As I write this, the dust has barely settled on Chelsea and Liverpool's epic 4-4 Champions League draw. What a great advertisement for the sport the game was - for once, top-flight football actually looked like fun. Doesn't happen very often, so let's cherish that feeling...

"When we launched in November '06 everything was pretty much stacked up against us. 

Street Surfing UK is to become a major partner in a new campaign to take surfing-related sports to children across the UK.

Thanks to its innovative design, the Fremont Charcoal Shirt was victorious in one of the most renowned and difficult international design competitions. Within the framework of the red dot award, in the category "product design 2009", the shirt was honoured with the quality seal "red dot" for design excellence by a first-class jury of experts. This award is only given to particularly creative, innovative and premium quality products.

As editor of SGB, I would like to apologise unreservedly to both Karakal and HEAD after our recent piece on Squash and Badminton. Product for each manufacturer appeared with the other manufacturer's words, which may have led to confusion among our readers. I also wish to emphasise that the error was not the writer Robin Barwick's, rather it was an error that happened during the layout process that was not picked up during proofreading.

Hitting the UK this April, the cool new energy shot 'Target' zaps tiredness and gives drinkers the boost needed for long-lasting energy.

Ball manufacturer Molten has renewed its sponsorship of the Spartan South Midlands Football League, the Kent Football League and the GB International Men's Basketball teams.

From April, 82% of English councils will offer free swimming for the over 60s and over 60% of councils will offer free swimming for under 16s. Leading swimming brand Zoggs has partnered with one of the UK's leading leisure operators, DC Leisure, to provide customised initiatives to support the two age groups. DC Leisure has 71 pools in the UK; 59 offer free swimming to over 60s and 45 offer free swimming to under 16s.

Following on from the excellent 'Anatomy of Pilates' book launched recently, Lotus publishing has added The Anatomy of Stretching, and The Anatomy of Sports Injuries to their collection, SRP £16.99 and £14.99 respectively.

A groundbreaking ice pack, which reduces pain and improves joint mobility among osteoarthritis patients and helps athletes recover quicker and more effectively from injury or surgery, has been launched by North Yorkshire healthcare innovations company Salitas.

The British Triathlon Federation has signed a five-year deal with elite triathlon clothing brand 2XU, who have become their Official Wetsuits Supplier. In addition to financial support, 2XU will provide wetsuits to the British Triathlon Federation Talent Pathway Squads, as well as offering discounted rates for British Triathlon Age Group team members.

The sporting industry came out in force this year to visit SMex, the specialist event for the sports merchandise industry at Wembley Stadium. Visitors from Premiership football clubs Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle and many overseas clubs joined ASDA, Llanelli Scarlets, London Wasps, Munster Rugby, and Warwickshire CCC to take advantage of the opportunity to source sports merchandise products from over 125 companies.

Crocs, the leading moulded footwear brand, has launched the brand new Prepair collection, which is specifically designed to aid the recovery of foot and leg muscles following any sporting activity.

To mark the 20th Anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, families of the victims were presented with a memorial AFC Liverpool Uhlsport shirt at the club's home game on April 7th.

Slazenger has signed a new agreement with Scottish Hockey, which will see them as an Official Sponsorship Partner until September 2011. The deal sees the brand supporting Junior Scottish players in their build up to the U18 Europeans and the U16 Four Nations Tournaments.

Emerald Alpine the longest established outdoor shop in Limerick, has joined fast-growing buying group STAG.  Vincent McCarthy of Emerald Alpine says: "Quite simply the decision to join STAG is a no-brainer, the positive margin improvements are too good to ignore."

The Q4 show had a different layout to the Q3 show, which we attended in January. The floorplan was more open, but not as a result of feedback from members after the Q3 show, as General Manager Barry Mellis explained: "Every time we have a show, we're going to change the layout," he told SGB. "We want to surprise the members - they love it when it stays the same, but then they complain that it's not been changed! We want to keep things fresh for the members."

There are three grades of amateur tennis player in the UK: the hard core league stalwarts who wrap themselves up in multiple layers to doggedly pound balls against a floodlit practice wall in mid-winter; then there are the less obsessed yet still committed players who start limbering up once British Summer Time has commenced in March; and finally there is the rest, the more casual majority who barely think twice about tennis until the last week of June, but once the television cameras turn to the short-cut grass, summer showers and a smiling Sue Barker in London SW19, there comes a veritable explosion of enthusiasm for tennis around the nation. It's like a hypnotic trigger. Tennis courts throughout the UK are filled, supermarkets sell-out of strawberries, and with a bit of luck, sports retailers really start to see tennis rackets selling through.

While tennis rackets at the Wimbledon Championships will come in all colours and technological variations, the balls at Wimbledon will be as consistent as they have been for the past 105 years, which is the length of time Slazenger has been the official supplier of tennis balls to the Championships. The All England Lawn Tennis Club claims it is the longest partnership in sporting goods history.

SGB: How long have you been distributing LineBreak in the UK? What is LineBreak?

Mark Gladwin: I set the business up in April 2005. It was new to the UK then - I launched the brand here. LineBreak had been going since 2003 or so in Australia. We were awarded distribution of the brand in 2005 and set up the brand from there. The business is based in Warwickshire, where we work out of a warehouse unit, distributing the brand across the whole of the UK and Ireland.

Not only has the equipment moved on apace, benefiting from the carbon technology we see in tennis rackets, but the accessibility has increased too. My recollection of hockey was playing with wooden sticks on sodden pitches from age 13 to 16, then never having the chance to play again; hockey is now accessible for players from age 5 to 70+. England Hockey's David Faulkner says: "One of our targets is to get 10,000 more adults playing hockey. We have men and women who still aspire to put on an England shirt even if they didn't make it to International level when they were younger - in fact, our over 65's and over 70's hockey teams are world champions."

Like many successful business people, Malcolm Craghill who runs Temple Sports and Craghill Boot Store has a multi-dimensional background. He is Keswick born and bred, his three shops are in Keswick and Cockermouth and he originally worked in his father's wholesale confectioners in Keswick. But this is no home boy. In his teens he spent a year in America (when that was a rarity) and he has managed a nightclub. Malcolm started in the sports business because "my three interests were girls, drinking and sport and I quickly realised I couldn't make a living out of the first two."

The holiday didn't quite go to plan but once I'd been discharged from hospital things seemed to pick up. The flight went fine; I wasn't that nervous surprisingly and as a believer in accepting in-flight hospitality any shaky moments I did have soon evaporated. Scheduled flights definitely work out cheaper for someone like me who likes to have more than their share of the drinks trolley! Disappointingly spirits are no longer available on the early morning flights apparently (dawn had already broken so not that early really) but wine sufficed.

It's a long, slow job when you come on board any magazine as editor. Some editors make radical changes immediately, and sometimes it even works; some editors, myself included, prefer to feel their way and make changes as they go. Over the last few months there has been significant investment in SGB, as we've identified some things that need changing and improving. The sports side of the magazine has seen the bulk of this so far, but this year the onus is on building the SGB Outdoor side of the publication.

The Mountain Boot Co Ltd recently concluded its year end proceedings. Following a significant period of growth during 2008, where overall business grew by 16%, the company achieved a number of significant milestones, including hitting its five-year  sales target set by Deuter of  doubling sales in the  UK market - inside three years!

Regatta is now sponsoring a primetime TV programme on ITV in the shape of Countrywise, presented by Paul Heiney. The presenter explores Britain's countryside and meets the people who make it special. It will combine items presented by Heiney with features drawn from ITV's regions and it will explore the breadth of Britain's countryside, from its crumbliest coastline and happiest valley, to its secret tunnels, rescued gardens and haunted hills.

HI-TEC has revealed an impressive 12.5% increase in its 2008 UK Outdoor footwear sales. The brand's continued growth and investment in the Outdoor market maintains positive momentum for 2009 with their forward sales orders increased by over 65% compared to the same period in 2008. 

According to the OutDoor show's organisers, outdoor and cycling industry manufacturers appear determined to defy the current economic crisis. In fact, they say, never have so many companies made advance bookings of exhibition space for each of the world-leading trade shows, OutDoor (July 16 - 19, 2009) and EUROBIKE (September 2 - 5, 2009).

Verle Forest, a spectacular old growth forest 50km northeast of Gothenberg, Sweden, has been saved from imminent logging and will be preserved for future generations, thanks to a grant from the EOG Association for Conservation and tireless fundraising on the part of A Click for the Forest - an organisation created to buy threatened native woodland and forest in Sweden. The final grant was secured on Friday 13th March, just days before the cut-off date.

Whitby and Co has won a major award from Helle Knives for being their top international distributor in 2008.  Sales of Helle in the UK have increased by 350% from the year 2007 to 2008, a tremendous figure in its own right, but doubly so when you find that this figure doesn't take into account that Whitby actually only took on the distribution of Helle half way through the year, in June 2008.

Cleaning and proofing specialists Granger's is simplifying outdoor footwear care by launching a new ‘do-it-all' product.

Far from reducing its on-page presence, Asolo is running a media campaign this Spring that features double-page adverts across multiple outdoor titles in the UK and Ireland.

Foot specialist company Anatom has announced the latest dates for its series of Anatom Academy training courses. Aimed at footwear retailers and shop staff the Spring and Autumn workshops will take place throughout May and September across the UK .

Haglöfs officially opened its new UK/Ireland office and showroom mid-March in Staveley, Cumbria.

The end of March saw the OS Outdoor Show take over Birmingham's NEC - well, part of it, at least. The show, aimed at outdoors consumers, is packed with interesting things to do and see, plus plenty of outdoor products alongside tourist information on places to go and enjoy across the British Isles and further afield.

The North Face's Base Camp Duffel has been awarded the prestigious Editor's Choice Gold Award by Backpacker magazine. The Base Camp Duffel was introduced in 1979 and celebrates its 30th birthday in 2009. It is The North Face's classic, bomber expedition duffel.

The McKenzie 4-layer Jacket is GoLite's new premier hard shell which provides 4 layer protection, but due to the use of Sympatex Reflection, which contains an aluminium layer which allows up to 75% of all body heat produced to be reflected, it only has a 3-layer weight.

Sometimes the smallest additions in life can make the biggest difference, and to ensure you get the very best from your camping experience Vango has gone the extra mile with its range of tent additions.

2009 sees the launch of an exciting new range of child carriers from LittleLife with multiple features to enhance comfort for both child and parent, such as a fully adjustable and anatomically shaped seat that comfortably supports children from 6 months up to 3 years old.

In the outdoor industry, every product is technical to some level; fabrics boast amazing technology, walking boots have different treatments or have technical linings, tools do everything but make the tea (unless it's a kettle, obviously). So when it comes to your staff, skimping on training is potentially short-changing your customers. If they don't have the right knowledge to sell the correct gear to the correct customer, you could be missing out on repeat business and recommendations galore.

While an awful lot of time and effort goes into choosing outer shells and mid layers, much less thought is given to the clothing worn beneath them. Yet ironically, no amount of breathability or waterproofing is going to keep someone comfortable if the layer next to their skin is cold, wet and clammy.

In June 2006, the EOG Association for Conservation was brought into being following a desire by the Outdoor Industry to collectively ‘put something back' into conserving and protecting the environment that it cared about so passionately.