Awards all round

Regional ONE Awards have taken place up and down the country: here are some of the highlights.

North West

The North West held their ONE Awards in Liverpool on 7 July, marking and celebrating five years since the 2019 Netball World Cup was held in the same city. 240 people attended and celebrated all the worthy regional winners. Special guests included Joan Mills, England Netball President, and the President of Netball America Natasha Ainsley-Thomas. One team in the North West is preparing for an exciting trip to Phoenix in the United States later this month, so look out for more news on this exciting trip to the States in the next edition of 5TH QTR.

Find out who won what at the North West ONE Awards

ABOVE: Joan Mills, Phil Owen and Natasha Ainsley-Thomas

PHOTO: KYLE MAY

West Midlands

The West Midlands ONE Awards took place on 5 July at the Heart of England Conference and Events Centre in Warwickshire. A particular highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Unsung Hero award – presented to Norma McLean – who received a standing ovation from the majority of the room – testimony to how many netballers she has impacted through her work with the Birmingham Netball League and Birmingham Intermediate Netball League.

The West Midlands also presented Honorary Life Memberships for the first time in over 10 years, recognising the exemplary contributions of Kerrie Jones, Fiona Cashmore, Syd Smailes, and Sally-Ann Chambers to regional netball.

In the week that followed, Sally-Ann Chambers, South Staffordshire County Netball Association’s Vice Chair and Performance Lead, sadly passed away. A dear friend and colleague to so many, and a dedicated volunteer, Sally will be deeply missed by all who knew her, especially the Netball Family in South Staffordshire.

ABOVE: A standing ovation for Norma McLean

ABOVE: Four new honorary life members (l to r): Syd Smailes, Fiona Cashmore, Kerrie Jones, and Sally-Ann Chamber’s daughter collecting her award on her behalf

PHOTOS: KATY LEANNE

London and South East

The London and South East Regional ONE Awards took place on 23 June 2024 at ISH Venues in London where attendees had a lovely afternoon celebrating all the amazing things volunteers within the region have been doing.

It is rare that so many volunteers from across the region can come together and share their good work and initiatives so the ONE Awards celebration was the perfect opportunity to shine a light on all the great things that are being done. The event also allowed volunteers to socialise and be further motivated and inspired by one another.

Tracey Daly won the Unsung Hero award, Alison Summerfield was recognised for the Outstanding Contribution award, with Tunbridge Wells Warriors being named Community Club of the Year.

Chapeltown were named Club of the Year

Net4All won two awards

PHOTOS: MATTHEW MERRICK

Yorkshire

The Yorkshire ONE Awards in partnership with Leeds Rhinos Netball took place at Headingley Stadium on Sunday 2 June. It was great to get the Yorkshire Netball Family together with Leeds Rhinos to celebrate a great season.

Take away moments included Chapeltown winning Club of the Year and delivering an empowering speech focusing on the strong community they’ve built around their club and within their local community. Net4All won the Pioneer of the Year award and the Inclusion award, with two of their young members collecting the award.

PHOTOS: WILL DAX

South West

The South West ONE Awards, held at Woodbury Park, Exeter on 30 June, were the region’s biggest ever with over 150 guests in attendance. The region also hosted a networking hour for all County Chairs at the same venue.

Amongst all the amazing winners, the stand-out was perhaps Bristol After Stroke, who have successfully run a 12-week course of sessions allowing people to return to exercise and netball after suffering a stroke. They have been so successful they have now been able to put two of the participants through a Walking Netball Host Course to allow the sessions to continue to run.

The region recently set up a partnership with FearFree, a domestic abuse charity and invited one of their staff members to come along and talk about the charity, the partnership and the work they are doing around the South West.

East Midlands

The East Midlands ONE Awards event took place on Sunday 7 July at the Radisson Blu, East Midlands, where 180 nominees, guests, volunteers and VIPs joined together to celebrate the East Midlands Netball Family.

This year the region received over 140 nominations for 105 individuals and clubs! Loughborough Lightning’s Lauren Nicholls presented the region’s league trophies and did a brilliant Q&A and the region recognised Kate Stephenson’s retirement from international umpiring as well as Sue Hunter standing down from 15 years as Regional Chair, whilst welcoming new Chair, Rowena Hackwood. 

ABOVE: Lindsay Sartori and Phyllis Avery at the awards event

South

70 nominees from across the region were nominated for the Netball South ONE Awards and winners were invited to a celebratory afternoon tea at Rose’s Tea Room, Guildford on 15 June, where they were presented with their awards by Phyllis Avery, Netball South President, and Lindsay Sartori, from the Netball South Regional Management Board.

It was a wonderful afternoon recognising and celebrating the achievements of winners from across the region. The Netball South Long Service Awards, Honorary Life Membership and Netball South President’s Award were also presented. Netball South President’s Award was presented to Vitality Rose Fran Williams’ family on her behalf.

Headlanders won Club of the Year

North East

The North East’s ONE Awards took place on 21 June at the Grand Hotel in Gosforth Park. Winners included Gemma White with the Inclusion Award, Liz Wisniewski, who was named Unsung Hero, and Club of the Year Darlington Headlanders, as well as Ashley Pearson (below), who won Coach of the Year for Adults.

North East Netball said: “Ashley is the reason that so many women and girls play netball in her area. She has been part of her club Tynedale for over 10 years and lives, breathes and bleeds netball. Since injury, she has gained her Level 1 and Level 2 coaching, starting as Assistant Coach at Tynedale and ending up as Head Coach. Her sessions are engaging, player-oriented, and accessible. She is always looking for ways to improve her session and to keep the fire of netball fully lit in everyone’s hearts.”

East

The East region hosted their annual ONE Award volunteer recognition and celebration event on Sunday 14 July at Slepe Hall in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. The region received 135 nominations across the 10 categories and the award panel had a difficult job, but after long deliberation the top three in each category were selected and invited to attend the event. 

The volunteers, the East Regional Management Board, County Chairs, London Mavericks and England Netball regional team came together for a wonderful afternoon. After reception drinks on the terrace, the event moved to the Brunel suite for a sit down two-course Sunday lunch, presentation, and award ceremony. East President and HLM Sheelagh Redpath kept everyone entertained during the afternoon.

The Coach of the Year awards went to Madeleine Smith for Children and Emily Drackford for Adults. 

A big thank you goes to all the Regional teams of England Netball staff and volunteers who helped to organise events, as well as to those who took the time to nominate. And of course, huge congratulations to all the nominees, as well as good luck to the winners attending the National ONE Awards on Saturday 19 October in the West Midlands.

Coach of the Year for Children Madeleine Smith

Coach of the Year for Adults Emily Drackford