Draycote Water Sailing Club awarded Club of the Year in the Rugby Sports Awards
by Jeremy Atkins 19 Apr 2022 04:45 PDT
Draycote Water Sailing Club team receive Club of the Year in the Rugby Sports Awards © Rugby Borough Council
Strange as it may sound, Draycote Water Sailing Club was awarded Club of the Year in the Rugby Sports Awards last week. The seeming anomaly is explained by the fact that the club is situated in the Borough of Rugby and has nothing to do with oval balls.
Commodore William Whittaker who collected the award on behalf of the club commented: "It is great to be recognised as the best sports club in our area - this is recognition of the tremendous hard work put in by our Club Manager, Dave Rowe, and his team, supported by the committee."
The Club was recognised for its tremendous response to the Covid pandemic, providing safe sporting competition as soon as it was allowed, as well as its significant improvement of the women's changing facilities and introduction of a Junior Committee with a Junior Commodore, voted for by younger members.
As well as the Club, members were shortlisted for five of the nine other awards. Founder member, Harry Sayers, who recently stepped down as President after 24 years, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Feva National Champions, Millie Irish (and Junior Commodore) and Jess Powell both won Excellence in Sport Awards. Others shortlisted were:
- Ethan Cheshire: Young Volunteer of the Year
- Millie Irish: Young Sportsperson of the Year
- Steve Irish: Coach of the Year
The competition was especially tight with many members of GBR / England squads for their age groups in a vast variety of sports including Gymnastics, American Football, Cricket, Artistic Swimming, Rugby Union and Disabled Sport. Sportswoman of the Year was a Tokyo Olympic finalist and world champion, canoeist Kimberley Woods.