Wales’ rugby union legend joins rising sports stars to celebrate Anglesey’s top-notch Lottery sports facilities

Grandslam winning former Wales Defence Coach, Clive Griffiths, will be scouting for new sporting talent on Thursday, 11 March 2010, as he puts rising young sports stars from Ysgol David Hughes, Anglesey, through their paces at their part Lottery-funded £2.5 million sports centre. Clive Griffiths, who will be visiting the centre with players from the newly formed North Wales Rugby Team, RGC 1404, is just one of the many sporting stars backing a Big Lottery Fund (BIG) road show* travelling around Wales this week, celebrating £50 million of Lottery investment into schools and community sports facilities.

Clive Griffiths**, Mike Ruddock’s right hand man when Wales won the Six Nations Grandslam rugby title in 2005, is now Head Coach at the recently formed North Wales rugby team, RGC 1404, based at Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay.

Clive will be joining pupils at the school’s BIG funded four-court sports hall 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 school 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 this week shows the impact the funding has had on children and communities involved 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.

Ysgol David Hughes used a £900,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund towards the £2.5 million sports centre, benefiting over 1,330 Ysgol David Hughes and 600 more young pupils from other schools in the region. BIG’s funding was used to create a brand new four-court sports hall, including a cricket centre of excellence, complete with full practice netting and bowler shock pads built into the floor. The new centre also boasts a fitness suite and holistic studio and pupils have free access to the facility at lunchtimes. There has been a huge rise in the range of sports now on offer and the centre has also proved extremely popular with the local community. Local residents now have access to the facilities after 5pm and on weekends making the facility a key part of the community.

To show how BIG’s funding has helped the school, Clive Griffiths and the squad players will give the young pupils a run for their money as they coach them in key rugby tactics, scoring tries, rucking over tackle bags and scrummaging for possession on the  BIG funded astro turf pitch.

Former Wales international rugby league and rugby union player, Clive Griffiths, who is now Head Coach of the Rygbi Gogledd Cymru team set up in December 2009, said: “Ysgol David Hughes’ sports centre is outstanding, it has such impressive facilities for a school out of a major city area thanks to BIG’s invaluable funding and support. It’s been just three months since we formed the Rygbi Gogledd Cymru team, and we’ve already seen a real desire for the game here.”

He added: “It’s through giving pupils and entire communities like this better access to first rate facilities that Wales can continue to nurture talent and compete internationally in so many different sports with immense success.”

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, 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).

**After leaving Wales' senior coaching team in 2006, having been in charge of defence during the 2005 Grand Slam, Griffiths coached Doncaster Knights rugby union side. He then rejoined his former Wales boss Mike Ruddock at Worcester in 2007 as assistant coach, leaving in May 2009. More recently Griffiths was fellow dual-code international Iestyn Harris' assistant when the Wales league team won the European Cup.

***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.