Newsletter – Volume 1, Issue 3

November 2018

WELCOME TO THE NEXT CGG QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER!

It’s been another busy quarter at the club, and a great start to Season 2!

Junior session
We are delighted to have launched our new juniors session in September! We had a great launch session attended by Councillor Holloway and lots of enthusiastic children! It is lovely to see so many enjoying the sport, lots are brand new to it or have only played a handful of times at school. We split each session into U11s and U16s to ensure the juniors are playing in their appropriate age category.

Training
Our ladies sessions continue at Cheadle College each Tuesday 7.45-9pm. We are actively looking to recruit new players, so bring a friend along and you and they will get the session free. Please help us spread the word via Social Media etc too.

The juniors also train on Tuesdays from 6.30-7.30pm

Coaching news
Kate Pickup successfully completed her level 2 last month, huge well done.

Jordan Black has joined the club to assist with the junior side and undertakes his Level 2 in December. He is very popular with the juniors and brings his own unique style to coaching!

Steph has been kindly helping with the junior sessions wherever she can, and running some great ladies sessions. Aden Woodall from Bees/Lions also came over to give the juniors some inspiration and deliver a super session to them.

The ladies benefited from an amazing guest session by Sam Wrench, England women’s development coach.

As well as planning the sessions, the coaches all deliberate weekly to choose Most Valuable Players (MVP) and have lots of input into the competitive meets as well as weekly training.

Tournaments
Season 2 has seen us enter 3 ladies British Dodgeball Opens so far, these have been Stafford, Yorkshire and Manchester. All a great experience. We hope to be able to offer the juniors Open opportunities next year once their confidence has increased.

At the end of last season some of the ladies also took part in the Delicious Express Open which brought lots of the dodgeball community together and raised money for the Make A Wish Charity.

League
After Griffins thoroughly positive experience of the pilot British Dodgeball city league, we signed up 2 teams for Round 2 which is as enjoyable as ever. It’s a mixed league and we are fortunate to have some great guys playing with us again, giving us a different experience of the game. To us it epitomises the inclusivity of the sport!

The ladies have also entered National League 1 this season at the mighty St Georges Park. The first round took place on 3/11/2018, with the ladies coming away with 1 loss and 1 win. Lots to build on!

Meanwhile the juniors started the Manchester City League. We have an U11s and an U16s team taking part and we couldn’t be prouder of them, many are brand new to the sport and their enthusiasm, energy and desire to progress is infectious!

Charity
We plan to have a pre-Christmas collection for Emmeline’s Pantry, our CGG chosen charity. Emmeline’s is a Manchester food-bank with a difference. It helps women that have found themselves in difficult circumstances, and their children. You can read more on their website.

Kit
If any newer members wish to order training tops or tournament tops let us know. These have been hugely popular! CGG have customised balls too and if you want your own you can buy for £10, great stocking fillers! We are hoping to have junior-size kit samples later this month.

Club and player development
We are embarking on an exciting project with British Dodgeball funded by Sport England called Come Join In. This plans to engage more 14-16 year olds by delivering taster sessions in local schools, and signposting them to the club.

Emma M and Linzi undertake their refereeing course later this month.

Mia from our juniors has opted to put dodgeball on her DofE form, we know she’ll make a great young leader.

Get social!
Don’t forget you can follow us on insta/ Facebook/Twitter for all our news.
We had a very funny awards night in September at Nueve in Didsbury, thank you to all that came! Our ladies Christmas party is 14 December.

Competitions
The winners of our travelling Griffins Top Competition were Louise and Caz, who both won a CGG dodgeball! The competition was great fun and we will re run it next summer!

A junior raffle at our Halloween session raised funds for the club and saw lots of great prizes being won!

Events
Please follow our Facebook Page and join the relevant groups for all tournament/league details etc.