Gymnastics club bounces into new Mayfield home

The 49-year-old club has moved into new premises, which are part of the Ryze Adventure park complex, and held a busy open day on Sunday to welcome locals.

The club’s classes will get underway on Saturday, with an official opening to take place later in February. They offer classes to all ages from 18 months up to adults.

Speaking about the open day, club founder and head coach Maggie Bisset said: “There were queues to get into the open day which was great. The atmosphere was great, everyone seemed to be very pleased with what we have. It was great to see the enthusiasm and interest that kids and parents were showing.

“We are hoping we will blend into the community and people will see us as somewhere people want to go.

“This is our home now, we are not going anywhere else.

“It’s a very good facility.”

The club has spent £82,000 on new equipment for its new home, thanks to a Children’s Lottery grant of £30,000 and a loan from Social Investment Scotland. Since the demolition of Meadowbank Sports Centre, the club has trained at Tumbles in Portobello and the Jack Kane Centre.

Maggie explained how the move to their own permanent home came about.

She said: “It’s absolutely wonderful. I started the club in 1971 after the commonwealth games and on and off since we have been looking for a venue we can afford.

“One of our child’s dads knows the owner of Ryze, Scott, who told him they were looking to let the end part of the unit. At that point we were looking in the Edinburgh area but the prices were very high.

“So I went to meet Scott at the unit and just thought it was the perfect site.

“They are re-building Meadowbank but the planned gymnastics hall is quite small and we wouldn’t be able to use it as often as we would want.

“Every club has to have their own base I feel in order to keep kids off the streets and fit and healthy.

“We have got about 200 in the club at the moment because we have not had the space to grow. Now our aim is to double that to 400 by this time next year.

“As we have our own bigger space we can offer more types of gymnastics. For example we are looking at fun activity classes for the over 50s.”

The club hopes to establish links with the local community, including Newbattle High School.

“We would like to engage with some of the pupils in our classes and when they are 16 we can put them through their first coaching course, and then we can employ then,” added Maggie.

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