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Marden Club welcome along sports journalist Faye Hackwell to session

Our Marden Club in Kent recently welcomed a special guest to their regular session, when sports journalist Faye Hackwell attended the club to record a Sporting Memories session taking place. 

Faye is a freelance sports journalist who has worked for a number of media organisations including the BBC and she visited the Marden Club in late May as part of a feature which is airing across BBC Radio Kent, Sussex and Surrey on the ‘Game Changers’ show, which is broadcast across the regions.

‘Game Changers’ is a show which features volunteer-led community sports groups across the South East and Faye decided to head down to our Marden Club to get a first-hand look at how Sporting Memories supports older people in local communities.

Sharing stories and being Captain

Faye began her time at the Marden Club by speaking with members about her career in sports journalism. Faye shared with those in attendance on how she often covers live sport for a range of media organisations but also how she has reported on some of the world’s biggest sporting events including the Olympic Games and Ryder Cups.

The members were engaged throughout Faye’s talk to them and often asked questions which led to a further range of talking points around sport during the session.

After the discussion had come to an end, Faye then joined in with the members with their usual activities, including having a guess on the ‘Spot The Ball’ competition as well as captaining one of the teams during the indoor kurling match – where members split up to form the ‘BBC Blues’ against the ‘Roaring Reds’ – with Faye skippering the former.

Despite a tense affair, where the scores were level at the end of two rounds, Faye eventually led her BBC Blues to a penalty throw victory much to the delight of her fellow teammates!

Reflecting on the session

Faye clearly enjoyed her time with the Marden Club members and volunteers and shared her thoughts shortly after the session.

"It was fantastic to visit the Sporting Memories group in Marden and to experience a session in full. The members have evidently bonded over their shared love of sport and there was a lot of friendly rivalry and laughs, both in the discussions about how the teams everyone supports had recently fared and during our indoor kurling game, in which I was privileged to lead the blue team to a dramatic victory on penalties!”

“Sue and Caroline (Marden Club Facilitators) do a fantastic job of making the session engaging and enjoyable for all of the attendees and Sporting Memories evidently serves a very valued and important role in the community of Marden and the surrounding area."

Sue Eltringham, one of the Club’s volunteer facilitators along with Caroline Newey, was delighted Faye took the decision to come and visit.

“It was a really great day for everyone involved with Club and we were delighted that Faye contributed so much to a really engaging session.

“Faye was a great sport by not only sharing her stories of years working in journalism, but also getting stuck in and joining our game of indoor kurling and Spot the Ball too. It’s a big thank you from us to Faye and we hope she can come back and visit the group again!”

The episode of ‘Game Changers’ which features our Marden Club was broadcast on 17 June 2024, and is available to listen on the BBC Sounds website here. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gmfmkz/episodes/player