Cumbria Sport Partnership have gained a licence to award local sports clubs the national kite mark accreditation, Clubmark.

The first club to be awarded Clubmark through Cumbria Sport Partnership is Cartmel Valley Baseball Club. Cartmel Valley 'Lions' Baseball Club was founded in 1990 and currently field 3 youth teams in the North West League. Boys and girls play T-ball (aged 6 to 10 years), Bronco baseball (10 to 13 years) and Pony baseball (13 to 16 years).The club holds training sessions every Thursday at Cartmel Priory School from 6.30pm.

Amy Clement who assessed the club for its Clubmark status said "Cartmel Valley Baseball Club works hard to ensure that the club runs to the highest standards, standards which clubs around the county should aspire.

The club has committed and well trained coaches and volunteers, each session is well planned and varied, and the club have fantastic progression routes for its players, with some players being selected for the National Team and playing at International Tournaments and European Championships. The club's members clearly love developing their baseball skills, and the Clubmark accreditation was well deserved".

As one of the few County Sport Partnerships in the country to be awarded the licence, Cumbria Sport Partnership is now working to identify sports clubs in the county that need additional support to increase their standards and membership. To date, 65 clubs within Cumbria have achieved Clubmark.

In addition to Clubmark, schools across the county have also adopted a ‘High Quality School-Club Link' scheme, meaning that any formal link between a sports club and your child's school will only be with clubs that are Clubmark accredited.

Aileen Cubbon, Development Officer (Sporting Infrastructure) at Cumbria Sport Partnership developed the Clubmark programme in Cumbria. She said "Cumbria Sport Partnership works hard to develop clubs within the county, giving people access to high quality coaching and sports provision. Clubmark is increasingly recognised as a mark of high quality, and these are the clubs that we endorse. Clubmark clubs demonstrate a commitment to safeguarding children, they have well developed progression routes for children wishing to excel in their sport and have suitably trained coaches and volunteers. Not only will Clubmark improve standards of sports clubs in the county, it will also help drive up participation, making more people more active, more often".

Clare MacLeod, National Clubmark Manager worked with Cumbria Sports Partnership to achieve its licence. She said, "Cumbria is only the 7th county sports partnership to be licensed. This latest award is key to the development of Clubmark across rural counties such as Cumbria. We forsee that this will be the catalyst for change with the CSP driving NGBs and other agencies to improve the geographical spread of quality sports clubs for young people.

If your club wishes to gain Clubmark accreditation, you will be supported by Cumbria Sport Partnership and Sport Development Officers in your area. For more information, contact Aileen Cubbon on 01228 221262 or email aileen.cubbon@cumbriacc.gov.uk  or your local district sports development team.