Royal Wootton Bassett RFC

A couple of weeks ago we were delighted to announce the winners of the Club Person of the Year Awards for the 2018/19 season.

Senior Club Person Award

The Senior Club Person of the Year Award went to Martin Chard.

As you will all know, Martin has been the Team Manager of the Colts for the last few years and has done a fantastic job in orgainising the sides off the pitch.

It has been part of the club’s playing strategy to ensure that we manage the transition between Colts and Senior rugby as seamlessly as possible to ensure that there is a continual supply of new talent to the senior sides. This is paying off as we see more and more home-bred players now representing the club at the highest level.

Martin’s commitment to ensuring the Colts teams get the best and most challenging fixtures they can, in a well structured environment, has meant we have been consistently able to field two sides, when other local clubs can’t provide one. The commitment shown by Martin is thoroughly deserving of this award.

Junior Club Person Award

Since we started the Junior Club Person Award there has generally been one stand-out candidate who has been awarded the trophy. This year the decision was far more difficult as there were several junior members who deserve consideration and recognition for what they do for the club.

For example, Rhys Floyd was awarded the D&W Volunteer for the Year Award for all the work he does with our U9s and U15s teams.

Susan Cohen has done a superb job helping out with the coaching of our Under 6 team.

Since having to give up playing after injury, Aiden Penderleith has taken up coaching with the M&J section and again has been highly commended at Dorset & Wilts level.

But this year’s junior award winner was Evie Bowers who comes from a stalwart family of club volunteers.

Despite never having played rugby, Evie has shown total commitment to the club. She has been a regular helper in the kiosk on Sundays and having taken up sports support coaching at school she has refereed at tag level and is now also a coach with the Under 6s.

This year we have also seen Evie on the gate on a Saturday selling programs - a job which is often a chanllenge to get senior members to do! Well done Evie - you are a deserving winner.