BDGC News

Glenn's News Corner

FAMILY BARBQUE AND AGM 29 JUNE 2008

The lovely Wendlebury Village Hall has been booked for this year's BBQ/AGM. It is booked from 12:30 and hopefully it will be a nice summer day. If not don't worry as the hall is big enough for us to enjoy ourselves come rain or shine. What we ask is for each family to bring what ever food they plan to BBQ and to bring another dish of salad or sweet to share. The club will provide soft drinks, paper plates, ketchup plastic knives, forks and spoons etc. (A disposable BBQ would be handy but everyone usually share.) If you have any games you wish to bring please do so. We have had bowls, lawn darts and frisby in the past and the bouncy Air Track is usually there too. A good friendly family day out. Come to meet and get to know the other families of the club.

Oxfordshire County Championships 2008

Two Bronze Medals and Seven Qualify for Southern Region Finals.
Congratulations to Tabitha Saltzer who placed 3rd Level 5 Out of Age wtih a score of 44.20. Also Congratulations to Jess Pitts who placed 3rd Level 4 Out of Age scoring 44.00.
Reaching the required scores of 37+ Level 5 and 40+ Levels 4 and 3 to go forward to Southern Region Out of Age Levels finals were: Leah Plant, 42.15,L5; Amy Deller,43.0, L4; Annabelle Clifton, 41.1, L4; Amy Plant, 40.5,L4; Chloe Banks, 40.7,L4; Jess Pitts, 44.0,L4. Harriet Bruce, 41.65, L3. Well done to all and good luck on Sunday 15th June

Southern Region Out of Age Levels Championships, 24th June 2007

Congratulations!!!! All five gymnasts, Daisy, Harriet, Gemma, Morgan and Chloe, all did exceptionally well. They held their own against some of the best in the Region. Chloe had one of the best Bar routines I think I have ever seen her perform. She had just managed to score 0.00 on her vault so it was really nice to she her go on her next piece and give it her all. I was watching from the side of the arena and thought "WOW" was that Chloe? And Later on, Daisy also seemed to like the Bars and flew around like she was actually enjoying herself. Apart from Chloe, due to her vault score, all the girls improved their scores from the scores achieved at the County Championships. Well Done to them all! Photos to be added later.

Oxfordshire County Championships, 3 June 2007

Well done to all the gymnasts who competed at Phoenix Gym Club placed in the top 5 of their respective level. Hana Ayers, Annabelle Clifton and Tabitha Saltzer competing at level 5, out of age senior, were in the first round. Hana was up first starting on Beam with a very tidy routine. Annabelle was up next with another tidy routine. Tabitha followed but sadly had a couple of falls losing her 1.6 points and giving her a short routine and more valuable points. By the end of the second round the girls were in the top 4 with Hana having second highest Beam and Annabelle second highest floor. When they got to Vault we were not too sure as it is one of the pieces Hana has been struggling with but, Glenn took some of the girls up to the Arabian School of Gymnastics in Bletchley on Friday evening for extra training and Susan was surprised to see Hana perform the best vault she has ever seen do giving her the 4th highest vault score at this level. Tabitha had the Highest Level 5 vault with a score of 11.4 out of 12.0. Tabitha finished the day with the highest Bar score. We were excited thinking that the top 5 gymnast in each level were to go to the Regional final but it turned out that at Level 5 the seniors don't go through. Annabelle finished 2nd, Hana 3rd and Tabitha 5th. The day was starting to heat up, both indoors and out. The girls were glad they had their New Sleevless Club Leotards It was now time for the older girls in the higher levels. Chloe Banks and Morgan Broom began their day on the balance beam, Level 4 Out of Age Seniors along with Gemma sole Level 3 Out of Age Junior. Harriet Bruce and Daisy Ryan-Pont were to start on the floor, level 3 Out of Age seniors. The balance beam was the toughest piece for all the girls in the competiton. There was a new "short exercise" rule the judges were using and gymnasts were struggling to score higher than 5.5 points. Chloe only scoring 5.3 and Morgan 3.5 on beam. Morgan picked up her points when she got to floor obtaining the highest level 4 score of 11.55. Both scoring well on vault and Chloe baulking on the first attempt scoring zero managed to score 11.20 on the second. Morgan finished 4ht and Chloe 3rd. Both Harriet and Daisy had consistant scores, keeping them in the top 5 places. Daisy decided to put opn an extra show for the audiance when she performed her beam mount. After jumping to her handstand and lowering to a clear straddle she tried to gain those extra points by giving it that little extra and lifting her feet higher than her hips causing her to end up hanging below the beam attempting to get back on top without touching the floor all done "with a silly grin" meaning "I tried to stay on". She did stick her flick with a slight wobble again giving Glenn that little grin saying "oops, but I stayed on". Daisy finished 3rd and Harriet 5th. All 5 gymnasts will now be spending the next 3 weeks getting their routines ready for the Southern Region Finals on Sunday 24th June 2007. This will be very tough competition for the Bicester gymnasts as they will be meeting gymnasts who train in purpose built gymnastics facilities and some training well over the 7 hours the Bicester gymnasts train. Well Done to them all! Photos to be added later.

Club Championships January 28th 2007

See the report here. We need more pictures! If anyone has digital photos of the Club Championships, suitable for the web site, please let us have copies. Glenn didn't get chance to take any, and Michael had his camera on the wrong setting so his pictures were all useless!

Bucks County General Gymnastics Competition 5 Nov 2006

8 Clubs, 5 difficulty levels and 192 entries made for a long day with a lot of sitting around for the gymnasts. Bicester had 6 gymnasts entered for the competition, Richard and Jack started the day at 9:00a.m. Both boys looked the part in their new competiton leotards. Richard finished 3rd and Jack 2nd with Ali Lowen from Chiltern Gymnastics Club beating them both for the Gold. The girls, all competing at Level 9, had to wait almost two hours after their warmup before actually competing on the floor. They all performed well with only a few forgotten elements (hey! it happens to almost every gymnast). The Vault was painful. Not due to their vaults but because there were 30 gymnasts who had to warmup and compete and coaches who were treating the warmup as a training session. This made for a frustrating wait for our girls. When they did finally get their chance it looked as though it was going to be a disaster as they all managed to have their hands slip on the vault and end up in a heap on the landing mat. They all managed to do reasonable vaults when the time came. Charlotte Peterson won Bronze for her age group and Amy Digman tied for Silver in the 11 to 12 age group. Well Done to them all! Photos to be added later.

5 gymnasts selected for county squad training. During the recent Oxon Individual Apparatus Competition Hazel Field was observing the county gymnast to see which ones she felt showed potential for county squad development training sessions. There will be one extra 4 hour training session per month up at the Wade Gymnastic Club facility. The aim is to prepare gymnast to a standard which we hope will gain Oxfordshire gymnast places in the Regional competitions later in the year. The 5 gymnast from Bicester who were spotted were: Daisy Ryan-Pont, Harriet Bruce and Georgie Long. Tabitha Saltzer and Annabelle Clifton were selected as reserves depending on the numbers who accept the offer. The training dates are Sat 25th Nov Sat Jan 6th, 2-6 pm.

1st October 2006 - Bucks General Gymnastics Individual Apparatus Competition

Sam Barker and Richard Cadle proudly show off their medals they won at the Bucks General Gymnastics Individual Apparatus Competition on Sunday 1st October 2006. This was the first of hopefully many "Open" General Gymnastics competition in the Southern Region. This was also, the first time Bicester has entered any of their General Gymnastics members into an out of county competition. The day was organized by Brian Duley who is on a mission to get more competitions for recreational gymnastics. Both Sam and Richard did well and had an enjoyable day. Sam won Gold on A-Bars with a score of 8.80. Richard picked up three Gold medals but the one he is most proud of is, in his words, "the P-Bar as I was actually competing against someone and beat him." Richard competed on floor and vault at the highest level so there were no other boys competing on these pieces so he had automatic Gold medals on these pieces. He scored 8.00 on Vault and 7.55 on Floor. We are hoping to enter some more recreational gymnast into the Bucks County "Open" Floor and Vault Competition on the 5th of November.

30 July 2006, DAWNE PASSES HER REGIONAL JUDGING EXAM

Well done Dawne! Sadly, Dawne won't be with us much longer to help our squad gymnasts construct their routines from a judges point of view. Dawne, Richard and Thomas will be moving down to Hungerford near Newbury at the start of the new school term to be closer to her place of employment. This is a great achievment for Dawne and I'm sure we will be seeing her at some of the future county and regional competitions. We just need to pick her brain before she leaves us.

23 July 2006, BECCA PASSES HER ASSISTANT COACHING EXAM

Well done Becca! Otherwise known as Rebecca Digman, Rebecca has worked very hard in a very short amount of time to prepare herself for this qualification. She said she was a bit nervous when she first arrived for her exam but once she got going she felt confident and relaxed. She was praised for her work in filling out her log book which she was proud of. Becca also recently went on the county organised judging taster day and judged her first recreational competition at the county general gym comp on 1st July. Becca is simi-retired from her gymnastics due to a hip problem for which Neil, our club physio, has given her various exercises to help releave an hopefully correct the problem so she can get back to her training. She wants to still compete if she can as well as help with the development of our younger club members. Becca is going to be a great confident coach for the club.

Oxfordshire General Gymnastic Competition, July 1st 2006

I would like to thank everyone who helped run this Competition. I think it was a great success. From the comments I have heard almost everyone enjoyed the day. It ran in a very well managed controlled chaos. We finished on time so everone could go and watch England crash out of the World Cup (why did they let it get to a penalty kickout?). Thames Valley Gym Club and Carterton Gym Clubs again took most of the medals but Bicester did not let us down. There were some very nice vaults and floor routines from our girls. I am very proud of there personal achievments. We coaches can appreciate how hard they tried and what they actually did achieve. We did have several gymnast make it to the podium. They were:

• Lea McLaughlin  3rd-Floor  4th-Vault.
• Rosie Potter  4th-Floor.
• Dene' Lee  3rd-Floor.
• Jessica Lockett  2nd-Floor  1st-Vault.
• Richard Cadle  1st-Floor and Vault.
• Jack Stewart  2nd-Floor and Vault.

Family Day/BBQ/AGM

Click on

The BBQ / AGM turn out was better than the past two years. It was nice to see some new faces and also to see the kids having such a good time in the lovely weather. We couldn't have asked for a better day, just the right amount of sunshine and to be able to finish off and watch England play football. Most people left in time to get home or to there local for the footie the last few, Dawne and Thomas, Caroline and Mike, and Glenn invaded Angela and Tim's home to watch the lack luster game. Daisy prefered to stay out and play on the trampoline with Chloe and her friends. To view some photos of the day click on Gallery/AGM/BBQ 2006.

The newly elected committee is: Chairperson - Caroline Ryan; Treasurer - Debra Clarke (re-elected); Head Coach - Glenn Gamotis (re-elected); Secretary - Gill Digman (re-elected); Gymnast's Representatives - Becca Digman and Daisy Ryan-Pont (re-elected); Fund Raising Officer - Wendy Hunter;

Oxfordshire County Championships, June 11th 2006

I think the biggest surprise came in the afternoon round. It was very hot and sweaty by now and everyone was very uncomfortable and mistakes were being made by many. I must admit I have not seen Harriet Bruce perform as well as she did today. She seemed relaxed and determined which paid dividends as Harriet place 1st at Level 3 Out of Age making her the Oxfordshire County Level 3 Out of Age Champion. Well done to Harriet and well deserved. Joining Harriet on the podium was Daisy Ryan-Pont who had 3 personal best but slipped back on her bar routine placing her in the bronze medal position. Well done!

Rose's Invitational

All five gymnasts passed

Competing their Grade 6 were Daisy and Annabelle. Both girls did very well finishing in the top 5. Annabelle the only girl from the club to win a medal today. She scored 40.2 winning her the bronze medal and missing regional qualification by 1.8. Competing Grade 5 was Tabitha who also performed very good routines. The judge on beam was very hard on all the gymnasts and this is where Tabitha lost the most points. She now knows where she needs to put in the extra training. Both Morgan and Chloe started their grade 4 on Bars which they knew was their weak piece. Sadly, it completely pulled Morgan down mentally. She needed to compose herself for the beam but still feeling useless, she let it get to her and after several falls and omitting her mount, she only managed to score 4.00 on beam, again a hard judge. In the end both her and Chloe did well enough to get the required pass mark. Well done to all five gymnasts!

Daisy Pulls It Off

Even though the Sun was shining outside there were a few clouds hanging over Daisy inside the new purpose-built Gymnastics Centre. Daisy knew she was going to have trouble with her A-Bar routine as she has been struggling to do the mandatory straight flyaway dismount. After seeing another competitor have a bad fall on her bar dismount Daisy was even more nervous than before so after a discussion between her and her coach, Glenn Gamotis, it was decided to take the deductions for omitting the move than risking a possible bad fall. This did mean Daisy would be starting off with a low score so needed to score well on her final three pieces. The balance beam was Daisy's second strongest piece which if she managed to complete a clean routine she would still be in with a chance. She did manage to stay on the beam but did have several major wobbles losing her valuable points but managed to score a 7.20 on beam. With the 6.0 score on bars this meant she needed an average of 7.4 on the last two pieces. Floor is usually Daisy's strongest piece and after saying she liked the response she got off the sprung floor Glenn and Daisy were hoping for at least a score of 8 for her floor routine. The cloud was still hovering above and Daisy lost her nerve on her tumble run missing out her required back somersault then soon after messed up her aerial-cartwheel losing 1.0 for both those errors finishing with another 7.20 score.

Vault has never been one of her strong pieces and she now knew she needed at least a 7.6 to get the 28 points to pass her Grade 2. After her first attempt she thought it was all over as she performed a bad ½ on ½ off vault but she manage to compose herself and on her second attempt got the 7.6 score which she needed. It was a hard emotional struggle but she was happy to have passed after months of practising for this competition.

It's a shame she missed all the wonderful sunshine outside.

Glenn