tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66106443232713172732024-03-20T10:50:34.494-07:00AFC Wimbledon - Community and EventsCelebrating those community events, projects, fairs, fêtes and one-off activities carried out by volunteers and supporters of AFC Wimbledon.Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-82107438244945395712013-08-16T01:15:00.000-07:002013-08-16T01:15:03.745-07:00AFC Wimbledon's Charity Mascot Race 2013!<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Ubuntu, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Haydon the Womble will be aiming to flourish on home turf next month when he takes part in the <i>AFC Wimbledon Charity Mascot Race.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In one of the highlights of this year’s Wimbledon Common Stables Open Day on Sunday, 15 September, Haydon will be battling it out with the likes of Debra the Zebra and Bertie the Badger for the Womble Underground Press (WUP) Cup (our picture above shows the mascots setting off on their challenge in last year's event).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is all for a good cause too with <a href="http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/">Centrepoint</a>, who work with homeless children in London, the main charity to benefit and donations can be made using the link at the bottom of this page.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Stables Open Day takes place in the shadow of Wimbledon Windmill and allows the Commons Rangers to open up their buildings to explain their work to the public. There are also lots of stalls, as well as an arena ideally suited for mascots. This year sees the third running of the AFC Wimbledon charity mascot race, where these mighty chariots of fur hurtle around the tight obstacle course to compete for the prestigious WUP Cup, much to the delight of the assembled children and to the confusion of unsuspecting dog-walkers. This year Haydon the Womble will be looking to have his name engraved on the trophy alongside previous winners Debra the Zebra and Cyril the St Helier Squirrel, and being on home turf should give him the edge!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The whole event is a great opportunity both to raise funds for good causes and to put the club at the centre of its community in Wimbledon. The main charity to benefit this year is Centrepoint, who work with homeless children in London. With AFC Wimbledon supporters’ help, Haydon will be doing his very best to reach his fundraising target of £100 and to bring home the Cup. Many of the other mascots will be raising funds for their own organisations; there are numerous charities that will benefit from taking part and causes that everyone can get behind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The invitations have gone out, and mascots are starting to fill the racecard. More will be added over the coming weeks, and we are looking to equal or surpass the number of entrants in last year’s race. If any AFC Wimbledon supporters work for organisations that have a mascot, they are more than welcome to join in and raise some money for their cause.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Please get behind Haydon and sponsor him or one of the other competitors for a small sum by clicking on <a href="http://www.justgiving.com/teams/afcwimbledon-charity-mascots2013" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; text-decoration: none;">Mascot event</a> .</span></strong></span></div>
Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-1813870413052382952013-03-07T17:15:00.000-08:002013-03-09T10:17:55.145-08:00Warren's Sticky Player Penalty Run-Up Red Nose Challenge!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Warren's sponsorship page:</b> <a href="http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/warrenpalmer">http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/warrenpalmer</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When an old friend of the Community Team like Warren Palmer asks a favour, you do your best to help out! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warren attends the South Wimbledon-based High Path Day Centre for Adults with Learning Disabilities and not only that he's also a fanatical AFC Wimbledon supporter as well, being part of the flag-painting project that produced the High Path Flag and also a key member of the <i><a href="http://dons-community-events.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/high-path-photo-blog.html">Big Blast Band</a></i> whose version of<i> 'We Are Wimbledon!'</i> was performed live at the stadium (and is also still <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/We-Are-Wimbledon/dp/B0090PSHCO">available for download</a> at Amazon!) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warren was keen to carry on the tradition, started last year by his friend Marie, of raising money every year for either Sport or Comic Relief. Marie ran a circuit of the pitch accompanied by Seb Brown but Warren thought this might be a bit beyond him and besides he wanted to do something a bit different as it was Comic Relief this time round.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing Warren said he'd really love to do would be to score a goal at the Tempest End. As we haven't had too many scored there this season we thought that would be a pretty good idea as well, so we all had a think about how he could do this as a form of Red-Nose challenge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You'll notice that Warren has to use a cane to get around and one of our discussions with him was about how he'd like to take the penalty - alone with his cane, or with someone providing assistance. Which was easier? Was a helper more responsive or was the cane better for support? Could an assistant help him get up speed or would their legs clash with his? Was a fit and healthy human assistant more a help or a hindrance? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In fact, if you took it to the limit,</b> <b>was a professional, young and fit AFC Wimbledon player of more use to Warren than a plain old stick?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the spirit of the 80s betting-gameshow <b><a href="http://youtu.be/u_qMpoKh3pU">'Banzai!'</a></b> (with example link for those too young to remember) Warren was keen to find out and this ended up being his favourite idea for a challenge. First of all we would time his longest ever penalty run-up, just using his trusty cane, from the start of his run from the centre circle to the ball crossing the line. That would set the target time and give us the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i><b>"DON - ZAI!"</b></i> challenge!!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> <span style="font-size: large;">Player or Stick? ............. Stick or Player?</span></i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> <span style="font-size: large;">Which is most useful?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To bring his challenge to a climax, just before the start of the Morecambe game at the Cherry Red Record Stadium on 23rd March 2013, Warren will attempt to beat his personal best by using a real live AFC Wimbledon player as support! This will not only prove once and for all whether Wimbledon players are more useful than aluminium canes, but also give Warren his once in a lifetime opportunity to score a goal in front of the Tempest End! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yay! Result all round!!! (Even if he will be <i>very</i> nervous knowing his mum is attending her very first football match and looking forward to seeing Warren's penalty!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a challenge like that ahead of him he'd appreciate as much sponsorship as he could raise and he's set the bar at an ambitious <b>£300</b>...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To set the scene we are currently producing a video of Warren's baseline run carried out at the Cherry Red Record Stadium earlier this week. As Bert Kwouk was not available for <i>Banzai </i>voice over duties we've refrained from attempting his distinctive accent but suffice to say Warren threw himself into both the filming and the video with his typical sense of daring-do and good humour!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warren's run up and penalty kick was timed in at </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>43 seconds!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>That's the time he's aiming to beat on Saturday 23rd March!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Warren's Red Nose donations page can be found at <a href="http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/warrenpalmer">here</a> and we hope can help him reach his target with a small donation. Good luck Warren!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>ps Thanks also to Michael form the CFS and Andy from High Path for being good sports in the making of the video. Take a bow gentlemen!</i></span><br />
<br />Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-23117402401814055312012-12-03T13:06:00.000-08:002012-12-05T00:02:44.567-08:00The Community Christmas Tree!<span style="color: purple; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It was a bit unlucky of the National Trust in Morden to settle on the 2nd of December as the day of their Community Christmas tree event...</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not their fault of course. They couldn't have anticipated that we'd be involved in an FA Cup tie against a property development company in Buckinghamshire but it was bad luck all the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually the event itself strikes me as being a sound and interesting one, with the National Trust contacting local community groups and asking them to create and decorate a Christmas tree that reflects their particular organisation. AFC Wimbledon had been contacted as we used the new exhibition space for our school flag display earlier in the year and as the park is busy with shoppers, walkers and other assorted locals out for the festive season I was more than happy to take up the offer. It could be fun and a chance to be a bit inventive and it might also provide something that could be used at the stadium or elsewhere to show what we do to a wider audience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My basic idea was to have a tree decorated in Yellow & Blue and with laminated photos of activities we have been invovled with over the last year. On the back were descriptions of what it was all about and who it was aimed at. From Haydon to the Big Blast Band, Marie's Run to Cub's and their Artist badge, we covered them all!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think the final result was quite acceptable, but I did have to deliver it a day early on the Saturday morning as there was no way I could be around to do it on the actual day. I wasn't the only one though and a few other trees were also in position, so it was fun having a look at them as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The exhibition is on for a couple of weeks and with a Christmas Fair and Farmers Market next Saturday, it could be worth a visit if you're thinking of popping up to Barnet on the Northern Line!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(For more pictures take a look at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AfcWimbledonCommunityEvents">AFC Wimbledon Facebook page</a>.)</span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-1082860997866216232012-11-27T07:33:00.003-08:002012-11-27T07:59:51.122-08:00FA Cup Day Activities and Mascot Special!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">SUNDAY DECEMBER 2nd</span> </b>sees quite a significant day in the life of AFC Wimbledon when the club play <i>"Ssshhh, You know who!</i>" away in the FA Cup.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There will no doubt be many stories to tell and much going on throughout the day, but for those supporters who either can't or don't wish to attend the game itself live coverage is being shown by the club in the Kingsmeadow bars. Tickets are £3 each, but are redeemable against a drink at the bar. (see Official Site for details)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a potentially sizeable number of supporters turning up, as well as assorted media interest and possible press attendance all concentrating on the emotions stirred up by the game, this gathering at teh ground seemed a good opportunity to put another side of the club in the frame.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although the main events will be the showing of the match in the two large bars, younger supporters can enjoy other diverting activities both before and after the match in the President's Lounge. <b>Yellow and Blue themed face-painting</b> and <b>womble related activities</b> should mean they will be occupied for the full 90 minutes at least!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There will also be some pre and post match diversions for adults that will also allow for some fundraising to take place on behalf of the club</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The iDons Stall</b> - Dvds, cds and computer games at 4 for a £1. Huge bargains to be had and all going to the club</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Inflatable Shoot Out</b> - There's a chance of winning a commemorative prize for everyone who can put a ball through a hole. Easy, and again all takings go back to the club</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Dons Raffle</b> - There has to be a raffle, it's traditional! Again, Wimbledon themed prizes and a few more pennies in the coffers</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Dons Trust Fete Games</b> - A range of amusements and divertimento to keep your mind fresh and your blood pressure down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the entertainments side, fresh from his Paralympics triumph, <b>Rockin' Paddy</b> will be playing a set or two in the back bar before and after TV coverage</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bars will be decorated with a range of <b>supporter's flags</b> to provide an intimate and Wimbledon themed viewing experience</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Various<b> football organizations</b> will be pitching up outside the bars with displays and information on a number of themes, from <i>Kick It Out</i> to the <i>Football Supporters Federation</i>. Good for a browse to help calm the nerves...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Sadly Monty the Lamb is being dipped on <br />Sunday and won't be at the race</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, the <i>Community Dons</i> want to contribute too! We see this day with its attendant media interest as an ideal opportunity to ensure that even more positive aspects of the club can be put on display and to show that AFC Wimbledon should not be defined by juxtaposing it to a <i>faux</i> team in a midlands town.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To that end the community team were looking for a light-hearted activity that could take place during half time and also raise some money for a good cause. It occurred to us that Haydon the Womble would be around the stadium so we thought he might take the opportunity to invite some of his mascot friends over to keep him company! Not only that, but an obstacle race at the stadium could help the Community Dons raise some funds for the recent <i>Children in Need</i> appeal</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it's all going to such a good cause, our friends at <i><a href="http://www.andrewsonline.co.uk/">Andrews Estate Agents</a></i> have agreed to sponsor the event with a very generous donation and the good people of the<i> Womble Underground Press </i>have agreed to sponsor a trophy for the winner and framed commemorative certificates for all participating mascots!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supporters will also have the chance to support the charity and to win commemorative AFC Wimbledon memorabilia by purchasing their <b>£1</b> their <b>Golden Mascot</b> ticket. Pick a ticket at random to find out which mascot you're rooting for, add your name and phone number and put it in the raffle bin. When we have our winner, the first ticket out the raffle bin with the winning mascot name on will be presented with a very unusual prize!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is going to be a mascot race like no other, up close and in your face with thrills and spills galore, so we hope you'll take a few half time minutes to come out and cheer on Haydon and his friends!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <i>potential</i> list of runners at the moment include the following stalwarts</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Haydon the Womble (AFC Wimbledon)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. KNK Kev (KNK Builders)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Debra the Zebra (Merton Road Safety)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Sam the Dog (Samuel Estate Agents)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. Pudsey Bear (Children in Need )</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Bully Bullseye (Bullseye Quiz Show)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Hot Dog! (The Doggy Boutique, Morden)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Bumper the Mouse (Hollywood Bowl, Tolworth)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Howie Hornet (Horsham FC) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. Bertie the Badger (St John Ambulance)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The club shop will be open at 8am and Golden Mascot tickets, raffle tickets and other items</b> will hopefully be available to those travelling up by coach from the Cherry Red Records Stadium, Kingsmeadow so you all have a chance of collecting superb prizes!</span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-31884961124482955222012-11-21T08:13:00.000-08:002012-11-21T08:13:06.549-08:00Merton Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Society at the Cherry Red Records Stadium!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7fPGi8jTnjo5EkKcoItBcSiZML7tndThiCz6V6thsq_6Lu2incMoHl_8_EeeF8esuPuPNHO7JgTp5ojrUIVa506u-OavRfb8VBZxCMG4JiMhBmmvQx-_TANK4amgCHup8jB_KkbBKysQ/s1600/sickle+cell+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7fPGi8jTnjo5EkKcoItBcSiZML7tndThiCz6V6thsq_6Lu2incMoHl_8_EeeF8esuPuPNHO7JgTp5ojrUIVa506u-OavRfb8VBZxCMG4JiMhBmmvQx-_TANK4amgCHup8jB_KkbBKysQ/s200/sickle+cell+2.jpg" width="190" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <em>AFC Wimbledon Experience</em> has been a great success this season (so much so that I’m even thinking of submitting a short article for the match-day programme) and one happy band to have come down to see us were the <a href="http://www.msctg.org.uk/home.htm">Merton Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Group</a>. They came along to see our recent draw against Aldershot, and like many of our visitors this was their first experience of a football match.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2lU6QQB5FDMt8PSzPeHxPOMR5kwZr_dTdRpV2PGJUkaurw8zcgANeCgFc1JNq65Dro0uWtSv63T5Y_hBNNJIyN0IhnkyPbUTngNqbjyQhPeewKu5iBHG4xAaJCpYwPbKrhjZIgEiwg4/s1600/sickle+cell+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2lU6QQB5FDMt8PSzPeHxPOMR5kwZr_dTdRpV2PGJUkaurw8zcgANeCgFc1JNq65Dro0uWtSv63T5Y_hBNNJIyN0IhnkyPbUTngNqbjyQhPeewKu5iBHG4xAaJCpYwPbKrhjZIgEiwg4/s200/sickle+cell+3.jpg" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2lU6QQB5FDMt8PSzPeHxPOMR5kwZr_dTdRpV2PGJUkaurw8zcgANeCgFc1JNq65Dro0uWtSv63T5Y_hBNNJIyN0IhnkyPbUTngNqbjyQhPeewKu5iBHG4xAaJCpYwPbKrhjZIgEiwg4/s1600/sickle+cell+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the interesting benefits of the <em>AFC Wimbledon Experience</em> has been learning about many of the conditions affecting the youngsters that are visiting us and to be honest I never really understood exactly what Sickle Cell Anaemia was. Apparently it’s all about red blood cells. Normally doughnut shaped they are soft, squidgy and can squeeze through the tiniest of arteries. If you like, blood flow with normal red cells is not unlike small polystyrene balls being sucked up a vacuum cleaner hose. Red blood cells affected by Sickle Cell on the other hand are more rigid and elongated. In that instance blood flow is not unlike trying to suck up twigs. Not only will the sticks not go up small pipes, but quite often there’s a massive blockage – known to sufferers as a ‘crisis’, for obvious reasons. On top of all that the blood cells neither work as well nor live as long as they should, often leading to anaemia. Apart from being very painful, repeated oxygen deprivation to the body’s organs leads them to weaken and fail at an earlier stage. Sadly sickle cell sufferers often fail to see their 50th year. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a worrying and debilitating condition for the sufferers and their families who help manage the condition as best they can. For once though, they were all able to get out, meet up, exchange news and enjoy the new experience of celebrating a goal scored by Stacy Long from just in front of their seats!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haydon as always was a big hit, the burgers hit the spot and they left happily clutching their programmes and wearing their souvenir badges. They were a very friendly group and it was a real pleasure to have them at the ground and I hope they remember their day at AFC Wimbledon with affection!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-14313222548014989102012-11-21T06:50:00.000-08:002012-11-21T06:50:19.452-08:00The Wall of Wombles Art Project - Morden Library<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was quite a sight watching the <em>Wonderful Wall of Wombles</em> being slowly unwound across the library table. Every time I looked it seemed to have grown a few feet longer and I was beginning to doubt whether we would be able to fill it all!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Smile please, Press in the room!</em></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I shouldn’t have worried though. As it turned out we had more than enough wombles to go round although size was still to prove a very tricky issue later down the line…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <em>Wonderful Wall of Wombles</em> began as a follow up to the summer <em>Paint A Womble</em> project held by AFC Wimbledon in Morden library. This had been a great success with children encouraged to paint, draw or sketch their favourite womble, either from some illustrations or from their own imagination. After having created their wombles the children had then consulted Great Uncle Bulgaria’s large atlas and named their womble through the random pointing of a finger. A method that produced many interesting new womble names…</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Second round of photographers. More smiles!</em></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all <em>Paint A Womble</em> day had been a great success and Haydon himself had made an appearance to check out the work and to provide his seal of approval on proceedings. Morden library were pleased with the response and the children had a great time. It did seem a pity not to use their splendid pictures in some way though, so we came up with a cunning plan – we would scan them, project them on a banner and copy their outline, allowing the artists and other helpers to reproduce their masterworks in a way that everyone could enjoy! When compete the banner could then be displayed in Morden library and at an AFC Wimbledon home game. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Come the day of the painting there was quite a crowd ready for us to get started, although not all of them were youngsters! Firstly there were two photographers, one from the local Guardian and one from the South London Press. Unfortunately they came at the start of the session, not the end, so there was not too many children around and not too many painted wombles either. Some lucky early birds had their own photo session though and that made their day straight away! The library staff had set everything up for us and we had all we needed and participating artist also left with a few signed copies of recent match programmes, so everything was set for another splendid event</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Hard at work!</em></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a constant flow of young artists through the morning and several of the original youngsters from the <em>Paint A Womble</em> session came back to work on and complete their own pictures, so it was really nice to see them back again. Parents became absorbed as well and we even had Councillor Nick Draper come along to see what was going on and to lend a welcome hand. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The session continued for several hours before packing up carefully to avoid as much paint smudging as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Next up: The View from Kingsmeadow – How Big Is Your Wall?</strong></span><br />
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Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-46811640660078354282012-10-05T04:04:00.002-07:002012-10-05T15:16:28.966-07:00The Real Challenge at Deen City Farm<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a club we have been helping out with the Real Challenge project over the summer period (see earlier posts) and we were happy to help out one intrepid group of youngsters who's chosen project was to raise awareness of the value of City Farms in general and specifically to try to help raise some funds for Merton's very own Deen City Farm in particular!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They decided to do this in the form of a family fun day and I was happy to take along the WUP Community inflatable to help out. The day raised over £200 for the farm, which is a lot of chicken feed!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaLMOxYanAx3Esx9kDyMtjMFw-4rwv2U1TxiYlVLb2_1rXgSc1Nm7pEF2-aKBgvfg2uOPWrlL7UC6-Me-iQLYikPFDxNOCHvfNYlZNIjYkXk-VjH0EPrljhePerRzKndXatZrLrmpHr4/s1600/Real+Challenge+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixaLMOxYanAx3Esx9kDyMtjMFw-4rwv2U1TxiYlVLb2_1rXgSc1Nm7pEF2-aKBgvfg2uOPWrlL7UC6-Me-iQLYikPFDxNOCHvfNYlZNIjYkXk-VjH0EPrljhePerRzKndXatZrLrmpHr4/s400/Real+Challenge+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>We were set up beside the main building close to all amenities!</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdWqkpD8k3bofwMtur1rkuJVpDCD3ZyC_ZX_QZPJU3_NpEjr2ChUtHRpYOjScnuTWwf5zx_dVDp3kRoKVL5d1tAM9_txdjkei_NoswyDB87qSLCX5sK6CGPkzf2uPjYOjS_j2yhi-Ww1c/s1600/Real+Challenge+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdWqkpD8k3bofwMtur1rkuJVpDCD3ZyC_ZX_QZPJU3_NpEjr2ChUtHRpYOjScnuTWwf5zx_dVDp3kRoKVL5d1tAM9_txdjkei_NoswyDB87qSLCX5sK6CGPkzf2uPjYOjS_j2yhi-Ww1c/s640/Real+Challenge+3.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Deen City Farm are always desperate for funding <br />and were really pleased with the final total</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTj47byZ5u1QMaLUaOYR0oi2A29hq29xnGhiDP_gWApfUOFsxquiSi_1XN-ragNFs1p6tLQiFW6CP31xBoifZ37keWWqCPk0gUZMOAhW7To9HI3RicOYKVUprr1JVPvUYWbtSu2u-18iw/s1600/Real+Challenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTj47byZ5u1QMaLUaOYR0oi2A29hq29xnGhiDP_gWApfUOFsxquiSi_1XN-ragNFs1p6tLQiFW6CP31xBoifZ37keWWqCPk0gUZMOAhW7To9HI3RicOYKVUprr1JVPvUYWbtSu2u-18iw/s400/Real+Challenge.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The sheep didn't seem to mind either...</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd0ZIlmISk3DxQRW37XztlyXBYy5pauUva6fxT0AZMcdAygH2_RT92XhGXxKX8yDM9T0L6JdVXf5zqhG0zv1E6QQPWsXyh-B9fGkHXPZ7z3r89IG1qvFHB2-rLxjJvoE4uGLxQSr11Lrw/s1600/Real+Challenge+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd0ZIlmISk3DxQRW37XztlyXBYy5pauUva6fxT0AZMcdAygH2_RT92XhGXxKX8yDM9T0L6JdVXf5zqhG0zv1E6QQPWsXyh-B9fGkHXPZ7z3r89IG1qvFHB2-rLxjJvoE4uGLxQSr11Lrw/s400/Real+Challenge+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Real Challenge Team and supporters at the end of a long day!</i></span></td></tr>
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<br />Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-49990848827911339812012-10-05T02:14:00.002-07:002012-10-05T09:10:10.630-07:00The Annual 'Chariots of Fur' Mascot Race, 2012!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sunday, September 9th, Wimbledon Common.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The closing day of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the Paralympics and the end of a spectacular summer of sport in London.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well almost...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the morning broke crisp and clear over the common, preparations were in hand for one last spectacular to grip the imagination, the <span style="color: #4c1130;"><strong>AFC Wimbledon ‘Chariots of Fur’ Mascot Triathlon!</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>What’s New Pussycat?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last years inaugural event had been a great success with a hard-fought race, a tug of war against the assembled children and much meeting, greeting and intermingling with the mascots, even if the rain had caused much anguish earlier in the day. This year we were going to try something a little different. In the absence of a tug-of-war we were going to try out a triathlon format with three separate events producing a single overall champion and we hoped this would provide a couple of advantages. In the first place we had previously found the setting out of the course and the jumps to be quite time-consuming so we felt that we could run the two non-running events whilst a specialist team got on with building the course. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2cDlWQ_xWxL62qY-K-TqDnhE7g4oY8m-x0u5MpQa-4M3_pEYNHOwiSn7BgCYWUFKco0T3qddQIO5_21qW8sdGlalkPJv2WOD6I4cd8mtIyfQQAVgV68nVJpmciu5F78J2A-KDOC34W9w/s1600/medals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2cDlWQ_xWxL62qY-K-TqDnhE7g4oY8m-x0u5MpQa-4M3_pEYNHOwiSn7BgCYWUFKco0T3qddQIO5_21qW8sdGlalkPJv2WOD6I4cd8mtIyfQQAVgV68nVJpmciu5F78J2A-KDOC34W9w/s320/medals.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Womble Underground Press Cup and assorted trophies</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Secondly, just having a race is a little unfair on the ‘heavier’ mascots and tends to favour the lighter mascot in running shoes. A couple of throwing events might help balance that out a little and give others a chance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thirdly the awarding of points for the two throwing events would mean that there was a lot more riding on the race. A mascot might need a specific finishing place to win the trophy, so it wouldn’t necessarily mean that your finishing position was immaterial. It might well still affect the scores and the overall winner!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all we thought it was worth giving the Triathlon format a go, provided we could get a crack team of course builders in to do all the construction work whilst I concentrated on the comparing. A few phone calls and a few relatives later the nucleus of the Course Building Team was in place and the format was falling into place. What could possibly go wrong?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well not the trophies and the event sponsorship anyway. For the second year running the Womble Underground Press were happy to sponsor all the trophies which ended up being a fair few in number. Each event winner won a trophy, as did the overall trophy winner and then on top we had a trophy for the winning sponsor! All in all a pretty pile of silverware, especially when you included the entrants medals with Haydon’s face on!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>A Word Form Our Sponsors</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44bmV4awaVu1yhLrygxfkPKafEjiqZda_mt6tyrg-V8i4Q_b0du914iuNCKpADOLb2TDF_Y6MjDB3RBUSFq-j41equ6jweD6dzFQWAiNOPI9L2w3hMefuTmesNHdL8023mHS5rhz3P3I/s1600/Jumps+and+hurdles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44bmV4awaVu1yhLrygxfkPKafEjiqZda_mt6tyrg-V8i4Q_b0du914iuNCKpADOLb2TDF_Y6MjDB3RBUSFq-j41equ6jweD6dzFQWAiNOPI9L2w3hMefuTmesNHdL8023mHS5rhz3P3I/s320/Jumps+and+hurdles.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jumps, hurdles and sponsor's boards at the ready!</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sponsorship was another innovation for this years race. Last year the mascot race had acted as an attraction to help raise money for <a href="http://www.houndsforheroes.com/">Hounds For Heroes</a>, but this year we were keen to raise money for a children’s charity and the <a href="http://www.childliverdisease.org/">Chidren’s Liver Disease Foundation</a> fitted the bill brilliantly, not least because my young nephew suffers from liver disease himself and his parents have found them to be a rock of support in difficult times. The next consideration was how to actually raise funds and here we used an idea from our Jubilee Mascot Race in Mitcham – approaching Estate Agents as individual sponsors of mascots in a way not unlike that used in Race Night fund-raisers. We asked potential sponsors to pick a mascot for £75 and amongst other incentives we would utilise their agency boards in our jumps! The sponsor whose mascot came highest up the list would win the prestigious Sponsors Cup but they would all receive framed certificates as a token of our appreciation. So initially Estate Agents were our target market and then began a series of visits to Wimbledon Village, calling in on Estate Agents and explaining what it was we were hoping to do and what we were hoping they would do! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you might expect there were a range of responses but as time went on the sponsors list slowly grew until we had a respectable number behind us and a decent number of our mascots had support. On the day we also offered £5 sponsorship for the public with the promise of a photo with the mascot and a framed certificate and that also helped with funding. Add on to that a tombola and the Commons Rangers bookstall and we were looking to achieve a decent amount!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Oh Mascots, Where Art Thou…?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to the day itself and on arrival I was happy to find Scott from the CFS already in position and trying to assemble the gazebo – no mean feat as several of the struts are broken! A bit of a lash-up later and we had it fairly stable. Then up went the inflatable which was, as usual, a magnet for the younger set. There isn’t a huge amount for younger children in the way of sideshows at the Open Day, so a busy day is guaranteed for any football game. However, it wasn’t long after this that a few issues started cropping up…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those of you of a sensitive disposition should stop reading now, because I have to talk of mascots in a little detail at this point. There are actually two parts to a mascot – the outer skin and the inner person. Ideally these should come together in one happy and fit bundle, ready and raring to go. Sometimes a mascot may not make it altogether even though they hoped to. Sometimes you get one part and not the other…which can be awkward.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was basically the situation we found ourselves in as the day progressed. Some mascots turned up but without a body (volunteer dropped out, someone on holiday etc) and some mascots didn’t arrive at all! Some masots we knew beforehand would be short of a body and we had arranged for cover for them. As the day went on though, we were engaged in a constant battle to fill the suits until the whole of the Course Construction crew and more than one ‘friend’ who’d come along to enjoy the spectacle found themselves in fur, a most unexpected turn up for most of them but to be fair they took it all in their stride. So we had our mascots getting changed in the golf club, but who was going to put up the course and help with the scoring? And on top of that what was going with the PA?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>London Calling…!</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBb1NcYmRnYITTmvDGlGmj8Xf2hSGnT4uKKBivpByTAsYHFVXZsfGYZiYUzePtbYt6cDbMQ8YBy_DzrcZrwdvCF2BJPg6s_ofOT1MPU0xkL0Y8t5UBDbFbwcQdvEC901L1N02DGV2ROU/s1600/Leaving+the+changing+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBb1NcYmRnYITTmvDGlGmj8Xf2hSGnT4uKKBivpByTAsYHFVXZsfGYZiYUzePtbYt6cDbMQ8YBy_DzrcZrwdvCF2BJPg6s_ofOT1MPU0xkL0Y8t5UBDbFbwcQdvEC901L1N02DGV2ROU/s320/Leaving+the+changing+room.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Mascots leaving the changing room</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing that was noticeable during the day was how quiet everything was around the arena. The hawk display team were working in silence and even the ponies seemed to be on tiptoe! The fact was that the PA system hadn’t turned up due to a booking error, and although a basic setup was on its way and would hopefully be there in time for the Triathlon, it was currently stuck in traffic on the Lower Richmond Road! Well that was just one more item to bear in mind as we tried to figure out how to cope without a group of assistants around us. Time for the event was getting closer and our first competition was going to be lawn darts, helpfully supplied by the Doggie Boutique on Central Road Morden! My cunning plan was to produce little flags for each mascot with spaces for scores from the two throwing events. I’d stick it in the ground where their throws landed and everything would be nice and neat and easy to work out…or so I thought, but that revelation was still a few minutes away. Now the PA was up and running, the mascots were on their way and we had a course to lay out. Who could I enrol to lend a hand?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Cavalry To The Rescue</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just at that moment the cavalry in the shape of Ivor Heller and Jim Piddington turned up and were quickly pressed into service alongside a few other luckless volunteers foolish enough to respond to a cry for help! We started laying out the jumps around the outside of the ring and marking out the track but had to abandon the idea of the cross-country section of the course as it was all getting a little pressured. Despite the best efforts of the volunteers, losing the dedicated Course Crew was a real problem as they knew how the jumps were set up and where they went, but we battled on nevertheless. Then, out of nowhere the AFC Wimbledon Commercial Team of Ivor Hellor and Jim Piddington appeared in the crowd! Ivor gave a hand not only with the setting up but also with the running of the events which was much appreciated. With a few other wombles in the crowd we started putting out the track although we had to drop the cross country section due to time constraints which was a great pity as it's my favourite part of the race (it'll be back next year though!). Then, as the jumps were still going up the mascots arrived and it was game on!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each mascot, their ‘owner’ and their sponsor were introduced to the crowd in turn with the slickest entrance being made by Hot Dog as he came in with a very snappy suit and a bevy of beauties on his arms. With a Bucks Fizz flourish his suit was whipped off revealing his lean racing torso and running gear. Top Dog had entered the arena!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Mascots!</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNrXq02HO-HjJnk2PqbhsRFOW481vTTLeQnm3WKsGC-rmNwAFehffSjbfuma_JEM0z0T1b7LBwtB_UQP3YvKZTVaog9kenRD6RmlWJSkTL3SZb-SaMUgMaGQpeDA2B1Y7T_Cor0EjtdJQ/s1600/Jury.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNrXq02HO-HjJnk2PqbhsRFOW481vTTLeQnm3WKsGC-rmNwAFehffSjbfuma_JEM0z0T1b7LBwtB_UQP3YvKZTVaog9kenRD6RmlWJSkTL3SZb-SaMUgMaGQpeDA2B1Y7T_Cor0EjtdJQ/s320/Jury.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Cheekiest Mascot panel being sworn in</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the introductions we asked for a special panel of judges to join us in the arena. There was to be a special prize for the ‘Cheekiest Mascot’ and this was to be decided by the young judges eagerly watching the mascots for any sign of naughtiness! They were taking their role seriously and I suspect they might have been egging the mascots on somewhat…!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having sorted the judges out it was on with the first event. Never one to waste a resource, we managed to retain the services of Hot Dogs bevy of beauties to hold our marker tape and with three at a time up at the oche, we started with the lawn darts challenge!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Accuracy was obviously a problem for the mascots and Haydon came in a disappointing last place, picking up a solitary point whilst Mac the Monkey took an early lead by scooping up twelve points for first place. It was here we then discovered that the soil in this part of the common is rock hard and impervious to even a camping skewer, so our scoring system was up against it from the start! Never mind, by now we were just taking everything in our stride…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having sorted out the points we moved on to the bean bag toss – a large union jack cushion that the mascots had to hurl as far as they could from the middle of the designated throwing circle. There were a few wayward vertical efforts with this one but a few decent throws as well and it was Haydon the Womble who clawed his way back into contention with the furthest throw of the day!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On then to the final event, the race itself. This was one lap of our slightly truncated course with a number of obstacles in the way such as straw bales, jumps and slaloms. Would they be up to it?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjURj5OGJPP8Lv_GPfjsZ9R_YuSaqY1wvO5Se2QpFEUKY_-gZvlCG7lANUb6FxN_gMO4GeS_Di2Qq2MFIttW5gsuwVNzHqei2sPVhj9JcVi6vCG5bA3A_WYipMMkDB3qiNLXaiCnMG0LuY/s1600/Turtle+Thom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjURj5OGJPP8Lv_GPfjsZ9R_YuSaqY1wvO5Se2QpFEUKY_-gZvlCG7lANUb6FxN_gMO4GeS_Di2Qq2MFIttW5gsuwVNzHqei2sPVhj9JcVi6vCG5bA3A_WYipMMkDB3qiNLXaiCnMG0LuY/s400/Turtle+Thom.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beware of Thom the Turtle <br />and his giant cotton bud!</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had two guest starters, Connor and Bertie, both of whom were youngsters with Liver Disease with Connor being the recent recipient of a liver transplant. They mounted the stairs, waved the yellow and blue flag and off went the mascots, hell for leather over the first jump! Haydon was again showing well in this event but as they sprinted over the jumps it was Mike The Mic, a gorilla(?) from Radio Royal Marsden who took the lead on the final straight. He took a whack from a giant cotton bud wielded by Thom the Turtle of the True Volunteer Foundation, (who was kindly acting as an obstacle for us) but he struggled on and passed the line ahead of his nearest rivals to take the race trophy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Three events and three separate winners! But who would win the overall trophy? In the event it was a forth mascot, Cyril the St Helier Squirrel who had scored double figures in each event and who was a worthy overall winner of the WUP Cup! Not only that, but Cyril’s sponsors had cause to celebrate as Hampton’s Estate Agents of Wimbledon Village had won the Sponsors Cup as a result!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Cheeky Chappie!</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the most important event had yet to be decided. We consulted the judges who turned in a unanimous decision. The cheekiest mascot award was presented to last year’s trophy winner, Merton Road safety’s very own…. <strong><em>Debra the Zebra!</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The youngsters presented all the mascots with their awards and medals and when everyone had had the chance to feel a mascot and maybe have a photo or two taken it was time for the mascots to make their way home for a well earned bath!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Aftermath</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a few days later when I was able to estimated the takings and to start taking certificates around to our honoured sponsors. With the tombola and the booksale included we had raised a very creditable £864! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The final list of mascots, their companies and their corporate sponsors were as follows</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssRgxZG5SYwEZifh_LJtjo3uhImV4u0Odl-SusbiMeN-67gVflwCpuLk3J74vSMWrGjxlnSH5I94W1cSIdved1m5o5Ybdzb8FBtBB2PyDeIwIKtBmnXwvOUdfn0fZd4mbkMuzl6UhY44/s1600/hamptons+sponsors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssRgxZG5SYwEZifh_LJtjo3uhImV4u0Odl-SusbiMeN-67gVflwCpuLk3J74vSMWrGjxlnSH5I94W1cSIdved1m5o5Ybdzb8FBtBB2PyDeIwIKtBmnXwvOUdfn0fZd4mbkMuzl6UhY44/s320/hamptons+sponsors.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Hamptons of Wimbledon Village - the winning sponsors</i>!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Haydon the Womble AFC Wimbledon Andrews Lettings, Earlsfield</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Howie the Hornet Horsham FC -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Bully Bullseye Bullseye TV Show GraceMiller & Co, New Malden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Mac the Monkey MAC Charity -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">KNK Kev KNK Builders KNK Builders, Morden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Debra the Zebra Merton Road Safety Quinton Scott, Wimbledon Village</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Hot Dog Doggie Boutique Pro-Com Computing, Morden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Cyril the Squirrel St Helier Estates Hamptons, Wimbledon Village</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Poppy Penguin Sutton Christmas -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monty the Lamb Hendon FC Andrews Estate Agents, Morden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">JudeThe Cat Mayhew Animal Centre -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Bumper the Mouse Hollywood Bowl, Tolworth -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Mike the Mic Radio Royal Marsden -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Thom the Turtle True Volunteer Foundation -</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Honours Board</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">WUP Cup Winners Trophy <span style="color: #990000;"><strong>Cyril the Squirrel</strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Lawn Dart Champion <span style="color: #990000;">Mac the Monkey</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Bean Bag Toss <span style="color: #990000;">Haydon the Womble</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Obstacle Race <span style="color: #990000;"> Mike the Mic</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Cheekiest Mascot</span> <span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Debra the Zebra</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sponsors Cup <span style="color: #990000;">Hamptons Estate Agents, Wimbledon Village</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pictures Gallery</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A selection of images from the day</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRUlLYZuYDc5Xnp0JMz1_7glHxx9fDnfktXdfe-rhKrUyBzm4t-neyuhfmBp5CwU7da8ma1_cQUWDef8uEy6Vie5FlgTLcdhFLPKgyYo3T_KVPR_i97be7fU0ckNBZsM9KT8mDY6l0XCg/s1600/Hot+Dog+and+bevy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRUlLYZuYDc5Xnp0JMz1_7glHxx9fDnfktXdfe-rhKrUyBzm4t-neyuhfmBp5CwU7da8ma1_cQUWDef8uEy6Vie5FlgTLcdhFLPKgyYo3T_KVPR_i97be7fU0ckNBZsM9KT8mDY6l0XCg/s640/Hot+Dog+and+bevy.jpg" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Hot Dog, his assistants and the spectacular disrobe</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVno6nTTH7vM_1qAaiG6SrlKbRB3GMhIRPJkGmL4ThMy9zNDdWZzif1opgS3BwXsDUxHhsAlwEYrzHvljr8WgAy1DMLvt3y6N_NrqzOEyZplmP5s11w_U3oWqCCkIeCyh5IVeUbqr7qY/s1600/Hot+Dog+is+ready.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdVno6nTTH7vM_1qAaiG6SrlKbRB3GMhIRPJkGmL4ThMy9zNDdWZzif1opgS3BwXsDUxHhsAlwEYrzHvljr8WgAy1DMLvt3y6N_NrqzOEyZplmP5s11w_U3oWqCCkIeCyh5IVeUbqr7qY/s640/Hot+Dog+is+ready.jpg" width="496" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Just the jacket to go and he's ready for action!</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtW9f0VPwqZFy_SGjWY3uAZN-Oj9UnOkbTPmz5DcSzSzWJwqgvdBMPM8kQLasXAdQnmxKp3GTsfzj6ymr0I1JE78pQ6TuV9gZgBzUWkmjGGiwhdGehL1jgLp4CyOHJy5PRly-R7t5vaFs/s1600/Haydon+greets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtW9f0VPwqZFy_SGjWY3uAZN-Oj9UnOkbTPmz5DcSzSzWJwqgvdBMPM8kQLasXAdQnmxKp3GTsfzj6ymr0I1JE78pQ6TuV9gZgBzUWkmjGGiwhdGehL1jgLp4CyOHJy5PRly-R7t5vaFs/s640/Haydon+greets.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Haydon enters the arena...</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLvw0W34YuafuskFH8R2efxFcuGRj_TD-niPOge8f-N_7c-it009T546wdMoclUqsimRtJE4p0xF0aOm0ADF0CqkAVz72lyXCksehmQyOuzrog8KrZLlswd90bAGw9MynKPmA7zxcGejU/s1600/Jude.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLvw0W34YuafuskFH8R2efxFcuGRj_TD-niPOge8f-N_7c-it009T546wdMoclUqsimRtJE4p0xF0aOm0ADF0CqkAVz72lyXCksehmQyOuzrog8KrZLlswd90bAGw9MynKPmA7zxcGejU/s640/Jude.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jude the Cat gets his whiskers felt...</span></i></td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hakcyBSGxeOYJTRva-mhnTNjarQtNm3T0cvNfzyZlkVi3Oq2BCOr56PAHpZ9JAmL6l6efsGJupIL4xl3IyA-lnqGfVo5PMZFepZCEcRFzjfOWjlyjydmPJqMTS3YuHaL9rhGvSFzjLc/s1600/Polly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hakcyBSGxeOYJTRva-mhnTNjarQtNm3T0cvNfzyZlkVi3Oq2BCOr56PAHpZ9JAmL6l6efsGJupIL4xl3IyA-lnqGfVo5PMZFepZCEcRFzjfOWjlyjydmPJqMTS3YuHaL9rhGvSFzjLc/s640/Polly.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Poppy high fives a supporter</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD9kTbQrsV3ECudpOGYcv6Jv_UKNU5u0cEWD1SlhXcSFkOP5VI4Fjh6oRRkVgxIB3fJuGu0zbq0_J0cVtg2ZOHTe73v3vwNQ8LYoGpXOC1fMX2rxbeNb-eacn3FBP4Up7Siu90r1-u0eU/s1600/Mascot+scoreboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD9kTbQrsV3ECudpOGYcv6Jv_UKNU5u0cEWD1SlhXcSFkOP5VI4Fjh6oRRkVgxIB3fJuGu0zbq0_J0cVtg2ZOHTe73v3vwNQ8LYoGpXOC1fMX2rxbeNb-eacn3FBP4Up7Siu90r1-u0eU/s640/Mascot+scoreboard.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The scoreboard is ready, the mascots introduced...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi84_QzGuBPLdirVQSnLAGC-0qbMfpyk8eV30foP0PQUWGblgJuZcFo_ExiA5T013Nj13UtoEmm5fuGt4o2WObmvQAJjReDfkYmYCZBKHdmJSdspjmGmfcmnehRw1Emm2XnKfD1sKVBV04/s1600/Monty+lamb+dart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi84_QzGuBPLdirVQSnLAGC-0qbMfpyk8eV30foP0PQUWGblgJuZcFo_ExiA5T013Nj13UtoEmm5fuGt4o2WObmvQAJjReDfkYmYCZBKHdmJSdspjmGmfcmnehRw1Emm2XnKfD1sKVBV04/s640/Monty+lamb+dart.jpg" width="616" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Monty from Hendon FC gets the darts underway</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcSX4ZxV6eehtbOrdj-X4Z3Nj7RshsIC0-jLdzww71hYaLUVV9AdNmPGgzlEYUnfBnRz14X3R-13SU24xMeebWH-Uh4CK33porLsn2xvoSbkw1eS6LGBNXOnQokH98EckiNB2Y6TwCUvg/s1600/polly+dart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcSX4ZxV6eehtbOrdj-X4Z3Nj7RshsIC0-jLdzww71hYaLUVV9AdNmPGgzlEYUnfBnRz14X3R-13SU24xMeebWH-Uh4CK33porLsn2xvoSbkw1eS6LGBNXOnQokH98EckiNB2Y6TwCUvg/s640/polly+dart.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Looks like Poppy is sticking a dart in Bully's head?</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpowa6XZZe5TmKkGp7TXXb_CouleUVelXHYowXP_DQRh1w7-aiUMR_1o9g_R0ubf-dI96NKGlODNCwu6KDLmSvVXTuZp7dkub_NYuiNgi3IkBIQfQUADC_Jd7zMXs5U-Dcw44ZtMP_2tA/s1600/debra+tail+stroke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpowa6XZZe5TmKkGp7TXXb_CouleUVelXHYowXP_DQRh1w7-aiUMR_1o9g_R0ubf-dI96NKGlODNCwu6KDLmSvVXTuZp7dkub_NYuiNgi3IkBIQfQUADC_Jd7zMXs5U-Dcw44ZtMP_2tA/s640/debra+tail+stroke.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Waiting for the bean bag, Debra gets a quick tail stroking...</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY13m9waurkSpwlUbfmlEzaHi_-VJcUwhkPE6IYN_xuxINIxmDNyYu_6ffdI2GJlDJ1Ubwv3t684XLJYJluM88QjgtG5xmLLVHHqEHbTVGLLVibYlofq1T7yUy24aGaBkj7LQ80y1n3fM/s1600/elegant+bully.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY13m9waurkSpwlUbfmlEzaHi_-VJcUwhkPE6IYN_xuxINIxmDNyYu_6ffdI2GJlDJ1Ubwv3t684XLJYJluM88QjgtG5xmLLVHHqEHbTVGLLVibYlofq1T7yUy24aGaBkj7LQ80y1n3fM/s640/elegant+bully.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Very elegant pose, but where's the bag?</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hxeUtWptiPUxQ4H-fxkPveSdq8hm-Cvx1mk4D_U-73b-lbzLIJL7EXvI55wULg5UJKOCDJYnIycKi0yNfmexgEtMDz1rD6sIVDLE5WERBRg6oZmdoPT8lU2XKo9kT6iE7sXJHuELrcU/s1600/howie+bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hxeUtWptiPUxQ4H-fxkPveSdq8hm-Cvx1mk4D_U-73b-lbzLIJL7EXvI55wULg5UJKOCDJYnIycKi0yNfmexgEtMDz1rD6sIVDLE5WERBRg6oZmdoPT8lU2XKo9kT6iE7sXJHuELrcU/s640/howie+bag.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nice action from Horsham FC's Howie Hornet</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwtori2gzh_10yUjZZrON65UhR2LtJX6KkmNyu7-ostnLOtFt3_ipexgG_HBq2b5W7w_nBRBz5MZ3iszvOUvLYFEnWaUe5Qz75k3KDzEPu9tunOgm8zsAcVrsEMDPzU4cp543ss49llOM/s1600/jude+and+bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwtori2gzh_10yUjZZrON65UhR2LtJX6KkmNyu7-ostnLOtFt3_ipexgG_HBq2b5W7w_nBRBz5MZ3iszvOUvLYFEnWaUe5Qz75k3KDzEPu9tunOgm8zsAcVrsEMDPzU4cp543ss49llOM/s640/jude+and+bag.jpg" width="521" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>A bit of a skier from Mayhew's Jude the Cat</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcqfrjJ1nM035GSxrr1SsWgzhEu1ylZ6XEPzRuibfp5ZgxaGjvfAwWYQDhhNvZZmE2fxh2w2GMuKLVA9JllSZ3BDO_TASTIyz8d4bU7muaAZC1F4g48M41CZ_ytm-ePV0yl2HW704AUbU/s1600/mike+the+mic+launches+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcqfrjJ1nM035GSxrr1SsWgzhEu1ylZ6XEPzRuibfp5ZgxaGjvfAwWYQDhhNvZZmE2fxh2w2GMuKLVA9JllSZ3BDO_TASTIyz8d4bU7muaAZC1F4g48M41CZ_ytm-ePV0yl2HW704AUbU/s640/mike+the+mic+launches+one.jpg" width="570" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Radio Royal Marsden's gorilla does well</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJdtQ7kgnJ32Luj500jXhkJGqjlEmfn4x0flREgInnymlR-moyUKNqpIflZBlzWkQv2uTZrlcZZ6jsfIsRxLe-wPL3tHcqOfQElWY4PWyDu999SdueksVK6lL7i9WFrekU_HOhrh-dC_o/s1600/oh+dear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJdtQ7kgnJ32Luj500jXhkJGqjlEmfn4x0flREgInnymlR-moyUKNqpIflZBlzWkQv2uTZrlcZZ6jsfIsRxLe-wPL3tHcqOfQElWY4PWyDu999SdueksVK6lL7i9WFrekU_HOhrh-dC_o/s640/oh+dear.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>But Hendon FC's Monty has a bit of a stinker...</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjudM0Aen1rCB_vPQbAghmytp1PlfKx4sTyZFTRV9AG-Ur7bOO-zaJIRKEW0B07n4Cu9tJHLhWfJgalhcGVa5WvFKI_ydtn389uXwMwxvtJ_RzHEfRqBREBiS3VytWamUIoRFmJ4SoX12c/s1600/polly+bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjudM0Aen1rCB_vPQbAghmytp1PlfKx4sTyZFTRV9AG-Ur7bOO-zaJIRKEW0B07n4Cu9tJHLhWfJgalhcGVa5WvFKI_ydtn389uXwMwxvtJ_RzHEfRqBREBiS3VytWamUIoRFmJ4SoX12c/s640/polly+bag.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>And I don't think Poppy the Sutton penguin is much better either!</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hFMXd6CTPjRjNWS6buh3WwkPvbHMOzBtpO2N3nKS7UEJ7T3hiRz5uefAMO2fhea6Ax_941VH-O5hfOabWbaVIy4brE5Ps_MWLkAdaows14jTHjC3u1T2Szu76gUjkd-fwKO4UuwDTOA/s1600/debra+straw+and+thom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hFMXd6CTPjRjNWS6buh3WwkPvbHMOzBtpO2N3nKS7UEJ7T3hiRz5uefAMO2fhea6Ax_941VH-O5hfOabWbaVIy4brE5Ps_MWLkAdaows14jTHjC3u1T2Szu76gUjkd-fwKO4UuwDTOA/s640/debra+straw+and+thom.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Debra contemplates the tricky bale section of the course</i></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYsYs5p0fC3xfotkMwFE1dwikByEDapKE68UWD8xnljxzy-maI8xL_jTPzOCvvqxSx9Py33HKL5t6V2j9WGIFAdXclckthW0oYm1rv1oYfkCHFAMHD6YmL1gHEEfTW3utaltWERgUtIA/s1600/ready.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVYsYs5p0fC3xfotkMwFE1dwikByEDapKE68UWD8xnljxzy-maI8xL_jTPzOCvvqxSx9Py33HKL5t6V2j9WGIFAdXclckthW0oYm1rv1oYfkCHFAMHD6YmL1gHEEfTW3utaltWERgUtIA/s640/ready.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The mascots are ready....</span></i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqt5KZ-uDxsBmvLz6hRJxvUAoEHMcAa6gfyQStgJ0XAKhwYFeX3szaD-VVCbWB-M5hGk5ACl9khZST0fjtk8hvbMvO-rAqOCVRwmkqNyqGjtITd-DK4Z35dmaLeHLZOJGuEQ6tuFo_Qoo/s1600/set%2521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqt5KZ-uDxsBmvLz6hRJxvUAoEHMcAa6gfyQStgJ0XAKhwYFeX3szaD-VVCbWB-M5hGk5ACl9khZST0fjtk8hvbMvO-rAqOCVRwmkqNyqGjtITd-DK4Z35dmaLeHLZOJGuEQ6tuFo_Qoo/s640/set%2521.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>the mascots are set...</i></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRmyu5Q-FIebcDeiuGhCi0ZAWPUajkkx-sMduvj27W9epkdvvVJ0qoVXPTOeQCkJu55O2RkdLKSsZY1gJloLhG1thKsZegda6HUNsHzWcVlAQkUDJY2DkfPuxjNF3rX4Xg5fWeYJve_fQ/s1600/they%2527re+off%2521.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRmyu5Q-FIebcDeiuGhCi0ZAWPUajkkx-sMduvj27W9epkdvvVJ0qoVXPTOeQCkJu55O2RkdLKSsZY1gJloLhG1thKsZegda6HUNsHzWcVlAQkUDJY2DkfPuxjNF3rX4Xg5fWeYJve_fQ/s640/they%2527re+off%2521.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and the mascots are off!</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUbCWuFibXxN1WRF5pljhOhpR3QoLzBzheUw_PeBF_CfM-p6i7p2k3sPpy1tLhEbdGHHTSc4jFCXvn-b9dTb0lYRKOWfPPj0AAQ5psRXzNYO3x7i7xDXv9QWpNggGC1NKBGY__msUB4aE/s1600/monty+and+haydon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUbCWuFibXxN1WRF5pljhOhpR3QoLzBzheUw_PeBF_CfM-p6i7p2k3sPpy1tLhEbdGHHTSc4jFCXvn-b9dTb0lYRKOWfPPj0AAQ5psRXzNYO3x7i7xDXv9QWpNggGC1NKBGY__msUB4aE/s640/monty+and+haydon.jpg" width="484" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Haydon catches Monty in the home straight</i></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: start;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYH95_pJgLJZuWzm026CBG34kZ0DVJMCKHJDyQ26vne3v_615XdTF9Qk6mdLW7t_mN12Ko_V-mpre67nIQVaIBSCBKinbnQr7227itobR1t9wt0ylBF_QcOMJ2npRlBXdMpVWfd5IvsE/s1600/cyril+faces+thom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYH95_pJgLJZuWzm026CBG34kZ0DVJMCKHJDyQ26vne3v_615XdTF9Qk6mdLW7t_mN12Ko_V-mpre67nIQVaIBSCBKinbnQr7227itobR1t9wt0ylBF_QcOMJ2npRlBXdMpVWfd5IvsE/s640/cyril+faces+thom.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Turtle Thom is in position with his big cotton bud. None shall pass!</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uj-1gEnFdD1EFTkLbfuBiQp_lAVabSZ7cON9MXAQzE8IXR0GDXHtHbXylfwwV5222Oc-IQeXzTV_ZNCi6SxRMXH9iXB3PqifUripNe-rMTpFb49BFCs1zxbtnYsWDgciqbqSIjqPVVg/s1600/knk+kev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uj-1gEnFdD1EFTkLbfuBiQp_lAVabSZ7cON9MXAQzE8IXR0GDXHtHbXylfwwV5222Oc-IQeXzTV_ZNCi6SxRMXH9iXB3PqifUripNe-rMTpFb49BFCs1zxbtnYsWDgciqbqSIjqPVVg/s640/knk+kev.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>KNK Kev tries to sneak through on the inside</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4NINF2WgZzTqbm41Ms-Za5r_h1uI_jpIEjj_FKwK2zTRXiaGJ__fGf-MtlGoq-Ypu_Ip4KiMVN9iw4Jw3MB6toWYIkwKWCrzjJo2m0qJvIYBuaoSxIbn3s9VCdMlWskXGbhX5kQxdvI/s1600/howie+takes+a+poke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4NINF2WgZzTqbm41Ms-Za5r_h1uI_jpIEjj_FKwK2zTRXiaGJ__fGf-MtlGoq-Ypu_Ip4KiMVN9iw4Jw3MB6toWYIkwKWCrzjJo2m0qJvIYBuaoSxIbn3s9VCdMlWskXGbhX5kQxdvI/s640/howie+takes+a+poke.jpg" width="544" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Howie takes a prodding</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOuqhoXHina_X25hIrSO9om4fgDneuKMaM5WVrtTAi8rNFCaSriQsdBDZ7Y-dS8kLlFlyZXBvZVdB199rfGE9Tb9j5saUvm3EqpwTd3Yiin2FKNOO2XBtUokhaH6lXzxXQHosEFC74-14/s1600/Macs+the+Monkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOuqhoXHina_X25hIrSO9om4fgDneuKMaM5WVrtTAi8rNFCaSriQsdBDZ7Y-dS8kLlFlyZXBvZVdB199rfGE9Tb9j5saUvm3EqpwTd3Yiin2FKNOO2XBtUokhaH6lXzxXQHosEFC74-14/s640/Macs+the+Monkey.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Mac the Monkey is either tired or has lost a contact lens</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYw26ouGTahNjUe-5byKo0IRL1TpSKlb0_tzjlJfWVqQonSVf4WDHVjSB6JyBoWbS6N8A4hl3E7Viv8Of0-lgTHN-Q6vGQBcNJyVFfDFieBfDcgxyEjtLwjwnZuxDeGMryvfjjbQbilI/s1600/mike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHYw26ouGTahNjUe-5byKo0IRL1TpSKlb0_tzjlJfWVqQonSVf4WDHVjSB6JyBoWbS6N8A4hl3E7Viv8Of0-lgTHN-Q6vGQBcNJyVFfDFieBfDcgxyEjtLwjwnZuxDeGMryvfjjbQbilI/s640/mike.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>'Of course I was wild when they caught me... I was absolutely </i>furious<i>!'</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiax8-mlp4MJCMYU5JdhrMKcWef3okTbr8Jx06j6cXi5XfD7FRwuG6pcXQCafqQGe2NWFH-dc9QhmIymMuwflUePLFoORhQr9ZLTSVDxdO0RdAHaeaqKttdFRjTX1FqrWYmHfovzjQj3k/s1600/debra+haydon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiax8-mlp4MJCMYU5JdhrMKcWef3okTbr8Jx06j6cXi5XfD7FRwuG6pcXQCafqQGe2NWFH-dc9QhmIymMuwflUePLFoORhQr9ZLTSVDxdO0RdAHaeaqKttdFRjTX1FqrWYmHfovzjQj3k/s640/debra+haydon.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Debra shares her Cheekiest mascot award with Haydon</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRxbZUSwzllYR2xZggVvEboGHUE5L8SsGqurWyJAYgVvLU5C0ODuxPBs_-5bvSloGqaVCZN0llHxnZ8XLWP_XjEDMZUwTKgzGJr0a7i73m7NV00dg7goa_67FsgWtplRk1NIhCWw9DLI/s1600/Cyril+wins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRxbZUSwzllYR2xZggVvEboGHUE5L8SsGqurWyJAYgVvLU5C0ODuxPBs_-5bvSloGqaVCZN0llHxnZ8XLWP_XjEDMZUwTKgzGJr0a7i73m7NV00dg7goa_67FsgWtplRk1NIhCWw9DLI/s640/Cyril+wins.jpg" width="596" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the winner of the WUP Cup is Cyril the Squirrel!</span></td></tr>
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Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-18441348080290395612012-09-12T15:23:00.000-07:002012-09-12T15:23:13.449-07:00The MACS Factor...<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DAEqPnemyExWnXFq9CThAK85Dls48utl1TGbjAxF1SGzFMmZED8SsbYtu87nQm5syd1NYNjFtFBw1jxuyHPBtWE0FR-aNRUiv5FiIcWJp0cyS0oPzKvwEibaHXcOOysX7i5CM6N8gRk/s1600/sophie2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0DAEqPnemyExWnXFq9CThAK85Dls48utl1TGbjAxF1SGzFMmZED8SsbYtu87nQm5syd1NYNjFtFBw1jxuyHPBtWE0FR-aNRUiv5FiIcWJp0cyS0oPzKvwEibaHXcOOysX7i5CM6N8gRk/s320/sophie2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The game against Daggenham & Redbridge was going to be an interesting one from the playing point of view, but it was also the very first time we had visitors taking advantage of our <b><i>‘AFC Wimbledon Matchday Experience’</i></b>. This is a community project financed by a very generous (and retiring!) supporter and is intended to allow disadvantaged youngsters the opportunity to watch the Dons in action. We could have just sent out random batches of free tickets, but we think there is a great opportunity here to develop so strong ties with the less advantaged in our community so the ‘experience’ is extended to the children, parents and siblings from local charities and organizations and includes a free signed programme <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(which will also feature a profile of the organization) an enamel badge courtesy of Terry’s Badges, a meet and greet session, tickets (of course!) and a burger, chips and drink at half time. Hopefully this will be a great day out for them and the intention is to invite as wide and varied a set of organisations as possible, without regard to the level of ‘difficulty’ in accommodating them. We are happy to invite them, describe the resources and leave it up to the organisation to make the decision whether to attend or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There might have been an element of this with our first visitors from the <a href="http://www.macs.org.uk/"><span style="color: purple;">Microphthalmia & Anophthalmia Children’s Society</span></a> or MACS, to give it its slightly more pronounceable name! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MACs children are born with either no or underdeveloped <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>misformed eyes. Three families from the local support group were able to join us before the match just by the Dons Trust gazebo. If you saw me standing there like a taxi driver at an airport, name board in hand, well you know why now!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After introductions and a chat we made our way in to the Main Stand where the seats were ideally placed just behind the disabled section, which meant visitors and those seeking the toilet could get in and out with no fuss! Everyone was issued with their programmes, badges and meal vouchers and as we had a few minutes spare we took the youngsters to the Tempest End to see the flags and sample the ‘atmosphere’. The team were warming up and practicing the precision shooting and pin-point placement that we’ve come to know and love. So, after wayward efforts had taken out several flags and as the shots were flying around our heads in a ‘little too <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>close for comfort’ style, we beat a hasty retreat back to their seats. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnSNDoVBEzQj5mVA8ZxLO5UakiWD1EeEHvRNHS43oLaJ5ecJlWhklQBMJAn8Dke18EiZASPDtR5xBqqCBJx2ObttEuqY7R6hFofyLvOcGYZLF5DDrUcZBU6yBr9mUSKJGklK9x1RAoPc/s1600/sophie+H.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnSNDoVBEzQj5mVA8ZxLO5UakiWD1EeEHvRNHS43oLaJ5ecJlWhklQBMJAn8Dke18EiZASPDtR5xBqqCBJx2ObttEuqY7R6hFofyLvOcGYZLF5DDrUcZBU6yBr9mUSKJGklK9x1RAoPc/s320/sophie+H.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I then had to leave them to help out Haydon on the pitch, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that gold-medal winner Sophie Hosking had made a special trip over to let them see her medal and pose for some photos, which was really nice of her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And then the game was off. There were three of the four goals up their end and a 2-2 draw couldn’t have been bad for the casual observer (Not as good as a 3-2 win, but you can’t have everything it seems). I was able to get to them after the game and it seems that they had a great time all round. Their mascot is entering the AFC Wimbledon <i>Chariots of Fur</i> Triathlon on Sunday and they’ll have their own stall next to ours so I think we can say that we’ve made some new friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(And in that spirit of friendship, can I point out that tickets for the MACS Ball (<a href="http://www.macs-ball.org.uk/">'A NIGHT OF GLAMOUR' - An evening of elegance, opulance ... and magical surprises!)</a> are on sale now. Saturday 20th October in London)</span></div>
Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-14114487029313613642012-09-12T15:09:00.003-07:002012-09-14T00:18:23.631-07:00Painting Wombles in Morden Library<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It was a couple of weekends ago that we had a fun afternoon in Morden library - a very lively affair it was too with a winning combination of paint, excited children and a range of wombles!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tha project was really the first step in a couple of projects that we have embarked upon with Morden library as part of the library activities for the summer holidays. The <i>Paint A Womble</i> session was to introduce children to all aspects of the wombles - the books, furry toys, the naming of young wombles. This will then help us with our <i>'Wonderful Wall of Wombles'</i> banner and then possibly an exhibition in a local gallery. Exciting stuff!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Paint A Womble - Morden Library</span></b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Ready to go!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: small;">The session began with a gathering of the participants around a conveniently placed flip-chart and we started off by explaining just exactly what wombles are. They’re not quite as popular as they used to be, so I thought it best not to take anything for granted in assuming anyone knew anything about them at all, which wasn’t a bad assumption to make, to be honest! Having used some convenient stuffed wombles as guides as to womble height, general looks and dress-sense we then moved on to a brief master-class in how to draw wombles. Or specifically (in this case) how to draw Great Uncle <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bulgaria</st1:place></st1:country>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: small;">I had worked out that he basically consisted of a circle and a square with a few fuzzy bits added so I thought I could at least give a general indication on how to go about things and it seemed to go about as well as an arts master-class could go when being conducted by someone who can’t draw!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: small;">Next it was the allocation of the tables, each of which had its own particular artistic method available with and example of how the finished womble might look – a table for coloured pencils, one for chalk drawing, some delicate watercolours, wax crayons…. anyone??? (Not one taker at this point and things are looking grim) OK then who’d like to use the poster paint? (Every hand went up in eager anticipation with shirt fronts popping with eager anticipation. It seems nothing can beat the lure of sloppy paint and water proof bibs, so we laid in another table quickly to cope with the extra demand and off we went!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The very popular painting table</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: small;">Between Toby the librarian and myself, we had managed to produced a gallery of wombles to provide some visual stimulation and hints and these pictures were spread around the library and on the tables and it was these that provided initial inspiration. Once the children were into it though, they took to it with a will. Just as everyone was finishing their first bout of creativity we had a visitor.... Haydon himself popped by to see how everything was going and was immediately mobbed - by the parents!! Cameras were out and photos were taken and all thoughts of painting were abandoned for a few minutes, at least until Haydon made his excuses and left.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Name your womble!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: small;">Once the children had finished their painting they then took their womble to the 'naming table' where Morden library volunteer and AFC Wimbledon season ticket holder Lili Nettun-Ure was on hand with the library atlas. This was a crucial tool because, as everyone knows, wombles are named by a random finger in an atlas. This is very democratic and ended up with some interesting results - New Britain womble anyone??? Over thirty wombles required naming so thanks to Lili for her professionalism in the role of registrar.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Finished womble</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfqTWWGOdi1PcqxxHN7cyOseiIFJxSUQb6raDZgy6DZy1nCiuWnkvLNX8My1VF0BQNtp-Ndl_mkr7fuFK3swFGyf-VTbwCDsjtjws1znHg0ChvDes-cKGQGP1BUnFI9mFkyATY31DMrPE/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfqTWWGOdi1PcqxxHN7cyOseiIFJxSUQb6raDZgy6DZy1nCiuWnkvLNX8My1VF0BQNtp-Ndl_mkr7fuFK3swFGyf-VTbwCDsjtjws1znHg0ChvDes-cKGQGP1BUnFI9mFkyATY31DMrPE/s400/005.JPG" width="300" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Wall of Wombles!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: small;">The event was a great success from all aspects and I'm now working on the pictures to produce an enormouse wall of wombles that I hope will grace the Tempest End in the not too distant future!</span></div>
Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-48687381889954052932012-07-24T13:22:00.001-07:002012-07-26T10:53:52.961-07:00Visits From The Real Challenge Project<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other week I had the unexpected pleasure of acting as a 'Dragon' to five aspiring teams looking to fund a community project. Over the last couple of days I've had the opportunity of seeing how teams go about preparing for these dragon sessions by hosting individual teams at the Cherry Red Records Stadium - Kingsmeadow. Ivor had greeted two teams on the morning of the Reading game and I had a group last Thursday morning. That was an interesting experience as the group were looking at raising awareness of Deen City Farm in Merton. They had plans for an open day and various other activities and I like to think we were able to offer a couple of worthwhile suggestions for them</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Todays group at the stadium were Team Pelham (I think - something close anyway) and they were looking to develop an intergenerational project in Kingston. The format of the morning pretty much follows the same routine and we start by gathering in the main entrance by the trophy cabinet. There are various introductions and then we try to give the students a potted history of both AFC Wimbledon and Wimbledon FC. '<i>We</i>' was the correct term today as it was a dual effort between myself and Sam Grayson, the new commercial executive. After the introductory chat we then took the students through the President's Lounge and into the home changing room. After that we made our way out to the Main Stand and into the most welcome sunshine. More discussions regarding ground development followed before we made our way back to the Back Bar for a trial run through of their presentation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It wouldn't be fair to go into details of their presentation but I think having both Sam and myself involved</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> worked pretty well - Sam dealt with questions around finance and planning and I concentrated more on the community side of things. After about half an hour we pulled things together and just before they left we all went back onto the pitch for some photographs.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think we have a further six or so visits lined up over the next couple of weeks - I've added their visit dates on the community blog calendar above if you're interested. The attitude of the youngsters has been positive and creative and I really hope their projects come off and inspire them to greater things!</span></span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-45763604465424993992012-07-23T06:46:00.005-07:002012-07-23T06:47:11.982-07:00Haydon's 'friend' and the Olympic Torch!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haydon the Womble is a familiar sight in South West London, not only at Kingsmeadow but in the community at large, raising funds for charities and good causes and supporting children in hospitals and hospices. Well wombles are not allowed to take part in the Olympic torch relay so Haydon's very closest friend, Dean Parsons, stood in for him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Congratulations to Dean and long may his community spirit continue to burn!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Dean Parsons. Shy, timid and slightly overawed by the occasion</span>.<br />(Picture from the <a href="http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/9831541.Olympic_torch_comes_to_SW_London/">Local Guardian Newspaper</a>)</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Haydon in a more relaxed mood</i></span></td></tr>
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</div>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-85544238899924040842012-07-23T00:58:00.001-07:002012-07-23T00:58:03.077-07:00Terry's Badges come up trumps!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.terrysbadges.co.uk/">Terry's Badges</a> has been a regular fixture at the ground since the very beginning of the club and supplies lovely enamel badges for every game of the season. This year, with the introduction of the <i>Bernie Coleman Experience</i> at AFC Wimbledon, Terry has kindly agreed to design and supply special commemorative badges for all the youngsters who take part in the project. Below you can see Terry's design which I'm sure will be a lasting memento of their day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many thanks to Terry for such a kind and generous gesture!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-75158941223784031482012-07-16T16:04:00.000-07:002012-07-16T16:13:12.269-07:00The Real Challenge at AFC Wimbledon!<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You might not be all that familiar with <i>The Real Challenge</i> and if I were to say that it is a provider of the <a href="http://nationalcitizenservice.direct.gov.uk/">National Citizen Service</a> (NCS) you might not be any the wiser... so let's have a look at that first</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 16px;"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">National Citizen Service is a life changing experience for 16 and 17 year olds – you do outdoor activities, meet new people and have the chance to put something back. By doing NCS you learn new skills and have a great experience that you can put on your CV and college application. It takes place over three weeks full time and then 30 hours are spent making your community a better place to live.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to promote the NCS, the government have engaged different groups to work with young people and <a href="http://www.the-challenge.org/">The Challenge Network</a> are the providers in our part of the world. In fact they are the largest providers overall in terms of the number of youngsters they work with and their aims are </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">To bring together 16 year olds from diverse backgrounds and through a set of challenges, prepare them to design and deliver a project that will make a difference in their community. Along the way they learn key skills such as teamwork, leadership and communication, and are encouraged to develop trust in others, responsibility for themselves, understanding and empathy.</i></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is all good stuff and something that I'm sure everyone at the club could relate to. Youngsters being encouraged to develop their social conscience and skills in social campaigning and fund-raising for charity. Smack on the button in my opinion! But how did we become involved?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well I'm not sure to tell you the truth. All I'm clear about is that I found myself at the Cherry Red Records Stadium - Kingsmeadow on the Sunday after the Reading friendly (<i>meh!)</i> wondering if there was going to be some visitors turning up with a connection to community involvement. Not really a great deal to go on, but intriguing nonetheless. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It wasn't long before one of the representative of The Real Challenge, Rachel Solomon, arrived to explain what was planed for the day. Apparently this was to be the climax of the third week of an intense period of work for the students who had been working on social projects and awareness campaigns. Again to quote from the Challenge website (and why not, they say it far more succinctly than I ever could)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><b>You design the Challenge … then make it happen</b><br />Now you take over! It’s your turn to design the Challenge. Can you think bigger than us and come up with something your team can do that everyone in your neighbourhood will be talking about? This is your chance to make your mark in the local area.<br /><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">Decide what you’ll do, plan how you’ll do it and then</span><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: left;"> </span><strong style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">pitch your idea</strong><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">to our expert panel of judges. Learn to communicate as you’re going to need to persuade others and present your ideas. You’ll get all the training and you just might not recognise yourself by the end.</span> </i></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Basically the students had come up with a campaign and a pitch. They had to create a budget of up to £100 and then pitch their ideas to a panel of three<i> 'dragons'</i> who would then ask them questions about their assumptions and ideas in a suitably '<i>dragonesque'</i> manner. After hearing all five pitches the dragons would then offer a critique of the pitches by noting the positives, pointing out the weaknesses, offer funding up to £100 and finally laying down conditions for the funding. The dragons would be suitably 'intimidating' experts from related fields, experienced professionals who knew their balance sheets and their portfolios inside out. Well that was the plan anyway...</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apparently the Challenge Network found themselves one dragon down for some reason or another. So I was asked if I'd be willing to step in an become a fire-breathing reptile for the day.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Come on.. impress us! Dragons hard at work...</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ideally I think they'd of liked someone a bit more 'power-dressed' but then again if an AFC Wimbledon polo shirt isn't the epitome of '<i>relaxed but deadly'</i> dressing I don't know what is so I think they were happy with that. My fellow (and far more qualified, younger and dynamic) dragons were </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nanasha-Aishetu Oyofo, a Marketing Coordinator for <a href="http://www.aeat.co.uk/cms/">AEA Technology</a>, and Samantha
Selvarajah, Events Manager for <a href="http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/">Parkinson's UK</a>. Both were charming, friendly and as nervous as I was in facing five teams of twelve students in the back bar. The students though, were taking this very seriously. They had been rehearsing their pitches for an hour or two and were dressed to impress. What we were all conscious of was in not doing them a disservice, of really wanted to be constructive and encouraging whilst still somehow being discriminatory in our allocation of funds. Having to enter to the Dragons Den theme music and sixty odd whooping and hollering students didn't help my sense of reality though. Was this really what I had planned for my Sunday morning?</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The students left the room whilst we deliberated so we were able to relax a bit. Being a dragon can be tough work...</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And what were the subjects that the students had decided to campaign on? Well they covered a number of topics which were, (to paraphrase their campaigns); Teenage Depression and Mental Illness; Homophobia; the Sexualisation of Children by the Media; Multiculturalism and Making Merton a More Positive Place. All very impressive subjects tackled in an impressive manner.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Rachel Solomon kept us on the right path throughout</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After the pitches we provided feedback to each team. Said what we thought was positive about their campaign and what we thought could be improved. We then offered them a certain % of the £100 we had for each team and laid down some conditions we thought they should try to meet. They took our comments with good grace and then broke for lunch. Our role as dragons had come to an end...</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The day continued after </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nanasha-Aishetu, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Samantha and I left and you might yet see the results of the students endeavours on the streets of Wimbledon and Morden in the weeks to come. I wish them every success. They came across in a positive way as dedicated, serious and lively individuals, as did the the staff from the Real Challenge organisation. I don't know how much involvement we as a club will have with the project in the future but I'd be happy to explore further partnerships as what I saw of the project seemed very positive.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And being a dragon wasn't so bad either... it certainly made for an interesting story over Sunday dinner </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> (And in case you're wondering, yes there really were students in the back bar - it's just that we can't show them due to a lack of permission slips for photos, so you'll have to make do with me and my co-dragons!)</span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-13473022235502856252012-07-16T03:34:00.001-07:002012-07-16T03:34:56.489-07:00The Bernie Coleman Experience<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">No, it's not an experimental jazz quartet</span> but a new matchday community project funded by the ex-Wimbledon FC director!</div>
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Bernie has been along to a number of our matches and is very keen to ensure that the <i>'Wimbledon experience' </i>continues to be available to as many youngsters as possible who might not otherwise have the opportunity to enjoy the unique atmosphere of a supporter-owned and run club. With his generous offer of funds and what was pretty much a blank canvas, we had to decide on a workable format for the project that would provide something more than just the offer of a few free tickets. After some thought and a little research we came up with an idea that seems to be workable (we hope) for everyone!</div>
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We've drawn up a list of about 25 organizations that work with children. They are a fairly mixed group of local charities, branches of national charities, special schools, support groups, youth centres, hospitals and hospices and cover as wide a range of issues as possible. We've begun approaching these organisations with the offer of <i>'The Bernie Coleman Experience at AFC Wimbledon'</i> for a one of our home games for the 2012/13 season and are starting to look at bookings for the early part of the season. </div>
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The experience will basically comprise of the offer of twenty seats in the new Kingston Road family stand. How they allocate the tickets and the ratio between carers and the children will very much depend on the nature of their condition. Some will have a high ratio of 1:1 if a parent has to bring a youngster along whereas others such as youth groups, will have a much lower ratio. In some cases we are actively encouraging siblings to attend, especially where a family disability or illness also impacts on their life and where their input and support can often be overlooked. So hopefully the group will arrive in good time for the game and they will be met and welcomed to the ground by a representative of the club who will accompany them to collect their tickets and sort out the seating with them. The youngsters will also receive their own copy of the matchday programme which will be signed by whichever player is on the cover that week. We hope that Haydon will soon become familiar with the section of seating occupied by that weeks guests and will make sure they get a suitable womble greeting and instructions in vocal support! Some of the groups will have visual impairments so he may find himself being stroked more than usual but I don't think he'll mind that too much. There will also be a short note in the programme to let everyone know which group are in attendance and what they are all about but I'll also be noting which groups we hope will be attending which games in the Community Calendar tag at the top of the blog so if you're curious as to who might be down for the next match please have a look.</div>
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At half-time our young guests will be treated to a burger, chips and a drink from one of our outlets before we settle down for the second half. Following the inevitable Wimbledon victory the children will then be presented with their own commemorative <i>"AFC Wimbledon Experience"</i> badge donated by the ever-generous <a href="http://www.terrysbadges.co.uk/index.html">Terry's Badges</a>. A wonderful gesture by Terry and a unique and quality memento of what I hope will be an enjoyable day!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mac the Monkey -looking good!</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Each group will present different challenges and opportunities for us at the stadium. For example one of our first visitors will be local youngsters from the <a href="http://www.macs.org.uk/">MACs</a> charity for children born with either no eyes or eyes that are partially developed. Although I'm sure their parents and siblings will keep them informed as to the action one of our challenges will be looking into whether WiFi and radio commentary could be utilised somehow to give some professional commentary on the game. On the opportunities front their mascot, Mac the Monkey, will be joining our mascot triathlon fund-raiser on September 9th and I'm happy to advertise the fact that they still have a few seats available at their annual fundraising dinner</div>
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<a href="http://www.macs-ball.org.uk/">A Night of Glamour - An Evening of Elegance, Opulence and Magical Surprises!</a> which looks suitably decadent in a wholesome way!</div>
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We'll have a different set of challenges when the charity <a href="http://www.whizz-kidz.org.uk/">Whizz-Kidz</a> visit as we will need to utilise all our available wheel-chair spaces which means sadly splitting the group up but again it's a challege worth putting oursleves out for and I'm sure there will be lots more considerations that we hadn't even thought of coming up in the near future. </div>
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Bernie's generous gesture has provided the club with a wonderful opportunity to get to meet and talk with people and groups representing a wide range of local groups and apart from providing what we hope might be an enjoyable day out I hope we can also enjoy the experience of welcoming some deserving visitors to our club.</div>
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If anyone likes the idea of volunteering as a 'meet and greet' representative of the club for the odd game they'd be most welcome and likewise if you know of any other groups we might add to our list for future seasons then please contact us on the email address to the right.</div>
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<br /></div>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-87751979155679387132012-07-12T11:02:00.000-07:002012-07-17T01:22:29.818-07:00Paint A Womble This Summer At Morden Library!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AFC Wimbledon's Community Team have joined with staff at Morden Library to provide an exciting activity for the upcoming summer break! If you have children between the ages of 5 and 16 they can come along to a couple of womble-related artistic events being held at the library and have the opportunity to take part in an AFC Wimbledon prize draw!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Saturday 28th July they can try painting a womble in a variety of materials. Haydon himself will be posing in a life class and we hope to have some artistic types along to show how easy it can be to draw and paint wombles in poster paints, water-colours, wax crayons, pencils or chalk. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pictures can be painted at home, but will need to be handed in at Morden Library by Saturday 4th August.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every finished picture will be entered into an AFC Wimbledon prize draw and will then feature in a public show to be held in the exhibition space in Morden Hall Park. The womble pictures will either be mounted, framed and hung on the walls of the exhibition or they will feature in a multi-media slide show that documents the event. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that is not all....</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnR4oLJ-_GjG0708uf0qXDdYs7Rr-DttPUfsgS-jz2UD-byd1Lh3kLEf2m7BdanAOEmbBgbYRmJEAygg6wm1M0fkgKGILtOOTJHkhYIlLNjf0SStPIDEzgfcHrR8p17X_tRlIPR5i1xhg/s1600/Pain+a+Womble+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnR4oLJ-_GjG0708uf0qXDdYs7Rr-DttPUfsgS-jz2UD-byd1Lh3kLEf2m7BdanAOEmbBgbYRmJEAygg6wm1M0fkgKGILtOOTJHkhYIlLNjf0SStPIDEzgfcHrR8p17X_tRlIPR5i1xhg/s640/Pain+a+Womble+JPEG.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Monday August 6th and Tuesday August 7th we will be hosting two paining workshops in Morden library to create Merton's very own '<i>Wonderful Wall of Wombles</i>"!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The earlier Womble paintings will be reproduced in outline on a huge banner and children can drop by and help us finish the painting off. When finished it will not only grace the library, but it will also be hung behind the goal at an AFC Wimbledon match where with luck it will be visible on national television!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These events are free but you are advised to book with the library as space is limited. Don't forget you can still paint an A4 womble picture of your own and hand it in to library staff for it to feature in the exhibition. It doesn't have to be Haydon either - Madam Cholet, Uncle Bulgaria or Wellington would be just as welcome!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-63371135940127994292012-07-12T10:24:00.000-07:002012-07-12T10:26:00.814-07:00"A Corner Of Some Foreign Field..." A Snapshot of The Stadium Community Clean Up!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I haven't been able to get to too many of the stadium clean ups in recent years, but I did find a few spare hours on the last Sunday to go along with a power-washer. Sadly there was no water available (possibly linked to the new stand being built) so I was in for a more manual bout of activity. I was assigned to the away supporters exit behind the John Smiths Stand that was. It didn't look too bad a job for a couple of hours - just cut everything back, tidy up and put all the waste in the skips.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, so it's hardly the most exciting community work I'm likely to be engaged in but if anyone out there ever wonders what a stadium tidy up might involve, this might give a bit of an insight.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is my patch, and I've already cleared two bins full of leaf-mold from the<br />slip way before even starting on the undergrowth. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPakuBnwjENaXXsDwam_5LWeW86-OY7j1Q7bThs8yo1qO9GjtiRgOyzOMTWJ_Id8UlAchMJHVoEHnx6kL0fBShmiNLEwQ750i4uzHfEUq-xuS9iaIavvc-_1NTQAx58ZZp6N8DOdurWOo/s1600/small2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPakuBnwjENaXXsDwam_5LWeW86-OY7j1Q7bThs8yo1qO9GjtiRgOyzOMTWJ_Id8UlAchMJHVoEHnx6kL0fBShmiNLEwQ750i4uzHfEUq-xuS9iaIavvc-_1NTQAx58ZZp6N8DOdurWOo/s640/small2.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It was pretty much all slash and burn stuff, but the hardest work was the digging out of bramble, dock, marrow and assorted other weed roots. The hedge trimmers were proving to be useful!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpnsQHscPgKXCT0rgGhLpdreg1tEiUQt2W49yEWFzDNJWk9ZfTYSS1HvVWOgvNCJnq6ePBL2bvpFzFmgaJJTVgFlGGhrZU0DX60aOCmuMBIxh1dF-pEbhu8-EkMHi9xGKoOPUzwQv2oxI/s1600/small3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpnsQHscPgKXCT0rgGhLpdreg1tEiUQt2W49yEWFzDNJWk9ZfTYSS1HvVWOgvNCJnq6ePBL2bvpFzFmgaJJTVgFlGGhrZU0DX60aOCmuMBIxh1dF-pEbhu8-EkMHi9xGKoOPUzwQv2oxI/s400/small3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I ended up with a surprisingly large amount of plastic rubbish emerging . Mainly drinks containers of course, but with significant numbers of glass bottles, the odd item of clothing, golf balls, crisp packets and a shoe!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Then, of course, it started to rain so it was time to get the electrics sorted and under cover of the boot as the rain started to pour down. Note the artistic drops dripping gently off the corner.<br />Time for a quick coffee...</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTEPgth8btA3sX_ice9OoVwjTbzHs92KW_IReQ53dE5C6E6vZkuNY6UmiAG41pgXAWZBuUS7iIW_7qCAnQiO5vKHqpVPdh0EGoxvyw4GKuOSJ0AaTVXOxnhQYot_wfpgP6RjHG6bsjvIU/s1600/small5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTEPgth8btA3sX_ice9OoVwjTbzHs92KW_IReQ53dE5C6E6vZkuNY6UmiAG41pgXAWZBuUS7iIW_7qCAnQiO5vKHqpVPdh0EGoxvyw4GKuOSJ0AaTVXOxnhQYot_wfpgP6RjHG6bsjvIU/s640/small5.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All clear, so back to work unveiling a strange mound of dubious building materials. It looked like plaster, but obviously wasn't, and must have been dumped some time back</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi47Rz4MbBQKM0UV3R-qwqcitl_UQuYiInXxz9sAg_JTIGlimSLrZ6h-EGCEwzE-ag_r2maY4VXMTROUtnbU6CtyuQQ75qngQn1PIEfYUs1MWCai-zFTdh2NlJWzM4KzXhxjUK84QYGgCI/s1600/small6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi47Rz4MbBQKM0UV3R-qwqcitl_UQuYiInXxz9sAg_JTIGlimSLrZ6h-EGCEwzE-ag_r2maY4VXMTROUtnbU6CtyuQQ75qngQn1PIEfYUs1MWCai-zFTdh2NlJWzM4KzXhxjUK84QYGgCI/s400/small6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Time to take a step back to admire the handiwork. It's probably already made a good job at growing back again, but for a week or so looked reasonably tidy</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Scalped to within an inch....The strange light coloured mound can be seen but I really didn't have the energy to get into levelling it. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was my couple of hours then, apart from emptying two people-carriers worth of waste into the already full skips. Nothing particularly visible or high-profile and only a couple of hours worth but when you think that over 150 individuals had each given up some time and how much they'd accomplished, it's certainly proved to be a valuable contribution over the years</span>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-47973461741076645232012-06-16T12:37:00.001-07:002012-06-16T12:38:48.639-07:00What's Happening On The Community Front - Part 1<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">With the ever-popular<i> What's Happening At Kingsmeadow?</i></span></b> </span>newsletter making a welcome comeback over the last few days I thought it might be quite informative to have something similar on the community side. A heady mix of ideas, plans and good intentions that are all bubbling on the back burner and some of which at least I hope might emerge as fully-fledged community projects, be they of educational, developmental or charitable in nature. Suffice to say that there's never enough time available to do everything at once and some projects I've had to shelve until next year due to unfortunate or unforeseen circumstances!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off though an event that I hope will become a regular item on the calender, that takes place in Wimbledon and that will allow us both to make contacts within the local business community and to help raise funds for worthy children's charities. I'm talking about the annual </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chariots of Fur Mascot Triathlon</span></h3>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Wimbledon Common Stables Open Day Sunday September 9th 2012)</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had our first ever Wimbledon Common mascot race last year over straw bale hurdles and it was a great success with the children, despite the unwanted attention of the rain. The tug'o'war was particularly memorable and, for what was in essence an event set up as a trial at short notice, the whole day was great fun. This time round we are looking at expanding our presence by running a triathlon consisting of three complementary events - an accuracy test using lawn darts, a strength test with a bean bag toss and the grand finale featuring the (slightly) cross country obstacle race. Overall points winner gets to lift the WUP Cup!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are hoping to raise £1,000 for the Children's Liver Disease Foundation through mascot sponsorship by local businesses, a model we used at the recent Jubilee mascot race and that takes the burden of fundraising off of the mascots themselves. Down below you can see my effort at a flyer for interested mascots. It should be fun and we've lots of time this time round to make sure it's as big an event as possible!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Morden Hall Park January 2012 Exhibition - Youtube update</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You might recall we held an exhibition of the <i>Flying the Flag for Haydon</i> Community Arts Project in the new Stables Block in January of this year. One of the elements was to create a slide show of images to tell the story of the project that would play on a loop and accompany the flags and drawings. I came across it the other day and it seemed a shame not to make use of it again so I've uploaded it to Youtube for your viewing delight. If the music grates after a while you can always turn it off...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AFC Wimbledon's Stadium School - update</span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The cover of the children's feedback folder</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We recently ran a trial Stadium School at the ground in co-operation with Wimbledon Chase Primary School. This was a special session to encourage the pupils to use mathematics but in the surrounds and the context of AFC Wimbledon. This seems to have been a big hit and I'm keen that we look at providing a timetable of slots available to other schools. This will be one of my key objectives for the coming season. Having such positive feedback is a great encouragement and I hope we can develop this in other areas of the curriculum as well, not just the maths. The Teachers who were on the trip also had some useful points and it was very game of them to have a go at one of my feedback forms as well!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaon8VPf_58HdtJtVvikgUv8VGG9PPO9KbT8BRDOM9dx3dQQwEMe9U8ERUQbgvmDEHnnQrI2uHx4SFqz7wbLPksAP7gLkMZ0XZOCuUtw8ZGGrbtC7QYTkM_lop7F73TwhraymPruI0EI/s1600/SCN_0037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhaon8VPf_58HdtJtVvikgUv8VGG9PPO9KbT8BRDOM9dx3dQQwEMe9U8ERUQbgvmDEHnnQrI2uHx4SFqz7wbLPksAP7gLkMZ0XZOCuUtw8ZGGrbtC7QYTkM_lop7F73TwhraymPruI0EI/s640/SCN_0037.jpg" width="451" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Teachers feedback - No red lines luckily...</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Walking Football - Bury FC</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm keen that we look at ways of developing community activities for our older supporters, not just the youngsters. I had been wondering if a Fat, Fifty and Unfit football sessions for those of us less blessed with footballing skills might have been a possibility, but I certainly hadn't taken the idea as far as Bury FC. They were featured in a BBC News article that's worth a look and worth considering for our own supporters and community The link is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18380173">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18380173</a> and it's well worth a look.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The AFC Spelling Bee (in conjunction with Merton Libraries)</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was recently involved as a researcher for a spelling bee held by the American ex-pat community in Karlsruhe, Germany and in association with the American Library in Karlsruhe. It's a long story.... However I was impressed at the response of the community to the initiative and with the engagement between local libraries and schools.With spelling back on the agenda and with 160 different languages being spoken in Merton's schools there seemed ample opportunity for the club to help with keystage literacy targets. When Merton libraries said they would be interested in working with the club in some way this seemed the ideal format - by giving the bee a footballing edge by the inclusion of words such as trophy, referee, promotion etc. to assisting with joint school visits and mini-bees and providing exciting prizes, an AFC Wimbledon/ Merton Libraries spelling bee with regional heats and a final held in the Council Chamber could be fun and educational too! More meetings are scheduled to look at progressing that one...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It won't be quite as full on as <i>Akeelah and the bee</i> though</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 'Wall of Wombles' Art Project (also in conjunction with Merton Libraries)</span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZIf6f24ygvw1SMBzBAA9CxWldkFklOp75sqDiqCviMwWUamA7mqUldcrMtv3sKABmi0A5bxZ0jAsa0gkN65p3fNlX2bLe4QyiLUbKyCjfkrZWhzXoTI5XdYYOhk4Bcyyilm6JEmM71c/s1600/womble+jason.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZIf6f24ygvw1SMBzBAA9CxWldkFklOp75sqDiqCviMwWUamA7mqUldcrMtv3sKABmi0A5bxZ0jAsa0gkN65p3fNlX2bLe4QyiLUbKyCjfkrZWhzXoTI5XdYYOhk4Bcyyilm6JEmM71c/s400/womble+jason.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Fine Wombles such as this</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking more at the summer project end of the spectrum we are also looking at how we can link in with Merton Libraries holiday programme. The current thoughts are to have a Haydon the Womble painting project where visitors to the libraries are encouraged to paint their very own womble. We'll take the wombles, frame them to set up a gallery exhibition. That should be fun enough but we thought we could also scale up the paintings to create a long banner, a colourful 'Wall of Wombles' to grace one of our early games. We'd arrange a couple of weekend sessions at the library for the actual painting and possibly tie-in some reading sessions on a football theme. This should be fairly straightforward to arrange and I hope this one can be set up reasonably quickly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What next?? Well, on a similar theme but specifically to encourage Junior Dons and other supporters to have a go at making their own flags I thought we could have a</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kingsmeadow Flag Workshop </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The back bar would be a great place to convert into a flag workshop. Junior Dons and others could have a go at bringing their designs along and our supply of canvas and paint, driers, projectors and various other paraphernalia would mean that they could indulge in their wildest flag fantasies. This would be a Sunday session and hopefully over the pre-season period so they would be ready for the new season</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's pretty much the main items floating on the top of the project board at the moment. There are several other possible projects on the go, but if I went through those as well I wouldn't have anything for Part 2, so that should do for now.</span></div>
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<br />Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-25528148145963988892012-06-06T10:02:00.002-07:002012-06-06T10:19:42.617-07:00Mascot Race Day at the Mitcham Fair<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UJTDcwAlDUz4S76zyk3Lx9PDTJmp98JgdVDVYDmRqfl-szJ4jeSuYXjENbxDFyxJJMCK-ciexbwoXwRg9w0W2Ui2bNshrHzT67E9CizpXO_RLbX83O7eRswt4cian2XMWdMF_X0meEA/s1600/kev+and+home+start.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6UJTDcwAlDUz4S76zyk3Lx9PDTJmp98JgdVDVYDmRqfl-szJ4jeSuYXjENbxDFyxJJMCK-ciexbwoXwRg9w0W2Ui2bNshrHzT67E9CizpXO_RLbX83O7eRswt4cian2XMWdMF_X0meEA/s400/kev+and+home+start.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The real winners - the staff and volunteers of 'Home Start Merton'</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well after weeks of hurdle and jump making; of painting and emailing; of fund-raising and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">mascot-chasing; of creating 'to do' lists and listing items not to forget on the day ... everything finally came to a head on Saturday at the Mitcham Jubilee Carnival!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1acZX45prhcDUa-rwp7A_suluGbvCLvZIwPM1nlG6vSvot20g0y6s53Dws31Z2g0Mf2cOPa1301bMGHFOz13O5oJX1yW2eXAwNH8R_jYuKYMqPyPmyHhniaFO911OWEYeH4QH6MaXO7E/s1600/pudsey+bumper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1acZX45prhcDUa-rwp7A_suluGbvCLvZIwPM1nlG6vSvot20g0y6s53Dws31Z2g0Mf2cOPa1301bMGHFOz13O5oJX1yW2eXAwNH8R_jYuKYMqPyPmyHhniaFO911OWEYeH4QH6MaXO7E/s320/pudsey+bumper.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Pudsey with his trophy and Bumper the Mouse,<br />who sadly arrived just too late for the race</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I arrived </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">early-ish</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">at the carnival ground with a people-carrier full of equipment and breezed in with no problems whatsoever, being guided over to the arena area to unloaded. Having left the bulky stuff for later I had to return for the more valuable and delicate items, such as a number of mascot outfits, framed certificates, cups and other assorted items, including the rest of the family who had been press-ganged into either running in the race, filming, taking stills or</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> helping to lay out the course (or all of the above).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arriving to unload the mascot costumes provided the first change of plan as the large marquee next to the arena should have been half restaurant, half changing room. Sadly the non-arrival of the dividers meant it was all restaurant so we had nowhere to change! There was a bit of embarrassment all round but then the commons changing rooms were opened up and we at last had our space. Or at least we did after the lady stilt-walkers were moved next door.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SEsGBtXVJep9M-KTPo-hlminPGzdR-8765XORCT0JoEH7rO_GJFqOGbMt7epSlHszqLHQTgXaxImGnMZQhdhTGuhZLnP3WuPXFIQlodocCI2hcqgQzLgWFWFrir9rNRzTlbrXy1lT7E/s1600/knk+kev+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SEsGBtXVJep9M-KTPo-hlminPGzdR-8765XORCT0JoEH7rO_GJFqOGbMt7epSlHszqLHQTgXaxImGnMZQhdhTGuhZLnP3WuPXFIQlodocCI2hcqgQzLgWFWFrir9rNRzTlbrXy1lT7E/s320/knk+kev+1.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">KNK Kev awards his check to <br />Barbara of Home Start Merton</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hadn't had confirmations from some of the mascots, so not knowing exactly who was going to turn up was slightly nerve-tingling but they then started arriving one after the other, their presence usually heralded by a phone call and a plaintive cry of<i> 'Where on earth is it?</i>' We had a couple of no-shows and one mascot whose <i>'I'm lost!</i>' call came just as we were about to enter the arena, so we were a touch light on mascots, but not crucially so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact it was the laying out of the course that was causing me most concern as we had a very limited time in the arena. Jumps had to be set out in the correct place and then pinned down to stop any gusts of wind playing havoc. Bunting needed to be positioned to give the poorly-sighted mascots a chance of seeing where they were supposed to be going, sponsors had boards that needed to be placed in sight and any horse poo from the jousting located and dealt with. (There was mercifully little)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A marvelously motley collection of individuals stepped into the breech like a Dad's Army of volunteers. Family were there of course but also a good friend with her long-suffering partner (a man I have yet to meet outside the context of being press-ganged into helping me with a community event). A work colleague happened to be in the area with his daughter, so we grabbed them. Two of the sponsors had come to see the race and found themselves - suits and all - helping out with hammers and jumps. Probably not quite the experience they expected their donation to provide them with. We also had a couple of AFC Wimbledon supporters also stepping up to the plate - and much appreciated they were too!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then just before we went in I was told that everything was a little late so we might not have all the time initially allotted! Ha! Nice try! Once we were underway they had no chance of getting rid of us until we were through. Even less chance than that as it turned out as Haydon started stealing the show and couldn't be persuaded to leave, joining in with the dancers that followed us!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I'm getting ahead of myself...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiYQKTV-qCAmGyBqkgE86SLzi1uSAbve6hgb2y7Vo8BMLb7G2S_8vDrJkFwwDo1L-OFa3wFSAm_OpNG07eBXFBh-vp6PDL0KcMnvAT9wZA8LGixtgWqioL-hkKT-LXdTz0hui7eYubzw/s1600/bully+debra.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiYQKTV-qCAmGyBqkgE86SLzi1uSAbve6hgb2y7Vo8BMLb7G2S_8vDrJkFwwDo1L-OFa3wFSAm_OpNG07eBXFBh-vp6PDL0KcMnvAT9wZA8LGixtgWqioL-hkKT-LXdTz0hui7eYubzw/s320/bully+debra.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Debra the Zebra overtakes Bully with a flying leap!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having run around trying to knock in various slalom boards I found myself puffing heavily and having to go straight into the introductions. With no time to catch either thought or breath we were off, which is why I'm still panting in the video! As we had some slower mascots I had decided to experiment with a grid start but before we started I still had to introduce the mascots to the crowd, who they represented and who had sponsored them. (Incidentally, going down the corporate sponsorship route had been thrust upon us almost at the last moment but I think it worked pretty well on the whole and I'm looking forward to developing the idea a little more. Taking the onus off of individual donors in these difficult time strikes me as a positive thing to do and I'm sure we can develop it further.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally the intros were over, the flag was raised, then dropped... and we were off!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With only time for a single lap it all flashed by rather quickly with Haydon taking an early lead, only to be caught by Pudsey on the last bend and then Sam the Dog on the finishing line. Then the splendid cup was presented to Pudsey and we had a few minutes to clear the course again! Of course it's much easier taking it down than putting it up, so that wasn't so bad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was able to present all the runners with a framed certificate to commemorate their achievement and Bully even put his on his <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150869223096896&set=a.10150869222846896.405752.9261806895&type=1&theater">facebook page</a> along with some really nice photos, so I guess he was happy with that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">KNK Kev also had a date with the volunteers on the Home Start Merton stall as he proudly presented them with their cheque for £250!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all I think it went pretty well. We met some new people, raised some money for a worthy charity, tried out the new jumps helped out with Merton's Jubilee celebrations, engaged with the local community and had ourselves a good (if hectic) time!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Bully the Bull's Certificate. Well done Bully!</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Now's we can start preparing for September 9th's running of the WUP Cup on home turf when we visit the Wimbledon Common Stables Open Day event!</span><br />
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</div>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-81064850973955845392012-05-26T17:22:00.002-07:002012-06-06T13:09:16.266-07:00And our money's on....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So who are the faces behind the donations to our charity, Home Start Merton? And who is putting thier money behind which mascot?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-lmmFTZEEgfF3c5VC5DdewC4TfCKVuLz0_CVuJmYf_dfzYj9_K_8IhpenkTTwn1oFXDRmXfxtfjiEH5Qkqn_Ysxblazy7Od7k7pkdU-n3pBIZS6dSDeuT4AfKyU4BUtWs6evCbPmsdo/s1600/Andrews.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-lmmFTZEEgfF3c5VC5DdewC4TfCKVuLz0_CVuJmYf_dfzYj9_K_8IhpenkTTwn1oFXDRmXfxtfjiEH5Qkqn_Ysxblazy7Od7k7pkdU-n3pBIZS6dSDeuT4AfKyU4BUtWs6evCbPmsdo/s320/Andrews.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Andrews of Morden get the ball rolling </i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it's Pudsey Bear in the case of <a href="http://www.andrewsonline.co.uk/branches/sales/Morden/">Andrew's Estate Agents in Morden</a>! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Manager Adam has donated £50 to <i><a href="http://www.homestartmerton.co.uk/">Home Start Merton</a></i> in the hopes that Pudsey Bear will romp in ahead of other rival agents in the AFC Wimbledon Diamond Jubilee Mascot race on Saturday 2nd June</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adam was first out of the blocks when it came to picking a potential winner and helping struggling young families in Merton. Although Pudsey may not be the fastest mascot around he's probably the best known and we were happy to pick up Andrew's donation on behalf of the charity</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.gracemiller.co.uk/about.asp">GraceMiller & Co</a> are Estate Managers rather than Estate Agents and Director Jon Miller is an occasional visitor to AFC Wimbledon where his son is a season ticket holder. He's recently returned from Munich though where he went to some another of our local teams play some cup game or other... Grace Miller were hoping to include their own mascot in the race but sadly she won't be ready in time so Jon has sportingly decided to sponsor her replacement, Bully from Bullseye!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Andrews are well represented in the <i>Diamond Jubilee Mascot</i> hurdles with <a href="http://www.andrewsonline.co.uk/branches/lettings/mitcham">Andrews Lettings of Mitcham</a> also joining in the fun! </span> <br />
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Lettings Manager Jason Obee is not only hoping that his choice of Haydon the Womble pays dividends but that Haydon at least finishes abover Pudsey, who's being backed by his Morden compatriots! Well Wombles are very good on commons so maybe Mitcham Common will suit him</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVBPuh8IL0xSKdOSSPcC1gPGXCp7bU9jKPHWkW95Ealg_11wovVdDBQa-hugC9k7WgHL6DDckybBDKaA-TQN5Sd05O0kLuO_sJDd0Oe8Mh1qUqyS80yZl-ycTKbQTom-BMExlvIdZTPY/s1600/toomeys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVBPuh8IL0xSKdOSSPcC1gPGXCp7bU9jKPHWkW95Ealg_11wovVdDBQa-hugC9k7WgHL6DDckybBDKaA-TQN5Sd05O0kLuO_sJDd0Oe8Mh1qUqyS80yZl-ycTKbQTom-BMExlvIdZTPY/s320/toomeys.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.toomeyestateagents.co.uk/index.html">Toomey Estate Agents</a> are an independent Mitcham agency who are right behind both the race and the local charity it's benefiting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directors Kim Teague and Brian Owen decided that Debra the Road Safety Zebra would be a great representative and fitted in well with a charity that helped young families.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The fact that Debra romped home in her first race last year year probably gives them hope for a repeat performance!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their donation and the donations of all the other estate agents will be most gratefully received I'm sure!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioToD3eSTwFvAD4Vd1SGn4qzi_m9w2QZcsHTQlkNkjbIy6jKxDezFAGnR-lR8d-AchCFBfWgUEX-R87SO_Y74H9Yyh7mg4-CDy1NrNk2XBfLDMcOWy5nyN7hODSa33XclH88ElmJ1HBZg/s1600/bhavna.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioToD3eSTwFvAD4Vd1SGn4qzi_m9w2QZcsHTQlkNkjbIy6jKxDezFAGnR-lR8d-AchCFBfWgUEX-R87SO_Y74H9Yyh7mg4-CDy1NrNk2XBfLDMcOWy5nyN7hODSa33XclH88ElmJ1HBZg/s320/bhavna.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hold on to your hats for a couple of late entrant in the supporter stakes! Bhavna Desai of <a href="http://www.broadwaysolicitors.com/index-2.html">Broadway Solicitors</a> in Wimbledon have been long-time supporters of Home Start Merton and were very keen to have their own mascot on the day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Working on the assumption that the law always wins, Broadway Solicitors are backing PCSO Steve to the hilt and Barbara Cluer, Scheme Manager was happy to collect their donation earlier today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And finally, coming in to support Home Start Merton at just the right time, we have Gavin Stebbing of accountants<a href="http://www.wsm.co.uk/"> MSM</a> based in Wimbledon. Gavin has been aware of the work carried out by the charity for ome time and he's more than ready to back Hendon FC's Monty the Lamb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's no time to grab a photo of Gavin with his cheque so here's one of Gavin imagining Monty romping away with the trophy!</span><br />
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<br />Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-40934624739678980802012-05-19T14:34:00.002-07:002012-05-19T14:34:50.829-07:00Mascots - The Final Hurdle (And Some Trophies)<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With only a few weeks to go before the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and with the <i>Home Start Merton</i> charity donation website nearly up and running (fingers crossed...),the mascot season is almost upon us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to the kind generosity of the Womble Underground Press, we already have a splendid WUP Cup for our annual open race on Wimbledon Common, but they've come up trumps again for the one off <i>Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Mascot Hurdles. </i>I've also finished the last couple of hurdles for the race so I thought I might share them with you before the big day</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">To the front we have the WUP Cup, currently held by Merton Road Safety's Debra the Zebra. At the back we have the two trophies for the Jubilee race. One for the race winner and one for the mascot who attracts the most support in donations</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOO8OL_x5L1Nw2kHTmvnL5zQ6Fn6tys85qjwt6qO4XpEHnWC38JUofBRQQfmJLANbhcZtrJ3H27iy4Oc6VhPHVbfvkPOCrk60W0mKP3t1q23Z-hisY_yVJF-L0UTnXG0RlCtDt4p-fQw/s400/CIMG5622.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Here they are in front of two more obstacles. The one at the front is a series of insulating foam tubes - more intimidating than tricky really, as long as the mascots don't trip over the base. To the rear we have the slalom boards that the mascots will have to dodge around</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3o5nCiC1-cWfe9NMH1hd7-p956x9lq9pCxNp5BG-WMWYocs-AdGc9vA-swEjD0bCVIAohxJ4wZYJ_LG7s4jwut2-jtJA_VyckGpHJdJzYwmQnB-lPvPt7YrpjY-lstTqsyLM7Dt4KWs/s400/CIMG5627.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The £1 shops are a real source of cheap decoration at the moment. For the Diamond Jubilee race there will be plenty of red, white and blue bunting around as well as these fetching car window flags</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJuGZP-UNDuzWtjzXWOnWd1NP4ysEbDNAaVsaO_lhpZOBCFX9kGUB65rf54eqgTE0X9KOi3CmhOXCAJOBfwKWs7ZwWeoDu2ivRjTjgq_vTHZ-KTTKAgd0kOxFUayXFzi-D88T3aB7Ohb8/s400/CIMG5629.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So here are three different types of obstacle, all kitted out in their race day finery. I just hope it doesn't rain...</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-18542755663127414162012-05-12T09:19:00.001-07:002012-05-12T09:19:45.812-07:00Of Mascots & Hurdles<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With two AFC Wimbledon Mascot races scheduled for this year - our annual WUP race on Wimbledon Common in October as well as our Diamond Jubilee special at the Mitcham Carnival - I thought it was about time we took a step up in the quality of the hurdles facing the mascots. Last years race consisted entirely of straw bales and although they are a fine obstacle they are a bit bulky and slightly too heavy to move around easily. It also turned out that one of last years entrants was unable to scale them so we had to leave a gap between the bales, which most of the other mascots then promptly used!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd also like to get a little more AFC Wimbledon branding involved as well so spectators know just exactly who they are watching and cheering on and also a bit more variety in the hurdles. The mascots are pretty limited in what they can jump or clamber over so I wanted to make any jumps at least appear challenging, even if they could be ploughed through safely by any determined mascot or one who's a little more visually challenged than the others!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, being a cheapskate and an avid viewer of Blue Peter in my youth, I've been assembling some jumps out of various bits and pieces I've acquired over the last few months, including these, my bog-standard basic AFC Wimbledon hurdles, arranged in two banks of four . Although there are a couple of other non-hurdle obstacles in the pipeline I thought I might as well provide a sneak preview of what's in store and how some of them came to be</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhET0QWbAio3Vsjw6Ij7T_cKsJ2r3DszuRk3ov2LCD2BNKK_e4Bc6bGB4LecywwhdAmToaR8YpNsnjNVnIAbnKwu63li0C-6HroAJMVQTAA9uTz52NaVSTYWHfoX-u62FNdde1vCcyGIvs/s1600/016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhET0QWbAio3Vsjw6Ij7T_cKsJ2r3DszuRk3ov2LCD2BNKK_e4Bc6bGB4LecywwhdAmToaR8YpNsnjNVnIAbnKwu63li0C-6HroAJMVQTAA9uTz52NaVSTYWHfoX-u62FNdde1vCcyGIvs/s400/016.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>First, take some discarded Estate Agent boards - lightweight, easy to bend and with a plain white back. They are glued down the sides but a sharp knife splits them easily. Some of the plastic fittings are useful as well.</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYarIM5b9ip2Mnfin9Xc1FcdsefqULgbaIxTFPHQmTDY1EjUCF-7BCcvW_z55lXijJmNV_Qe78JR33uRyuQBWdW8Ghrr9_sJDSJKvsmi3eAAVV0R0wDSNXxQhjEIY6iGYm8xKHUqzmJDI/s1600/013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYarIM5b9ip2Mnfin9Xc1FcdsefqULgbaIxTFPHQmTDY1EjUCF-7BCcvW_z55lXijJmNV_Qe78JR33uRyuQBWdW8Ghrr9_sJDSJKvsmi3eAAVV0R0wDSNXxQhjEIY6iGYm8xKHUqzmJDI/s400/013.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Cut a template in a suitable bit of hardboard and use any left over black spray paint lurking in the back of the shed to get the outline. I'm using a stick to try to squash the template down a bit in order to get a reasonable line, but you don't need to be too precious</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh039iC-uwuOUBnX69YdO-W7wqGrDgDfp7_FurwnMAvMKt0Ic3xpBOB9P9W_4YBdPeFc0qszp0jA2t2_TgzEoGPxbPs9QEbVU7VsgAkRpUkLygpR0UOBYt3XGzOL_kttUYk6RrVtSqIvng/s1600/010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh039iC-uwuOUBnX69YdO-W7wqGrDgDfp7_FurwnMAvMKt0Ic3xpBOB9P9W_4YBdPeFc0qszp0jA2t2_TgzEoGPxbPs9QEbVU7VsgAkRpUkLygpR0UOBYt3XGzOL_kttUYk6RrVtSqIvng/s400/010.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Zinc 82 was a waste of time as it wasn't black paint at all! Still you can see the basic outline is coming out OK, although I'd attached these ones to their bases already which didn't make it any easier</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT8bbnanGSH62GrjVk4dn7DJjBjXQ1d3BDEH3xtcjpfRfV0OLTp-k5tlYP57jOzSZ6-XhpehX5i4RfY1sTVsy9vHa-pRm3aaCNuSX63IoZrD-6qwrBZpmm5PtdrChb5UYp9HSlZx9N5B8/s1600/009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT8bbnanGSH62GrjVk4dn7DJjBjXQ1d3BDEH3xtcjpfRfV0OLTp-k5tlYP57jOzSZ6-XhpehX5i4RfY1sTVsy9vHa-pRm3aaCNuSX63IoZrD-6qwrBZpmm5PtdrChb5UYp9HSlZx9N5B8/s400/009.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>This particular boards have a nice semi-circle at the top which will make them a bit trickier for the mascots who'll probably go for the lower gaps either side. (Note dead womble in the background caught by a late frost)</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGHifv5A-LW7ZSign0thNoKLZatFfCKCC1O7Wu5Y2Mcq46Odx494Hig8POfQIcIqQCvDlSymSDLYWUdzYLdpzoOPa-teUorLy2RruV9VeoR_-frbvSNpz2R53lMbdHKrvBC3amoSWAn_8/s1600/015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGHifv5A-LW7ZSign0thNoKLZatFfCKCC1O7Wu5Y2Mcq46Odx494Hig8POfQIcIqQCvDlSymSDLYWUdzYLdpzoOPa-teUorLy2RruV9VeoR_-frbvSNpz2R53lMbdHKrvBC3amoSWAn_8/s400/015.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The red beaks and eyes are then drawn by hand and painted in. I tried to cut a template to include the beaks but it was too fiddly and prone to snapping but to be honest I think they look fine from a distance. The base is an old IKEA bed slat which conveniently has a holes in each end. On race day they'll be pinned in place by a metal skewer strong enough to stop the wind blowing it over but not a problem if some mascot can't quite clear it</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeHwBLAdfv1fxJLi9DGv0sEkeAbaNFXwqrYushmxQg9fXvu6Egw-hWkLVF38hLnkWdxw4NxvBJjXKrWpStAy52fFexMiqQwnsxB5C0ebOQ1Yz6w8aey-cV-RaSY_PIfimxRGOibLMpMc/s1600/014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeHwBLAdfv1fxJLi9DGv0sEkeAbaNFXwqrYushmxQg9fXvu6Egw-hWkLVF38hLnkWdxw4NxvBJjXKrWpStAy52fFexMiqQwnsxB5C0ebOQ1Yz6w8aey-cV-RaSY_PIfimxRGOibLMpMc/s400/014.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>In overnight to finish drying. A sight to send a chill down the spine of any self respecting racing mascot. I have been thinking of spelling out something by putting a letter in each semi-circle. They'll be in a row of four so A_F_C_W and D_O_N_S seem to be the best bet. Or I might just leave them blank</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge9S6KuDj_stSMZsTxWeFBCkxlK69aF1QYUCLJPmHul4Igrib8mZLhMk8nIS_oat6S5RwMW_rRR8pDzSp3FES5F3GSamQFELutylcrIBQjl8tR-R9kRdINKh_2XKtxqfigWCIW2n05Zk8/s1600/017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge9S6KuDj_stSMZsTxWeFBCkxlK69aF1QYUCLJPmHul4Igrib8mZLhMk8nIS_oat6S5RwMW_rRR8pDzSp3FES5F3GSamQFELutylcrIBQjl8tR-R9kRdINKh_2XKtxqfigWCIW2n05Zk8/s400/017.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Version two is the plain square board scored, folded and nailed to the base. Slightly easier for the mascots to clear. These hurdles will be the basic type but there will also be a few speciality hurdles to clear as wel</span>l...</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTRrj3JymaNwiThyphenhyphenp74RaaA2-zzkj_mKbeb_pMfIUWxLTeFj_8HX-PRlozdv-N9NC9BiPQrXvafEjbGnm90h1V6fahcXaz82C3JnJQMeBr6ebvQdthc98sR0LbbSmaMtoFtYpok2qhHI/s1600/CIMG5600.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTRrj3JymaNwiThyphenhyphenp74RaaA2-zzkj_mKbeb_pMfIUWxLTeFj_8HX-PRlozdv-N9NC9BiPQrXvafEjbGnm90h1V6fahcXaz82C3JnJQMeBr6ebvQdthc98sR0LbbSmaMtoFtYpok2qhHI/s400/CIMG5600.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>I call this one 'The Wall' and it consists of a stack of plastic sections built up to a satisfyingly intimidating height. Unless there are any gazelles taking part I expect this one to come tumbling down</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE1vkhoTz9f1S_B7sZGJBQnUB5wFPTDpmAecR9V6cVeTFVeC-oCHIMgLi_ASuECh8zjcgeDDzIoG53ddaM1IeCn2q1jKO7L8TyYs0lUBz1wvNW-d6kvAGLOxJ807IKbHR8IRCtP2eaTGQ/s1600/CIMG5601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE1vkhoTz9f1S_B7sZGJBQnUB5wFPTDpmAecR9V6cVeTFVeC-oCHIMgLi_ASuECh8zjcgeDDzIoG53ddaM1IeCn2q1jKO7L8TyYs0lUBz1wvNW-d6kvAGLOxJ807IKbHR8IRCtP2eaTGQ/s400/CIMG5601.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>'The Devil's Broom' is an unusual right angled obstacle which will have edged the runners into a fairly small and tricky angled jump. The white panels will probably be painted in a suitable AFC Wimbledon stylee...</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsF5iJhPnAkBO8y9bPoxIMfW7UyltuyDGqjP1o1zmdG1Gcj-Nnu5UjjbSsT2tFgXchRDlZoE93qs4Fn4KVnzUkxZOYQCw2ybbrpHb7g8zgCv7jClbh-5pJMRpOeeIYXPhbEJaR3qBYhI/s1600/CIMG5602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsF5iJhPnAkBO8y9bPoxIMfW7UyltuyDGqjP1o1zmdG1Gcj-Nnu5UjjbSsT2tFgXchRDlZoE93qs4Fn4KVnzUkxZOYQCw2ybbrpHb7g8zgCv7jClbh-5pJMRpOeeIYXPhbEJaR3qBYhI/s400/CIMG5602.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>'The Garden Fence' is another straightforward jump, but slightly higher than most, so mascots will have to keep their eyes peeled. Adorned with the yellow and blue this will probably be placed in the middle of the course</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs1JLs87gn4vL5d7cJHq6BNaO-3BrI9oi_msBNncrwg0u4wokTqcfktRA7S2Wi-XYvp4guR8V4rznOm8VQjwqLEVi7MJKEnss0E0OAKIzRkyPwcGHXrDR_pCbJ_3tqZMnykTOtPivemEg/s1600/CIMG5603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs1JLs87gn4vL5d7cJHq6BNaO-3BrI9oi_msBNncrwg0u4wokTqcfktRA7S2Wi-XYvp4guR8V4rznOm8VQjwqLEVi7MJKEnss0E0OAKIzRkyPwcGHXrDR_pCbJ_3tqZMnykTOtPivemEg/s400/CIMG5603.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>'The Bamboo Curtain' is still under construction but it is one of the widest of the jumps, so will probably be at the beginning of the course when the mascots are still bunched</i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5BPhq7_6o3CupHrczvmPG1jdCVZRZhygf2XlMRldr_AylIDIPtdoQ_jYfku6ZCBz7L1E_dtX1F3fKdW5NlT2FKepgYe2ZjRF5glwFCF-fMoO3-uEjO6UQ6jJkAq6T2eQ2Pd1EBbhi_M/s1600/CIMG5606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5BPhq7_6o3CupHrczvmPG1jdCVZRZhygf2XlMRldr_AylIDIPtdoQ_jYfku6ZCBz7L1E_dtX1F3fKdW5NlT2FKepgYe2ZjRF5glwFCF-fMoO3-uEjO6UQ6jJkAq6T2eQ2Pd1EBbhi_M/s400/CIMG5606.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The 'Leap of Danger' is a simple lightweight beam that shouldn't cause too many problems</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17517847645104359389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-64851666198655602252012-05-10T15:11:00.000-07:002012-05-10T15:11:25.146-07:00Marie's Programme Article<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As an idle fellow, there's nothing more attractive than having an article in the programme that I can just scan and put into the community blog. This one appeared for our last game of the season against Shrewsbury Town and gave some background to Marie's run, which had taken place a couple of weeks beforehand. However I wouldn't want anyone to miss it so here it is in all its technicolor glory...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17517847645104359389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-74783128323941210482012-05-09T16:08:00.002-07:002012-05-09T16:16:28.199-07:00Showtime with the Big Blast Band!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Saturday 24th March 2012</span>. AFC Wimbledon are at home to Burton Albion and the Big Blast Band are gathering for the finale of their project...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I had arrived at Kingsmeadow with a car full of useful bits and pieces. Extension cables, spare Wimbledon shirts, tape, clips... you name it, I had some, just in case. At least I knew I wasn't going to be alone when I spotted Andy and some of the High Path crew in the car-park, shortly followed by Elisabeth from the Merton Music Foundation and John Merriman from the Crown Lane Recording Studios. Wayne, our drummer for the day, didn't look his usual smiling self though and it seems that he'd been offered the chance of a party instead of playing live at the stadium and it had obviously been a huge tussle for him to make up his mind! He was here though and everyone else was arriving as planned. Time to set it all up...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Our intention had been to have everyone in the Main Stand for the first half and for the participants to make their way to the disabled section in the Tempest for our half time slot. This was going to be tight as the Under 10s were due to be presented on the pitch as well, but we thought we could fit it all in OK. Then we had a bit of a surprise. It seemed that the 1962 Cup Winners squad were also going to be on the pitch at half time as well and worse than that, the stewards were looking slightly concerned and anxious as we started to set up drums and cabling alongside the toilet block. Where were the goals going to go after the warm up? What exactly were we intending to do with the cabling? Did we know there were FA inspectors in the ground today? Was it possible for those with mobility issues to get down the far end of the Main Stand and into place in time? And did we know that the radio mike range didn't reach to the Tempest End? </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6hQv7T2rUPH2Y_tNMJkHWZxX8sEmkFaYB4_YKydV3CFr2RJdBbmZkSXkAp1gpTFB4gQdD5Zdr_Gbwvf2Nte3O_by4ETvsSSXkNZ0mK5JnS9xYHYGdvz9wM0cMjM8VyyNjqLDKNmy6m4/s1600/Marie+and+John.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6hQv7T2rUPH2Y_tNMJkHWZxX8sEmkFaYB4_YKydV3CFr2RJdBbmZkSXkAp1gpTFB4gQdD5Zdr_Gbwvf2Nte3O_by4ETvsSSXkNZ0mK5JnS9xYHYGdvz9wM0cMjM8VyyNjqLDKNmy6m4/s320/Marie+and+John.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">At times like this your heart sinks and the prospect of ignominious failure looms large in the imagination, so all you can do then is rely on the goodwill of all around you to see it through. The Stewards did everything they could to help us, when it would have been easier to say 'No'; the St John's Ambulance team rallied around with suggestions for setting up the electrics into their hut in such a way as to not cause a safety hazard; we gently ousted the usual inhabitants of the Disabled section who very gallantly used the space by the tea-bar and camped there for the entirety of the game, returning our tickets for some lucky people to get some late returns in the Main Stand. Chris in the Office provided us with some shirts, we put up our <i>Big Blast Band</i> flag, asked Philo to give us an introduction at half time and sank back exhausted before the game had even begun!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUePjY8YxlCPuYsNCVOCZbNOtZ0PiOA3qAX1m3fI-dF_J0GjQ1eZatUI6C4_W9z88fAgZ2qikmoKjet2ef-DW4Gw5IV8R4OUzzOFFXW59S4Q75qtkSnIksze_Y_AvE2b1vT0msfcBRdY/s1600/ben.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUePjY8YxlCPuYsNCVOCZbNOtZ0PiOA3qAX1m3fI-dF_J0GjQ1eZatUI6C4_W9z88fAgZ2qikmoKjet2ef-DW4Gw5IV8R4OUzzOFFXW59S4Q75qtkSnIksze_Y_AvE2b1vT0msfcBRdY/s320/ben.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">We had the junior team behind us and they very gallantly took their bow before the game started, freeing up the half time period somewhat. We all sat with djembe drums to the fore with a rising sense of excitement and waited for half-time to arrive...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There we were, Wayne on drums, massed djembes, electric guitar, Elisabeth on Keyboards and John ready to lead us all. A tense and nervous period as half time came closer. Then we were off! I had to get to the press area to pick up the radio mike, take it back and pray that it was in range - otherwise we'd be sunk! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I had to say a few words off the cuff and was dismayed when nothing came out...but then the mike burst into life and with a great deal of haste I finished off and shoved it toward John who was going to wave it in our general direction as we were singing and hope it could pick up something.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6ogyKTAQWYhFkE3Lnb6BQulYOdTN3XciJHMsuFqRS9CS0QslsfCRpKLDtjffzyaaMIeDt56Q_n4o-ohFDbWa2CSUanecYd0Qbr6Lgyyq7Uuwcwa7CsVscMGeMpB6-Ek-FcIVfrTdDqM/s1600/060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6ogyKTAQWYhFkE3Lnb6BQulYOdTN3XciJHMsuFqRS9CS0QslsfCRpKLDtjffzyaaMIeDt56Q_n4o-ohFDbWa2CSUanecYd0Qbr6Lgyyq7Uuwcwa7CsVscMGeMpB6-Ek-FcIVfrTdDqM/s320/060.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">We had been practicing for ten weeks, and it was only on the last session or two that we had run through the final version. It had been fine in the practice room, but in a huge stadium, live and with high excitement levels, we almost missed the first chorus! The group found a simple chant the easiest thing to manage so it was that combined with some enthusiastic tub-thumping that was supposed to take us into the rousing chorus when we would stand to sing the chorus of <i>We Are Wimbledon</i>, complete with Makaton signing for those that couldn't cope with the required vocalisation! We were a bit slow first time out though and it took longer helping some to their feet than we had thought but you know, I don't think anyone really minded - certainly not Warren, Robert or Ian who were around me. And certainly not Josh whose special job was to shout loudly during each chorus! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Zo2vqdmCIUKiaungXWKKE-8iNbJAV7Tpi4RfLdgNbUs7moMnLKM13J5mx-6uqZ8BACwC_7J8q0GA_E4UHYR37K70kPavLl9XGo6OOIec3oH-BZlMzMCY0ji6UkXrrRsfxkBunDodpn4/s1600/Haydon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Zo2vqdmCIUKiaungXWKKE-8iNbJAV7Tpi4RfLdgNbUs7moMnLKM13J5mx-6uqZ8BACwC_7J8q0GA_E4UHYR37K70kPavLl9XGo6OOIec3oH-BZlMzMCY0ji6UkXrrRsfxkBunDodpn4/s320/Haydon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Much to our surprise we were not only being filmed by a very expensive looking camera but cheered on by Haydon as well. We finished with a final crash of drums and, to our relief, some very enthusiastic applause!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This was a marvellous occasion for all of us, but the project as a whole was a valuable learning experience as well. We were working closely with the Merton Music Foundation and their director Elisabeth Wigley. Her experience of working with both disabilities and music was invaluable and she persuaded us to involve John Merriman of the Crown Lane Recording Studio, another inspired move! So we had four partners on the organisational side when you included the staff at High Path. However we all worked together very effectively with everyone bringing something to the project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3mdcOlkh6lCvWJq946h5SA3herLFfZyQDTuijCpXZQNPpzyMSE_kppvZHXQf4eZIMbafX4jAnDn6tnoWzSqAXXH_8tReeUllLwNN4dinSaQbjQqfp5JW-5qP2nhI18N_jWMOj0NPpuw/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3mdcOlkh6lCvWJq946h5SA3herLFfZyQDTuijCpXZQNPpzyMSE_kppvZHXQf4eZIMbafX4jAnDn6tnoWzSqAXXH_8tReeUllLwNN4dinSaQbjQqfp5JW-5qP2nhI18N_jWMOj0NPpuw/s320/005.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">Although the intention was always to climax the project with a live performance it soon became clear that John would need to provide a backing track for the event and this required time in the studios, another great experience that everyone enjoyed. This also led onto the playing and recording of short riffs and the possibility of providing a souvenir CD for the participants. This in turn enabled us to involve the graphics group at High Path to design the CD cover and then, in an enormous leap of faith, the offer by Cherry Red Records to release the CD as an iTunes download, available to the public. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The suggestion that having a couple of players come down to the vocal recording session might be a nice touch for the participants then turned into the slightly jaw-dropping realisation that ten first team players were stopping by after a morning’s training! The small recording studio was soon packed out and the party of visiting school children from Hillcross Primary were led away in disbelief shouting out <i>“Its AFC Wimbledon, It’s AFC <st1:place w:st="on">Wimbledon</st1:place>!”</i> as their teachers hurried them out of the exit. There was at least one Dons supporter there as he recognised Jack Midson and Luke Moore straight away!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuEanysM_qN_fpApb87HUx5Kimtz7fKaNexY8tYOuXdo6vWilKWZo9gPfVbI2pt2YxjPHpCBPQF1YHoBkPR04dEoyOyQf_v9Qh8iDTefWmHmGLK2Xl9YUqOAmWI3FcH0L6lV2ClAxgAL8/s1600/certificate2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuEanysM_qN_fpApb87HUx5Kimtz7fKaNexY8tYOuXdo6vWilKWZo9gPfVbI2pt2YxjPHpCBPQF1YHoBkPR04dEoyOyQf_v9Qh8iDTefWmHmGLK2Xl9YUqOAmWI3FcH0L6lV2ClAxgAL8/s320/certificate2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Could it get any better for the project? Well yes it could as it happens. The Big Blast Band was shortlisted as one of Merton’s Volunteer Project’s of the Year and I was honoured to receive a certificate from the mayor at the Civic Centre. and to top that off there will be a small display about the project in the Civic Centre itself over the next week or so. A successful climax to our largest, highest profile and most ambitious community project to date.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that expensive looking camera by the pitch? It seems it was the True Volunteer Foundation filming a history of Wimbledon Sport and it seems the Big Blast Band are featuring in the closing scenes of a documentary that's being distributed free to every school in Merton. Fame at last!</span>Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17517847645104359389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6610644323271317273.post-66649262363719659152012-05-01T01:16:00.003-07:002012-07-12T10:25:33.087-07:00Big Blast Band at the Civic Centre<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWaP77ORmGe2jgmOpcFjcAhsEE22c0Xl9LusSvCE7hPaD3-hzbMD8u6BcEdq5BAUe85tACUBbsfU5D5DkHX6ZJ4snlnOEPRAMa9RiKVEdXH1vwWa4KzOVCVe64dzlvPIrCFRkxjTkN5o/s1600/CIMG5583.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWaP77ORmGe2jgmOpcFjcAhsEE22c0Xl9LusSvCE7hPaD3-hzbMD8u6BcEdq5BAUe85tACUBbsfU5D5DkHX6ZJ4snlnOEPRAMa9RiKVEdXH1vwWa4KzOVCVe64dzlvPIrCFRkxjTkN5o/s400/CIMG5583.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you happen to be in Morden over the next couple of days you might be tempted to pop into the foyer of the Civic Centre and if you do you'll find a small AFC Wimbledon display by the desk.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBLV9IcRdgInoz_A_rGOoNRl8sHtxEZ0Rgb0unucdxr4uB9JDQMIE9Ky5zFadYkLK3K7-3cCMKvdyGOLaWfqwpD2eiWbCAm1BI8QVglGHoTe-kww6WnanXVuJopMt5UNFZxS6PoISxBzE/s1600/CIMG5587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBLV9IcRdgInoz_A_rGOoNRl8sHtxEZ0Rgb0unucdxr4uB9JDQMIE9Ky5zFadYkLK3K7-3cCMKvdyGOLaWfqwpD2eiWbCAm1BI8QVglGHoTe-kww6WnanXVuJopMt5UNFZxS6PoISxBzE/s320/CIMG5587.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a summary of the Big Blast Band project, along with the flag we used on the day and it's there until the end of the week when it's then due to be packed up and moved on to the Chaucer Centre on Canterbury Road, home of the Merton Music Foundation. It'll grace the walls of the Chaucer Centre - which is Merton's main training venue for a variety of organizations, including schools, the council and outside organisations - for a few more weeks so, with a bit of luck, it may both raise awareness and also prepare the ground for other ventures across the borough!</span><br />
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<br />Yelfyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12151975456880168482noreply@blogger.com0