Adding to her already-impressive skillset, congratulations to our coach Kerry Wells, who has successfully passed her Trampoline Regional Judge assessment.

Having been qualified at County level previously, this is the next level up and demonstrates her ability to critique and evaluate an ever growing number of more difficult and impressive set of skills.

The stellar start to the competition year continued at the Southern Regional Trampoline and DMT competition this past weekend.

This competition is the first of the yearly Regional Pathway events, which sees gymnasts competing in either Regional, Club or Assessment categories, with an opportunity for Regional and Club competitors to qualify for the Southern finals in April.

Another large contingent attended the event at Eastleigh, jumping, somersaulting and smiling their way through plenty of proficient routines!

In the Trampoline categories there were medals for Natalia (1st), Elsie (2nd), Ada (2nd) and Lauren (3rd). There were also medals in the DMT event for Effie (1st), Elsie (2nd), Orin (2nd), Alice (2nd), Gabriela (3rd) and Rory (3rd).

Congratulations to our trampoline qualifiers Lauren, Celia, Ada, Phoebe, Natalia and Kristiana. Competing and qualifying in both the Trampoline and DMT categories were Effie, Olivia, Alice and Gabriela.

Special mention to our Assessment level gymnasts too: Isla, Cleo, Rory and Lucy, who can all be proud of their performances. For Isla, Cleo and Rory it was their first regional competition. Rory also competing on the DMT too, alongside fellow first-timer Orin. Watching them, it has hard to believe they hadn’t competed at a regional event before as all five of them were cool, calm and collected throughout!

Head Coach Mike said “We are so proud of their efforts and performances. It was also brilliant to see the great comradery and support they all gave each other throughout the day”.

Thanks as ever to our support team of coaches and officials on the day, including Rachael doing a great job judging for the first time. There’s not long to wait for the next event either, as our members return to competition action at the next regional competition on Saturday February 28th.

A magnificent start to 2026 as Natalia’s exquisite performances at the Southern Zonal Schools competition has earned her a place at the National Finals!

Having qualified in December in the regional round, Natalia was competing alongside the top gymnasts in the Year 10-14 Intermediate Girls category from the across the South of Great Britain, covering Cornwall all the way to East Sussex. Representing Perins School, she produced two high-scoring exercises to deservedly earn her place on the podium with her 3rd place finish also qualifying her for the National Finals!

A huge well done to our members from Amery Hill School too. The team of Ada, Phoebe, Arabelle and Elisabeth all produced excellent performances successfully completing all of their skills, with Amery Hill finishing a very respectable 7th in the team event.

Thanks to coach James for supporting the gymnasts throughout the day. It was a really positive event and congratulations once again to everyone who took part!

Congratulations to our Chairperson, Rachael Jennings, who successfully passed her assessment and has qualified as a Trampoline Club Judge!

This is the Level 1 judging qualification and her new-found knowledge will no doubt help both the club and also help her appreciate and understand more when she watches her daughter compete in competitions.

If you’re interested in judging then please feel free to contact us or speak to one of our coaches at training, as we are happy to support those that wish to do it and in turn support us. As a small club we’re always interested in having a larger pool of judges available for when our members compete, and of course the more we have then less commitment there actually is to doing it as it gets shared throughout the year.

For now though, well done to Rachael on her new qualification!

There were some fantastic results at the Southern round British Schools Trampoline Championships, which included Natalia winning silver in her individual category and the team of Ada, Phoebe and Arabelle winning a team silver for their school!

In the British Schools Gymnastics Association (BSGA) Trampoline Championships, the regional round sees the top 5 individual and top 2 teams from each category qualify for the Zonal round, taking place in the new year. There were plenty of excellent results and performances from Alton members throughout the day, which also saw:

• Alice 12th and Immie 15th in the Girls Years 7-9 Advanced Level.
• Beatrice 6th in the Girls Years 1-6 Intermediate Level.
• Effie 8th in the Girls Years 10-14 Advanced Level.
• Ada 7th, Phoebe 8th and Arabelle 9th in the Girls Years 7-9 Intermediate Level.
• Alice 12th and Immie 15th in the Girls Years 7-9 Advanced Level.

For Natalia, her routines were both incredibly neat and even earned perfect HD scores in her 2nd exercise and this earned her 2nd place in the Girls 10-14 Intermediate Level and a place at the Zonals for her and Perins School.

The combined scores for Ada, Phoebe and Arabelle, were also strong enough for them and Amery Hill to earn a spot as a team in January.

All of the gymnasts were a huge credit to both their schools and to the club. Well done to them all!

Thanks to coaches James, Kerry and Mike for supporting and judging on the day, along with the teachers in attendance who made the trip to Oxford to support their pupils.

New to our training sessions is a brand new gymnastics incline wedge mat. We are very grateful to the Alton Beer Festival Charitable Trust, who have awarded us the funding with which we’ve been able to purchase this highly useful piece of kit.

The mat has already started being used and will be a beneficial training aide, especially in helping our gymnasts rotate, particularly for learning somersault initiation.

We have already seen its benefits in action, and with the competition season starting in a couple of months’ time, we have a number of members who are targeted more difficult routines involving their first competitive somersaulting elements.

The Alton Beer Festival raise thousands of pounds through their events that they kindly use to support local causes. The next festival dates are on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th May 2026. If you’d like to know more about the event then please visit their website: https://www.altonbeerfestival.org.uk/ .

Congratulations to our coach James Acott, who successfully passed his Trampoline County Judge assessment.

The Level 2 course introduces tariffing the difficulty of skills as well as increasing the knowledge needed when judging the sport. James blazed through his assessments and adds another qualification to his growing list!

Coach Zaki is heading off to University at the end of the month and we’d like to wish him all the very best.

Zaki has been a member of the club for over a decade as a competitor, with accolades including being a finalist in the National Schools Championships. Just over a year ago he qualified as a coach and has been imparting his knowledge to young gymnasts week after week. While he won’t be at training on a weekly basis anymore, he’s told us he’ll drop in from time-to-time when his studies allow.

Thanks to Zaki for all of his help at the club and best of luck with his studying!

For the second year running, William represented the Southern Region at the Inter-Regional Challenge Cup Final and gave a hugely impressive performance to achieve a top 5 finish!

Once again, the impressive Utilita Arena in Birmingham was the setting for the event. Fresh off the back of hosting the likes of Pulp and Peter Kay, it was the turn of gymnasts from across Great Britain to perform in the popular protean venue.

Once again competing in the Mens Level 1 13-17 years, William showed few signs of nerves as he completed two excellent routines, both of which easily exceeding his scores from 12 months prior. He was ultimately rewarded by

finishing in 5th position

and just a miniscule 0.5 off a podium place. He can hold his head up high and see the improvement he’s made over the last year and should be proud of how he performed and his success this season.

Our presence at the event wasn’t just restricted to competing, as coach James Acott was on the coaching team for the Southern region. James and the other regional coaches did an excellent job working together to coach and support the gymnasts representing the region over the weekend. When the final results were tallied, out of the 13 regions attending, Team South finished 8th in Trampoline, 7th in DMT, 3rd in Tumbling, and 8th overall. Congratulations to the South West who finished 1st overall.

Well done to everyone involved, including Emma Bell, the Southern Regional Team Manager, for their accomplishments. While it was hugely impressive for William just to qualify for a second time, and a great credit to his improvement and effort to perform as well, everybody who took part can be immensely proud of themselves for their achievements.

We held our annual Intra-Club competition at the weekend and once again our members were simply outstanding!

A substantial number of members took part and the morning saw many individual routines on both the DMT and Trampolines, culminating in an exciting synchro competition that saw 13 pairs competing. Included within these pairs were three mother-and-daughter partnerships too, embracing the fun and family ethos of the whole event.

Some of our members were competing for the first time, others were pushing themselves to attempt trickier routines, and every single one of them can be proud of what they accomplished!

We were also delighted to welcome the Town Mayor, Councillor Annette Eyre, who impressed everyone in attendance with her performance on our new ‘Ultimate’ trampoline! We are grateful to Alton Town Council, whose funding enabled us to purchase this incredible piece of equipment which will make such a hugely positive impact to our members.

We’d like to extend our thanks to everybody who supported us in running the event and once again congratulate everyone who took part!

Award Winners

Besides the winners across the individual categories on the day, in the synchro event the highest scoring 3 pairs were Olivia and Zaki, Elisabeth and Gabriela, and the winning pair of Abi and William.

Several members were also presented our annual awards for effort, improvement and achievement over the previous 12 months. This year, the award winners were:

• Most Improved Recreational Member: Kristina Townsend
• Most Improved Competitive Member: Olivia Jordan
• Most Improved DMT & Highest DMT Execution Score of the Year: Effie Lloyd-Jones
• Highest Trampoline Execution Score of the Day: Natalia de la Pena
• Highest Trampoline Execution Score of the Year: Natalia de la Pena

As a club we’re looking forward to seeing even more skills learnt and improvement made by our fabulous members over the next 12 months!