scoring rate accelerated – as Dave S raced to 23, including 5 fours, off his first seven balls while Gary hit 10 from four balls to reach 51, when he had to retire with 109 on the board in the thirteenth over. Chris Lewis and the skipper kept the run rate at around 10 an over for most of their partnership of 69 but then the Growlers dragged the rate back with good bowling at the death from Bob, Elyse and Darren, who completed the seventeenth over after Elyse injured a finger attempting a tricky caught and bowled.
Would he have bowled if that had not happened – who knows, but he delivered a fine nineteenth bowling Chris and conceding just 8 runs. Everton hit two fours in the final over so there was a flourish to the end of the innings but the visitors were pleased to have the score at 6 under the 200.
After tea their innings began at a very fast pace in contrast to the measured Devils start; 50 was on the board inside five overs with the visiting skipper John scoring his 51, with 7 fours, from just 27 balls in a 75 run opening partnership. The Devils bowling only finding success on “free hit” balls – in a league game they would otherwise have picked up two wickets, and the roar of apparent success on the first occasion took a while to dispel as not all the players seemed aware of this T20 rule. Following John’s retirement, the scoring rate was slowed by the Devils, but still at half way the “worm” was 24 ahead and the game seemed to be heading for an early end. When the visitor’s other opener Ed retired after reaching the third 51 of the game the score was 162 from 15 overs – but there was to be a twist. In the next over Chris Lewis completed a run out after fielding off his own bowling and then trapped Marc leg before.
Alan restricted the visitors to 7 from the next over as they started trying to run for anything, before a dramatic eighteenth over saw Dave S take two clean bowled wickets while Brenda completed a run out – from a “free hit” delivery.
So there were 9 runs to defend from the final two overs and tensions were running high. The striker’s runner was trying to sneak a start before the ball reached the batsman and at one point after a leg bye had been taken the batsman on strike was not changed – causing great distress on the scorer’s bench. The desperate running saw three byes, that leg bye and a run taken from a wide to leave the scores level at the start of the last over.
Advantage Gloucestershire as only bowling a maiden over could win the game for the Devils, and charming as he is, the captain could not deliver; he was not able to grab a catch as the visitor’s total skied the first ball into the air and a run was completed. Gloucestershire will play Dorset in the T20 semi-final. This leaves just the league for the Devils to concentrate on this year – with a visit from Kent Spitfires next up, in a fortnight, on the BCEW birthday weekend. Metro will play their opening game of the season the next day at Northants. – Report byPaul Toplis
You can read all the latestCricket News on our Cricket Articles http://bit.ly/1IrJiNJ page on ourwebsite.
3. BowlsNews and Events!
East London VI Bowls Launch Enjoyed by All
Metro wishes to Thank the Mayor and Mayoress for opening the proceedings and thanks also to Amit Amin a long time metro member and bowls player did a great job in coaching and passing on his knowledge to all participants , it was a great day and all said they were looking forward cannot wait for the next session, a big thank you to ????, who enjoyed playing and has some natural talent for the game, Our New volunteers, did a sterling job in making all the new players welcome and playing confidently in no time, the community bus travel was a boon and the driver ??? even drove us across the park to the club front door, now that's service
Do not miss the next free bowling session