Jamie Baulch and Cardiff Blues kick off road show to celebrate Wales’ top-notch Lottery sports facilities

World Champion and Olympic Silver medallist, Jamie Baulch, is going back to his roots on Monday 8 March 2010, as he joins the Cardiff Blues to put rising young sports stars through their paces at Willows High School in Splott, Cardiff. Jamie will join the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) to launch a road show* backed by Wales’ sporting stars travelling around Wales this week, celebrating £50 million of investment into schools and community sports facilities.

The former Cardiff AC athlete who represented Wales and Great Britain for over ten years and stars of the Cardiff Blues will be joining pupils at the school’s Lottery funded astro turf pitch to celebrate the success of the Big Lottery Fund’s New Opportunities for PE and Sport (NOPES) programme.

Launched in 2002, the programme has provided new or improved sports facilities to help increase access for entire communities in Wales to ultimately improve health, fitness and quality of life through sport.

Across Wales, nearly 190 separate schools and communities have received funding through NOPES for facilities ranging from outdoor activity centres, climbing walls and astro turf to multi-million pound sports facilities for use by both schools and local communities. The road show will revisit some of these projects from across Wales this week looking at the impact the money has had in helping to create Wales’ sporting stars of the future.

A report on the NOPES programme** announced in Wales today (08 March 2010) shows the impact the funding has had on children and communities involved in the project across Wales. The report’s findings reveal:

• Time spent enjoying outdoor sports has increased by 30% in areas with a NOPES project;
• The proportion of schools running sports activities in half term has increased from 29% to 57%;
• Prior to NOPES, only 20% of pupils and teachers rated their sports facilities as suitable compared with 80% afterwards;
• Improved facilities have increased the number of activities available by up to 25% including hockey, tennis, basketball and adventure sports; and
• The range of activities available to communities outside school hours has increased e.g. netball by 50%, badminton 38% and martial arts 25%.

As well as encouraging people to try out new sports, the legacy of the NOPES programme is also unearthing future sport stars within schools and in the local community, by giving young people new opportunities to participate in new or improved sports facilities.

Willows High School in Splott used a £580,349 Big Lottery Fund grant to develop an artificial turf pitch with fencing, floodlighting and new changing rooms for boys and girls. Previously the school’s pitch was waterlogged for several months each year, limiting access for school teams and community use, but the school now has successful hockey teams for boys as well as girls and some of the star female footballers also play for Cardiff City football club’s ladies team. Community groups in and around Cardiff have also benefited from access to the all weather pitch after school hours, including St Alban’s RFC in Cardiff.

To show how BIG’s funding has helped the school, Jamie Baulch will help coach a session in athletics and share his skills and techniques with the pupils.

Olympic Silver medallist, Jamie Baulch, was encouraged to pursue athletics by his Head Teacher at Henllys Junior School, he said: “You can’t underestimate the importance of having first class sports facilities in our local communities. The impact of the Big Lottery funding in terms of providing opportunities to develop talent and keep people fit and healthy has been huge. The funding has helped bring about a great change in the range of sports available to thousands of people which will keep our tradition of nurturing great sporting talent alive and kicking in Wales.”

Led by captain, Paul Tito, Cardiff Blues’ squad members, Chris Czekaj, John Yapp and Darren Allinson will also be on hand to give the young people a run for their money as they enjoy a rugby coaching session. They will join in on a training session with the pupils and score tries, rucked over tackle bags and scrummed for possession on the astro turf pitch to see what the next generation of rugby hopefuls have to offer.

Cardiff Blues’ Captain, Paul Tito, said: “It’s great to get the chance to help coach young pupils on some first rate sporting facilities. Rugby is still one of the best loved sports in Wales but without support from organisations like the Big Lottery Fund, we risk losing some really strong players.

“If we want to make sure Welsh rugby can compete with other countries in the future, we have to make sure that we’re investing in nurturing young talent and making sure that they have the best opportunities to succeed.”

Highlighting the impact of the investment, Big Lottery Fund Director for Wales, Ceri Doyle, said: “Over £50 million of Big Lottery Fund money has been channelled into first class sports facilities across Wales, giving thousands of people and hundreds of communities new opportunities to get active and participate in a wide range of sports not previously available to them. The success of all these projects proves that providing better facilities and widening access can help inspire people of all ages and from all backgrounds, to get out, get active and live healthier, fuller lives.”

Dr. Kylie Wilson, Sport Psychology Expert at University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC), said: “Research around the psychological health benefits of sport on people’s mental and physical health shows clear signs that this Big Lottery Fund investment is so worthwhile. As we’ve seen with the Six Nations now, sport can also bring people together to share a passion for sport.”

“It’s clear to say that giving people better access to sports facilities, will give them healthier bodies and minds, which in turn will have a positive knock on effect on communities as a whole.”

Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones, showed his support for the programme, and said: “In the year that we are enjoying a highly successful Six Nations Rugby tournament and are getting set to host the eagerly awaited Ryder Cup, I’m delighted to be supporting the Big Lottery Fund’s programme, which has clearly contributed to so many communities Wales-wide and provides opportunities for young people to engage more in sport and physical activity.”

Further Information

For further information, contact Catrin Millar or Lisa Hocken on 02920 764 100.
Email Catrin@equinox-pr.co.uk or lisa@equinox-pr.co.uk

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

*Starting Monday (08 March), The Big Lottery Fund road show will tour six places, one each day, starting at Cardiff and visiting Newport (09 March), Swansea (10 March), Anglesey (11 March), Powys (12 March) and finally finishing in Wrexham (13 March).

**The research from the evaluation conducted by the Loughborough Partnership for the Big Lottery Fund shows:

• NOPES has increased the number of activities available in curriculum time including:

1. Basketball (+25%)
2. Hockey, outdoor and adventurous activity and orienteering (+19%)
3. Rugby league and tennis (+13%)

• Time spent enjoying outdoor sports such as adventure activity and orienteering has increased by 30%. Table tennis (+25%), basketball (+19%), badminton and golf (+13%) have also seen significant increases.
• The proportion of schools that are able to run activities in the half term holidays has increased from 29% to 57%.
• Prior to NOPES, only 22% of pupils and teachers rated their school sport as 4 or 5 compared to 89% afterwards.
• Prior to NOPES, only 20% of respondents rated the suitability of their sports facilities as a 4 or 5, compared to 80% after.
• The number of community users in a typical week at NOPES projects in Wales has risen from 174 prior to NOPES to 375.
• The number of different activities available to the community increased from 6.1 to 10.8 pre- to post-opening of the NOPES projects.
• The range of activities available to communities across Wales has increased, with those showing biggest increase were netball (50%), karate (44%), badminton (38%), martial arts (25%), Athletics, basketball, football, judo, rugby union and volleyball all increased by 19%.
• A year on from opening, 21% more schools are involved in PE and school sports development centres, which is important to develop NOPES.

1. The NOPES programme was launched in November 2002 following policy directions received from the Government in 2001. A total of £750.75 million was available for the programme across the UK, £50 million to Wales.
2. To date 2,980 facilities have been funded across the UK, 190 in Wales, which range from outdoor activity centres to new or refurbished sports facilities at schools. All funding for the programme has now been committed.
3. The NOPES evaluation conducted by the Loughborough Partnership for the Big Lottery Fund based figures on an average one year after each facility opened. The one-year varies for each project due to the start date of the project.
4. The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
5. BIG 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 June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
6. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £24 billion has now been raised and more than 317,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.