Windermere, Ambleside and District Angling Association (WADAA) has become the fifth angling club to receive the coveted Sport England Clubmark. The club has benefited enormously from achieving Clubmark accreditation and has experienced an almost five fold increase in its junior membership since becoming accredited.

The club which was founded in 1955 and now has 1,000 members has seen rapid growth recently as a result of ambitious management and continuing improvement to its fisheries. Much of the impetus for improvement has resulted from the work the club has undertaken to achieve the Sport England Clubmark Award.

As Neil Birkinshaw manager of WADAA states,

"Working towards Clubmark provided the initiative for WADAA to launch its South Cumbria Kingfishers project which is already attracting new junior members to fishing from all over the region. Prior to Clubmark being implemented in the club and the launch of South Cumbria Kingfishers we had just 18 junior members, however numbers have now risen to 96 youngsters and rising.

Over the last couple of years we have adopted a much more progressive and forward thinking approach to running the club, it's very encouraging to see that the benefits in terms of increased membership and better fishing are now beginning to feed through."

The ADB's Club Development Officer, Julian Taylor believes that "Clubmark is an essential part of any Angling clubs desire to establish itself as a safe and successful club within the community. Windemere, Ambleside and District A.A has achieved Clubmark status and done exceptionally well, showing a high degree of dedication to gain their accreditation and deserve the success Clubmark will ultimately bring them. This club used Clubmark to drive the development of their club forward. They have recently doubled their coaching workforce and as a result are now able to run a structured coaching programme throughout the whole of this summer. This has already helped them attract new junior members to their club."

In order to become a Clubmark angling club, clubs need to visit the NFA's website, www.nfadirect.com which has a comprehensive breakdown on what's involved and complete the online enquiry form which will go straight through to the Clubmark representative who will help clubs on the road to accreditation.