News

Celebrating the Commonwealth Games!

Over the course of the Commonwealth Games, we hosted a range of events across England, Scotland and Wales alongside some of our partners to encourage and our members and volunteers to go All In and enjoy sporting conversations and fun.

Taking place in Glasgow, where the 30^th Games were being held, as well as in Leeds and Penarth, our sessions were supported by the Glasgow 2026 Festival Fund and by the Zurich Community Trust, uniting people in the spirit of the games to enjoy a range of conversations and activities.

Starting with Reidvale

Our events began during the games as we hosted a sports day at the Reidvale Centre with our Club members from across the city (pictured above).

Supported by the Glasgow 2026 Festival Fund, the day saw our recently opened Club at the centre encourage current members and people from the local area to get stuck into a range of sporting activities.

This included hoopla, putting, cornhole, football, boccia and spot the ball, with Sporting Memories staff as well as volunteers from Zurich Insurance on hand to support everyone to enjoy themselves.

Feedback from the session was overwhelmingly positive with Club member Margaret describing how she loved every minute of the day, with memories of playing hoopla at school coming back to her.

Another Club member Jim reflected on his passion for football and being the top scorer of the football activity, while Anne-Marie won the Spot The Ball competition much to her delight.

Taking Pride with LEAP Sports

With the Games in full swing, we hosted a special session focusing on LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport with our event hosted at Pride House in Glasgow alongside LEAP Sports Scotland.

Once again, we were thrilled to have the support of Zurich, with team members Michelle and Chris joining us to support the day which featured our usual activities – including conversations on the earliest sporting memories of those in attendance and the shared interests of the group.

There were some powerful conversations on the day, including from attendee Bill who spoke about how a passion for cycling and being part of a cycling club had helped him to challenge homophobic attitudes within sport.

The event is hopefully the start of a partnership between Sporting Memories Scotland and LEAP Sports in which we engage further with members from the LGBTQ+ community within our Clubs and activities.

Leeds-ing the way in England

On the same day as the Pride House event in Glasgow, we also gathered our Club members in Leeds for a special Commonwealth Games event in Beeston.

On a busy day of activities, games and quizzes, we had Club members from across our Burmantofts and Mae Care Clubs join us, as well as people who are involved with Sporting Memories activities at Calverlands Day Centre and Cross Gate Carers.

Six volunteers from Zurich helped members take part in the various activities on offer - Boccia, a football penalty shootout, rugby, axe throwing and a range of throwing games were on offer for the members to try out – with axe throwing being particularly popular!

There was plenty of chatter, laughter as our Club members tried out all the activities on offer, with the support of the Zurich volunteers as well as young Harlem, the son of one of our team in Leeds – Malika – who enjoyed playing the football penalty shootout alongside the members!

It was then time for everyone to take part in a quiz led by two of the Zurich volunteers. In a challenging but entertaining quiz, questions ranged from the Commonwealth Games to general knowledge.

It was a brilliant day as members shared with the Zurich volunteers and our team about how much fun they had, particularly trying out all the different sporting activities on offer.

Wrapping up in Penarth

Our final Commonwealth Games event came shortly after the Games had come to an end in Glasgow, with Sporting Memories Wales hosting their event in Penarth.

Over 50 members from across our Penarth, Pontypridd and Scarlets Club joined us at Old Penarthians RFC for a day of challenging quizzes as well as some fun and singalongs during the event!

Zurich once again had four of their team based locally help us with the day through volunteering and were on hand to support the members with any questions they had, even helping them with the quiz!

It was our Scarlets Club who took home the Sporting Memories Wales quiz trophy, with our thanks to Penarth volunteers Paul Sawyer and Peter Owen for being quizmasters on the day.

Norman Blackmore was also on hand to sing a few songs to bring everyone into the Commonwealth Game spirit, including the Welsh classic Calon Lan.

Several members commented on the jovial nature of the event, with many enjoying a good laugh in a warm and welcoming environment.

Donny Mackey, our Partnerships Manager, reflected on the sessions by stating: “It has been brilliant to host all of these events in recent weeks thanks to the support of the Glasgow 2026 Festival Fund and Zurich Community Trust.

“From the feedback we’ve received across our events in Scotland, England and Wales, our members and volunteers have all really enjoyed being part of activities, which have not only encouraged them to be active, but also helped them to get into the spirit of the Commonwealth Games.”