Local sports clubs, including a Daylesford fight club,  are among those to benefit after the state’s community sport minister announced that 875 grants will go to more than 740 clubs.

State-wide the clubs – including some at Daylesford, Glenlyon, Woodend and Malmsbury –  will share in more than $1.2 million through the Sporting Club Grants Program, minister for community sport Ros Spence said.

The grants will be used to support clubs to purchase uniforms and equipment, upskill volunteers, coaches and officials, and improve their accessibility and engagement with local communities. 

Clubs to benefit include:

• Wombat Fight Club Daylesford, $1,826 for first aid training 

• Wombat Fight Club Daylesford, $178 for first aid equipment 

• Daylesford and Hepburn United Soccer Club, $1000 for uniforms for 2025 

• Daylesford Lawn Tennis Club, $1,000 for tennis balls for juniors 

• Daylesford Table Tennis Association, $1000 for an upgrade of playing equipment 

• Riddells Creek Football Club, $1000 for new footballs for the Senior Women’s team 

• Riddells Creek Tennis Club, $1000 for tennis balls for junior players 

• Woodend Junior Football & Netball Club, $1,971 for first aid training 

• Woodend Hawks Basketball Club, $1000 for new balls & first aid kits for young teams 

• Woodend Junior Football & Netball Club, $1000 for a new defibrillator and first aid supplies 

• Malmsbury Cricket Club, $992 for uniform and equipment for girls’ team

• Riddells Creek Basketball Club, $990 for new basketballs for Juniors 

• Riddells Creek Volleyball Association, $981 for training equipment and playing tops 

• Glenlyon & District Pony Club, $962 for new long sleeve sun protection competition shirts 

• Bullengarook Adult Riding Club, $791 for first aid equipment 

 Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas: “This program is always popular amongst our local clubs and athletes, it supports them to have what they need, to take part in the sports they love.” 

Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence: “This is a major boost for clubs across the state – we’re making sure clubs have the skills and equipment they need to thrive, and get more people involved.

“We want our local sporting clubs to be backing the next generation of local champions – and these grants provide them the chance to do just that.”

AS A a paramedic, Baydon Beddoe says he picks up the injured by ambulance. As a boxer, he says, he knocks ‘em down.
Now he’s up for a state title that could lead to a national championship. And all this after surviving bowel cancer.

A father of girls aged five and eight, 46-year-old Baydon, of Miners Rest, is training at his father Denis’s boxing club in Wombat Dam Road, Daylesford, for the State Masters Championship today Saturday,
April 1. And if 76-year-old Denis passes a fitness test he will also box in an exhibition.
Baydon will be fighting for a trophy he’s never won, a championship
belt, and coincidentally it’s against a boxer who beat Baydon 23 years ago in Baydon’s first professional bout.

That was seven years after Baydon started training, representing Victoria in the Nipper class in 2000, later competing in Olympic trials on the Gold Coast and twice in the Australian Masters event before Covid hit.
In that time, he’s moved through weights such as welter in 2000, light-heavy 19 years later and is now an 86-kilo cruiserweight. “You get heavier as you get older,” he says.
Cancer hit him in 2014-15 but looking at the fighter in the ring sparring with his father that’s hard to believe. “This year’s a bit of redemption,” says Baydon.
He’s been training daily since January, running half an hour in the morning and then spending up to 90 minutes on a punching bag, working on his footwork, getting ready for the four two-minute rounds.
Baydon thumps a speedball, rhythmically hitting it with one hand, then both. Then he picks up a big stuffed strike shield used for injury- free sparring.
Nearby is the Wombat Fight Club’s motto for sparring: “Only hit as hard as you want to be hit.” “Men fight in the ring, dogs fight in the street,” says another big sign.
Baydon has more one-liners: “Some think defence is the thing that goes around the yard.” “One boxer thought he’d won a title, but the only one he has is for his house.”
And a parting zinger: “There are three sorts of fighters, orthodox, southpaw and piss-poor.” Being only one of these, I make a retreat.
Words: Kevin Childs | Images: Kyle Barnes