Bedford Borough Council have announced this year’s winners of the Bedford Sports and Physical Activity Awards in a special ceremony held at the Corn Exchange on Monday night.
Fifteen awards were handed out across a range of categories, celebrating sporting achievements from individuals and clubs including a special ‘Service to Sport’ award that recognises individuals for outstanding contributions to sport in the Borough.
That award was won by Su Felce, a volunteer at Modernians Swimming Club where she has held a variety of roles since 2007.
Su has given up multiple weeks of her time to support swimmers across camps in Europe, as well as serving as President of Bedfordshire Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).
Special guest wins award
The special guest for the evening was England Netball’s, Ellie Rattu who has enjoyed a wonderful break out year in the world of netball, playing for London Pulse and making her England bow.
Juggling that with a qualification to become a counsellor as well as her job as a teaching assistant means Ellie is a busy woman, but this was recognised as she picked up the Adult Personality of the Year award.
The Junior Personality of the Year award went to another member of the swimming community in Eloise Cole who has won a raft of swimming titles at both senior and junior levels.
Eight individual age group golds along with seven Junior Under-16 titles were supplemented with four open age group titles in a wonderful 2022 for the young swimmer, with her achievements recognised by Swim England.
There were also awards for the Adult and Junior Disability Sports Personalities of the Year, as tennis’ Gary Cox picked up the Adult award alongside wheelchair racing’s Varun Bandi who picked up the Junior award for the second successive year.
Cox has enjoyed great success on the tennis court, winning the National Quads singles and doubles titles alongside various other championships with the ultimate aim being the Great Britain squad for quad tennis.
Bandi won the award in 2021, but has overcome more hardship in 2022 where a serious accident left him with a fractured leg, but that didn’t stop him retaining his top five status in 100m, 200m and 800m in the country.
Those consistent performances has seen Varun chosen by England Athletics to be a part of their Youth Talent programme.
Schools and clubs recognised
As well as individual sporting achievements, local clubs and schools were also recognised for their fantastic work.
Great Denham Primary School and Goldington Academy won the Primary and Secondary School awards respectively, with Great Denham providing different daily activities and creating zones for table tennis, skipping and other sports.
Goldington have created a sporting revolution in their physical education department, providing specialist coaches for a wide number of sports as well as creating over twenty extra-curricular activities for their students to enjoy.
Winning Sports Team of the Year, the exceptionally talented and successful Bedford Ladies Tug of War team have been pulling up roots in their journey to worldwide success.
They represented England at the World Championships in the Netherlands in September, narrowly missing out on bronze but have enjoyed a host of other national and international accolades.
However, without volunteers and special individuals, a lot of sport in the Borough simply wouldn’t be able to run and it was with this in mind that the ‘Unsung Hero’ award went to an individual who has helped keep Bedford Hockey Club running.
Dave Parratt’s roles at Bedford Hockey Club are all voluntary and range from club accountant to committee member and from equipment maintenance to fundraising.
Described as, “a quietly driven Club member who seeks no recognition other than seeing the fruit of his labours in such a thriving Club”, Dave received that recognition with the well deserved Unsung Hero award.
Altogether, the evening was a splendid celebration of all things great in the Borough’s sporting world, encapsulated by the closing words from Bedford’s Mayor, Dave Hodgson.
Congratulations to all the winners and we look forward to seeing what Bedford’s sporting stars, clubs and volunteers can achieve in 2023.
Full list of Bedford Sports Award and Physical Activity Winners:
Club of the Year – Bedford Hockey Club
Community Club / Group of the Year – Bedford Walking Football
Primary School of the Year – Great Denham Primary School
Secondary School of the Year – Goldington Academy
Adult Disability Sports Personality of the Year – Gary Cox
Junior Disability Sports Personality of the Year – Varun Bandi
Junior Disability Sports Personality of the Year (Special Commendation) – Sean Chigumba
Junior Personality of the Year – Eloise Cole
Young Volunteer of the Year – Kai Williams
Young Volunteer of the Year (Special Commendation) – Stephen Ames
Team of the Year – Bedford Ladies Tug of War Teams
Unsung Hero – Dave Parratt
Coach of the Year – Steve Vinnicombe
Adult Personality of the Year – Ellie Rattu
Service to Sport Award – Su Felce
