Facilities

Withe the long and getting longer delays about the track in Clydebank, the summer is nto far away and thought will have to be given to facilities for our young athletes to train at. It was noticeable that at some of the indoor meetings this year our young athletes did very well in all running events and the shot putt but they were not so good at even attempting the high jump or in some cases the long jump. The field events in particular need attention. Scotstoun and Kelvin Hall are available but on most evenings the field events facilities are booked by existing coaches and groups by 6:00 pm. Even if the coach can't get to the HJ at KH in time, then some of his/her athletes arrive at about 5:00 pm and take over until the coach arrives. To use these facilities you would have to be there at a good time such as Friday at 5:00 when pretty well all field events are free. Mid afternoon is usually OK at Kelvin Hall - on Tuesday this week there were only Johnathan Farrell, Cameron McLeod and Ross Cannon training on the track, Lorna Willliamson on the circuit area and a wee boy and his Daddy doing long jumps in long trousers and brogues! Most folk can't make these sort of times though and anything nearer home would be valuable. For field events a school Games Hall or Large Gym would be OK if we had access to the equipment. We used to use the Clydebank HS Games Hall on a Saturday for HJ and Hurdles (you could get three hurdles set out along the one wall with the HJ taking uop the rest of the area). Could the club negotiate with the two local schools for such access? Weekday evening or Saturday morning. Or we could do a deal with West Dunbarton for longe5r access of an evening - if you are a working person you would find it hard to get to the venue in time to do a session and get the equipment away before 8:00 pm. Either they extend their hours as Bob Burness suggested or get access to the equipment on a night of our own. Both of these would require action by the club Committee rather than an informal arrangement because as we saw last year the WDAAC Committee wantes such an arrangement.
Finally there is the option of a Blitz on field events. In the 80's we had three 'come and Try' Throws days at Clydebank High School - in fact they were not come and try days, they were training days offered free of charge to all local secondary schools and we did a fair bit of recruiting by this means. The key to the success was that the coaches were top Scottish specialists - we invited Hugh Murray (Helensburgh) to teach discus, Norrie Griffiths (East Kilbride) for the javelin and Gerry Taylor (Garscube) for the shot with Eddie Taylor (Shettleston) doing the supervision and working with anyone who wanted to do the Hammer. We could invite some of these people along for the day, pay their expenses and hire the school for the occasion. Our own athletes could go along and develop their own skills. These ar some suggestions but what I am really flagging up is the need for some action on the field events and facilities front in the immediate future - the track season is about a month away and we are in three leagues!!!
And really finally - what's the situation with Clubmark?