Welcome to another 61 Club Newsletter, We've been busy planning for another exciting year with lots of events for everyone to get involved with. We are delighted to announce the appointment of David Lennox who takes over from Penny Benford as our committee chairman. As well as welcoming David, we would like extend our thanks to Penny who has worked tirelessly for the club over the years. Please feel free to introduce yourself to David in the coming weeks.

In the near future we will publish a report from our senior coach Paul Jordan which will outline the club's vision for the future. Without giving too much away this will cover several topics including etiquette and competitions.

You may have seen some of our coaches and players wearing a 61 Judo Club polo shirts, these shirts are available in a range of colours and sizes and can be ordered from Andrew or David at the front door.
We would like to encourage any player (or parent) attending competitions to wear a 61 Judo club shirt. It is a great way to raise the profile of both our players and club if everyone wears a club shirt.
We would also ask our players to wear the 61 Judo Club badge on their suits, again this really helps to raise the player's and club's profile, these can be purchased from David or Andrew at the door. We've mentioned this before but we'd love our supporters and players to try, when ever possible, to sit together as a group at competitions. This apart from being a great source of support it also really helps calm the nerves of players who are new to these events.

On the subject of competitions, a date for your diary. On the Sunday 7th of May we are holding our annual Junior Open Competition. This competition is open to all our junior players aged 8 and older who have achieved 4th Mon or above. Yellow belt with one red tab.
This competition will be also be open to all the clubs in our region, so our players will really get a taste for competition. Our last competition was a great success and we would encourage all our eligible players to add their names to the entry form.

One of the most important new rules for 2006 from the British Judo Association is the need for players to carry their Judo Licence at all times when practicing and competing. As a result please make sure that all players their licences with them to training. Please also ensure that we have a copy of the licence number on file.

We'd like to apologise for the confusion and miss communication regarding the opening of the Saturday classes, we're looking at ways to have an online update of when classes are on or off. This maybe a simple link on our web site which will have dates and the status of a class.

As always it's your club, if at any time you have any comments or ideas which might improve the 61 Judo Club please let us know.

Regards
Neil Blake, Secretary