Last Friday May 30th saw the latest in a long line of successful Player Awards dinners at Cambridge Rugby…
Enlivened – as ever – by the presence of so many of the Women’s squad, Exiles and Colts, it proved to be a stellar evening. Whilst there was some sadness around the departure of a large number of our 1st XV from recent seasons, the evening proved how strong the Club is from the ‘top down’ and there were many awards presented.
The Colts awards got proceedings underway:
Player’s Player – Zachary Cornwell
Forward of the Year – Tom Pemberton
Back of the Year – Caleb Reeves
Club Man – Kit Colby
The first set of 1st XV Awards – including the Supporters Player of the Season – were presented by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Steve Jackson:
“The Supporters award is always interesting – it’s not always the player you expect that wins it, but it’s a mark of respect for the effort that fans see every time that player goes out on to the field. I was really pleased to see that picked up by Jared Cardew – my BBC Radio Cambridgeshire POTS last time out. As for this year’s awards from myself, I had to introduce a new category – Moment of the Season – based on an observation I made up at Caldy back in September. With England 7s wing Nick Royle charging down the touchline, Ben Adams came out of nowhere and clattered him. I said at the time it’d be a hard one to beat and so it proved. Ben goes about his business and doesn’t get singled out often enough, so that was a pleasure, too. More difficult was the POTS award – there were some genuinely outstanding candidates, but I gave it to Pete White, who positively affected every game he was involved in, either starting or finishing, and was also outstanding in training. If you could bottle Pete’s drive and positivity, even under challenging circumstances, you could sell it for a lot of money!”
Women’s Awards
Players’ Player – Meredith Wynne
Coaches’ Player – Arianna Talas
Rounding off another superb season, Isa Sloot presented the Women’s awards, along with gifts and recognition for a number of players and coaches. Allegra and Co will be recruiting strongly again over the summer!
Exiles Awards
Players’ Player – Harry Hurst
Coaches’ Player – Malula Musonda
Whilst the Exiles didn’t have the most successful of seasons on the pitch, the training – and matchday – numbers have been outstanding and they’re a proper ‘Band of Brothers’ that are always looking for new players to join in the fun and games afforded by social rugby!
The evening concluded with the presentation of the 1st XV Awards by out-going interim Head Coach Anthony Allen:
1st XV Coaches Player of the Season – Kayde Sylvester
1st XV Players’ Player of the Season – Matt Hema
In addition, Men’s 1st team colours were awarded to Joe Green, Matt Dawson, and Jared Cardew; Women’s colours to Mia Woods, and Ali Elsley, and club colours to Anthony Allen, our departing coach…and our leaving winners of 50+ senior caps were given framed shirts, with gifts for others leaving too.