Montgomeryshire’s sporting stars honoured

Sports stars from across north Powys have been honoured at the 2014 Montgomeryshire Annual 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 in sport at all levels. The event was supported by McDonalds, Newtown for the second year running.

The awards night were held at Newtown’s entertainment venue Hafren. Over 60 nominations were received for the latest awards, which saw the accolades go to:

- Junior Team of the Year: Buttington/Trewern C.P. School Junior Sports Team (pictured)

- Senior Team of the Year: Llanfair United Football Club

- Young Sports Leader: Kay Davies

- Volunteer of the Year: Sue Lawrence (Montgomery Tennis Club)

- Coach of the Year: Barry Williams (Welshpool Rugby Club)

- Club of the Year: Maldwyn Dragons

- Disabled Sports Personality of the Year: Ben Jones

- Junior Sports Personality of the Year – U12’s: Iestyn Price

- Junior Sports Personality of the Year – U14’s: Ryan Lewis

- Junior Sports Personality of the Year – U18’s: Abigail Bowers

- Senior Sports Personality of the Year: Andrew Davies

Services to Sports Awards were also presented to two Owen Bean and Paul Hillman to recognise their outstanding contribution to sport.

Several sports stars who competed in last year’s Commonwealth Games were also recognised for their outstanding achievements.  They were: Andrew Davies (Athletics), Alan Jones (Judo), Caroline Taylor (Bowls), Damion Arzu (Wrestling), Hazel Wilson (Bowls), Kathy Pearce (Bowls), Mathew Ellis (Para-cycling), Oliver Gwilt (Badminton).

Bill Marlow and Julia Rees were also recognised for their outstanding achievement which saw Bill pick up the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Unsung Hero 2014 award while Julia finished in the top three of the Community Coach of the Year category in last year’s Wales Sport Awards.

Cllr Graham Brown, Powys County Council’s Cabinet Member for Sports Development, said: “This year’s award were of the highest calibre and it just shows how many talented and dedicated sports people we have.

“I would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s awards, who fully deserve their accolades, but also everyone who was nominated.  We are extremely privileged to have so many talented sports people in the area.”

Full details of winners

Junior Team of the Year: Buttington/Trewern C.P. School Junior Sports Team

Buttington/Trewern C.P. School Junior Sports Team have taken part in a range of varied sports. The teaching staff has an excellent sporting ethos of ‘Try your hardest’ to all the pupils, encouraging good sportsmanship and fair play. Both boys and girls get opportunities to play sport, whatever their ability. The energy and enthusiasm shown by the school encourages pupils with particular extra talent to go onto specialist training with a high percentage going on to succeed further in their chosen sport. Some have attended championships in swimming, wrestling and judo with others have attended football academies at Shrewsbury, Newtown and TNS. The accolades are endless and ongoing and the pupils transfer their basic sporting skills and successfully apply those skills across all sports.

Senior Team of the Year: Llanfair United Football Club (representatives right)

Llanfair United Football Club are a club on the up. With two men’s team, a ladies team and a youth team, the club won five trophies last season. Their ambition of getting the men’s first team into the top flight of football is well underway and over the last four years, they have overseen considerable pitch developments including the turning of the pitch to get it to the correct size, introducing drainage and making the pitch bigger to meet the standards required for promotion. The club also introduced a new stand, which won the Groundtastic award for best new non-league stand and become the first club to win the award.  They are currently installing changing rooms, being partly funded by a £21,000 grant from the Welsh Ground Improvement Scheme, to meet the criteria for the Huws Gray Alliance league. The club also run a number of junior teams, providing many opportunities for boys and girls to play football.  Many of the players now playing for their senior teams have been through their junior system.

Young Sports leader: Kay Davies

With over 130 hours of sports volunteering over the last 18 months, Kay continues to impress sports development officers and teaching staff at Llanidloes High School, where she has set up a very successful 5x60 badminton session at the high school, which is now running twice a week. Kay gives up her time at Llanidloes Tennis Club twice a week while she jumped at the chance to assist with the 5x60 tennis league and helped to score matches and registered the players. She set up a lunchtime primary school tennis session at Llanidloes Primary School and coached 10-15 children for eight weeks. Her many weekends have seen upskilling herself and she has completed various courses. She also volunteers at Shrewsbury Tennis Club on weekends to develop her tennis coaching and runs camps in the holidays. During the week she also assists with Llanidloes Junior Hockey Clubs training. Kay is a role model for younger students aspiring to become a coach and she was recently awarded a place on the Gold Ambassador Steering Group.

Volunteer of the Year: Sue Lawrence (pictured)

Since joining Montgomery Tennis Club in 2007, Sue’s philosophy has been to make tennis accessible and enjoyable for children of all ages and abilities. In 2014, the tennis club had 36 children receiving junior tennis coaching and the age range was from four to 13. Not only has she entered junior teams into competitions, Sue has organised competitions which has attracted junior players as far afield as Llandudno. Over the year Sue’s coaching and tournaments programme has generated a healthy income for the club which has ensured that coaching is sustainable and has helped to generate income for resurfacing the courts and providing floodlights. Montgomery is a small community but support came from many other villages where the need to provide coaching for children was greatly appreciated. Sue has put the tennis club on the map as a centre for junior tournaments and their junior section is the most active in the county with only Newtown rivalling it.

Club of the Year: Maldwyn Dragons

2014 has been a year of substantial change and development for Maldwyn Dragons Gymnastic Club – a year in which the business plan of the previous four years reached realisation.  Having evolved from a leisure centre sports club to a registered limited company, the club took occupancy of its own facility and immediately increased gymnastics provision from two days to seven days a week. With a membership of 340 and a waiting list of over 80, Maldwyn Dragons continues to grow in strength.  The club offers coaching for pre-school children through to adult classes, ‘Free-style’ gymnastics, and cheerleading.  It is also a flagship club for disability coaching and work closely with disability sports development. Maldwyn Dragons contributes to the local economy directly employing six coaches and the club carries out community outreach work at local schools.  The club also has a gymnast in the Welsh Development Squad regularly training in Swansea while Head Coach Julia Rees was nominated in the Community Coach of the Year in the Sport Wales / BBC Wales Sports Awards 2014.

Disabled Sports Personality of the Year: Ben Jones

At the end of 2013, Ben was given the opportunity to work with British Triathlon to undertake a training programme for possible selection into their talent squad. Having learnt to swim in four weeks (in order to pass the initial selection process) and not owning or never riding a road or triathlon bike, he joined Hafren Bike Club and Welshpool Sharks embarked on intensive training programme set by British Triathlon. He was rewarded for his hard work with selection into the squad in February 2014.  He was entered into the British Duathlon Championship and competed in the para event, lining up alongside Tanni Grey-Thompson and came away with a bronze medal. Having never competed in a Triathlon previously Ben entered a number of able bodied events around the country to learn more about the sport which include the local event in Newtown where he won the Under 18 category. He went on to win PT3 category in the first ever Welsh Paratriathlon event in Llanelli and Silver in the British Championship in Liverpool. Ben is now studying in Loughborough on request of British Triathlon so he will be able to train under their supervision during term time and will continue with the local clubs when home. In Wheelchair Basketball, Ben has been instrumental in assisting with the setting up of the Mid Wales Meteors Basketball club in Welshpool. Alongside his brother, Frankie they took over the coaching in April for both the running and wheelchair basketball sections in order to keep the club going. Ben has also been very active in coaching and assisting the 5x60 scheme in Caereinion High School.

Coach of the Year: Barry Williams (pictured right)

Over the last three years, Barry has increased the under 8’s team from a collection of seven children to an under 10/11’s current squad of over 20 enthusiastic boys.  He works tirelessly to attract new members and it is down to this determination and strong work ethos that has resulted in the increase in numbers. Barry gives up an enormous amount of time. Not only does he train two teams twice a week but attends weekend games supporting the children. He also organises fundraising and social events, flyers, tournaments and trips to festivals. At the heart of everything he does are the kids. He always finds something positive to say to them at the end of a game and focuses on their achievements even if it is a loss. He is always fair and treats the kids equally ensuring they all get game time, no matter what their ability. Barry encourages true sportsmanship at all times – discouraging foul play, illegal tackles and taking seriously any disrespectful actions by the children or parents.  He expects the children to shake hands and cheer after every match.

Junior Sports Personality of the Year – U12’s: Iestyn Price

Talented Iestyn shows a huge interest in the world of sport and performs very well in a number of sports, mainly football, rugby, swimming and cross-country.  He plays football for his school, Welshpool and Cardiff Academy, plays rugby for Cobra Rugby Club Under 11’s and has also swam for his school and Welshpool Sharks. Iestyn is in his last year of primary school and has represented his school in competitions over the years but has matured during the last year.  He is captain of the teams this year because of his special determination within his sport and he achieved a great deal in a number of sports both on a county and national level. He demonstrates motivation and determination within such a range of sports and his commitment to the world of sport has led to praise and commendation.

Junior Sports Personality of the Year – U14’s: Ryan Lewis

After taking up squash only three years ago, Ryan has climbed to be and currently is the Welsh number one in the under 13’s age group.  He was presented with his first Welsh cap in March 2014 at the age of 11 when he represented Wales in the under 13 age group in the 5 Nations Mixed Team Championships and competing against England, France, Ireland and Scotland, where the team won a bronze medal. Ryan, who plays for Llanfyllin Squash Club’s Senior Team and competes in the Shropshire Leagues, is a member of the North Wales Academy Squad and the Welsh National Squad and travels to Prestatyn and Cardiff for training. Last year he won the North Wales Junior Open and Shropshire Junior Open, finished second in the Karakal South Wales Junior Open and finished third in the Wycliffe Junior Open.

Junior Sports Personality of the Year – U18’s: Abigail Bowers

Having mastered the short hurdles over the past few years, Abigail turned her attention to the 300m hurdles.  Despite its difficult transition, she grasped the technical differences and understood the changes required over the longer distance and competed in her first 30m hurdle event. It was such an impressive debut, her coach put more emphasis into this new event over the rest of the season which saw her finish the season ranked number one in the UK for the 300m hurdles.  She dominated the Welsh Championships, winning three gold medals in the 80m and 300m hurdles and added the long jump to her championship haul. She continues to work hard and is a dedicated athlete who trains up to four times a week and she is now starting to attract support and interest from a wider field and was recently invited to apply for a British Athletics Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) award course. Abigail is now a member of the Welsh Relay Development Squad, which aims to focus on athletes with the potential to compete at major events such as the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games in the future.

Senior Sports Personality of the Year: Andrew Davies

Andrew had many wins in 2014 but the pinnacle for the year was representing Wales in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in the marathon. Andrew’s progress and determination have been witnessed by those close to him once he set out to compete in the Commonwealth Games in 2014.  The strides and sacrifices Andrew made, firstly in achieving the A standard qualification and then selection, have been immense. He has dedicated many hours and covered many miles to this cause and has had support from all quarters, especially his family. By his own admission, the race could have been easier but simply being on the starting line is a stellar achievement.

Services to Sports Awards

Owen Bean

About 18 months ago, Owen suffered a serious head injury which meant he has had to take early retirement from his role as a Learning Support Assistant from Ysgol Cedewain.  This was a great loss to the school where Owen had been for many years but particularly to the young people in Powys who have severe learning difficulties. Owen strived for many years to promote the sporting achievements of pupils and provide them with access to many sports as possible and for those with very limited mobility, he made moving enjoyable through his Busy Feet sessions.  Under his management, the school have won local and national cups for many sports and one of Owen’s footballing protégés was selected to play for Wales. Owen’s empathy and humanity made young people want to perform to their best under his encouraging support.  He has given a generation of young people with severe learning difficulties a greater sense of self-esteem through this.

Paul Hillman

Under Paul’s leadership, Newtown Swimming Club has been transformed with membership increase from around 25 swimmers to over 80.  Not only is he responsible for the training and development of the club’s swimmers, Paul has been instrumental in the development of an increasingly competent coaching team, supporting and encouraging them all through successful completion of their Level 1 coaching award. Paul’s dedication and commitment to the club and the individual swimmers is unquestioned.  Not only does he spend time on the poolside each training night, he spends many hours behind the scenes attending to paperwork, preparing programmes for training sessions and organising gala entries. He is always available to parents or swimmers for help and advice with anything swimming related, from training tips to nutrition or managing competition nerves. The skills and qualities Paul brings to his coaching role are many and varied. A natural leader, he is well organised, focussed and disciplined. His enthusiasm and passion for swimming are infectious, he is able to motivate and inspire those around him, both adults and children alike.