England Team Confirmed for Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships

A team of the most talented young players from ‘England Netball’ has been selected to travel to Bahrain to compete at this month’s Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships to be held at the Bahrain Rugby Club on the 13th & 14th March.

For the second consecutive year, England Premier League players from Hucclecote Netball Club in Gloucestershire will compete against the top Gulf teams in a fiercely contested battle for the Invitational Cup. Hucclecote will attempt to retain their undefeated record from last year’s competition against the top-ranked teams from Bahrain, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi.

Dubai Netball teams’ spokesperson, Dr. Mercedes Sheen said: “The inclusion of the England players for the second consecutive year raises the bar at the tournament. We are not only competing against the Gulf teams, but we get to test our mettle against some of the best young players in England. We lost to them last year and we aim to change that this year. We are training hard and can’t wait to meet them on the courts again”

The team members from Hucclecote play for England in the under 19 and under 21 categories and are accustomed to competitive play. Hucclecote coach and Sky News Sports commentator, Sue Wainwright said: “This will be a fantastic experience for our girls. The toughest thing is that they will have to contend playing outdoors and in the heat and the team mainly plays all the matches indoors. I am confident that the squad will perform well despite coming up against very talented Gulf teams. We are taking nothing for granted; all our players know that they have to produce their best netball on the weekend.”

For more information, please contact Bahrain Netball League Event Manager, Michaela Milne on 3660 0308 or by email or see our website: www.intergulfnetball.com

Umm-Al-Qura School takes two Riffa Views Eden Challenge Awards

Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School is one of the stars of Riffa Views 2009 Eden Challenge, having been awarded first place in Category B (Primary, 10-12 years) and a highly commended runners-up spot in Category C (Intermediate, 13-15 years) of the environmental schools competition organized by Riffa Views Signature Estates.

Currently with just over 500 students, the school was founded in 1990 to cater to both the Primary and Intermediate levels. Based on its entry in last year’s Eden Challenge and the resultant ‘highly commended’ category award, the school was keen to enter Eden Challenge 2009 and go one step better this year. Well, that’s exactly what it managed to do – taking its category win by beating the 16 other schools in Category B, all submitting water mosaic artwork projects designed to inform and remind viewers of the prestigious role played by water throughout history.

As with many of the schools, Um Al Qoora relied on the arts class to provide the students to take on the Eden Challenge. The basic design for the school’s mosaic was chosen from drawings produced by all of the art class students, inspired by the overall ‘water’ theme; the final choice being a combination of two drawings – one based around the famous and historic ‘Delmon Stamp’ and the other depicting a ‘drop of water’.

The judges enjoyed the team’s creative and imaginative approach – Chris Beardshaw, chairman of the judging panel, commenting “The symbolism of this mosaic is clear and relates very well to the themes of the challenge. The use of historic symbols with water, vegetation and the profile of the child are strong.”

The school’s teachers used the competition to instruct the students about the history of mosaics and their different designs and structures; this instruction was obviously taken well to heart by the project team as they created a winning entry that will be built up and displayed as part of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge stand at the 2009 Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show (“RVBIGS 2009”).

The judging panel was obviously very impressed by the finished entry, with Beardshaw commenting further, “The quality of production is high and the choice of materials good for this initial stage. The final mosaic will clearly form a key element of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge garden and we look forward to seeing the finished sculptural piece at RVBIGS 2009.”

Whilst participating in the Eden Challenge was exciting for all the students, their parents and the teachers, winning the two awards made it very special for everyone connected with the school. Aziza Al.Hussaini Nassar, the school’s Art Teacher, said “The Principal, the teachers, the students, everyone was so happy when we heard that we had won the awards …… we had many calls that day to congratulate us”. Infact, the Principal was so proud and excited that she apparently interrupted classes and exams to tell the whole school of the good news!

The school is very thankful to Riffa Views Signature Estates for organizing the Eden Challenge competition; it believes that the Eden Challenge has changed a lot of schools’ approaches towards environmental issues and it is certainly going to concentrate on educating the Um Al Qoora students more about the environment in the future.

Not only is the school intending to improve the students understanding and enjoyment of the environment inside the class-room, it is keen to provide an enjoyable environmental atmosphere outside the class-room too – plans are already afoot to spend the cash prize from the Eden Challenge win on providing ornamental water fountains around the school and developing the school’s garden.

And who knows, that ‘investment’ could turn out to be even bigger if the school goes on to become the Overall 2009 Eden Challenge Winner and pick up the overall winner’s prize of BD3,000. Chris Beardshaw will select the top school from the four category winners during RVBIGS 2009 in April – and as Aziza Al.Hussaini Nassar puts it, “Winning two awards is fantastic for the school, but we wish we can be the overall winner too!”

Beardshaw arrives for Eden Challenge judging

Chris Beardshaw, Ambassador – Gardens & Landscapes, Riffa Views Signature Estates, arrived in Bahrain last night, raring to go in the judging of the Riffa Views 2009 Eden Challenge entries. He will head up a four person judging panel – also including Shaikha Muneera bint Ahmed Al-Khalifa, Matthew Rushton and Dr Zuhair Al Dallal – that will review all the completed projects that were passed across to Riffa Views at the Riffa Views International School on Monday, the closing date for entries.

Beardshaw is involved in and passionate about many varied and interesting things through his gardening and landscaping expertise – TV programs, books, lecture series, garden shows, landscaping designs, but he reserves a special passion for interaction with school-children on all matters garden, landscape and the environs that we all share. He was instrumental with Riffa Views in establishing Eden Challenge 2008, the first time that the environmental focused competition for Bahrain schools had been organized, and is a very active participant and supporter of this second edition.

Judging commences today as the judges consider all the entries and give each of them marks across five key elements – brief and purpose, overall impression, overall design, construction and impression and horticultural content. Going into the competition room at the Exhibition Centre was a tremendous experience last year said Beardshaw, “it was amazing to see the sheer spread of creativity, imagination and effort that was present in that room, it was a real eye-opener how committed the school-children were and I am expecting it to be the same, if not better this time around.”

By the end of the day, the four judges will have decided on the winning schools in the four age group categories – last year the judging was so tight in two of the categories that joint winners were announced, “I fully expect that the quality of the projects this year will give the judging panel as difficult a time as they had last year, and would not be surprised if they are once again unable to ‘split’ schools in one or more of the age groups”, commented Richard Browning, the CEO of Riffa Views.

The four winning school project teams will receive a monetary award for their schools as well as the opportunity to be chosen as the Overall 2009 Riffa Views Eden Challenge winner. Beardshaw will spend time post judging with Riffa Views organizers to look at the way that the four winning entries can be displayed to best effect on the Riffa Views Eden Challenge stand at The Bahrain International Garden Show 2009 (“RVBIGS 2009”), with the overall winner selected from the four age group winners during the Show.

« Previous Page — Next Page »