TONIGHT is the second annual Brecon & Radnor Express Sports Awards.
Last year was the inaugural event and saw more than 100 people gather at the Wellington Hotel in Brecon to see seven awards handed out to outstanding sportsmen and sportswomen from all over Brecon and Radnorshire.
On that night the star of the show was Brecon paralympic table tennis player Rob Davies. The Rio 2016 gold medal winner not only won the Disabled Sports Star of the Year award but also took the Sportsman of the Year award and gave a brilliantly poignant speech about his sports career after an injury in a rugby game left him confined to a wheelchair.
It was a highly successful evening and gave the B&R Express management the encouragement they were looking for to run the awards again.
Like last year we have again been inundated with nominations and votes for the seven awards categories. 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.
Tonight’s event is being held at the Castle of Brecon Hotel. A buffet dinner has been laid on for all the nominees and their guests and the hotel’s manager, Brecon mayor Manny Trailor, has kindly agreed to present the awards.
We can now unveil the identity of the guest speaker. It will be Des Lally, the Brecon-based mortgage broker who is coming to the end of his year-long challenge of climbing Pen y Fan 365 times in one year.
Des is now well over the 300-mark and barring a mishap looks certain to complete the challenge by the end of the month. He is doing it to raise money for Help for Heroes and Cancer Research. During the last year he has walked or run up southern Britain’s biggest mountain almost every day in all weathers and at varying times of the day. He has also met and been accompanied by a wide range of people, including celebrities, groups of schoolchildren and members of the Armed Forces. He is bound to have a wealth of stories to tell and will be sharing them with the guests attending our sports awards.
Indeed there are still a few places left, so if any nominees still wish to come along, they simply need to fill out the form on this page, letting us know how many in their group are coming.
As last year the master of ceremonies for the evening will be local man Mark Weller. Mark is a professional emcee who runs his own company, called Ocsid Entertainment. His experience in overseeing such evenings was a big factor in last year being a success and the B&R is extremely grateful for the support he has given to this year’s event already. At the end of the evening a draw will be held in which people who have bought raffle tickets stand a chance of winning on of a number of prizes donated by local businesses. These include a £150 sunglasses voucher from Vision Express, a two-night stay at the Wellington Hotel, a meal for two at Brecon Tap, half a day’s activities with Black Mountains Activities, a tea at Pilgrims Tearooms and a digital alarm clock and radio from Bulwark Radio.
Finally for anyone who needs a little reminder of the nominees who are in the running to win an trophy at this year’s Sports Awards, here is a brief rundown of the contenders in each category.
Sportsman of the Year Steve Sebburn (Brecon), Kieran Marmion (Ireland and Brecon CC), John Kenchington (Brecon CC), Chaz Davies (Presteigne), Tom Marshall (Cardiff AC).
Sportswoman of the Year: Natalie Powell (Beulah), Heidi Davies (GB mountain running team and Brecon AC), Kathryn Holley (Crickhowell), Sara Williams
Sports Team of the Year Llandovery RFC, Builth Wells Golf Junior Team, Trecastle YFC Tug of War Club
Young Sports Star (male or female) Jack Organ (Brecon AC and Gwernyfed RFC U13s). Beth Wood (Christ College, Brecon), Kyle Davies (Brecon AC and Gwernyfed RFC). Cerys Mim Evans (Cantref), Carys Bufton (Brecon Corries AFC U14s)
Disabled Sports Star (male or female) Rob Davies (para table tennis), Steve Sebburn (Brecon), Pauline Wilson (para bowls).
Veteran Sports Star Tim Davies (Abergavenny CC), Peter Owens (Brecon CC), Colin Griffiths (Bwlch), John Kenchington (Brecon CC).
Sports Volunteer of the Year Chris Offa (coaches Builth Youth Rugby and Builth Junior Golf), Dai Roberts (coaches Gwernyfed RFC U10s and Brecon AC), Ade Boyde (Brecon Corries AFC junior coach and secretary), Alan Taylor (part of the Brecon Youth rugby coaching set up before switching to coach Brecon RFC’s 2nd team, also coaches Brecon U11 rugby team and two teams at Sennybridge Junior FC. He helps Terry Dickson coach two U9 teams at Brecon Cricket Club).