Spit 'n' Sawdust Multi Sports Summer Camp

Spit n Sawdust Summer Camp For Primary School Aged Children

It's that time of year again. The first week of the summer holidays are approaching and people are off on their holidays. This used to be the time of the year I dreaded most as my gym would become empty due people going away or finding other things to do in the sunshine. But last year I decided to run a summer camp here at Spit n Sawdust and we had a great time.

This year I have decide to run the camp to coincide with school hours so that working parents can carry on with their usual routine and not worry about finding child-minders. The camps this year will run from 8.30am til 3.30pm with the option of an extension til 5pm for those who require it.

The Camp starts each day with a drink and a chat about what the day will involve and then the fun will begin with a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities which will include sports such as tennis, rounders, boxing training, basketball, football and games including stuck in the mud, British Bulldog, snooker, table football etc.. There will be a selection of soft drinks and snacks available and each day will finish with an Xfactor competition for the children who want to showcase their talents.

Having 4 (CRB Checked) trainers will ensure that all age groups will be catered for and the fun will flow thoughout the day. Expect your children to sleep well in the evening and be a whole lot fitter at the end of the course.

We have 30 places for primary school aged children every day of the week. Each week costs £60 (£1.71per hour) so we work out much cheaper than child minders, unless your family are helping you out of course. For those who wish to book daily, the cost is a reasonable £15 per day (2.14 per hour)

This Camp will run on every school holiday thoughout the year and bookings a first come first serve basis. So keep your children, yourself and me happy by booking a place today.

http://www.spitnsawdust.co.uk/ for you booking form

Good 'Evans

Good 'Evans Above

I have just been asked to nominate a young person for a Cherwell sports award. There are so many people who are talented at Spit n Sawdust. We had classy boxers like Imtiaz Khandokar, smooth skillfull boxers like Wesley Avery, cool boxers like Ayaz Muhammed and lots more who have come and gone as well as up and coming boxers like Ashley Crane, Max Kirkwood and DJ Patterson. But purely down to his hard work and dedication to the sport I had to choose Robert James Evans.

Although there has been many success stories at Spit n Sawdust I feel the person who has developed as a young person is most is Robert Evans.

I met Rob outside McDonalds just over 5 years ago when he was hanging around outside with his mates. I suggested to him that he join my boxing club. When I first met Rob he was just bumming around the streets, getting into scrapes with the law, smoking, including recreational drugs, drinking, which caused him to get in fights in the streets and he had no job and seemingly no ambition. His positive life change in my opinion was joining the boxing club.

Since joining the boxing club Rob has enjoyed success at every level of boxing. In his 1st year he entered and won The National Novice Amateur Boxing Association for boxers who had less then 10 bouts. Although Rob had only 2 fights before entering he won the national title at cruiserweight that year and went on to win the Intermediate National Championships the following year (Under 20 bouts) and then again after only 13 bouts entered the all England National Championships winning the championship Live on Sky Television.

Whilst all this was happening Rob was tee total. In fact after his 1st fight I took him out for a drink to celebrate and instead of getting drunk he had a soft drink. That was it he said and he trained everyday of the week for 6 hours a day. He never had time to get in trouble because he was always with me at the gym.

During these early times of him boxing many of the friends he used to 'hang with' were featuring on the front pages of the local papers for crimes and ended up in prison whilst he was making the back pages of the local papers for his acheivements in boxing. After reaching the highest level you can acheive as an amateur boxer Rob was then spotted by a photographer via facebook and through him met an agent got signed up as a model and went to Paris (the 1st time he had ever been abroad) and started modelling. He is now recognised as one of the worlds leading Supermodels and spends much of his time travelling the world on photoshoots with other 'supermodel' including Naomi Cambell. He is partying with the likes of Lennox Lewis and Beyonce on roof top parties in New York.

He recently was part of a campaign (through modelling) that was helping the victims of the tragedy in Japan. He also visited his old school, Warriner in Bloxham to let the children know where he was from and how hard work can get you anything you want in life. He is now having acting lessons and is in line to become an actor in the States. They say he is the biggest ever model (in size and popularity) to ever come out of England.

Rob now features on the front and back papers of Magazines and also on Billboards all over the world as the new face of CK One




The reason that I nominated Rob for this award is because he proved that hard work can result in great things. Everybody can acheive greatness as long as they believe they can and are prepared to put te work in. He refuses to be 2nd best at anything and this is why he has achieved so much. I remember Muhammad Ali saying whatever he chose to do in life he would have been the best in the world at it. Virtually everybody has the opportunity to be the best, most of us don't want it enough or are not prepared to work for it. Which is ok as long as we don't spend thed the rest of our lives thinking 'if only?'

"2 Chicken Balti's 2 boiled rice and a nan bread?... that will be £91.20 if you forgot to put a ticket on your car .... please"

Town Centre Evening Parking Charges
killing independent businesses and ‘driving’ shoppers away

In 2008 I became a Town Councillor with a view that I could be of use to the public of Banbury. It has to be said my work has mainly been with youths and in particular turning the lives around of youth offenders. I have to say, despite the bad press councillors have been getting recently from the media, I am proud and honoured to be chosen by the public for this post.

We as ‘Councillors’ all get to vote on different issues and we always go with the majority. Once such recent vote was in favour of charging the public of Banbury eighty pence to park in the town centre from 6pm until 12am. Although this may seem like a small amount it has shown to have an impact on the businesses in the Banbury Town Centre. Although I am a Councillor, this was a Cherwell ‘District’ Council matter and being a ‘Town’ Councillor I was unable to influence the vote, I opposed this vote via an email to the Town Council in their defence they told me the money raised from the parking, would be used to regenerate the town centre buy building more shops and homes in the town centre. This initially seemed like a fair argument but why regenerate a town centre using ‘your money’ to drive people out of the town centre? Brackley offers free parking as an incentive for people to visit their town as do Witney, Chipping Norton and many other towns in the area whilst we seem to be driving people away. A recent article in the Banbury Guardian highlighted the fact that a disabled lady now shops in Brackley due to the fact we are now charging ‘Blue Badge’ holders to park.

Whilst retail parks and supermarkets are offering free parking and you can get a take-away from most housing estates, the town centre businesses such as cafe’s & restaurants, the cinema, the snooker club pubs and clubs etc… are suffering and under threat of closure. Just as we seem to be climbing out of the recession and more people are finding money to maybe go for a drink or a meal in the town centre the council makes it more difficult,

The action taken by the Council has led a local business to start a petition to re-install the free parking in the evenings. I believe the regeneration that promises more shops and residential accommodation will cause more problems for the town centre. Where will all the new residents be parking there cars? Especially now as landlords don’t have to provide parking for their occupants.

I think the Council have done a wonderful job recently with pedestrianisation of Parson Street and the Market Place but we need to attract people to Banbury so they can see it and spend their money here. Call me old fashioned but I feel the town centre of Banbury should be the heart of the town and we need to fight to keep it that way. If you want to sign the petition visit Veritas or Spit n Sawdust both on North Bar Street or use the link End Evening Car Parking Charges in Banbury www.thepetitionsite.com to voice your opinion

Life aint so bad

It has been a while since my last blog and there have been many contributing factors. Including finding enough time, choosing what to write about, dealing with situations and members at the gym etc... but the main reason for me not writng is because at times I have been angry with one thing or another and haven't always been happy with my reactions. If I am angry the I will write with too much emotion and probably miss the point, so I decided to hold back from writing until I could get it clear in my head as to what I would write about. I also wanted to ensure that I could approach it without offending people or coming across, as someone suggested as 'thinking I was God Almighty' It is easy to give advice, as I am sure most of us know, whilst not taking the advice ourselves and therefore coming across as a hypocrite.

I will try to keep todays blog about how my personal situations have impacted on my life in the hope that others can relate to my situations and how I have dealt with them, or not, with the hope that it will inspire others to a happier or more fullfilled life.

Growing up in the 1970's in Coventry as a mixed raced kid had it's problems for me. Racism was probably my biggest concern as it was far more open and flippent comments made by 'friends' made me feel insignificant, but I laughed them off. I would watch documentarieis on the television which would serve to highlight how life was not going to improve as I grew older and left school. I watched programmes such as 'Love Thy Neighbour', which to be honest I did find funny but I couldn't imagine it being shown now.  It was so openly racist it was incredible looking back.  But as I say I found it funny, it was just the way things were. I remember watching a documentary that showed the different reaction a black man got to a white man when going for a job. How the black man who showed the same qualifications was dismissed as being underqualified and then how the white man was offered the job. The documentary also showed how a black man was refused entry to a golf club as there were no spaces for new members but when the white man was sent in he was accepted with open arms. As a adult in Banbury whilst working a factory, an Asian man was interviewed for a job. The interview went well but as the man left the interview room his interview papers were torn up and derogatory remarks were said of the mans colour.

Now this is not a blog about racism, it is a blog about how I was affected by these incidents. As a child I had little confidence. I had a father who was a strong role model who had educated me to be proud of my colour and heritage. I took strength from other role models such as Muhammad Ali, The West Indian cricket team who were flying at the time and winning everything and I also knew there were people far worse off than I was. But at school things were different, I struggled with confidence. I felt less capable of learning than my fellow white students, I found myself sitting at the back of the class praying the teacher would not ask me a question I didn't know the answer to. When I thought I knew the answer to the question I would raise my hand but would still worry that if I was chosen that I would get it wrong. So school was difficult and not having confidence has helped me understand what some of the children, and adults, who come to my gym are going through or have been through. What I try to do is to give them confidence through showing them they can be good at something and in almost all cases this confidence spreads to other aspects of their lives.

I was convinced as a youngster I would end up with no job, I had no prospects, would never afford to pass my driving test so never have a car. No girl would find me attractive so I wouldn't get married have children or a family. I did have dreams like every kid but my sights were aimed lower than most. As far as girls go I assumed all girls would be too embarrassed to go out with me because of my colour and was once told by a girl later in life that she would have married me but her dad was racist? But I did eventually get a girlfriend and I had my first kiss at 17 years old. How embarrassing was that. I remember thinking what is she doing with her tongue? It was like she was searching for my chewing gum that I had just used to freshen my mouth.

I remember drifting through my school years and outside of school fearing gangs of skinheads which is why I eventually joined a boxing club. Another thing that I found difficult was, although to all my white school friends I was 'Black Dave' When I left school and started hanging with some black friends they called me 'light-skinned' Dave or 'Red Skin' I didn't seem to fit in anywhere? I wanted to be seen as BLACK because that is how I was brought up by my father.

What I have learnt over the years is that you will always suffer and never find happiness whilst you are blaming others or circumstances for your unhappiness. I am now a reasonablly successful man. I am a Town Councillor and business owner who is happy with life in general. I am happy in my skin and have no race issues. I believe I can achieve anything I put my mind to but also know I need to work much harder if I want to progress.

In the past I have carried burdons along with me. You could even say I had a 'chip on my shoulder' Most things wrong in my life could be blamed on something. I would never openly use the colour card but to myself it was a reason for not acheiving what I wanted. I have blamed the economy for the gyms failings when all I need to do is work harder on the business side of things I have blamed so many things on the way I was bought up and my lack of formal education. But then some times I stand back and have a good look at my self and think 'Dave you are a lucky B****rd' I am healthy happy and have a great family. I can and do help people with their lives which gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction. I am living proof that not having a formal education doesn't mean you can't gain the respect of your peers.

I once read in a self help book that if you make a list of everything you have ie: partner, kids or the school they go to, the car, your house or area you live in, your friends etc.. and then ticked off the things you would change, then all the things that you wouldn't change are the areas in your life where you were already rich. In our society we seem to dwell on what we don't have instead of what we have and it is fair to say most of us want more. But in my opinion we shouldn't forget what we hold dearest to us.

I still read every day and the book I am reading at the moment is 'The Art of Happiness' by the Dalia Lama and an American Psychiatrist called Howard Cutler. Whilst I have no desire to become a Buddhist Monk or a phychiatrist reading this book has made me realise more than ever that once you are happy with yourself it is far easier to show compassion to other people.