Well Done Young Athletes!

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Well Done Young Athletes!

Postby Tank » Sat Sep 06, 2008 1:23 am

Congratulations to all the young athletes who have helped their club achieve promotion to the North of England Premiership of the UKA National Young Athletes League - a 100% record clinched the NW Division title - great stuff!
But where is the championship trophy or any form of recognition of the clubs success? If this was a football (or other sporting success) there would be a tangible reward to mark the efforts of the team. But athletics (UKA) doesn't seem to emphasise a team ethos - the success didn't even make it into the local rag! (as a lot of other club successes don't).
UKA as an organisation have been allocated millions of lottery pounds but can't manage to sponsor it's own national youth competition at grassroots level - even the meeting T-Shirts for athletes of the match were cut this year - and they can't provide any funding/publicity for championship awards/club recognition. No wonder athletics continues to lose out to other sports - what exactly is the point of UKA if it continues to waste
money on a few privileged athletes at the expense of developing participation rates amongst the young people of today - Fantastic achievement from our youngsters - against the odds!! If UKA can't recognise our achievement then perhaps we as a club - or Cheshire AA (who have a healthy bank balance) should. Or perhaps new sponsors Mcains (was McDonalds a few years ago) will rectify the situation next year - don't think so though - unless we eat lots of chips! - and there's another grumble..........
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Postby Colin Ardron » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:06 am

I don't pretend to know much about the way in which UKA operates although the experience vis a vis their dealings with the FRA * didn't exactly inspire. Is it too much to expect that UKA managers are not just meeting with the organisers of our cycling, rowing and sailing teams (please tell me they are), but adopting some of their obviously successful methods?

FRA: Fell Runners Association
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Postby phil cheek » Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:55 pm

Of course they`re not or they wouldn`t send a young 10K runner out to run a timetrial the night before making her olympic debut,have not 1 but 2 sprintrelay teams who can`t hold a baton & continue to pick convicted drugs cheats(but of course they had to `cos she was the only chance of a gold).
I`m proud NOT to fund them!!!!!!
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Postby Beneficial Dictator » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:48 pm

I would join forum member & poster "Tank" in congratulating our Young Track & Field Athletes on their success in gaining promotion back to the Northern Premier division, having been demoted a year ago.
Realistically it will be difficult to compete in the premier league on equal terms with some of the larger clubs who have greater catchment areas & possibly better facilities & more coaches / helpers. We as club can always use more volunteers to help. If you are out there & feel inclined please let me know.

"Tanks" posts are always somewhat provocative & one or two of them have upset a few of the club membership. So much so that those members have spoken to me in that respect. Of course Tanks true identity is not known by the very great majority of the club ( only the webmaster & I are in the know ). Perhaps in the future Tank will choose to reveal their identity when posting.

Moving on,

The Macc Express have always been very selective in a seemingly random way about what they put in the paper. I feel the only way we will get a more regular & consistant coverage is to have a club press officer who would every week without fail collect together info from the various disciplines of the club ( track & field, road, fell etc.. ) & write an article of so many agreed words. That is what the Macc rugby club do & they get a slot / space every week throughout the playing season. Of course every sport is lobbying for Paper space & the Macc Express probably consider athletics somewhat less important than football & rugby etc.... That said the Macc Wheelers & the Macc boxing club seem to get relatively small very regular coverage. In no way am I here criticising the current club press officer who shares the function with other roles.
So is Tank prepared to step forward & be our dedicated weekly Press Officer. As ever it all comes down to someone volunteering to take on the task & doing a really good job with it.

Looking at the previous posts on this thread (& others ) it strikes me that "Moaning" is relatively easy, but if you have issues with Cheshire AA & UKA please find ways to tell them, not us, as I am sure they are not reading this forum.

All my personal opinions of course.
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Postby thebunyans » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:43 pm

Craig - I don't think the Macc Express is not publishing stuff, it's more we aren't sending it. I've generally passed on everything I've received so long as it is recent (i.e. not more than a week old).

However I agree with your way forward though that it requires active "reporting" - I have never really done this, I just do a brief bit of editting on submissions. Arguably each discipline requires such a reporter to proactively publicise the discipline.
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Postby whiteflyer » Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:09 pm

thebunyans wrote:However I agree with your way forward though that it requires active "reporting" - I have never really done this, I just do a brief bit of editting on submissions. Arguably each discipline requires such a reporter to proactively publicise the discipline.


It's an old thread, but with regards to getting reports in the paper, as said, must be pro-actively done.

I'm not from the Macc area but live Nr Chorley in Lancs where there is a small athletic club (no track or club house) but they have a report in the local paper EVERY week. They do this by ensuring they send something in each week.

I also have a friend that does Hockey and nothing was ever in the paper until she started to send weekly reports, the paper then started to print them as they knew there would be something each week.

It's something the club has to do and not wait till the paper gets interested.
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Postby Colin Ardron » Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:43 pm

Interesting - I sent some copy to the Macc Express last week to promote the Macclesfield Half Marathon and highlight fundraising for East Cheshire Hospice.
Well it didn't get in this week's paper - maybe next week??

I shall pester them unmercifully with weekly items until we get something in.
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