Former British number one and television personality Annabel Croft was full of praise for Derbyshire Tennis when she attended the fourth county Awards Evening recently. The event took place on Friday at Pride Park Stadium, and was a chance for nearly 250 tennis enthusiasts from across the county to come together and celebrate all the achievements from the last year.
Annabel gave a very entertaining insight into life on the tour and locker room goings on as she gave a short speech at the start of the evening. She then helped present trophies to all the individual award and league winners.
Tom Rushby was one of the evenings big winners, as he walked away with the Mens Player of the Year for the second year running. Rushby, who is a coach at the My Tennis High Performance Centre at Loughborough University, won the mens singles and mixed doubles at the county closed last year and also put in an outstanding performance at county week.
Another second time winner was Jay Clarke, who picked up the Boys Player of the Year award for the second consecutive year. Jay enjoyed a momentous 2012 winning many tournaments and was ranked as number one 14&U boy in the Tennis Europe rankings.
Simon Thornewill made it a trio of second time winners as he retained the prestigious Coach of the Year Award. Thornewill, who coaches at Duffield TC and My Tennis HPC, was praised for his commitment to junior tennis and wider support of the development of tennis in Derbyshire.
Victoria Allen, fresh from being a winning member of the Great Britain 12&U team in Belgium, picked up the Girls Player of the Year and was also presented with the Derek Wardle award.
The Women's Player of the Year trophy went to county champion Olivia Nelms and the Veteran's Player of the Year was presented to over 35's captain Julie Gudzer.
Church Broughton TC were awarded with the Club of the Year after a great year that had seen win four Derby Area League titles and the Lawson Wood Cup, as well as developing a range of new facilities at the club. Mark Griffiths from Ripley TC was named as Club Player of the Year.
One of the most popular winners of the evening was Frank Beer, who was named as Volunteer of the Year. Frank has overseen the project to see Ashbourne TC move to a new site at the Gateway Caravan Park and work has recently started on building the new courts.
The full list of winners is:
Mens Player of the Year - Tom Rushby
Womens Player of the Year - Olivia Nelms
Boys Player of the Year - Jay Clarke. Highly commended - Sam Ferguson and Bradley Buckland.
Girls Player of the Year - Victoria Allen. Highly commended - Katy Wilson.
Veterans Player of the Year - Julie Gudzer. Highly commended - Jane Rushby and Ashley Broomhead.
Club Player of the Year - Mark Griffiths (Ripley)
Coach of the Year - Simon Thornewill. Highly commended - Tom Rushby.
Volunteer of the Year - Frank Beer (Ashbourne)
Club of the Year - Church Broughton TC
Derek Wardle Award - Victoria Allen
Paul Sheard, LTA Tennis Development Manager for the region, commented "It was once again a really enjoyable night at the Derbyshire Awards. Annabel Croft proved to be a really good guest and it was great to honour so many people from around the county with the various awards. We are already looking forward to next years event".