RYEDALE Judo Club has been achieved ClubMark status.

The ClubMark award is a formal recognition of the good facets concerned with running a sports club regarding the coaching in particular but also general management, financial competency, appropriate policies and procedures, and good links with schools and businesses.

Clubs must have clearly set-out and managed progression for all abilities within their playing, coaching and technical ranks.

Ryedale Judo Club’s chairman and senior coach Mike Leng was delighted.

He said: “We have suitably demonstrated all this in our portfolio submission and the way in which we conduct ourselves to the satisfaction of visiting British Judo Association representatives and of an external assessor of the national ClubMark awarding body.”

The Ryedale club’s coaches, along with Leng, who is a 5th Dan, are Derek Seller, a 3rd Dan, Chris Berriman, a 2nd Dan, and 1st Dan exponents Peter Preston, Rick Colman, Bryony Elliott and Graham Watson.

Tim Foxton, another 1st Dan, is an instructor.

Ryedale Judo Club’s spring term starts tonight (Wednesday).

Sessions, which are at the Northern Ryedale Leisure Centre in Pickering, take place for juniors on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, and for seniors on Fridays, from 8.30pm to 9.45pm.