Two Ross teams were honoured at the recent Herefordshire Sports Awards.

Ross Juniors were named as joint winners of the Sports Club of the Year, which they share with the City of Hereford Swimming Club, and Ross Rowing Club’s WJ15 Squad are Sports Team of the Year.

Several Ross Juniors Football Club members, including Chairman Jim Loftus, collected the Herefordshire Sports Club of the Year award for the second time in three years.

Mr Loftus told the Ross Gazette that the club is extremely honoured to have won again.

This completes a hat trick of awards for the club. They received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2015 and were the Community Club of the Year at the recent Hereford and Worcestershire awards ceremony.

They received the latest award at the Shire Hall in Hereford on Wednesday, February 10th.

Vice Chairperson Vanda Nixon added:?“This rounds off a fantastic year for our club. This is another acknowledgment to our loyal volunteers who put countless hours into the club every week. Without these brilliant people we could not provide football, and be in a position where we are now one the leading clubs in the county.”

Ross Juniors FC are also grateful to their honorary patrons, Paul Deneen OBE JP DL and Joyce Thomas MBE DL for their nomination and continued support. Their time, and continued advice, is much appreciated by the Club as Ross Juniors continues to develop.

Ross Rowing Club’s WJ15 Squad, Noe Banks-Martin, Elysia Cotton, Zoe Westley, Emily Morris, Frankie Crilly, Hattie Aubrey, Lily Croft and Gabby and Adrienne Howell are the first team to retain the coveted Junior Sports Team of the Year trophy.

It is also a hat-trick of wins for the rowers as this is the third year in a row that they have won this award and the seventh time in 11 years. This is a truly impressive demonstration of the quality of the junior squads created at Ross Rowing Club. And even by the club’s own high standards, the WJ15s have had a very impressive year.

Coached by Ian Howell, the squad won medals in two of the three main junior national events of the year (bronze in the Junior British Championships, and silver in the inter-regional regatta where they represented the West Midlands), just being pipped into fourth in the National Schools’ Regatta, and fourth in the Schools Head of the River. On the Olympic lake at Eton Dorney the squad won a gold medal at the prestigious Junior Sculling Head.

Paul Brodholt, Junior Captain told the Ross Gazette: “It’s a great boost to everyone when our rowers get recognition for their achievements, and all the hard work that underpins them. This squad has more than played their part in keeping Ross on the junior map for the past couple of years, and I know that our younger, developing athletes are really buoyed by that.

“Ian has done a superb job getting these athletes ready for these major events.”

The squad is now training for their WJ16 season and it bodes to be as competitive as ever in this extremely busy year, which also includes important GCSE school work. In all, Ross Rowing Club has around 70 competitive junior rowers and is looking forward to introducing more local youngsters to the sport at its annual Easter Camp, which takes place in the second week of the school Easter Holidays. For more information visit the club’s website www.rossrowingclub.co.uk