Welcome everyone to our AGM.

Our club has now been going for seven successful years and continues to provide the opportunity for many young athletes to train and compete up to national level. Whilst last year was one of consolidation, this year has been one of change especially on the club administration side. Our secretary, U11s coach and membership secretary have all left the club. I should like to thank them for all their efforts and hard work for the club over the years. Fortunately we have found replacements to ensure the smooth running of the club.

Changes also took place with our rather hasty change of winter training venue from Applemore to Noadswood School. The training groups had in reality, outgrown Applemore School and the change to Noadswood gave us the opportunity to use the Sportshall which proved a great success and ultimately made the Tuesday training sessions a lot easier to run.

The club continued to train at Hardley School in the summer, mainly because of the condition of the sports field and our storage facility. Our new coaching programme appeared to work well with all the athletes having the opportunity to train at their chosen events as well as trying other events. The club’s development plan details proposals regarding our involvement with the schools and will be presented to the meeting for discussion and adoption.

For the first time the club experienced a dramatic dip in its finances, due to increased expenditure and drop in income especially at the beginning of the year.  However we secured sponsorship from Connexions and a club Sportshall competition that brought in well over £1000 which helped to restore our finances and enabled the club to continue to purchase Sportshall equipment.    

On the competition front, Charlotte Bates won the U17 women’s individual Hampshire XC league trophy and for the first time, the club picked up team medals in the U15 girl’s competition, beating Reading on the last meeting of the season. Charlotte, Alice Cole and Dale Hansford all represented Hampshire Schools at XC. Laura Pankhurst and Charlotte also represented Hampshire at the UK Inter Counties at Nottingham. On the track the club finished 4^th (top half) in the UKA Young Athletes League. Although finishing well down in the Wessex Young Athletes League, our under fifteen girls were 4^th in the age group competition. I would like to thank Dave for all his efforts as team manager. Our only real disappointment was our poor showing in the National Junior League where we competed as New Forest Andover.  Chrissy Parsons and Zara Martin had very successful season, with Chrissy making the high jump final at English schools and together with Zara taking second place in the team event at English schools multi events at Derby as well as medal performances at the Hampshire Championships. Our U11s were particularly successful also in the Wessex League as well as competing in the Hampshire Sportshall League.

The club successfully re-launched a monthly newsletter on the club website as well as completing its Clubmark application to the UKA. 

So a big thank you to everyone who helps makes our club so successful, athletes, coaches, officials and helpers. I’m sure our athletes appreciate all the efforts made on their behalf.