SPA UK Sandesh 2016 | Page 18

YOUTH

NIKHIL mistry

Namaste and Jai Shree Krishna What an interesting and challenging year 2016 has been for the SPA ( UK ) Youth Team . This year we organised 3 events within the Youth Team , including the first Sports Day in a number of years to be hosted by HQ .
Firstly I would like to welcome a new member to the SPA ( UK ) Youth Team – Hiren Prajapati from Wellingborough . It is great to have some fresh blood and ideas coming forward .
The 4th annual SPA ( UK ) Golf tournament was held at Stonebridge Golf Club in Coventry . Around 40 golfers travelled from every corner of England to tee off and enjoy the day . The event is growing year on year , bringing together members who you would not regularly see . The weather was amazing this year , creating the ideal atmosphere for the game . The day was rounded off with a barbeque . The event would not have been possible without the excellent organisation skills of Gulabbhai , Gitaben and Divyen . Gulabbhai and his wife Gitaben has put in a lot of their own time into making this event successful . The event raised a total of £ 732 for the 2016 SPA ( UK ) charity .
The SPA ( UK ) Cricket tournament was held at the University of Leicester . This year four branches participated in the tournament and we were blessed with spectacular July sunshine . This year the tournament was won by Leicester , and Bradford taking the runners-up spot . We would like to thank all the volunteers who helped make the day a success , particularly Mahendrabhai and the team from Leicester , who helped plan the day .
This year we saw a couple of regional darts competitions held throughout the Midlands . The first was hosted by Leicester in January . It was a great way to shake of the winter blues and come out and enjoy a game of darts . I have personally never played , however I had a great time . There were two categories , Pro and Amateurs . It was great to see a wide
range of skills and age ranges coming together . The second was held by Coventry later in the year .
Our next big event was the 38th SPA ( UK ) Annual Sports Day . This year ’ s Sports Day was hosted by the SPA ( UK ) Youth Team . Anyone who has hosted this event will appreciate the hard work needed to make it successful . So this was particularly difficult without a hosting branch . Divyen put a lot of his time and effort into making this year ’ s event a success . Without his leadership , persistence and eagerness , there was a chance that for the first time Sports Day would not have gone ahead . On the day we had a few branches that supported us with the running of the day . A big thank you goes to Coventry , Rugby , Tameside and Wellingborough ; without you guys the day would not have been able to run .
This year we had 270 participants from 13 branches . This figure is far fewer when compared to the previous
16 vol . 41 | Prajapati Sandesh 2016