The Early Days . . .

Sports for people with cerebral palsy have been evolving since the early 1960s when sports activities formed part of the school curriculum for special schools and colleges. Many of these came under the direct control of the then 'Spastics Society' who sought to provide for their students in many different forms of physical activity.

The first 'Games for Spastics' were organised by the then Physical Training Instructor to the Spastics Society. He had a daughter with cerebral palsy at the school and came into the work from the Army.

The School in Tonbridge became a centre for sports activities and a base for many of the early activities. With the help of a number of volunteers and students from Nonington Training College, the Games were a great success. They brought together a number of different groups from Spastic Society establishments and provided sports activities ranging from running, throwing, swimming, slalom and tri-cycling. There was also an exchange programme with 'Club 60' from Cologne, Germany.

Towards the late '60s the endeavours moved into the Midlands and found in Nottingham suitable facilities, a willing college of education students, supportive local authorities and an infrastructure that enabled an expansion and growth. Many different sports were offered and weekend and vocational activities were available because of possible accommodation in residential institutions. The exchange programme continued on a bi-annual basis.

Meanwhile the national disability sports scene was developing. In 1976 an alternative international body to the Stoke Mandeville Games Federation was formed. This group catered for amputees, blind and cerebral palsy sports people. This meant that the national federations were beginning to have a voice at an international level, something that had never been available to them under the Stoke Mandeville organisation.

In England, the 1970s saw a real development of regional and national events encouraging athletes with spasticity to participate and compete. It was becoming also clear that there was a growing necessity to redefine spasticity in sports activities and at the same time to begin to revise the classification system. This would allow for a more functional form of assessment. No longer was it possible to allow for all groups, which might include ineligible athletes to compete especially as there was now a greater emphasis on quality in competition.

In 1978 an international group governing cerebral palsy sport and recreation ceded from the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled group at an international seminar and games held in Edinburgh. From this time on the national federations had a single international focus and CP Sport lost the 'spastics sports' title and became a founder member of the new international federation. Because of its history and its high level of attainment CP Sport became a leader in the disability sport movement and has remained a world leader even until this day.

The 1980s were a time of growth and consolidation. 122 athletes were admitted to the International Olympic Games for the Disabled in Arnhem and a growing significant number of cerebral palsy athletes have been either at Games for their own disability or at International Games such as New York ('84) Seoul ('88) Assen ('90) Barcelona ('92) Berlin ('94) Atlanta ('96) Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).

In late 1988 CP Sport moved its offices into Nottingham from London. This encouraged CP-ISRA in co-operation with CP Sport to be instrumental in the organising of world class competitions in the intervening years between the paralympics. It has been a deliberate policy in order to provide cerebral palsy sports people with all levels of ability, competitions at regular intervals. Significantly the first 'Robin Hood Games - CP World Games' were in Nottingham in 1989. Each fourth year, that is in '93, ‘97 and 2001 there have been World Games in Nottingham under the organisation of CP Sport. In addition throughout the 90s many other international competitions were organised for the International Federation by CP Sport (CP-ISRA European Soccer, European Athletics, World Cup Boccia and World Cup Bowls).

Recent developments:

International involvements in the current year include:

· July 2005: an England and Wales team attended the CP-ISRA World Championships in Connecticut, USA. Athletes competed in a range of six World Championships achieving a total medal haul of 44 Gold, 35 Silver and 26 Bronze.

· June 2005: an England and Wales team of 17 persons travelled to Portugal to take part in the IPC European Boccia Championships (a Paralympic Games qualifying competition). The team secured silver medal position.

· At the IPC European Athletics Championships in Finland in August, athletes with cerebral palsy secured 9 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze medals.

The recent international calendar included:

· October 2005: a team of swimmers taking part in an invitational swimming championships in Belgium and a team of boccia players attending a competition in Czech Republic

During 2006 the organisation will see its sportspeople involved in:

· Bowls Tour Majorca (March)

· IBC Boccia World Championships, Brazil (October)

· A full domestic programme of events, competition, training days, seminars, educational courses

CP Sport became independent of Scope (formerly The Spastics Society in 2001). CP Sport is a respected founder member of the British Paralympic Association and leads the success story of British athletes in several sports in this country. C P Sport sportspeople form the backbone of many of the paralympic sports squads. The organisation has a respected world record within CP-ISRA (the international federation) providing past Presidents and current Executive members including Technical Officers, Sports Co-ordinators and Sports Classifiers. It has a strong sports development focus which allows for many young athletes to fulfil their potential and it currently operates a full nationwide menu of regional sports events, national competitions and national training squads. The sports education programme includes seminars and courses in classification, coaching and training.