Clubs/societies

AN annual quiz will take place tonight (14/10) for the green fingered vegetable growers.

BARBECUE summer may have been a washout but the conditions proved perfect for producing a bumper crop of awards for the village allotment holders.

Members of Harefield Horticultural Society (HHS) staged their annual autumn show on Saturday at St Mary's Church Hall, High Street, Harefield.

THE annual Harefield Horticultural Autumn Show will take place on Saturday (12/9) and promises to be bigger than ever.

The show begins in St Mary's Church Hall, High Street, Harefield, at 2.30pm, with prize giving at 4.30pm.

HAREFIELD hosted a national canoeing championship once again last weekend, with over 100 competitors taking part.

Paddlers from as far as Teeside had the benefit of some glorious weather as they battled it out on the weir near the Coy Carp on Coppermill Lane, Harefield.

A COMBINATION of mud and heavy traffic could spell chaos for the village if the green light is given to plans to renovate a golf course.

Uxbridge Golf Club, in The Drive, off Harvil Road is the subject of a 1,000 page planning document which details plans to cover it with landfill, and re-landscape it entirely.

Harefield will host a national ranking canoe slalom this weekend on the canal near the Coy Carp.

Canoe Slalom is an exciting event, where canoeists have to negotiate a course, marked out by polls suspended above the water.

The event is now a regular feature in the canoe slalom calendar and is run by St Albans and Hertsmere Canoe Club, who train at Harefield, alongside other clubs.

The event is for division three and four paddlers, but with the time counting down until London 2012, the future Olympic champion could be honing their skills this weekend.

The event will start at 12pm on Saturday and finish at 5pm, with the same schedule applying on the Sunday.

Spectators are welcome to visit and there is no charge, for more information go to www.canoeslalom,co.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 PLANNED trip to see wild birds and a motor museum has been cancelled and replaced with a trip to Brighton instead.

The CAMEO trip to Bentley failed to attract the number of visitors it needed so the group will enjoy a day out to see the seaside.

The Come And Meet Each Other Group are travelling down to Brighton on May 10, and anybody who wishes to find out further details should phone 01895 822230.

A SLIMMING World consultant has been awarded for recruiting more than 40 members to her group in just one month.

Lucy Charge, 30, of Gilbert Road, Harefield, received the prestigious Ruby award after recruiting 55 new members to her group held at Manor Farm Hall, in St Martin's Approach, Ruislip, in January.

To find out more about the group call Lucy on 07787 526 696.

AT THE next meeting of Harefield history society on January 26 the guest speaker will be well-known local historian and author Eileen Bowlt who will be talking about Breakspear House.

It is currently being modernised and converted into private apartments.
Mrs Bowlt will describe what it was like in its fascinating historical past. Tea,coffee and biscuits will be available after the 8pm talk, which is at Park Lane Village Centre .

QUIZ fans should make a note of a curry and quiz evening at St Mary's Church Hall in the High Street on January 31. The food will be provided but take your own drink.
Teams will be eight-strong but you will be placed with others if you have a smaller group. Tickets are £8 from Brenda on 01895 822058.

Finally don't forget to make a note of the next meeting of Harefield Tenants' and Residents' Association on February 19 at Park Lane Village Centre at 8pm.