Cheese & Wine Evening – TriMark Presentation

A successful Cheese & Wine evening was held at Worthing Rowing Club covering several aspects.    The most significant aspect was the award to Tuff Fitty of TriMark bronze accreditation. Secondly there was lots of club kit on display for people to try sizes, buy from stock, or place an order. Of course the evening also proved to be a great social occasion with a large spread of cheese, nibbles and dips to run alongside a very reasonably priced bar.

Triathlon England have operated a Starmark system in the past but in tailoring specifically for Triathlon Clubs a new scheme was launched last year.

So what is TriMark Club Accreditation? The brief states “Triathlon England has worked with Sport England, under Club Matters, to develop a new accreditation scheme for community triathlon clubs within England.  The scheme is for all community clubs, junior and senior, that have an established committee, a recognised constitution and has a membership offer open to everyone no matter what their background”.

All our committee members and club coaches have to agree to British Triathlon code of Ethics and Conduct together with an agreement to follow the Equality & Diversity policy. The committee meet monthly to ensure our club continues to progress and stage lots of activities for our members.

We were fortunate that Kelly Wickens who is the South East Regional Manager – Kent, Surrey and Sussex for British Triathlon came along to the evening. After spending some time with Chairman Clive Harvey, our bid was announced as having proved successful.  The announcement was made to everyone present that we had been successful and that Tuff Fitty were now the proud holders of TriMark Bronze stage.

The significance of the award was brought home when Tuff Fitty learnt they are only the second club in the whole South East Region who have qualified for TriMark and the first in our county.  A big vote of thanks to the Committee and all Tuff Fitty coaches who play their part in ensuring Tuff Fitty is a sound club to participate in.  Also congratulations to all our members for making Tuff Fitty the great club it is to Race, Train & Socialise.  Thank you to Kelly who stayed for the whole evening talking to club members and finding out what life as a Tuff is like.

The evening proved a great success, with thanks to Clive Patterson-Lett who was busy throughout the evening helping people buy kit, try samples on, selling Tri-kit, vests, number belts & bobble hats. Also to Nicole Ewer & Wendy Frost for the great spread of food to enable everyone to go home fully carbo-loaded.

The portal has now been unlocked for Chairman Clive to look at the next level of accreditation – TriMark Silver anyone?