Cambridge United

Cambridge United are delighted to be partnering with The Cambridge Independent for the launch of the new Cambridge United Sport in the Community Awards.

The awards aim to celebrate the benefits of sport participation and recognise the efforts of local people and organisations in facilitating sporting opportunities for the community.

Cambridge United – who within their own Community Trust are proud to promote health, education and well-being through sport – will join the Cambridge Independent in recognising the achievements of clubs, schools, companies, administrators, coaches and individual participants across the region.

Each month a Grassroots Football Club, School, Company and Disability Sport Group will each be selected to receive an Award to recognise their impact on local sport.

In addition, Cambridge United will select a different sport each month, and highlight the efforts of two individuals; a participant will be awarded Star of the Month and a facilitator will be awarded Champion of the Month. The facilitator could be an administrator, a coach or a volunteer, but both of these individual winners will have made a significant contribution to their sport in the local community. The first sport will be rugby and the winners, alongside the other awards, will be announced next week.

Then, in 2017, Cambridge United and The Cambridge Independent will open up nominations so that the public can put forward their own suggestions for each of the categories above. An independent panel will select the overall winners, who will be presented with their awards at an event hosted by Cambridge United at the Cambs Glass Stadium in early May.

Cambridge United Community Trust Manager Danny Kerrigan commented: "Cambridge United has a vision for developing sport in the City and a real desire to establish partnerships with other sporting organisations.  One such example can be seen with the Club’s evolving relationship with Cambridge Granta Cricket Club.

"The Trust want to use the profile of Cambridge United to highlight the brilliant work across a breadth of sports and organisations, as well as creating links with other major sporting clubs within the local area to harness our infrastructure and create greater opportunities for participation.

Graham Daniels, Cambridge United Community Trust Chairman added: "Sport can play such a positive role in addressing so many challenges within society.  

“We aim for these awards to be another way of recognising and highlighting the work already taking place by so many organisations." 

Cambridge Independent editor Paul Brackley said: "We are delighted to be working with Cambridge United to highlight the fabulous efforts in sport across the region.

"So much good work is done at all levels that perhaps does not receive the recognition it deserves and we feel that these awards will help to shine a light on those achievements.

"Cambridge is a city that is rich in a wide variety of sports so we believe that it is important to help give a profile to as many as possible."

Ricky Allan, managing director of the Cambridge Independent, said: "Cambridge United are doing a lot of good work in the community and so we are proud to be teaming up with them to bring some of these efforts to the wider public attention.

"It will be great to bring some of these stories and achievements to light in the pages of our newspaper."