Wow. That time of year again already!
Seems like I say this every year, but it’s been another good year for the club. We’ve seen growth in terms of numbers with new folks coming along, but we’ve also seen growth in depth with our fencers developing well. We had good turnouts for our favourite competitions with our younger competitors giving a good showing and Tom continuing to perform well on his “year off”.
This was also the year that Hannah achieved her level one coach’s certification, adding to the club’s skills base.
During this year work pressures forced Iain to step down as treasurer – a post he’s worked hard at for several years. Carol agreed to step in, initially on an interim basis until she was elected into the post and on to the executive at our recent ACM. So big thanks to both.
We’ve seen a bit of disruption as we’ve had to temporarily move out of the Town Hall while it is refurbished. A return to the Academy provided a short term solution, though unfortunately we had to end the year early due to booking issues.
It now looks like the Town Hall refurb is going to take longer than planned but we’ve been able to secure a booking at the Leisure Centre to keep us going over the next few months. This also means we’ve been able to go back to our normal times with a half past seven start from 9 January. Thanks to Cindy for all her work organising this.
Hopefully that will be the start of yet another great year for the Stag Knights family! We have a lot of ideas for club development and want to see everyone continuing to get stuck in. We have just purchased plastic kit which will hopefully be delivered soon and will allow us to reach out with the sport to more schools and community groups. And of course, we want to see our fencers enjoying themselves at training and competition as well as welcoming new faces to the club.
Thanks for reading this so far! All that remains for me is to thank all our fencers, volunteers, parents and supporters for all their energy and enthusiasm over 2019. I hope you all have an awesome Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in 2020 for more of the same!
David Ferguson – Chair
Dingwall Fencing Club 