On Monday 3rd June, a sell-out event – including a host of past stars from Notts County FC, Nottingham Forest FC, Nottinghamshire CCC and double Olympic medal-winner Bryan Steel – enjoyed glorious sunshine at the Springwater Golf Club, Calverton, Nottingham.

Sporting HEARTS Director and Notts County’s all-time record goal-scorer Les Bradd teamed-up with Forest legend Kenny Burns as part of the Charity’s team, which also included former NFFC Academy stalwart Mel Hackett.

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Chairman Andy Bestwick summed-up: ‘The Sporting HEARTS Charity works hard to give young people from disadvantaged communities a sporting chance, so an event like this is vital to raise much-needed funds, as well as enjoying a bit of relaxation on a beautiful day’.

Managing Director Paul Lowe elaborates: ‘There are so many people that contribute to an enjoyable day like this and it is an excellent way for everyone associated with the Charity, to get together socially.  I would particularly like to thank the management of Springwater GC and Sue Pickering from St. James’s Wealth Management for their respective support’.

The HEARTS UK Sportivate project is working with youngsters in the Carlton area who have not previously been engaged with sport.  They are learning to keep fit, take part in boxing training and having fun at the same time; as well as receiving mentoring which helps them to re-align their lives towards positive futures.

Sportivate funding has allowed up to 24 youngsters to receive free training and mentoring over a 12-week period.

There was ample support from the Club, including attendances from Director Aileen Trew and Ambassador Les Bradd – one of the Charity’s Directors – as well as several first-team players.  Further support from the Football Club was evident, with staff from Notts County Football In The Community taking the guests on a tour of the stadium and a photo-shoot with the players.

A great time was had by all, with one parent being heard to say: ‘It is so good to be able to come out as a family together’.  ‘This is something that the Charity really prides itself upon’ explained Joan Smalley (Sporting HEARTS Company Secretary and Fountaindale Governor).

Managing Director Paul Lowe enthuses: ‘last year’s inaugural event was an overwhelming success – played in glorious sunshine – and we fully intend to build upon that momentum again this year.’

The cost of entering a team is £160 (4 per team), with a limited number of tickets available for the evening only – featuring a 2-course meal, raffle prizes and entertainment as one of Cloughie’s stalwarts recounts many stories from his illustrious career.

The Jim King Memorial Trophy will also be played for again this year – previously won by Adam Tillcock of Nottinghamshire CCC.

For further information, please contact Paul Lowe on:

07958 042 155

Or download booking form. [click here]

Firstly, ‘No Boundaries’ was a 12-week project, one day a week, working with Asian youths (aged 13-15) who were identified by their school as badly under-achieving and on the verge of exclusion. We delivered social and basic skills alongside cricket coaching with the help of Notts County Cricket club and volunteers from their Academy. The youngsters then organised a cricket festival for their peers and a presentation ceremony was held in the Long Room at Trent Bridge.

Secondly, ‘Funky Friday’ was 5 fun sessions held in Huthwaite, a very deprived area of Nottinghamshire. These 3-hour sessions were held every Friday of the summer holidays in order to give the youngsters a fun activity off the streets. They participated in ball-skills, crab football, dodge-ball, football and volleyball. The project was aimed at 27 children in the 5-14 age groups.

The final project was ‘Skill-up’ – this an after-school club aimed at disaffected 13-14 year olds from Kirkby College, another very deprived area of the county. These youngsters had all been on the school path to exclusion having received a variety of sanctions and intervention strategies before the school recommended them to us. We consulted with the youngsters and they overwhelmingly wanted to play football; so we organised football skills coaching and mini games – they also experienced fitness sessions, basic skills and team-working.

Students have been finding out:

• Where to site, design and build shelters, using branches and bracken.
• How to make simple fires to keep us warm in freezing temperatures using only fire, steel and natural woodland materials; making hot chocolate drinks and dunking marshmallows with boiling water from the storm kettles.
• Chopping down dense silver birch samplings and using the green wood to fashion different simple tools such as spoons and ladles.
• At the Bushcraft camp, tree boughs become the roof over our head, hanging dead wood brings us warmth, rain quenches our thirst and an abundance of wild foods grow all around us.

The Project is designed to be fun and something very different for the students, away from the formal classroom. Skills are learnt that help our young people to:

• Work together on different unique tasks.
• Engaging them in positive activities in a safe and controlled environment.
• The activities are very different from classroom lessons and contribute to the young people having a positive school experience, improving self-image, leading to more positive behaviour.
• Basing the activities in the outdoors at Sherwood Pines, gives the students better understanding of the countryside in Nottinghamshire and increases the chances of them interacting with the outdoor world in the future in a positive manner.
• The skills the young people learn can be shared with their family when they come home from the afternoons.

Getting ready to tough it out overnight!

As part of the ever-growing partnership between Sporting HEARTS and Notts County, 500 tickets were generously made available by the football club to the charity; these then being made available to a multitude of youngsters from disadvantaged communities.

HEARTS’ Managing Director Paul Lowe summarises the impact of such events: “As a charitable organisation, we rely on the support of key players and organisations to help us achieve our goal of making life better for these young people.  Notts County Football Club has proven – time and time again – to be top of the league in this respect and we are extremely grateful for their unswerving support.  It really is difficult to put into words how much something like this means to some of these youngsters.”

We now boast an impressive line-up of Project Managers, along with 3 years’ funding from BBC Children in Need and the National Lottery’s ‘Awards 4 All’ programme.

Two significant projects scheduled for the future include:

• The Tour De Football Charity Cycle Ride
• The formation of a Youth Academy at Radford FC

In the case of the former, the charity – in conjunction with Notts County Football Club – will be embarking upon a charity cycle ride, around the 12 Founder Member Clubs of the Football League; celebrating NCFC’s 150th Anniversary.

Sporting HEARTS – through payment via its operational arm HEARTS Enterprises CIC – is proud to be acknowledged as the main sponsor of local amateur football club, Radford FC and has committed to creating a Youth Academy set-up.

Sporting HEARTS’ Directors Les Bradd & Joan Smalley (front row, centre) with Radford FC Manager & former Notts County FC marksman Iain McCulloch (back, right)

The charity has worked closely with the school this year – specifically by looking at initiatives that reward the children’s efforts – such as organising trips to watch Notts County FC on a couple of occasions.

This recognition reached a pinnacle on Friday, when the charity sponsored the trophies for the end-of-year Achievement Assembly and was particularly proud for Hilary King to present the ‘Jim King Memorial Trophy for Excellence’ on behalf of her late husband.

Paul enthuses: “It is 47 years since I stood on the same stage and the excitement of being part of the nativity play then, was massively surpassed by the sense of pride attached to returning to my roots to contribute towards the school’s philosophy of Belong – Believe – Achieve.”

This is the second consecutive year that SPORTING HEARTS has been a beneficiary of such an event and Managing Director Paul Lowe rightly acknowledges their growing support: “As a charitable organisation, we are always looking to nurture quality partnerships with organisations that share our community values and in that respect, GIMA are certainly top of the tree. The £2100 donation from the event will help significantly towards our work of providing young people from disadvantaged communities with Hope, Empowerment And Regeneration Through Sport.”

The cheque was presented on Thursday 12^th July at the GIMA Awards Dinner by Nigel Thompson (pictured on the left), Sales Director of Stewarts Garden Plastics Ltd & President of GIMA to the Chairman of SPORTING HEARTS, Andy Bestwick.