Stars shine at sports awards

Sports stars from across North Powys were honoured at the Montgomeryshire Sports Awards.

 

The accolades, which are co-ordinated by Powys County Council's Sports Development team, recognise and celebrate sporting success of local individuals and teams involved in sport at all levels.

 

This year's awards were saw individuals and clubs recognised for their achievements in 2010 at a presentation evening at Theatr Hafren in Newtown.

 

Katie Hamer, Sports Development Officer with Powys County Council, said: "The evening was a great success and wonderful celebration of sport in Montgomeryshire. In addition to recognising our talented sports people, it gives everyone a chance to thank all the unsung heroes without whom, sport simply couldn't happen."

 

Among those presenting the awards was talented sportsman Andy Davies. Andy has played over 280 Welsh Premiership games for Caersws Football Club. Andy is also a talented runner, and ranks in Britain's elite fell runners.

 

The winners of the Montgomeryshire Sports Awards are:

 

* Junior Sports Team of the Year - Montgomery Cricket Club Under 11 team

* Senior Sports team of the Year - Welshpool Ladies Golf Club

* Volunteer of the Year - Nia Breeze

* Coach of the Year - Paul Hillman, Maldwyn Harriers Athletics Club

* Club of the Year - Maldwyn Harriers Athletics Club

* Services to Sport Award - Colin Davies, Montgomery Cricket Club

* Disability Sports Personality of the Year - Ffion Butler (swimming)

* Junior Sports Personality of the Year (Under 12s) - Harry Turner (Swimming)

* Junior Sports Personality of the Year (Under 18s) - Adele Nicoll (Athletics)

* Senior Sports Personality of the Year - Tim Davies (fell running)

 

The Montgomeryshire Sports Council also presented t-shirts to nominated individuals who have represented Wales or are Welsh Champions in their respective sports. They were Adelle Nicoll (athletics); James Dawson (mounted games); Daniel Jones (swimming); Steffan Jones (football); Lucy Davies (hockey); Gareth Holt (darts); Tim Davies (fell running); Frankie and Ben Jones (wheelchair basketball); and Chelsea Jackson (sailing).

 

 

 

The U11 Montgomery Cricket Club team went through the 2010 season unbeaten and finished Shropshire champions. Three of the squad also went on to represent the Mid Wales regional Under 12 team, playing in a year above their age group. Four of the squad members also regularly played in the Montgomery Under 13's team.

 

As a group, they have developed and matured together and have, without exception, been a supportive, encouraging and cohesive group throughout the season. Their behaviour on the pitch when representing Montgomery Cricket Club has been exemplary and they played cricket in the true spirit of the game being a credit to the game, the cricket club and their families.

Welshpool Golf Club Ladies team have successfully retained the Mid Wales handicap league for the forth consecutive year, a huge achievement for such a small section. Welshpool Ladies also enter the National Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday competitions. For the second consecutive year the team has reached the seventh round in the Daily Mail narrowly missing out on the British national finals by one round.

 

Nia is a very active sports volunteer in Powys she has been chosen as a Gold Award Young Ambassadors to represent Powys to promote the Olympic Games and mass participation to youngsters. Nia was chosen out of one of fifty young volunteers from the United Kingdom to represent her chosen sport of athletics at the Young Leader Camp organised by UK Athletics.

 

Nia volunteers at Star Track Easter & summer Athletics Camps, 5 x 60 scheme during school terms. She is also a UKA qualified level 1 Athletics coach and is about to start her level 2 course.

 

Nia trains and competes regularly in competitions and is ranked 7th in Wales for the 100m and 200m. This participation in athletics outside of her volunteering means she has experience and in-depth knowledge of athletics helping her volunteering and coaching

 

Even though he works full-time, Paul puts in many volunteering hours week nights at the pool and track, often till after 9pm. Many weekends are taken up with competitions; athletics in summer, cross country in winter and swimming gala's, often far from home mean long hours travelling 5am-9pm is not unusual.

 

In addition to this is behind the scenes planning and preparation for regular sessions and competitions / events i.e. paperwork, phone calls, submitting entries etc,

 

Many of the children both swimmers and athletes, are achieving success throughout Wales and beyond. Recently three of the U15 girls qualified to compete in the pentathlon at the Welsh School Championships in Cardiff - in itself a great achievement for a small club.

 

The club is involved in a sport covering a wide range of disciplines (track and field, cross-country, fell, road racing) and covers ages from 8 to 70+.

 

In total the club as over 120 athletes available to all abilities for either competition or fitness. The club are involved assisting the Star Track Scheme with Powys County Council's Sports Development team during school holidays, organising a cross-country event & track and field event for local Primary Schools.

 

Outstanding Athletes include Welsh Internationals - Sian Swanson, Catrin Thomas, Tim Davies, Andy Davies, Ed Davies, Roland Stafford, Trefor Pugh. All of this work has only been possible through a strong and dedicated committee which meets on a regular basis.

 

Colin has been a member of Montgomery Cricket Club for 40 years. For over 35 years, he was a player for the club and county, and more recently has been involved as an umpire. Colin has become a qualified umpire for the Shropshire league and officiates, unpaid, at all Montgomery Cricket Club 1st team games, home and away. In 2010 he was voted as Umpire of the Year by the Shropshire League team captains.

 

During the early months of 2010 the Club undertook a £50,000 programme of machinery upgrading and buildings renovation at its ground. Colin helped raise funds for this programme, but he personally negotiated and sourced steel work for ground equipment and construction, to a value of over £8,000 and obtained sponsorship of over £1,000.

 

Ffion's love of Swimming began at primary school and she now trains with Newtown and District Swimming club.

 

She competed at the Disability Sport England National Short Course Championships in Sheffield in 2010, coming away with a bronze medal in the 50m breast stroke and a gold medal for Wales in the 4 x 100m relay. Ffion is also a member of the Disability Sport Wales Academy and travels regularly to Swansea for National squad training.

 

Ffion has found that her swimming fitness has helped her to excel at other sports, winning the high school 1500m on Sports day and competing in the Santa run for her Swimming club.

 

Harry Turner is a pupil at Llanidloes CP School and belongs to Newtown & District Amateur Swimming Club.

 

Harry has won over 60 medals and trophies, 7 of which are national. His particular swimming achievements are individual wins at: the Powys Primary School Championships for 3 years and in doing so setting a number of records; the Urdd National Primary School Championships (yr 4 & 5); 5 gold medals at the recent Swim Wales Northern Championships at the age of 11.

 

Harry has the ability to compete and win across all of the 4 stroke disciplines (fly, freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke). His ability is in no doubt and what makes it more impressive is that he is competing against peers who train around 10-12 hrs per week; pool time limits Harry's training to about 2-3 ½ hrs per week. On a number of occasions, Harry is the 'last man' in the relay team and very often has to make up half a length to win the race

 

Harry also plays for the U12 Llanidloes football team, TNS Academy and Llanidloes U11 Rugby Team. He is part of Llanidloes cubs/scouts and during the summer months he can be found playing tennis and golf.

 

 

Adele is a pupil at Welshpool High School is climbing the ranks in both shot put, discuss and pentathlon competitions. She holds the number one spot for the shot put in the UK and holds second place in the discus in her age group.

 

Until recently, Adele was a member of the Oswestry Olympians club, but has now joined one of the UK's top athletics clubs, Birchfield Harriers. She travels 3 times a week to Birmingham to have training and also once a week to Deeside to have specialist training.

 

After a very successful number of seasons when Tim ran for Wales and Great Britain, he suffered a debilitating illness which has taken him nearly two years to recover. This year has seen Tim return to being number one in fell running in Great Britain, being named the British Fell Running Champion, Welsh Fell Running Champion, and British and Welsh Trail Running Champion.

 

Over a series of four very tough races, Tim won the final race to win the championship. In addition to these impressive achievements Tim is virtually unbeatable in many of the local Fell runs both in Mid and North Wales and his main rival has become his younger brother Andy.