Howzat! Cricketer Frances scoops Sports Personality Award

20 May 2014

England cricketer and University of Bath footballer Frances Wilson was named the University’s Sports Personality of the Year at the annual Blues Awards ceremony.

The Sports Performance student topped a poll of members of the Students’ Union Sport from a shortlist that also featured Olympians Dominic Parsons (skeleton) and Andrew Willis (swimming), as well as Chris Hotchen (badminton).

Wilson, who has received a Santander Scholarship during her time at the University, said: “I was quite surprised, but it was really cool to win, particularly as it’s the students who vote for the winner.

“This has been the best four years of my life,” added Wilson, who graduates this summer “I’ve really loved it and I’m really pleased that I’ve played football as well as cricket.”

Wilson captained the University women’s football first team in her second and fourth years as well as playing for Somerset and England at cricket, including an appearance at the world-famous Melbourne Cricket Club ground in 2010. A batter, she was a member of the England squad for the World Cup in Bangladesh this spring.

Past winners of the Sports Personality of the Year Award include Olympic medallist Michael Jamieson and Paralympic medallist Ben Rushgrove.

The sport of rowing was another big winner at the Blues Awards ceremony, which is organised by Students’ Union Sport and took place at Bath’s historic Assembly Rooms.

Rower Sam Courty (right), a Sport & Exercise Science student, received the Tugendhat Trophy for Sporting Endeavour, which recognises achievements by athletes in sports that they were not familiar with when the arrived at the University.

Stuart Gordon, an Integrated Mechanical & Electrical Engineering student, won the Gethin John Bevan Club Member of the Year Award for his voluntary work with the rowing and canoeing clubs.

And Dan Harris (right), who heads up the GB Rowing Team’s Start programme at the University, was named winner of the Ivor Powell Award for Excellence in Coaching.

Meanwhile, Mike Pooley (below right), a member of the University’s grounds staff, received the Martyn Hedges Award,  the highest accolade awarded by the University of Bath Blues Committee. Pooley has worked tirelessly with the grounds staff team for more than 25 years to ensure the outdoors sports facilities are consistently of the highest possible standard.

The netball firsts won the team of the year and the Kickboxing Club was named club of the year.

There were also honorary blues for 16 athletes with University of Bath links who competed at Sochi 2014, including Lizzy Yarnold and Kelly Gallagher, Britain’s gold medallists at the Olympic Winter and Paralympic Winter Games respectively.

Photographs by Mervyn Clingan.

2014 Roll of Honour

Sports Personality of the Year

Frances Wilson (football & cricket)
Also on shortlist: Chris Hotchen (badminton), Dominic Parsons (skeleton) & Andrew Willis (swimming).

Team of the Year

Netball 1sts
2nd: tennis men’s 1sts
3rd: lacrosse men’s 1sts
4th: football women’s 1sts.

Club of the Year

Kickboxing Club
2nd: Triathlon Club
3rd: Lacrosse Club & Canoe Club (joint)

Gethin John Bevan Club Member of the Year

Stuart Gordon (rowing & canoeing)

Tugendhat Trophy

Sam Courty (rowing)

Ivor Powell Award

Dan Harris (rowing)

Martyn Hedges Award

Mike Pooley (grounds staff)

Honorary Blues

Chris Hotchen (badminton)
Tom Janicot (basketball & SU officer)
Emily Hogge (triathlon)
Sion Kitson (football & Futsal).

Sochi 2014 Honorary Blues

Lizzy Yarnold
Shelley Rudman,
Dominic Parsons
Kristan Bromley (all skeleton)
John Jackson
Stuart Benson
Bruce Tasker
Joel Fearon
Lamin Deen
John Baines
Ben Simons
Andrew Matthews
Paula Walker
Rebecca Wilson (all bobsleigh)
Zoe Gillings (snowboarding)
Kelly Gallagher (visually impaired Alpine skiing).

Full Blues

Chris Hay (fencing)
Alex Walker (tennis)
Niklas Rieger (hockey)
Yasmin Parsons (netball)
Ruby Smith (lacrosse).

Half Blues

Sara Parfett
Justin Austin (both swimming)
Tom Ash (fencing)
Adam Lord
Lewis Matthews (both karate)
Emily Prpa
Thom Sobey
Lucy McNaught
Harriet Lloyd (all hockey)
John Thompson  & Harry Burley (both tennis)
Millie Grey
Kate McGinley
Scarlett Williams (all netball)
Hector Payne (riding)
Frazier Christie (rowing)
Polly Wardle
Gordon Rieck & Raghav Khurana (football & futsal).

Colours

American football

Christoph Cox, Benjamin James Ashby,  James Benson-King, Simon Vanstone

Athletics

Angharad Davies

Badminton

Christopher Evans, Sophie Trerise, Gemma Hatton, Emma Mitchell, Thomas Penn, Hannah Preece, Katherine Shuttleworth, Natasha Hutchings

Basketball

Hebah Bibi, Ximena Rebollar, Edmund Kirwan, Constantinos Patinios

Canoeing

Stuart Gordon, Eleanor Mitchell, Lars Luckoff, James Dunsmore

Cricket

Benjamin Figueiredo

Fencing

Matthew Hale

Football and futsal

Liberty Barnett, Liam Stephens, Marcus Torr, Samuel Griffiths, George Bond, Jonathan Ward, Oliver Box, Matthew Mardell, Timothy de la Haye, Caroline Davidson, Francesca Wild, Michael Bawn, Frances Wilson

Gymnastics

Leah England, Heather Carver, Abigail Irvin, Jordan Koulouris, Georgina Bull

Hockey

Natasha Sweeney, Max Jennings, Emma-Louise Robinson, Thomas Pierce, Charlotte Kelly, Imogen Brade, Astrid Ainley, Benjamin Figueiredo, Alexander Milne, Sean Phillips, Alexander Ferrao, Tom Harden, Robert Adkins, Rosalind Keefe, Amelia Nunn, Stephen Thomson, Megan Boxall, Alex Russell, Tom Davey, Ieuan Davies, Charlie Griffiths, Ben Humphreys, Isabel Tiemann, Emily Munsey, Adam Lowe, Gemma Crouch, Tom Griffiths, James Ralphs, James Bevan, Katie Cook

Karate

Joshua Ayres, Neli Velkushanova, Andrew Woodford

Lacrosse

Lauren Foster, Simon McKinney, Rhys Topping, Andrew Kenyon, Ben Jessup, Hector Smethurst, Lucy Nelson, Charlotte Munro, Harriet Jackson, Paul Sladen

Riding

Laura Brady, Catherine Long, Hannah Taylor, Alice Moger, Laura Hemming (all netball), Zoe Kennerley, Rhian Denton, Jenny Hanlon, Philippa Kerby

Rowing

Jennifer Louise Pollard, Maria Stack, Ben Jackson

Rugby (league and union)

Harry Sanders, Francesca Hales, Max Moncrieff, Jasmin Swift, Hannah Howell, Harriet Waller, Alexandra Stroud, Joseph Donnelly, Evie Bunce

Squash

Francisca Louro Lopes dos Santos, Yong Sze Tam

Tennis

Christopher Taylor, Katie Jessop

Trathlon

Oliver Skittery, Calum Fraser

Ultimate frisbee

Andrew Watt, Adam Martin

Volleyball

Stelios Chrysostomou

Waterpolo

David Paris, Kate Williams, Rhianna Jamieson Stewart, Thomas Jones, Rachel Pearce.

Ribbon

Solveig Alsaker (handball).

For further information please contact the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd on 01225 383518.