Barwell Indoor Bowls Club has become the first indoor bowls club in the East Midlands to attain the prestigious ClubMark Accreditation, awarded by Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport, in recognition of the progress it has made with its youth development programme.

The club, which has close links with local community schools in a bid to develop the next generation of bowlers, has also received £1,127 of Sports Unlimited grant funding to provide a 10 week coaching programme for young people aged 10-19 years-old.

The scheme starts on October 1st and will be run every Friday after school, by qualified club coaches. In addition, drop-in junior taster sessions will be available through the summer on Friday 13, 20 and 27 August from 3.45pm onwards.

ClubMark is a cross-sport quality accreditation scheme for sports clubs with junior sections and was introduced by Sport England in 2002. Barwell Indoor Bowls Club has been able to demonstrate the following through a submitted portfolio:

• Application of sound management principles.
• Application of common criteria to ensuring consistent good practice and minimum operating standards
• Offer a diverse and progressive playing programme for juniors
• Duty of care and child protection
• Demonstrate sound sports equity and ethics
• Have a clear management structure

Rodney Brown, Centre Manager, was delighted with the award.

”After over 12 months of intensive work to qualify for this award, the long hours have been worth it and to achieve this accolade, we are very proud.”

Karen Harris, Chair of Leicestershire and Rutland ClubMark Panel, added her praise.

“We are delighted to reward Barwell Indoor Bowls Club as the first club in the East Midlands with this accreditation. It has been a pleasure supporting the club over the last two years and they can be proud of what was a very high standard portfolio submission, we look forward to hearing of their progress in years to come.”

The club will be having a formal presentation of the award at an open day being held at the beginning of the 2010/11 season on September 26th.