THE CREAM of the two counties’ sporting talent was in attendance to celebrate the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Sports Awards at Worcester Warriors RFC’s Sixways home on Tuesday evening.
Stars from the rugby union, cricket, cycling, swimming, football and rowing worlds, as well as many other sports, were among a crowd of more than 260 who came to discover who had picked up the winner’s award in 12 categories, as well as the headline Sports Personality of the Year Award (SPOTY) – sponsored by Bullivant Media – publishers of the Redditch Standard.
An online public vote had decided who would be crowned SPOTY winner and, in an extremely tight vote, Worcester Warriors star Chris Pennell was crowned the victor to the great acclaim of those present at Sixways.
The four other contenders for the lead award were Worcestershire and England cricket star Moeen Ali, Redditch’s British U23 cross-country mountain biking champion Beth Crumpton, Redditch-born multiple medal-winning Paralympic swimmer Claire Cashmore and Hereford’s Sascha Kindred OBE, the six-time Paralympic gold medal-winning swimmer.
A full selection of pictures from the event will be featured in next week’s paper, but as a taster here is the list of award winners for the remaining categories in the event, which was spearheaded by Sports Partnership Herefordshire & Worcestershire.
Junior Female Sports Person of the Year – Chloe Peplow (Birmingham City Ladies Football Club); Junior Male Sports Person of the Year – Declan McManus (Worcester Athletic Club); Community Project of the Year – Make it Like Mandeville; Junior Team of the Year – Ross Rowing Club WJ14 squad; Community Coach of the year – Jon Newton (Grass Roots Football Development); Young Volunteer of the Year – Joseph Grange (Lower Teme Lions Football Club); Volunteer of the Year – Dave Guest (Worcester Ladies Rugby Club); Community Club of the Year – Hereford Roller Girls; BBC Newcomer of the Year – Evie Richards (Malvern Cycle Sport); Senior Sports Person of the Year – Morgan Baynham-Williams (Ross Rowing Club); Disabled Sports Person of the Year – Lauren Rowles (Coventry Godiva Harriers/Team England); Unsung Hero Award – John Curnock (Worcester Amateur Boxing Club).
