Here's to the First Link-Up Fortnight!

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="6963,6922,6909,6895,6882,6850,6827,6868"]
Congratulations - September's Link-Up fortnight was a great success!

With two flagship events held over consecutive weekends, much of the attention here on Community Link-Up was glued to the Paris to Swindon Bike Ride and then the Futsal tournament. Both events ensured we had the best day, week and month ever in terms of readers turning to this blog for news.

The sporting theme continued with Slough devising an event not mentioned before on the blog - a Wii tennis tournament! Newport and Instore/Worcester MSC also got into the 'swim' of things by taking part in the Swim Britain events in Cardiff and Bristol respectively.

Food was also a popular theme, with Bertrams, Peterborough, Rowan House, Stockport, and The Consortium all choosing to take part in the World's Biggest Coffee Morning (see here and here). NAC and BLS tooks things a whole stage further by having their very own Great Yorkshire Bake-Off competition! Borehamwood held a Food Day, with a variety of sweet and savoury treats on offer. Finally, Rowan House rounded off their quiz evening with a fish and chip supper.

Cross business Link-Ups also came to the fore, with new colleagues from Houtschild and Erasmus meeting up for our first Community Link-Up event held in the Netherlands. Members of the Graduate Scheme also ensured a corner of Swindon is a much better place to be with their gardening activities at the Swindon Therapy Centre for Multiple Sclerosis.

We didn't have an official Community Week this year, so it was good to see the opportunity was taken for many Link-Up Fortnight events to have an additional fundraising or volunteering element. Over £2,000 was raised, as well as the money raised through the Paris to Swindon Bike Ride. Donations for the latter are still coming in, so we're not quite ready to reveal the final total yet.

With hundreds of you taking part and having lots of fun in the process, we can declare Link-Up Fortnight a huge success!

Thanks to everyone who organised an event or took part, and to all of you who tuned into the blog along the way :)

Futsal Footage

Photographer Kris Talikowski was on hand last month to take a set of superb shots at our Futsal tournament, so naturally we wanted to share some of them with you!

Everyone enjoyed Dan Magness showing off his world-class freestyle football skills!



Then it was onto the tournament itself. Let's sit back and enjoy the action...

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="7212,7242,7210,7213,7214,7215,7218,7216,7224,7222,7219,7223,7238,7225,7227,7229,7220,7230,7233,7231,7232,7221,7226,7217,7235,7228,7234,7236,7237,7239,7240,7241,7243,7211"]

And you can't beat a good buffet to round things off nicely!

Consortium Cake Cheer

[caption id="attachment_6931" align="aligncenter" width="640"] An amazing selection of cakes and lots of people queuing up to eat them :)[/caption]

We have news of our fifth coffee morning in aid of Macmillan! Both The Consortium's Trowbridge and Shrewsbury locations made sure staff had a plentiful selection of cakes to choose from.

They raised £356, which brings the overall total raised by Smiths News for 2013's World's Biggest Coffee Morning to £1,385.90!

We hope you enjoy your new garden - Love all at Smiths News

[caption id="attachment_6946" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The team with Laura (in the middle), the centre's fundraiser[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_6949" align="alignright" width="225"] Message in the guest book[/caption]

27th September saw all the current and ex-participants of the Smiths News Graduate Scheme Link-Up to create raised flower beds and herb gardens for the Swindon Therapy Centre for Multiple Sclerosis.

[caption id="attachment_6947" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Before...        ... and After[/caption]

This is a local charity funded wholly by donations and fundraising and has been set up to provide alternative therapies to patients with chronic neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Cerebral Palsy.

They offer oxygen therapy treatments, physiotherapy, seated exercise classes for those with restricted movement, counselling services and much more. Many of the visitors to the Swindon Therapy Centre are not able to get out of their house unaided and as such they rely on a community transport service to bring them to the Centre.

The Centre provides them with an environment where they can relax, meet like-minded people with similar disabilities and benefit from some short-term improvements to their ongoing health struggles.

The team of eight - Ken Ingham, Anya Perry, Emma Allan, Fern Sandercock, Emma Wilkinson, Matt Watson, Chloe Richards, and Sam Lucas - spent the entire day at the Centre.

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="6954,6958,6960,6961,6956,6971,6959,6968,6969,6967,6953,6957,6955,6970,6963,6964,6962,6965,6966,6972"]



They dug out and constructed raised flower beds to form part of a relaxation area for the users of the Centre and also planted shrubs and herbs to provide an attractive space. This will also give some of the Centre users the opportunity to get involved with some light gardening activities as a means to keep active within the constraints of their disability.

The results have gone down very well with the Centre, with the team receiving messages of thanks on the Centre's Facebook page and via several emails...

Via Facebook:

• Firstly, a general thank you:

"We couldn't be happier with our new front garden done for us today by Matt Watson, Ken Ingham, Sam Lucas, Chloe Richards, Emma Allan, Emma Wilkinson, Fern Sandercock and Anya Perry from Smiths News. It's such a lovely space turned from bare patio slabs into an enclosed little garden with flowers and herbs. THANK YOU :) :)"

• From the Therapy Centre's Facebook album of the day:

"Tremendous thanks to Matt Watson, Ken Ingham, Sam Lucas, Chloe Richards, Emma Allan, Emma Wilkinson, Fern Sandercock, and Anya Perry from Smiths News who spent a day digging, planting, building and painting to give us this amazing lovely front area.

Where we previously only had a couple of benches on a patio square we now have a charming enclosed space complete with bird feeder, flower bed and herb garden. They worked really hard all day to produce this for us and we hope they pop by again soon as we definitely owe them some drinks and cakes at least!

We hope all our members and visitors enjoy the garden for a long time to come :)"

Via email:

"...thank you so much for doing our front garden, it looks absolutely great. I have had lots of lovely comments from people this week so will you please pass on my thanks to your team for doing such a fantastic job."

"Thank you and the team so much for everything Friday.

It’s been really nice for everyone here to come in for their usual Monday and be greeted with such a lovely front area.

I’ve got ambitious plans to see if we can do some form of winter event out there, perhaps some winter cooking using the herbs.. as its such a nice area. We’ll see about it.

The pictures that I took are up on our facebook [see specific links above - Ed] and there’s a bit going in our newsletter about the task as well."

Thanks to Sam Lucas for the above report and for sending lots of photos, which tell the story of the day so well.

The Great Yorkshire Bake-Off

[caption id="attachment_6908" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Bakers with Attitude displaying their winning Ops Liaison and APS cake made by Claire Milford. Was it enough for them to take The Great Yorkshire Bake-off title? Read on to find out![/caption]

Last Monday marked the final day of Link-Up fortnight, and seeing we've proved eating cake is a popular Smiths News activity, we have news of a fantastic event finale guaranteed to make you want some!

Once again the nation is drooling over the cakes, bread and pastries showcased in The Great British Bake-off. It formed the inspiration for NAC and BLS to go one better and Link-Up for the Great Yorkshire Bake-off :)

Just like its TV equivalent, the participants competed over several rounds - held between 20th and 30th September - and produced a variety of different baked goods. Around 90 staff took part in one way or another and Jackie Atkinson gives a great account of what happened...

[caption id="attachment_6909" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The second cake for your delectation and delight. Billionaire Bakers (Treasury Team) with their themed money bag cake made by Rhiannon Evans[/caption]

The judges had a great time tasting everything (!)

Over a 2 week period there were 4 rounds of baking, including biscuits, cup-cakes and pastries, culminating in a grand finale on Monday 30^th September, which was the Team Themed Cake round.

5 teams entered the competition and a different person from the team entered their baking in each round.

[caption id="attachment_6910" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Pat-a-Cake (Publisher Accounts team) showing off their Publisher Accounts desk cake in which everyone in the team had a hand[/caption]

The 1^st round was won by Pat-a-Cake with their delicious biscuits, which were hand decorated by every member of the team.  The 2^nd round saw the cupcakes from the Bakers with Attitude take first place with Billionaire Bakers and Bertie’s Big Buns also impressing the judges.  Bakers with Attitude were up there again in the pastry round with some very tasty samosas.  The Jamaican Patties entered by Bertie’s Big Buns and the Manchester Tarts entered by Pat-a-Cake were a very close joint 2^nd.

[caption id="attachment_6911" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Winning ways: Dawsons Mighty Devils, (Dawsons AP team) Vicky Holdsworth, Mo Uddin and Chloe Webb with their very creative winning multinational themed cake[/caption]

In the grand finale round, the themed cakes, which were aimed at depicting the team that had baked and entered them, were fantastic.  So much creative thought and effort had gone into them it was very difficult to choose a winner.  The judges finally awarded joint first place to Bakers with Attitude and Dawsons Mighty Devils but the cakes from Pat-a Cake, Billionaire Bakers and Bertie’s Big Buns were also brilliant.  Each team gave a short speech to explain how the cake reflected their team which was also a great way to learn more about the people in the other departments.

[caption id="attachment_6913" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Most appropriate seeing October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Bertie’s Big Buns,(BLS) Linda Pearson and Michelle Pringle with their themed cake supporting Breast Cancer[/caption]

The overall joint winners of the full competition were Pat-a-Cake and Bakers with Attitude and their prize is funding towards a team building event of their choice.

The judges had a great time tasting everything that was entered and are now complaining about their waistlines – there is no pleasing some judges!

The competition between the teams and the enthusiasm amongst those involved was a real eye opener.  Bringing the different teams at the NAC and BLS together for this challenge was great fun and we also raised over £120 for the Bradford and Airedale Cancer Support Centre in the process as the baking was all sold after the judging had finished.  

Link-Up Fortnight Goes Dutch

[caption id="attachment_6922" align="alignleft" width="336"] At Houtschild's in The Hague[/caption]

We have news of our first international Link-Up Fortnight event!

Houtschild is based in Rijswijk - a suburb of The Hague - and their colleagues at Erasmus are located in Amsterdam [around 60 kilometres aka 35 miles away - Ed].

An exchange of staff for the day seemed a good way for the two Dutch companies to get to know each other better. Houtschild's Yvonna Baalbergen  has more... 

[caption id="attachment_6924" align="alignright" width="197"] An informal gathering over lunch always goes down well[/caption]

An Eventful Day

The 26th of September was an eventful day for both of Bertram’s Dutch companies.

For the September Link-Up Houtschild hosted a tour of their offices and an in-house lunch for the five delegates from Erasmus.

Five of the Houtschild team were welcomed in Amsterdam for a tour of the Erasmus set-up and lunch in the city.

[caption id="attachment_6926" align="alignleft" width="248"] Meanwhile in Amsterdam...[/caption]

The teams were able to get an insight in the procedures used at each of the locations. As both of the businesses are quite similar, it was very inspirational to have a look behind the scenes and share work experience and ideas.

[caption id="attachment_6928" align="alignright" width="170"] A day well spent :)[/caption]

Futsal News: The Day Was a Huge Success!

[caption id="attachment_6895" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The Final match! Now read on to find out more...[/caption]

At last we have the news you've been waiting for, how everyone fared in the Futsal tournament! Laura Morris - our very own "Match of the Day" reporter and Futsal team player - gives us the insider's view of the day's events...

Last Sunday 26 teams from across the Group took part in our first ever Community Link-Up Futsal Tournament.

The day was a huge success, with teams getting very competitive to get through their Group stages!

The semi-finals were really exciting, with Team JB drawing 3-3 against The Conslaughter ‘Em and narrowly missing out on a penalty shoot-out. Borehamwood’s BG1 were the victors of their semi, meaning it was a Smiths News vs The Consortium final. After a close match, The Consortium proved themselves the better team and took the Group Futsal Tournament 2013 title.

[caption id="attachment_6896" align="alignright" width="300"] The Bend It Like Beckham Girls![/caption]

The all-girls team from Rowan House – ‘Bend It Like Beckham Girls’ – weren’t quite as fortunate, but they had lots of support from the other teams. Desperate to get off the mark, Laura Morris managed to put one in the back of the net for the girls in their last game!

Jon Bunting hosted the event and said:

‘It was a really competitive but fun day, and brilliant to see so many colleagues Linking–Up from across the Group.’

There were several trophies awarded at the end of the tournament:

[caption id="attachment_6897" align="alignright" width="300"] The runners up - BG1[/caption]

Winning team: The Conslaughter 'Em (The Consortium)
Runners Up: BG1 (SN, Borehamwood)

Best Dressed Team: Bend It Like Beckham Girls (Rowan House) for their pink t-shirts
Most Competitive Team: The Misfits (Rowan House) – some very competitive play was reported by the referees!
Best Team Name: Twilightfully Good (SN, Birmingham)
Fair Play Award: The Smiths Destroyers (SN, Peterborough) – for their positive attitude and perseverance, they conceded 33 goals and scored 1 in Group stages!
Golden Boot: Team JB (Rowan House) – this was for most goals scored in Group stages.

[caption id="attachment_6898" align="aligncenter" width="640"] We won the cup![/caption]

Congratulations to The Conslaughter 'Em! Now, who's going to take them on next year? Start training now!

Futsal Countdown: Latest Team News

With just a few days to go, there are some last-minute team changes for the Futsal tournament!

Out... goes Bertrams and Brian Munich*. Sadly both teams have had to withdraw from Sunday's fun and games.

In... comes Team JB, the latest crew from Rowan House set to take on all comers. The team comprises Mike Makinson (captain), Lloyd Purchase, Jon Bunting, Ronan Lynam, Tim Concannon, Alex Harding, and Dan Giles.

So, we now have 26 teams from 15 locations lined up to play for team pride and the top spot in the ultimate Link-Up Fortnight event!

Select the team you'd like to support by viewing the full line-up on the Futsal Team News Page.

Good luck everyone and here's to a great day!

* = a team name that will be sorely missed when reporting on the actual event ;)

It's Game, Set and Match for Link-Up Fortnight!

[caption id="attachment_6757" align="alignright" width="212"] Slough's Link-Up poster :)[/caption]

We have news of our first Link-Up Fortnight event! Today sees many of the staff at Slough dust off their competitive streak for a tennis tournament with a difference! Shefali Patel has more...

"We at Slough House have organised a Knock out Tennis Tournament on the Wii console on Wednesday 18^th September 2013 for our Community Link-Up event.

The tournament will run all day and will be held in the staff canteen.

We will have 48 staff members who will be entering the tournament. Clive Element the group manager and his partner will be opening the tournament with the first match.

A selection of cakes will be available. Each winner will receive £25 in “Love To Shop” gift vouchers."

Sounds great Shefali and I hope all goes well today! You and everyone at Slough are to be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and sport never before reported on via Community Link-Up. 48 participants linking-up for one event is impressive and I'm sure the presence of cakes will lure in still more ;)

Don't forget everyone,  we want to hear all your news from Link-up Fortnight, whether it's just 2 of you meeting for the first time, or something which involves everyone at your location or more. We may not have cakes on offer, but there ARE prizes to be won!

Futsal Update: Loadsa Teams!

Well, with just a few days left to get all your team registrations in last week, you certainly didn't disappoint! Our inbox was red-hot with sign ups coming in thick and fast, so today we can reveal that we didn't just get the two teams we asked you for, we...

... received details of another 13! That makes the total number of teams registered for September 29th standing at a fantastic 27 :)

So without further ado, let's meet the latest teams:

1. Robinson's Crusaders - Stockport -  Umar Suleman, Pete Cumston, Kevin Mcdermot, Rihan Khan, Eric Drayson, Matt Alexander, Ste Todd


2. NAC Novices - NAC, Bradford - Daniel Noble, Mohammed Mazer, Elias Vilegas, Vicky Holdsworth, Natasha Thrams, Ryan Metcalfe, Mohammed Uddin


3. Bertrams - Bertrams, Norwich - Matt Racher, Aaron Kay, Luke Tuttle, Louis Robinson, Brad Vincent, Mark Tuttle, Graham Carr


4. Disney Land Standards - Newport - Nathan Heron, Leighton Hansford, Paul Cruden, Andrew Seldon, Croug Lewis, Robert Edwards, Robert Sullivan


5. Smiths Destroyers - Peterborough - Ashley Brown, Donald Cliff, Charlie Austin, Peter Lindsay, Dean Raymill, Andy Johnson, Lee Fountain


6. Mission Impossible - The Consortium, Trowbridge - Dan Blake, Andy Mayell, Charlie Trevman, Paul Cottle, Billy Austin, Pete Jackson, Shawn Bryne


7. Newport Allstars - Newport - Craig Bourne, Nicky Church, Martin Stickler, Cayleb Needham, Miles Griffin, Phil Barnard, Richard Morgan


8. Newport Beacons - Newport - Shaun Probert, Mike Green, Brian Baston,. Tom Tsambanakis, Ian Jones, Milo Kirkpatrick


9. Twilightfully Good - Birmingham - Mohammed Khalil, Imran Khan, Umar Saeed, Gurdeep Singh Toor, Asif Ali, Amjid Javed, Faroux Ali


10. Villains or Not - Birmingham - Kieran Sheridan, Paul Adams, Karl Adams, Daniel Bull, Tom Church, Dwight Tulloch, Keven Davies


11. Birmingham Twilight Lads - Birmingham - Zahid Faroux, Mohammed Mahmud, Javed Iqbal, Mussie, Leo Thompson, Naveed Sadeeq, Mohammed Fasir


12. Newmarket Plus 1 - Newmarket - Jason Hien, Steve Lynch, Hugo Da Silva, David Middleton, Mo Manif, Darren Bates


13. Frontliners Slough - Slough - Suran Amin, Vikas Verma, Junior Samuel, Devron Samuel, Michah Barnes, Lee Shah, Sukhpal Bhatti

NB If you've sent off your registration and your team isn't on today's list, or the one we revealed last week, please contact Claire Phillips-High in the Group Communications team ASAP via email or phone 01793 563530.

We've also set up a Futsal Team News page which shows the full list of teams, plus their captains and players as it stands currently. Do stay tuned here on Community Link-up as we'll be updating the blog with more news about the day and any further team developments along the "Road to Wembley Swindon" on the 29th!

Last Call for Futsal Teams

With just two days to go until Thursday's closing date for Futsal team registration, it's time to reveal the tremendous response we've received so far. Teams from far and wide will descend on Swindon's Futsal Arena for a packed day of friendly rivalry, goals and no offside rule!

14 teams from 8 locations are signed up and ready to go on September 29th. We need just 2 more teams so we can run a full European style Championship format: 4 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams qualifying from each group to play in the knock out stages.

Right, so who's signed up for all the fun?

Ladies and Gentlemen, please show your support for...

1. Smithy and the Swindon Smiths - Rowan House - Paul Smith, Brett Hanley, Simon Sargent, Alex Harding, Dan Giles, Justin Yates, Fred Pavone


2. BG1 - Borehamwood - Jason Biggs, Marek Vanda, Peter Janak, Ben Boateng, David Canwell, Kofi Konadu, Carlos Burris


3. Plymouth Pilgrims - Plymouth - Chris Hulme, George Tucker, Neil Priter, Scot Luscombe, Aaron Churnery, Jason Adamson, Paul Latham


4. Brian Munich - Worcester  - Darren Clarke, Alex Williams, James Lamb, Steve Goode, Andy Wheeldon, Matt Cooke


5. Goal Goal Power Rangers - Worcester - James Webster, Gavin Spares, Mark Falcon, Ross Jones, Tim Williams, Tim Concannon


6. BG2 - Borehamwood - Marc Curtis, Ackestar Baloyi, Tony Pitcock, Lee Darkins, Barry Ings, Mark Woods


7. The Conslaughter-Em - The Consortium - Matt James, Andy Pickernell, Tim Furniss, Andy Wilcox, Dan Perels, Chris Hubbard, Lee Davey


8. The Shrewsbury Strollers - The Consortium,  Shrewsbury - Paul Murray, Paul Sambrook, Russell Mellings, Hugh Haimes, Ed Knott, Simon Kunne, Richard Tonks, Jim Green


9. Bend it Like Beckham Girls! - Rowan House - Nic Black, Claire Phillips-High, Laura Morris, Lucy Manfield, Anya Perry, Sam Marlow, Joni Watkins


10. Dogs of War - The Consortium - Ashley Warner, Pete Spong, Paul Ford, Reuben Spong, Wayne Heath, Ryan Baggs, Shane Spong


11. The Misfits - Rowan House - Tom Wright, Jonathan Williams; full team to be announced later


12. Spartan Blues - Reading - Mark Durrant , Martin Balon, Jason Goddard, Adam Skibinski, Robert Taupmans, Aleksander Adamiec, Marius Pardela 


13. Borussia Instore - Instore - Ross Hall-Galley, Sean Comasky, Chris Townrow, Mike Frost, Sam Page, Stu Birch, James Bullen


14. Strikers Notts - Nottingham - Dean Martin, Gavin Howard, Steve Bateman, Steve Fox, James Cairney, Andy Jaques, Rob Drummond

You'll find full details about the day here.

So about those 2 extra teams... Do we have an Exec team ready to take on all comers? Or perhaps Bertrams are bursting to show everyone their skills? Who will be the pride of the north? Grab your team and submit your registration form now!

Remember, all futsal teams and any updates to the team lists will be revealed exclusively via the Community Link-Up blog. Why not register for your email update via the right hand sidebar so you don't miss a thing?

A Grand Day Out With Bertrams

[caption id="attachment_6198" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Everyone's ready to board the fire engine[/caption]

Bertrams in Norwich was the scene of "a grand day out" recently, when they played host to a group of twenty children from the Chernobyl area of Belarus. They were each given children’s books, fruit and vegetables, enjoyed a barbeque and sat in a fire engine!

The group of twelve girls and eight boys, aged between 7 and 10, are staying in the UK for four weeks, and come from schools in the villages of Zditivo, Sporovo and Minsk. The visit was arranged by the Mid Suffolk Link in aid of the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline, a charity that brings groups of children to the UK for respite holidays. All of these children are living in areas of Belarus still affected by the after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster, which happened more than 26 years ago.

[caption id="attachment_6199" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Delighted with their books![/caption]

Graeme Underhill, Bertram Group Managing Director said: “We at Bertrams are really pleased to be involved in helping to make the trip a memorable one for the children, and of course it’s great to see local businesses at Broadlands [the business park where Bertrams is located - Ed] working together to create an amazing experience for such a worthy cause.”

Jason Cherrington, Bertrams Group Sales Director said: “It was an honour and a very humbling experience to meet such lovely children who clearly have had to endure some of the harshest conditions, yet still remain enthused and excited about life.”

Elizabeth Parker is the Mid Suffolk Link chair of Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline. She said: “Although all of the children who come are not ill, they all have compromised immune systems as a result of the environment they live in. It is said that their four week visit here, breathing clean air and eating uncontaminated food, boosts their immune systems to such a degree that it can take two years to get back to the levels they arrive with.”

“Despite many people trying to say that the radiation has gone, the fact is that it hasn't and the levels of radiation found in Belarus are way beyond that which would be tolerated in the Western world today. In the children's cancer hospital in Minsk, we are now seeing second generation children being born with cancer who live in so called ‘clean’ areas.”