To give our readers a greater chance of winning the fabulous prize of a night’s stay or dinner for two at the Castle of Brecon Hotel and an extra chance to nominate their local sports heroes of 2018, we are extending the deadline for nominations by an extra week to Friday, December 28.
To be in with a chance to win our fabulous prize all you have to do is fill out the nominations form printed on this page, making sure to include on a separate sheet, your name, address and telephone number.
You do not have to nominate someone in every category, so if you only want to vote for your favourite sportsperson or team you can leave the other categories blank.
If you are lucky enough to win our fabulous prize all you have to do is choose whether you would prefer a dinner for two or the night’s stay for two people when you confirm your booking.
The Castle of Brecon Hotel is a fabulous place to spend the night or to go out for dinner, so either way you will be guaranteed a memorable visit.
As well as being one of the best hotels in the area, the Castle of Brecon Hotel is also a popular conference and weddings venue.
The hotel, which dates back to 1809 when it was renovated from part of the ruins of Brecon Castle by Sir Charles Morgan, has 38 rooms, all of which offer LCD TVs and tea & coffee making facilities.
The nearby Brecon Beacons provide a picturesque backdrop to the hotels Regency Ballroom, gardens, restaurant and bar.
If you do not wish to claim the prize on offer, you can simply nominate your favourite sportsperson or team and leave out your name and address.
As last year there are seven categories to vote for. These are: Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, Sports volunteer of the Year, Sports Team of the Year, Young Sports Star (male or female), Veteran Sports Star (male or female), Disabled Sports Star (male or female) and Sports Volunteer.
You may enter the competition and nominate your sports heroes as often as your like – but entries/nominations will only be valid if they are accompanied by a coupon cut from the Brecon & Radnor Express. Photocopies will not be accepted.
Each nomination should include the reasons why you think your choice of sportsperson or team deserves to be nominated. Nomination reasons may extend to a separate sheet of paper. This can be a few words, a single line or a paragraph of up to 200 words. A full list of the nominees along with the best nomination reasons will be printed in the paper in our Thursday, January 3 & 10 editions.
Nomination/prize entry forms should be sent by post to The Brecon & Radnor Express, 11 The Bulwark, Brecon LD3 7AE or delivered by hand. This year we are also offering the option of forms being delivered by hand to KDM Local newsagent in Station Crescent, Llandrindod Wells. This is to make sure that sports stars in Radnorshire have an equal chance of being nominated for an award as those in Breconshire.
The venue for these awards has yet to be finalised but details will be published in the Brecon & Radnor Express as soon as the arrangements are settled.
Last year’s awards ceremony was eventually held at the Wellington Hotel in Brecon on Friday, March 23. The event had originally been scheduled for Friday, March 9 but the deep snowdrifts blown in by the Beast from the East meant the event had to be postponed to a fortnight later. The decision was taken over fears for the safety of people travelling in from the more distant parts of Brecon and Radnorshire. with snow and ice on the roads it was the correct, and only, decision that could be taken.
The awards when they did go ahead were judged a huge success. The upstairs dining room at the Wellington was packed with sports stars and their friends and families as well as staff from the Brecon and Radnor Express. More than 100 people filled the room to overflowing with professional emcee Mark Weller overseeing proceedings.
Welsh Government minister Kirsty Williams kindly agreed to present the awards and overall star of the night was Brecon’s 2016 Rio paralympic champion Rob Davies, who not only gave a very moving speech about his career as the evening’s VIP guest but also carried away two of the awards – Sportsman of the Year and Disabled Sports Star.
After a brilliant year of sport, this year’s awards again look like being hotly contested in every category. Here’s a brief rundown of the categories in which we are seeking nominees.
Sportsman of the Year: This category is open to any man of any age in any sport provided they are from Brecon and Radnorshire or has competed in a team that plays in a league in the area. Last year’s winner was disabled tennis player Rob Davies, who as one of our leading sportspeople is bound to be in contention once again.
This year he could see strong opposition from Brecon’s Steve Sebburn, not only in the Sportsman of the Year category but also in Disabled Sportsperson of the Year category. Only two months ago, Steve came home from the Invictus Games laden with one gold medal and two bronze’s from the Invictus Games in Sydney.
One for the rugby afficionados is scrum half Kieran Marmion who played for the Ireland team that beat New Zealand during the Autumn internationals. Kieran, who went to Christ College, sometimes plays cricket for Brecon and his parents still live in the town.
Another contender could well be cycling ace Tim Davies, from Cross Gates, who this year repeated his win in the National MTB veteran championships from 2017 and placed second in the National Veterans Road Race, which covered three laps of a route that passed his front door.
Again in contention is Presteigne’s motorcycling ace Chaz Davies who placed second in the World Superbike Championships behind all-conquering Northern Irishman Jonathan Rea and won two races in the 25 race series.
Sportswoman of the Year: The category for the top sportswoman looks like being every bit as competitive as the men’s category. The eligibility criteria are the same as for the men except the winner obviously has to be a woman.
Last year’s winner was the former World No.1 judoka Natalie Powell. This year she is bound to be a contender again along with other leading candidates from last year such as Brecon motor rallying ace Sara Williams and rejuvenated runner Heidi Davies.
Once again, Sara who combines a day job with working for her family’s Brecon Motors business ripped up the rally roads of France with co-driver Patrick Walsh. Going into the last race of the Renault Clio R3T France Trophy Cup rally series she looked to have a good chance of a podium placing but was thwarted by bad luck when she crashed out on the final day with only three stages remaining. Nevertheless her sparkling previous performances ensured that she still finished the series with a top ten placing and for the second year running was the top woman driver.
Llandrindod Wells-based Heidi Davies showed real mettle when she fought back from a serious injury, which had stopped her from racing or training for several months, to reclaim her place as one of Europe’s leading mountain runners. After battling back to fitness following a traumatic end to 2017, Heidi helped the Great Britain junior women’s team to a gold medal by finishing 9th in the European Mountain Running Championships in Slovenia. This was followed by an 8th place in the junior women’s race at the World Mountain Running Championships in Premana, Italy.
Another likely contender in this year’s B&R sports awards is Knighton-based hockey star Phoebe Richards. Earlier this year, at the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, Phoebe was part of the high-achieving Wales women’s hockey squad which managed to beat India 3-2 although they failed to progress from a tough pool.
Sports Team of the Year: This is another very difficult category to call as it covers so many sports, across both sexes and all age bands. Last year’s winners were the brilliant Brecon RFC Youth team who carried all before them winning three trophies.
The young Brecon side ensured they will be contenders for the team prize once again in the last few weeks when they made club history by reaching the quarter finals of the National Youth Cup for the first time with a 15-10 away victory over Newbridge Youth. Will anyone challenge them this year?
Young Sports Star (male or female): This category is open to anyone of any gender in any sport aged 20 or under.
Last year’s winner was then 10-year-old martial arts star Ellie Cain from Brecon. She narrowly beat off strong opposition from Brecon RFC rugby star Dan Hiscock and Llandrovery rugby ace Tomi Lewis. As all three are young enough to be eligible again, we could see an equally competitive shakedown for that award this year.
Other contenders in this super-competitive category could also include mountain runner Heidi Davies (see Sports Woman of the Year above) and multi-talented Brecon AC athlete Kyle Davies.
Besides being good enough to compete twice this year for Wales he also plays for the Gwernyfed rugby team and was picked this year for the Crawshays Welsh rugby invitational XV.
Beth Wood, who plays for Christ College’s hockey team and Cardiff & Met Hockey Club, also made her debut for the Wales senior hockey squad after being a core member of the Wales U18 squad.
Veteran Sports Star (male or female): Any woman who is aged over 35 and any man who is over 40 can be nominated for this category. Leading contenders include the aforementioned Tim Davies, and Brecon cricketers John Kenchington and Peter Owens. John, from Libanus, represents Brecon AC and played for Wales in the Veteran Cricket World Cup. Peter Owens recently returned from Portugal after touring there with the Wales over 70s side, making it 17 overseas countries where he has played cricket.
Last year’s winner was cricketer/footballer Dylan McPhee whose feat of scoring two double centuries in the same season captured the imagination of the B&R readers. This season besides contining to impresson the cricket field, Dylan has reminded B&R readers of what a versatile sportsman he is by winning the October manager of the month award in his first season in charge at Builth Wells FC.
Disabled Sports Star (male or female): As already mentioned, last year’s winner Rob Davies and Invictus Games hero Steve Sebburn are both strong contenders in both this category and the Sports Man of the Year category.
They will face opposition from Alexandra McLellan, from Hay-on-Wye, who returned from the Invictus Games with a silver medal from the 4x100m relay and Builth Wells bowler Pauline Wilson who for competed for Wales at the Commonwealth Games.
Sports Volunteer of the Year: This category celebrates anyone who helps out in the background in sport, usually not participating themselves. Often an unsung hero, they could be a club coach or manager, an administrator/official or simply the person who drives the team bus.
Last year’s winner was Terry Dickson from Brecon who was nominated by his wife and won for the coaching work he does with youngsters in cricket, athletics and rugby.
Another inspirational coach of local young rugby stars and athletes is Dai Roberts, who works with youngsters at Gwernyfed U10s and Brecon AC.
n So who have we left out? Don’t sit there thinking ‘they should have mentioned so and so’.
Just grab a pen and fill out your own nomination for our 2018 Sports Awards, telling us why your nominee should win.
You never know, you could also win the great prize of a dinner or night’s stay for two at the Castle of Brecon Hotel.