Clubs/societies

THE HAWKS BMX club has been rescued from the brink of ruin after its burgled bikes were recovered, although police continue to hunt for the thieves.

BMXs belonging to the club were found in a garage on Friday evening (January 22), after police received a tip off and sought a search warrant for a property in Juniper Way, Hayes.

33 of the club's bikes, a generator and protective gear used by the young members that regularly attend the BMX sessions were taken from their facilities container next to the cycle track at Lake Farm Country Park in Dawley Road, Hayes, on January 12.

The newly refurbished Townfield Community Centre is to mark its grand opening this week with a community fun day.
Visitors will be able to enjoy guided tours of the brand new centre, located in Townfield Road, Hayes, which now has updated facilities that include training rooms with IT equipment, health and beauty areas and a cosy communal meeting space for visitors.
The centre also boasts strong green credentials, with a ground source pump that will heat the centre as well as eco-friendly lighting and water fittings.
On the day, children can enjoy a whole range of art activities, and Hayes FM will be lending their musical services. Visitors will be able to use the new internet services free of charge, and refreshments will be laid out.
The grand opening will take place on January 23 from 12pm until 4pm, and all are welcome to attend. For more information, call 020 8756 4390.

A Bazaar and tabletop will take place on Sunday 6th December from 12 noon - 4pm at Barnhill Community Centre in aid of Club funds.

Come and join us for circuit training on Thursday's at Barnhill Community Centre, Ayles Road, Hayes from 7pm - 8pm.
Admission £4.50. For further information visit www.e2efitness.co.uk or call 07951 577 991.

THE Cherry Lane Against Development group are holding an annual general meeting.

Updates will be given on the Save Cherry Lane Cemetery Campaign, including what the group plans to do over the next few months.

The meeting is being held on October 7 at 7.30pm at Barnhill Community Centre, in Ayles Road, Hayes.

For more information call 07961 547 660 or go to www.cherrylane.org.uk.

CAGE fighting is undisputedly one of the fastest growing sports on the planet. A club in Cowley is now ready to take on the challenge of training the up and coming fighters with their new cage - the first one in the whole of Middlesex. Charlene Mitchell talks to instructor Ian Morgan ahead of the opening of the club this weekend.

WITH mixed martial artist (MMA ) Michael Bisping leading the way for UK fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) many dream of following in his footsteps.

To help these dreams come true, two well accomplished fighters, Ian Morgan and Andy Jardine, have set up their own club, Ronin MMA, at Panthers Gym, in Packet Boat Lane, Cowley.

As well as teaching MMA, the club is also very keen to train men, women and children in whichever martial art they are interested in - and they even do boxing too.

Mr Morgan, who lives in Phelps Way, Hayes, has a long history of fighting in judo and kickboxing championships all over the world, and he has even tried his hand at jiu-jitsu.

The 38-year-old said: "We don't want people to think it's all about cage fighting and getting your face smashed in. We want them to know they can come here safely and learn a sport and if they want to go into the cage they can do but not until we get them to a level where we feel they are ready for it.

"Including myself we have got seven high level instructors who all have dan grades in various martial arts. We are also affiliated with the World Association of Kickboxing Organisations (WAKO), the British Judo Association and the Amateur Boxing Association. The other guys who do grappling have also got other affiliations.

"We cover all the main sports so people can learn to become the ultimate MMA fighter.

"MMA is only for the men because we don't want to promote women into that sport but if a woman really wanted to do it then we would."

Mr Morgan runs the club with his business partner Andy Jardine, from Hounslow, who has also been running a company called Extreme Brawl for 10 years.

Mr Morgan said: "He has trained a lot of our fighters himself and now all those guys have got somewhere to train.

"We have all come together to run this one club as a team. It's quite an exceptional room now.

"There's nowhere else like this in the area for people to go. We have got a proper training cage. It's 15ft wide and we will hopefully at some point go for the much bigger training cage, but you can't do everything in the first hit when you're doing something of this magnitude. We're just going to see how well it goes first.

"We have got quite a large following already and if it does go well, which we hope it will, we will look to expand it.

"At the moment we're going to be open five days a week and there will be some weekend sessions too."

The club will be open for men and women and children from the age of five to 16.

"We want to get kids into a well grounded sport where they are going to learn something and get enjoyment out of it," explains Mr Morgan.

"A lot of children go to clubs because their parents tell them to and then they get bored, but here they can move on to another sport once they get bored of what they're doing."

The club is holding an open day on Saturday (8) and Sunday (9) from 10am to 3pm and their website www.roninmma.co.uk should be up and running by September.

A RUNNING club took part a relay around an island coast to raise cash for leukaemia patients.

Hayes & Harlington Road Runners presented the £606 cheque to the leukaemia patients unit at Hillingdon Hospital on July 8.

The sponsorship money was raised last month when the club ran a relay around the coast of Anglesey, a total of 102 miles.

It is hoped the money will contribute towards buying a water fountain, an air conditioning unit and a television for the unit.

Hayes & Harlington Road Runners are based at Hayes & Harlington Community Centre, in Albert Road, Hayes, and welcome new members of all standards.

For more information go to www.hhroadrunner.com.

BANDS will be playing at The Beck Theatre in Hayes as part of a national competion called Live and Unsigned.
The event will take place on Sunday ( March 29) at the theatre in Grange Road, starting at 12pm and is part of area finals which are happening across the country.

A POLICE officer went back to school to help students with a geography project which looks at the way location affects crime.
PC Mike Smooker, crime preventions officer has been visiting Mellow Lane in Hewen's Road, Hayes over two weeks to talk about the ways in which crime can be reduced as part of their topic called designing out crime.
Neelam Virdee, geography teacher at the school, said: "Mike has been coming into the school to talk about crime in hot spot areas and how to reduce it. The pupils came up with lots of interesting ideas like reducing the amount of shrubs in such areas to decrease muggings as criminals won't be able to hide in them and they also suggested additional CCTV cameras. The project has given students the chance to collaborate and to think about ways in which they can improve their environment.'
Mr Smooker said: "The students came up with some innovative ideas, one of the things we looked was how by changing the design of a public bench to individual seats you can make it less attractive to vandalism and drunks. It was a good project for the children because it has made them more aware of the way crime affects their area."

OLYMPIC gold medallist and arguably Hillingdon's most famous sportsman, Chris Finnegan, died in Hillingdon Hospital on Monday morning (2/3) after a short illness. He was 64.

The Hayes Amateur Boxing Club member shot to world fame when he won the middleweight title at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and went on to enjoy a fine professional career, even challenging legendary American champion Bob Foster for the World Light-Heavyweight Championship in 1970.

After being counted out in the 14th round it was a performance described by Harry Carpenter as the greatest display he had ever witnessed by a British fighter in a world title fight.

Finnegan spent his early years in Uxbridge before moving to Iver and more recently to Ickenham.

His younger brother, Kevin, himself a former British and European Middleweight champion, sadly passed away only four months ago.

Post your tributes to Chris below.