Training schedule for next week

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Please note, these are the only Club training sessions on next week (14th-21st February) due to the February school holidays.

Under 10s and Mini Hoops
As normal on Sunday 15th, not on Sunday 22nd

Under 12s
As normal on Friday 13th but not on Friday 20th

U14 girls
Saturday 14th and Saturday 21st as normal

U14 boys
Monday 16th 10-12 Team 1, 12-2pm Team 2. Craig Nicol will be coaching these sessions. Both sessions are at Holy Rood High School.

Cadette Women
Monday 6-7:30pm Holy Rood High School

Cadet Men
Monday 4-6pm Holy Rood High School

Junior Women
Monday 6-7:30pm Holy Rood High School

Junior Men
Monday 4-6pm Holy Rood High School

Senior Women
Tuesday 7-9pm Games Hall at Portobello HS

Senior Men
Thursday 8-10pm Games Hall at Portobello HS.

Senior Women LL
Coaches will advise.

Senior Men LL
Tuesday 7pm until 9pm in Portobello HS gym hall
Wednesday 7:30pm until 10pm Game at Portobello HS Games Hall

Big Lottery Fund

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City of Edinburgh Basketball Club continues to go from strength to strength as they celebrate their recent grant award from the Big Lottery Fund. As part of the growth in the popularity of basketball in the city the Club now have 3 teams competing at Under 16 boys level. The funding award allowed the Club to kit the teams out with new strips and to purchase some new match day equipment. The Club now has 21 teams ranging from Primary 1 to adults and is the biggest and one of the most successful Clubs in Scotland.

Pictured – some of the Under 16 players in their new strips

Club chairperson Amy Morgan explains- "We are delighted with the support from the Big Lottery Fund as it helps us to increase the playing opportunities for our Club members. This year has been a big year for the Club as we recently appointed our first part time employee thanks to the sportscotland Direct Club Investment funding and we became a registered charity. All these initiatives help us to continue to offer a high standard of basketball coaching to all and to continue our work with our local community."

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The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK.
Since its inception in 2004 we have awarded close to £6bn.
The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.

Exciting new programme for our members - Youth Leadership Programme

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We are delighted to announce the launch of our Youth Leadership Programme in conjuction with basketballscotland and sportscotland.

This fully funded 2 year programme is aimed at developing the Club leaders of tomorrow to enable us to continue to be one of the top basketball Clubs in Scotland.

This is an outstanding opportunity open to our Club members and pupils of our partner schools (Leith Academy, Portobello High School, Holy Rood High School and Castlebrae Community High School), applicants must be aged between 16 and 23 years old and must be able to commit to the full 2 year programme.

Click here for an electronic version of our leaflet for more details. Paper versions of the leaflet are available on request. There are only 8 places on the programme so don't delay as the closing date is Friday 10th October. Email us at cityofedinburgh@gmail.com for an application form.

***UPDATE - CLOSING DATE EXTENDED TO WEDNESDAY 22ND OCTOBER***

Our very own BFG

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The Club had an unusual request that led to a great day out for one of our Senior players. We were contacted by Prospect Bank School in Edinburgh which is for children with complex additional support needs.

They have been studying Jack and the Beanstalk and wondered if we could organise a player visit to prove that "not all tall people want to grind their bones"! We sent our friendliest and tallest player Simon Flockhart along to meet them and you can see the results here on the school blog.

The kids seemed to have loved Simon's visit almost as much as he enjoyed going!

Registration Day 2014

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This Saturday 23rd August is our Registration Day, so anyone who wishes to register to train and play with Club should be at Portobello High School on Saturday! Each age group has their own slot for registration and everyone should have received the Registration Pack. Please email the Club at cityofedinburgh@gmail.com if you need a pack or there will be some available on the day. The slots are :

U10s/U12s 10am until 12noon

U14s/U16s 12noon - 2pm

U18s / Seniors 2pm until 4pm

We will have a Merchandise Stall set up at Registration Day. This is your chance to purchase the Club training kit, Club t-shirts, rucksacks, holdalls, drinks bottles and lots more. Please note all orders must be paid for on the day. All under 12 and under 14 players, this is your chance to order the Club purple t-shirt if you haven't already got one. This is part of your kit and is worn when travelling to games and as a warm up top before the game.

On Registration Day there is a chance to personalise their kit. Just bring along or purchase anything you would like personalised and we can do it on the day. If you are bringing anything along, please email Paul Storie(paulstorie@blueyonder.co.uk)and let him know as it will allow him to get set up in advance. It will cost £3 for a surname.

The Cadette Women are playing a friendly game at 2:45pm against a team from Ireland, so if you can please come along and show them your support.

All registered players will receive a 200 Club number. This gives you 10 chances to win £100 during the season. You can also purchase extra numbers at a cost of £10 per number so please make sure all your friends and family purchase a number. You can purchase numbers at Registration Day or at any home game from the Tuck Shop or from your Team Manager.

It's time to get back to training!

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The full programme of training sessions starts on Monday 11th August.

Annual Awards and Race Night 2014

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A fantastic night on the 10th May celebrating successes and achievements over the season.

Of course celebrations had started early for our players who play in the Lothian League Senior Men and Women's team as earlier in the day they both won their Lothian Cup Finals.

We were delighted to have over 300 people in attendance including a table from our partners at Sainsburys Meadowbank, who kindly donated sandwiches to the buffet as well as sponsoring a race. The fundraising element of the night was a huge success and was expertly run as ever by our Senior Men's coach and part time MC Doug Reilly. We were hugely grateful to our sponsors listed below, please remember that these companies are friends of the Club and support them when you can.

The event was a huge personal success for Simon Flockhart who puts months of work into making sure it all goes well on the night and what a testament to his skills that so many people had such a good night. We also need to thank all the volunteers on the night, from those who helped on the Tote table, setting up the hall, Paul McBrierty with the technical equipment set up and Paul Storie for the photography.

Our Club Secretary Amy summed it up perfectly when she said it was great to see so many of our basketball family together. A special mention must go to the Senior Men who as you can see entered the Race Night spirit by dressing up in jockey silks.

We would like to particularly acknowledge our Club players of the Year, Emma Findlay and Garreth Lodge, who were honoured for all the fantastic work they do on and off the court for the Club.

The Volunteer of the Year was awarded to Elaine Inkster in recognition of the sterling work she does as not only a coach but also as our Child Protection Officer and all round go-to-guy when we are in Portobello! A Special Recognition award was presented to Craig Cameron for the many years he has worked as Team Manager for the Cadet, Junior and Senior Men's teams. We wish Craig well as he leaves to concentrate on his work for Diabetes Scotland.

Congratulations to all our individual team award winners listed below.

Team	Most Valuable Player	Most Improved Player	Outstanding Team Contribution
Senior Men	Simon Flockhart	Mateusz Kruczynski	Paddy Campbell
Senior Women	Hannah Peacock	Kirsten Simpson	Leanne Page
Junior Men	Findlay Wood	Doug Leslie	Dale Gilmour
Junior Men Div2	Konrad Kantorski	Matthew Wingate	Craig Greathead
Junior Women	Rowan Simpson	Kathleen McBrierty	Elspeth Simpson
Cadet Men	Kyle Jimenez	Jordan Scott	Alastair Hutcheon
Cadet Men LL	Rory Milne	Thomas O’Brien	Lewis Rudge
Cadette Women	Rosanna Pollock	Murron Marr	Sarah Brady
Cadette Women Div2	Niamh Mackle	Pippa Watson	Celina Eisenhardt
Lothian Men	Mike Murray	Piotr Jagodzinski	James Scott
Lothian Women	Patty Forfar	Marju Pool	Anneka Phillips (coaches also acknowledged the contribution of Karen Roberts)
U14 Boys A	Rory Milne	Blair Stobbart	Stuart Greathead
U14 Boys B	Kyle Graham	Owen Mackle	Daniel Drake-Wallace
U14 Girls A	Niamh Mackle	Zoe Gibson	Rachael Brady
U14 Girls B	Candice Tirona	Samantha Bryson	Khena Dungu

You will find more fantastic photos of the event courtesy of Paul Storie below:

Thank you to everyone who came along to make it our "best ever" event.

May Holidays

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Please note there will be no training on Monday 5th or Monday 19th May due to the school holidays. Training will be on as normal on Tuesday 6th May.

2014 Annual Awards & Race Night

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The 2014 ANNUAL AWARDS & RACE NIGHT is less than two weeks away!

We've made a great start with just about 100 horses and 100 jockeys. We want to hit our new target of 192 of each so those teams who haven't handed in yet please try and sell at least 2 horses and 2 jockeys each per player.

We really need race sponsors too. £50 per race, so get asking any shops or business contacts you may have and get them involved.

It is getting really close to the event so please ensure you get all forms + monies back to Simon by Friday 2nd May 2014.

You can give them to your team coach or manager to pass on, or directly to Simon when he is down at practise on Thursday nights at the school. Simon will also pop round all sessions again when we come back after the Easter holidays.

We want this to be the BIGGEST year yet for the club.

Tickets are on sale now at only £5 (including buffet) for the event which takes place on Saturday 10th May at Easter Road stadium.

REMEMBER IF YOU DONT HAVE A TICKET YOU WONT GET IN!

If you have any questions or need a form you can get Simon on 07815925066 or simonflockhart@yahoo.co.uk.

Training in the February holidays

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Please note that, unless otherwise advised by your coaches, training will be on as normal in the February school holiday.

City of Edinburgh Basketball Yearbook

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I'm sure by now you will have seen this year's Yearbook. If you haven't got one yet, they are available on match days from the Tuck Shop or you can email the Club email address (cityofedinburgh@gmail.com) and order one.

We are indebted to everyone involved in the production of this year's edition. Trevor Lodge did a great job with invoicing and phoning potential advertisers, Paul Storie as ever did a magnificent job with the design and production, and of course all our contributors whether they were previous members or current players made interesting and entertaining contributions.

We are especially grateful to our advertisers whose adverts help allay the production costs of the Yearbook and we would ask that where possible you recognise their support and in turn support their businesses. The full list of our supporters is below :

Brighton Nursery www.brightonnursery.co.uk	Giuliano's www.guilianos.co.uk
Kezia Dugdale MSP www.keziadugdale.com	Mortgage & Financial Choices Ltd Stuart Rogan Independent Financial Advisor roganstuart@aol.com
Law Cycles www.lawcycles.co.uk	Basketball Direct www.basketballdirect.co.uk
Booker Wholesale www.booker.co.uk	Kenny MacAskill MSP www.kennymacaskill.co.uk
Botanic Financial www.botanicfinancial.co.uk	Lockett Bros www.lockettbros.co.uk
Image Scotland www.imagescotland.com	Mamma's www.mammas.co.uk
RJM Sports Ltd www.rjmsports.co.uk	MNM Developments (Scotland) Ltd www.mnmdev.co.uk
Remedial Therapys Gillian Wingate	The Kilt Company www.thekiltcompany.com

Skills drop in session

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Just to remind you, we are doing a one-day skills drop in session at Holy Rood High School on 30th December 2013.

This is open to Club members only and is being coordinated by Craig Nicol. We are delighted that many of our most senior coaches are giving up their time to come along and coach during the holidays.

These will be mixed sessions (gender and age groups) as outlined below and will be a chance for different training groups to work together. The date will be organised in 2 hour slots and to help offset the hall costs, players will be asked to pay £1 per 2 hour slot, players are welcome to attend more than 1 slot although please note the last slot is only for U18s and Seniors.

The outline structure of the sessions is:

• 9.30-11.30: U12s Skills workout (Shooting, Footwork, Getting Open, Individual Defence)
• 12.00-14.00: U14s, U16s, U18s and Seniors Skills Workout (Shooting, Passing & Receiving, Finishing, Ball Handling, Getting Open)
• 14.00-16:00: U14s, U16s, U18s and Seniors Individual & Team Defence Principles
• 16:00-18:00: U18s and Seniors Shooting & Scrimmage

No need to let us know if you are coming, just turn up on the day.

The nutritional value of pizza...

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As we prepare for our Super Saturday in conjunction with La Favorita, we asked our resident expert and ex-Home Economics teacher Liz Simpson to check out the nutritional value of pizza...

Above is the Eatwell plate used as a basis for most nutrition teaching. If we break down the contents of a pizza it's clear that it can be a very good choice!

• Starchy foods = pizza base (deep pan best)
• Fruit and veg = tomatoes, onions, pineapple, mushrooms etc
• Milk and dairy = cheese
• Non Dairy protein - ham, pepperoni etc
• Foods high in fat/sugar = ?

Most pizzas meet the Eatwell plate in the correct proportions! As long as its not deep fried!

FAST FOOD does not necessarily mean BAD FOOD!

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La Favorita has also provided us with nutritional information on their Pizzas!

Our dough is made with our own unique flour which is made for La Favorita, our flour consists of mother yeast which means that we have around a 30% lower gluten content than other flours . No one else in the world has the same flour.

The procedure we use to make our dough means that our dough must rest for 24 hours in the fridge and then the dough is removed from the fridge for a further 8 hours before the dough is ready for consumption. This procedure allows all the processes within the dough to take place which mean s that the dough is light, crispy when cooked and more digestible and healthy.

Within our dough is the following ingredients: flour, water, yeast, olive oil and salt for taste - there are no preservatives or additives.

As well as special dough there are other unique qualities:

• Our Tomato sauce is made in-house which consists of tomatoes, olive oil, salt and basil again nothing else added.
• Our chicken is marinated chicken breasts, cooked in house, again no additives or preservatives.
• Our vegetables which will be on the vegetarian pizza are fresh and chopped in house.
• Our Ham comes from Brescia again not processed but sliced in house within our shops.
• We use mozzarella on our pizza not a cheaper mix with cheddar added which many of our competitors use.
• We believe that we use the finest ingredients that are available most of which are imported in from Italy through our main Italian supplier CQS.
• We also always cook on log fired ovens.

So pizza does not have to be un-healthy if made the truly authentic Italian way.

Your Club On Film

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We jumped at the offer from James Matthews (Father of Rosie in our U12's), to make a film about the Club. Many of you will have been involved in the project and hopefully you will all be as thrilled with the results are we are.

67th Annual General Meeting of basketballscotland Limited

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The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of basketballscotland Ltd, will be held on Sunday 3rd November 2013, from 3pm at their Head Office, Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh, EH12 9DQ.

Please find enclosed the following for your attention:

• Notification letter for Annual General Meeting - PDF
• Working papers for preparation of Annual General Meeting - PDF
• Proxy Voting Form - PDF

Also the following is a link to their annual report for the season 2012 – 2013:

http://joom.ag/f4uX

October Week Schedule

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Please see below for the amended training and match schedule for the October holiday period.

Saturday 12th October

U14 Girls: Cancelled

Sunday 13th October

Mini Hoops: Cancelled
Sunday Hoops: Cancelled

Monday 14th October

All cancelled with the exception of :

Senior Men: 19.00 – 21.00 (Games Hall)

Tuesday 15th October

Cadette Women: Cancelled
Senior and Junior Women: 19.00 – 21.00 (Games Hall)
Cadet Men: 17.30 – 19.00 (Gymnasium)
Junior Men: 19.00 – 20.30 (Gymnasium)
Senior Men LL: 20.30 – 22.00 (Gymnasium)

Wednesday 16th October

All cancelled with the exception of :

Senior Women LL: Kats v Heriot Watt - 19.30 tip (Games Hall)

Thursday 17th October

Cadette Women: Cancelled
Cadet Men: 17.30 – 19.00 (Games Hall)
Junior Men: 19.00 – 20.30 (Games Hall)
Senior Men: 20.30 – 22.00 (Games Hall)
Junior Women: 19.00 – 21.00 (Gymnasium)

Friday 18th October

U12’s: Cancelled
Senior Men LL: 19.30 – 21.00 (Holy Rood)

Saturday 19th October

U14 Girls: Cancelled

Sunday 20th October

Mini Hoops: Cancelled
Sunday Hoops: Cancelled

Monday 21st October

All training on as normal

East & Central Coaching Awards

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Congratulations to Kara Gillies who has won the East and Central Young Coach of the Year Award and to Brian Findlay was has won this year's Special Recognition Award.

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Kara Gillies: East & Central Coaching Awards - Young Coach of the Region‏

Kara has been a member of the club for over 10 years, playing at Cadette, Junior and Senior level.

She first became involved in coaching about 5 years ago, taking the Level 1 coaching award and working with the Club's Sunday Hoops and under 12 age group.

She fairly quickly moved on to her Level 2 coaching award and took over the Club's National League Cadette team, where for the last 2 years she really has found her feet as a coach and got the best out of her players.

She always produces demanding, organised, well-structured yet fun training sessions and has successfully developed several young players who are now members of the National Squad.

Well done Kara!

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Brian Findlay: East & Central Coaching Awards - Regional Special Recognition Award‏

Brian has been involved in Basketball for almost 40 years, beginning from his teaching days at Castlebrae High School.

When he moved to Portobello High, he was instrumental (along with Tony Szifris) in the founding of the Kool Kats club in the late 80's.

For many years he has been the very successful Head Coach of the Kats Junior women's squad as well as assistant coach to our Senior team.

Many players, through the years, owe their success to Brian, perhaps none more so than our very own Olympian Rose Anderson.

As well as his commitment to developing the players of the future Brian works tirelessly behind the scenes at City of Edinburgh planning our fixtures and is usually one of the first on site on 'Basketball Saturdays' setting up bleachers and tables as well as sweeping the games hall floor!

Although Brian decided that last season would be his last year as a Head Coach he will still assist Ben Gunn on the Senior Women’s team.

Many congratulations to Brian from all at the Club on this well deserved award.

City of Edinburgh Basketball Club go Spalding!

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We are delighted to announce a new partnership with RJM Sports Ltd to supply Spalding strips and training kit. The Senior Men and Women will be kitted out in the new strips for the coming season and these are modelled below.

We will also as a result of this deal be able to supply all our Club members from Under 12s upwards with a set of training reversibles when they register to play with the Club in Season 2013/14. Reversibles will also be available to purchase from the Club at an extremely competitive price.

We are delighted to be associated with such a high quality brand and and look forward to a long and happy relationship with RJM.

Regarding the new partnership, Robert Marshall from RJM said:

"We are extremely proud to have been selected by The Kings and Kats as their supplier of strips and training kit and with the partnership we have with Spalding, we are excited about continuing our commitment to Scottish Basketball with one of the leading clubs in the country and we look forward to developing this relationship in the future.

Club secretary Amy Morgan was on hand at Portobello to accept delivery of the new strips and commented:

"We are delighted to announce our relationship with Spalding and RJM and look forward to many years of working together".

(Pictured are Robert Marshall, Lauren Walker, Simon Flockhart and Amy Morgan.)

Get Registered

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This year we are again holding a “Get Registered” Day to enable us to get everyone registered on the one day.

It will be on 24th August from 10am until 4pm at Portobello High School.

It is vital that as many members come along and register to play with the club on this day. It is an early start to the season again this year (the National League games begin on the 6th September) and the more people we can get registered on this day the better.

PLEASE NOTE: NO ONE WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO PLAY FOR ANY OF THE CLUB'S TEAMS UNLESS THEY ARE REGISTERED WITH BASKETBALL SCOTLAND.

Everyone should by now have received their registration packs, so get those forms completed and see you on Saturday!

Training starts today

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Check out your team page for details of when your training starts for the new 2013-2014 season. There have also been a some changes for a couple of the teams, so remember to confirm your day and time as well!