Rushcliffe Sports Awards celebrated its 10th year last week at The Becket School. The evening started with Councillor John Cottee, Portfolio Holder for Community Services, welcoming guests to recognise the dedication and commitment of the borough’s athletes, coaches and volunteers.

Special guests included players from professional clubs – Nottingham Rugby Club’s Dan Montagu and Billy Robinson, Luke Wood and Andy Carter from Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and Nottingham Forest player Ben Osborn.

Awards were also presented by Simon Starr, Director of Sport Nottinghamshire, Dan Philpotts, Head of Academy at South Nottinghamshire Academy, Allen Graham, Chief Executive of Rushcliffe Borough Council, Councillor John Cottee and the Mayor of Rushcliffe, Councillor Ron Hetherington.

During the evening the audience watched a demonstration from the world of Table Tennis from England player Emma Vickers and Evie Collier, who is ranked in the top 20 in England.

Founding members Dan Philpotts and Brian Knowles took to the stage to talk through the inspiration behind hosting the first awards evening 10 years ago, what challenges they faced and how the awards have evolved over the years.

west bridgford club of the year1

Rugby had an extremely successful evening with West Bridgford RFC taking home two awards and Nottingham Touch picking up the runners up prize for Club of the Year.

Amateur Team of the Year – West Bridgford Rugby Club’s Women’s Team – Winners

Club of the Year – West Bridgford Rugby Club – Winner

Nottingham Touch Rugby Club – Runner up

Robert Linthwaite Honorary Secretary & Director of West Bridgford Rugby Club said ‘It is a honour to be presented with this award. Over the past 12 months we have worked tirelessly raising over a quarter of a million pounds to improve the club house and the facilities we have at the club. This has helped all 3 of our senior means teams gain promotion and set up a regular 4th team. The success spread through the club with our Ladies team winning the RFU National Plate to become national champions’.