Grassroots rugby family rewarded in New Year’s honours
You couldn’t meet anyone more committed to the game and her club than Karen and that was recognised in the New Year’s honour.
Karen Sawbridge has never played rugby and came across the sport after meeting her partner Steve Farrell who captained Bridgnorth’s first team in the 2000/2001 season, having captained Sutton Coldfield’s firsts in 1995/1996, when the team won the Warwickshire Cup.
You couldn’t meet anyone more committed to the game and her club than Karen and that was recognised in the New Year’s honours when Karen, chair of Bridgnorth RFC and deputy mayor of the town Council, was awarded a BEM.
A woman with an engineering degree and an outstanding accountant who helped to run her family firm, which owns 22 hotels across the UK, Karen got heavily involved with the Bridgnorth club when they needed her expertise.
They were wrestling with a need to bring the club together from a clubhouse in town and pitches in different locations, only one of which they owned. An ambitious bid to buy land and create a new home fell through, short term leases were expiring and a flood wiped out much of their equipment. Then the global pandemic arrived.
Karen and Steve, who is a surveyor, spent countless hours trying to solve the club’s logistical problems, along with a number of other members with expertise to offer. She decided to stop hiring a marquee for big events, because with the help of three generous sponsors, the club was able to buy their own 300 sq metre marquee, which has ultimately become a game changer. This purchase in 2015 has enabled the club to be sustainable and more recently, with covid regulations, social distancing and the rule of six, has proved a huge benefit to not only the rugby club but the whole community.
Generations have been able to gather there, mums and toddlers, the University of the Third Age, the local knitting club, many boot camp regulars, gymnasts, taekwando club members, summer club teenagers, you name it. A number of benches, suitable for seating six were made inhouse and two kitchens, a wood-fired pizza zone and a general kitchen, took orders for meals served up by up to 40 local teenagers who found the employment an escape from isolation, older locals working on the bar and in the kitchens.
The club became a hive of activity, throughout the usually dormant summer months of 2020 and 2021, providing much needed funds to help finance the construction of the new clubhouse and also for local charities and good causes, and the entire neighbourhood were glad to have rugby at the heart of the community.
That has paid off too in their search for a permanent home on one site. The town Council recently backed their bid to build a new state of the art clubhouse on their only owned pitch, despite it being on green belt land and a flood plain. The plans place it on stilts and safely above any risk, with access for all and facilities for everyone.
Karen has stepped back from close involvement due to her two roles but other club members have taken up the baton on her behalf and the local Council were impressed with the scheme and the level of community support behind it – with 184 messages of support.
I was blown away"
Karen Sawbridge
As the project sits awaiting Shropshire County Council’s decision, Karen heard that she had been nominated for a British Empire Medal “I was nominated by my local community and when I opened the embossed envelope from the Cabinet Office I thought ‘Oh my goodness. I was blown away,” she said.
Having kept the news under wraps she and Steve were skiing in Austria with 13 friends from the Bridgnorth club when the news was revealed at New Year. “They saw it in the list and then we had a massive party,” said Karen.
Steve, just short of his 60th birthday, still plays for the Vets and says Karen: “He was captain of the First XV at 39 and I’m so glad he introduced me to rugby. It doesn’t matter who you are, rugby is there for you whatever your size, skill or level. My involvement has been super fun and so rewarding. I’ve never encountered any prejudice. Between us all, our skill set is immense and the camaraderie and friendships are second to none.”
Now all it needs is for Shropshire Council to approve the club’s plans and Karen, whose family company has become employee owned, like John Lewis, will be planning another massive party!
Press Officer makes the papers
George Spinks, was delighted to be awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Reeds Weybridge RFC over more than five decades.
Having first played for Reeds School and the club, George continued in the second row until he was 55. He’s 83 years young and the sales and marketing manager for William Lacey Group, housebuilders, bringing his marketing expertise to Reeds Weybridge as their press officer for more than four decades.
I trained like Tarzan and played like Jane..."
George Spinks
“I wasn’t a good player,” he says. “I trained like Tarzan and played like Jane, but I was great at marking the white lines, carrying the corner flags out, pumping up the rugby balls. And we all got involved in building a new clubhouse in the seventies in Whiteley Village next to St George’s Hill in Weybridge.
“My wife Sheila, a practice nursing sister, also put in sterling service on the touchline as our first aider and our two daughters still go down to watch games.
“Reeds Weybridge RFC, is one of Surrey’s most successful community rugby clubs, developing rugby players of all ages, with the active participation of their families. The club has been the bedrock of my social life for over 50 years, and I am so excited to receive this award.
“I see it as recognition for all of us involved in grassroots clubs, the fixtures secretaries, the coaches, the oodles of people involved. During a game of rugby, a player sometimes gets a yellow card for offences committed by the team. On this occasion I have taken an award on behalf of the fantastic army of coaches, tea ladies and club members that make Reeds Weybridge RFC such a great family club.
“I see so many like me on Saturdays in junior clubs, there’s an army of us. I may be the one that got the gong, but I feel it’s a reward for all of us.”
Max recognised for fundraising camp out
Max Woosey, from Barnstable rugby club, who at 12 has been raising money for North Devon Hospice by sleeping in a tent every night has added a British Empire Medal to his Pride of Britain Award.
He slept beside the Twickenham pitch after receiving the original accolade and was an England mascot for the Autumn Nations Series England v Australia Test. Max was given the tent by his neighbour and family friend Rick Abbott who was helped by the hospice before his death and has slept in it for some 640 nights to fundraise more than £583,000 for the hospice.
Max's JustGiving page can be found here.
