Get your facts right!

Soccer Sight is part of RNIB's National Leisure Service (NLS). We have resently updated a series of informative fact sheets.

You can access those factsheets via this link:

http:www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_leisurepublications.hcsp

These are very helpful and can provide you with useful information especially if you know someone with a sight problem.

UK Vision

On Wednesday 23 April the Guardian newspaper featured a special supplement, commissioned by RNIB on behalf of the UK Vision Strategy, to mark the launch of the ground-breaking strategy.

The 8-page supplement highlighted the issues tackled by the UK Vision Strategy - from improving the eye health of the nation, through to making the UK a better place to live if you are blind or partially sighted.

One of the initiatives mentioned was Soccer Sight. If you want to read the supplement you can follow this link:

http://society.guardian.co.uk/visionofthefuture

More Fun Days - Plymouth

Another great day of football in Plymouth took place on Saturday 26th April. Soccer Sight hosted the second 'Football Fun Day' in the south east. The aim of the day was to give blind and partially sighted children and young people the opportunity to come along and have fun playing football and meeting new people.

As in Exeter we work closely with British Blind Sport, Devon FA and in this case the disability coach from Plymouth Argyle Football in the community, Graham Eyles.

The day began at 11am with two hours of coaching and then off to the nearby park for a picnic in the spring sunshine. The day finished off perfectly with tickets to see Plymouth's last home game against Blackpool. The game which Plymouth won 3 -0 was filled with excitement and the commentary from Adam and David was superb.

Thank you to all involved in making the day a great success. Especially thank you to Barry Hardman from Plymouth Argyle for his support in getting Soccer Sight off the ground!

Exeter Football Fun Day - a great success!

On Saturday 12th April together with Exeter City's football in the community, Devon FA and British Blind Sport, Soccer Sight hosted the launch of our football team for blind and partially sighted boys and girls.

The day was attended by 10 young boys and girls who enjoyed the opportunity to have fun with a football and making new friends. Tim Flint is the Soccer Sight volunteer coach and this was his first attempt at coaching blind and partially sighted kids. He and the other coaches did a great job, in fact all of the 10 children were loud and clear in saying that they wanted to come back. We are now looking to establish the club in Exeter and facilitate coaching sessions once a week. Watch this space for more details.

After the coaching session Exeter City football in the community hosted a pizza lunch for us all followed by tickets to watch the home game against Northwich listening to Matt's commentary of the game...........which Exeter won 2-1!

Winning start for The Grecians

29th March 2008, this was a very wet and windy Saturday and time had come for Matt Cotton to debut as commentator at Exeter City FC. Club officials were nervous as the previous week the referee had cancelled the match due to severe weather conditions. Luckily the game against Halifax wasn't cancelled and Matt finally got in front of the microphone after a 4 month long wait since his training.

At 15 years old, Matt is our youngest commentator and the only one at Exeter, so I felt rather apprehensive and concerned that we might have put too much pressure on this young mans shoulders. I didn't have to worry, Matt was brilliant and pulled off a great performance . His commentary is lively and colourful. Furthermore Matt had done his homework and showed good knowledge of not just the home team but also the Halifax players and their form. The match ended 1 - 0 to Exeter and after the game Matt met some of his listeners who greeted him with applause in the club shop.






Well done Matt and keep up the good work.

Soccer Sight Manager, Sue Neale demonstrates how to use the listening equipment to partially sighted supporter Alex Burfoot.

Alex listening to Matt's commentary........and braving the wet weather!

Plymouth Argyle welcomes Soccer Sight and our three new commentators in the South West

On a wet and windy Saturday afternoon in early March our latest recruits took to their seats in the press box at Home Park-Plymouth Argyle. The match was against Sheffield United who didn't waste the long journey to the far South Western corner of the UK and went home with 3 points in the bag after winning 1-0.

Obviously we like our commentators to report on home team goals but when these are forthcoming then I guess any goal will do? Any comments form you guys?

Unfortunately we don't have any photos from the launch yet but I will make sure to post them once we do.

The commentators at Home Park are: Andrew Willis, David Wilks and Omar Siddiqui all of whom are working hard to deliver on the ball commentary from.

Canaries off to flying start

On 1st March the time had come for the 5 man strong commentary team at Norwich City to debut and show off their knowledge and skills. In fact we had cheated a little by starting the service unofficially back in January to give all the guys a chance to practice and develop their skills.

Clink here to read about this on the clubs own website: http://www.canaries.premiumtv.co.uk/page/AbilityCounts/0,,10355~1218468,00.html

On launch day the lucky commentators who got to report on a 2 -1 defeat against Blackpool was David Davenport and James Shelton who both did a good job. Afterwards they both got plenty of constructive and positive feedback from some of the many blind and partially sighted Norwich fans who was there that day.

Norwich FC had linked the Soccer Sight launch with the culmination of its 'Ability Counts' week. You can read more about this by following this link: http://www.canaries.premiumtv.co.uk/page/AbilityCounts/0,,10355~1246867,00.html

The 5 Norwich commentators are: Adam Bishop, David Davenport, James Shelton, Kevin Farrell and Sam Jermy

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