Merry Raymond – Owner & Director
With a passion for giving aspiring gymnasts of all types the opportunity to fulfil their gymnastic ambitions, Merry’s approach to coaching is to encourage everyone to access this fantastic sport at their own level. Merry originally became involved in gymnastics as a judge, after many years watching her various daughters train and compete at different levels. From there it was a short hop to volunteer coaching, working in various classes & groups alongside other coaches in the gym as she completed her qualifications. As well as continuing to judge and coach competitive artistic squad, development and general level gymnastics, Merry is the Cambridgeshire County Representative for General Gymnastics, and Cambridgeshire County Gymnastics Association Chairperson. Merry brings her previous experience, running her own businesses for 15 years, to Meridian.
- Level 3 Women’s Artistic Club Coach
- Level 3 General Gymnastics Club Coach
- Mental Health First Aid Training
- Women’s Artistic Club Judge
- Men’s Artistic Club Judge
Fran Raymond – Club Coach – Women’s Artistic Lead Coach
Fran originally became a coach aged 16 and has worked across a broad range of ages, abilities and experience from squad gymnasts at level 7, 6 & 5 to Development groups and recreational levels. Fran now coaches our performance pathway gymnasts and had success with her first Compulsory 4 gymnast in 2022. Fran has a First Class Honours Degree in Sports Coaching from Durham University and is studying a part time Masters in Sports Psychology at Loughborough University.
- Level 3 Women’s Artistic Club Coach
- Level 1 General Gymnastics
Verity Mist – Preschool & Club Coach – Pre-Competitive Lead Coach
Verity has been working with artistic gymnasts for a number of years and has taken girls to regional finals up to Level 3. Her experience covers both development and full squad gymnastics and she has also previous experience coaching recreational and boys, and she has previously been a qualified club judge.
- Level 3 Women’s Technical Artistic Club Coach
- Level 1 Preschool Qualification
Becky Dennis – Club Coach
Becky is an experienced Women’s Artistic coach who has previously taken gymnasts to county and regional finals at Voluntary Levels & Classic Challenge. She has coached girls’ squad, and girls’ and boys’ development and has also attended General Gymnastics judging training. A previous gymnast herself, Becky has a real knack for encouraging team spirit among her gymnasts and boosting self-esteem and confidence in her girls.
- Level 3 Women’s Technical Artistic Club Coach
- Level 1 General Gymnastics
- General Gymnastics Judging Course
Tracey Manton – Club Coach
An experienced coach with many years of coaching across a variety of clubs, Tracey has a knack for bringing out the best in our older girls, encouraging them to progress through more challenging skills with both technical confidence and artistic flair.
- Level 3 Women’s Artistic Club Coach
Iwona Fraszczak – Club Coach
Iwona has experience in both recreational and more recently in development gymnastics. She has a real passion for developing her own knowledge of the sport and a keen eye for new ideas, and is also qualified in a number of other associated disciplines including Exercise to Music & Aerial Hoop.
- Level 3 Women’s Technical Artistic Club Coach
Pip Manning – Coach – General Gymnastics Lead Coach
A previous gymnast, Pip took to coaching like a duck to water after her daughter joined a class and never looked back (other versions of this phrase sometimes include ‘has been sucked in, never to escape!’) Pip worked in education for 5 years including working in schools for children with disabilities and additional needs, expertise she has already channelled into coaching. She is now a full time member of staff at meridian, working across preschool, Gym For All and Squads. A qualified judge, Pip works across a wide range of abilities and ages in the gym and brings her sense of humour and patience to every session.
- Level 2 Women’s Artistic Coach
- Women’s Artistic Club Judge
Josie Raymond – Coach – Development Lead Coach
Some people grow up in a gym and Josie is definitely one of those people! Still a competing gymnastic with a Classic Silver National Final and National Grade 1 under her belt in the last year, Josie has a passion for delivering the building blocks of successful gymnastics to our most talented young gymnasts, and leads one of our Performance squads for age 5+. She has already had success with her gymnasts with trophies at County Classic Brass and success at Compulsory 6 and County Voluntary 6. Josie is often seen elsewhere in the gym coaching GFA, General and Preschool classes and is currently working on a British Gymnastics Level 3 Apprenticeship Qualification at Meridian.
- Level 2 Women’s Artistic Coach
- General Gymnastics Judging Course
Hayley Duffield – Coach
Hayley is an experienced coach who worked in recreational gymnastics in Peterborough for many years and has continued to work with children since taking a break from gymnastics. We are delighted to welcome her back to the sport as one of our lead Gym For All coaches.
- Level 2 Women’s Artistic Coach
Joy Watling – Coach & Welfare Officer
Joy is an experienced coach who particularly enjoys working with older general level gymnasts and brings extensive judging experience to her coaching
- Level 2 Women’s Artistic Coach
- Time to Listen Award
Mat Cooper – Senior Club Coach
Mat joins Meridian with a long history of working in our local county; indeed he coached some of our staff during their gymnastics careers as far back as 2011! He enjoys coaching from recreational up to squad/competition level and works across the gym supporting staff and gymnasts with bigger skills and providing coach development and mentoring, as well as providing cover for coaches attending courses and competitions. Qualified in both women’s (WAG) and men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG), his preference is for working with female gymnasts but he is currently supporting our boy’s side as it develops to its next phase as part of his job role. Mat combines fun and hard work in his sessions and we are very much enjoying his influence and ideas in the gym.
- Level 4 Women’s Artistic Senior Club Coach
- Level 3 Men’s Artistic Club Coach
- Women’s Artistic Regional Judge
Amelie Raymond – Coach
Amelie has been involved in gymnastics for most of her life and took up coaching after finishing her own competitive career. She has worked in recreational and development gymnastics and loves to use her extensive dancing experience to work on artistic routine building. As part of the owner family, Amelie will continue to appear around the gym as choreography and coaching cover over the next few years, but is now moving on to the next stage of her life to attend university.
- Level 3 Women’s Technical Artistic Coach (Modules 2,3,4)
- Men’s Artistic Club Judge
- General Gymnastics Judging Course
Level 1 Coaches
- Ebony Baxter
- Emma Baxter
- Julia Clay
- Charlotte Duffield
- Jess Farrow
- Sam Hodge
- Lottie Harrison
- Natalie Handley
- Clare Knibbs
- Louise Kirby
- Emma Lappage
- Danielle Sandford
Gymnastics Helper Course
- Chloe
- Darcy
- Emilyse
All staff have appropriate safeguarding, DBS and all Level 2’s will have First Aid training.