On Sunday 22nd May Netball South West held their regional Goalden Globes Award ceremony in conjunction with Team Bath’s end of season presentation at Somerset County Cricket ground.
The Goalden Globe Awards bring together and celebrate the outstanding contributions that volunteers make to netball in the South West, and then in September all the award winners will come together for a national ceremony in September. Claire Carter of BBC Somerset breakfast show hosted the event where there was 8 categories to nominate volunteers and Team Bath players gave out the awards.
Yeovil Netball Club coaches and members Jan Lawes and Hollie Wright were nominated for and attended the regional ceremony. Although YNC have entered nominations in the past, the awards are notoriously difficult to win for Somerset based clubs.
Jan Lawes was nominated for Grassroots Coach Award where the criteria is an outstanding contribution to netball club coaching as a volunteer, for a minimum of 3 years between 1st April 2015 and 31st March 2016. Jan was nominated for her tireless work this season with the under 13’s and 14’s age group, getting them to regional and organising 2 other teams within the county league. Her and the coaching teams work ensured that a fifth of the players were accepted into the Somerset satellite academy.
Unfortunately Jan was up against stiff competition with entries from Teignmouth T-Birds, Bude Netball Club and Wiltshire based nominees, and did not manage to win but being nominated for an award is no mean feat!
Hollie Wright was nominated for the Muriel McNally Award in which the criteria is outstanding contribution to netball delivery through administration, coaching or officiating at grassroots level for a minimum of 10 years. Muriel McNally was an All England Netball Affiliation member in Middlesex for many years before she retired to Cumbria. She was tragically killed in a car accident in 1977 and the Westminster Branch of the Townswomen’s Guild, of which she was also a long standing member, asked the Association to accept a trophy in her memory.
Hollie was up against 5 other nominees in this category, and it appears that her training to be a coach at the age of 14 and continuous work in various roles at YNC since was a valued part of her entry and ensured she won the Muriel McNally award.
Finally, the awards ended with the Heather Crouch Award which is given to a person, group or organisation who has made a significant contribution to or had an impact on Netball in the SW. The award winner is chosen from the 8 category winners in recognition of the hard work and dedication they give the sport.
Taken completely by surprise Hollie also won this award, Linda Dyer the selector was impressed by her commitment to netball from such a young age. Hollie said “I am really surprised to come home with not 1, but 2 Goalden Globes, and I’d like to thank the people that nominated me. I have been to these awards before as a guest and know how hard the competition is so to be nominated and to win really means a lot to me and I hope to inspire other netballers to commit to the sport and I look forward to watching it grow throughout the county.”
