HQ REPORT
YOUTH
Namaste an d
Jai shree Krishna
What a phenomenal, yet challenging
year it has been for the SPA (UK)
Youth Team. We have organised
three events across the UK, along
with a regional competition.
‘‘Around 40 golfers
travelled from every
corner of England to
tee off and enjoy the
day...’’
Golf
The 3rd annual SPA (UK) Golf
tournament was held at Stonebridge
Golf Club in Coventry. Around 40
golfers travelled from every corner
of England to tee off and enjoy the
day. The event is growing year on
year, bringing together members
who you would not regularly see.
The weather held out, creating the
ideal atmosphere for the game.
The day was rounded off with a
barbeque. The event would not
have been possible without the
excellent organisation skills of
Gulabbhai, Divyen and the SPA (UK)
Coventry Committee. Gulabbhai
has put in a lot of his own time into
making this event successful. The
event raised a total of £775 for
the Education fund which helps to
educate children in India.
Cricket
The SPA (UK) Cricket tournament
was held at the University of
16
Leicester. Six branches participated
in the tournament and we were
blessed with spectacular July
sunshine along with a short spell of
rain. This year the tournament was
won by Bradford, with Leicester
taking the runners-up spot. We
would like to thank all the volunteers
who helped make the day a success
particularly Mahendrabhai and the
team from Leicester who helped
plan the day.
Midlands Darts Tournament
This year SPA (UK) wanted to
hold several regional events
across the UK. So as part of this
Divyen organised a Midlands darts
tournament between Coventry
and Leicester (unfortunately, other
branches were unable to make
the tournament). There were two
categories in this tournament, one
for the professionals and another for
amateurs. The evening was rounded
off with an excellent meal. A total
of £330 was raised for SPA (UK)
during this event. A big thank you
goes to Divyen and the Coventry
Team who helped to support this
event.
Sports Day
Our next big event was the 37th
SPA (UK) Annual Sports Day. This
year’s Sports Day was hosted by
SPA Rugby. Any branch that has
hosted this event will appreciate
the hard work needed to pull it
off. The team from Rugby did
an amazing job. This was helped
with the excellent weather on the
day. I would like to say a huge
thank you to the team from Rugby
for organising a tremendously
successful d ay. This year we had
320 participants from 13 branches.
This figure is far fewer when
compared to previous years. We
decided to host the Sports Day
towards the end of August in order
to avoid clashes with religious
events and to accommodate the
limited availability of venues. We
continued with the changes that
we implemented in 2014, where
we allowed branches to enter
multiple players/teams. For many
of our larger branches this meant
that players were not left out and
allowed for more of our members to
play on Sports Day. This continued
to be a success with some of the
branches, however numbers have
continued to fall, to an all-time low.
This was the first year ever where
there was only 1 Junior Football
team submitted from across the UK,
which was extremely disappointing.
We would like to ask our members
- what can we do to make Sports
Days more attractive to the younger
members? Over the last two years,
the Youth Team has listened to your
feedback, and will do our utmost to
implement as many of the changes
as we can. So please contact us - we
are listening.
I would like to take this opportunity
to say a very big THANK YOU to my
two assistants, Mahendrabhai and
Divyen, who have organised and
run many of the events this year,
dedicating an incredible amount of
their own personal time to these
events. Thank you guys for all the
support!