Carrick RFC in running for prestigious national award

The Scottish Sports Awards hosted by sportscotland and Team Scotland, will take place on Wednesday at the Glasgow Science Centre and will celebrate the success of individuals, schools, clubs and teams across the whole of Scottish sport during the last 12 months.

On the night, Carrick will be up for the Club Sport Award alongside North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club and  Passion4Fusion and, in nominating the South Ayrshire rugby club, the judges stated:  “They are a fantastic community club with a truly inclusive ethos who work hard to ensure that rugby is accessible to the entire community, especially given the social, financial, and geographical disadvantage that many of their members from the wider community of Carrick face.”

The Carrick president Stuart Bryden said:  “All of us at Carrick were surprised and extremely happy when we heard we had been nominated for the award.

“It is good to see our hard work being noticed on a wider scale and just to be in the running is an achievement for us.

“Anna Connon and myself will be attending on the night, I’m president at Carrick and Anna has the hard task of getting us funding to keep things moving forward and does an excellent job.

Junior players at Carrick RFC (Image: Carrick RFC) “Over the last few years we have worked hard to make youth rugby available free of charge within the community and this year have now, on top of offering that, started our first ever women’s team which is going well and continuing to grow.

“At present, we have players involved at the club from primary one age right up to senior level, so boys, girls, men and women of all ages are involved at Carrick and we are proud of that.

“The majority of our players are from the local areas, so for example  Maybole and Girvan and all the surrounding villages, but we also have players traveling from as far as Glasgow when they are at university, Ayr and Kilmarnock to get involved at Carrick.

“We want to be a club that is open to everyone and we want everyone to feel part of that rugby community.”

The club has been nominated for a top award (Image: Carrick RFC)

Linking with the South Ayrshire Active Schools team, the club have delivered fun sessions across all local primary, Additional Support Needs and secondary schools to over 700 young people this year.

They have also supported regular extra-curricular delivery of rugby and promoting pathways for those youngsters to get involved with the club and a large percentage of local young people have transitioned into playing for Carrick.

“We run both Easter and summer camps totally free of charge during the school holidays where the kids get their lunches provided by local businesses,” Bryden continued.

“This is all funded by sponsors and run by volunteers from the club. Camps are both in Maybole and Girvan during this time and we can have up to 60 kids in attendance per day.

“As mentioned, we work closely with the South Ayrshire Active Schools team to provide a chance for disengaged kids to try something new.

“By getting them involved in a team sport, we find that this can really help some kids and it can be really beneficial for them.

“The Friday Night Diversionary Rugby sessions have been a huge success since we started them and numbers continue to grow with as many as 70 kids turning up each week.

“We run two buses to these sessions from the surrounding villages free of charge and again training is all volunteer run. Scottish Rugby have showcased these sessions on their website and came down with a camera crew one night to get an insight into it all and interview coaches and players.”

The Friday Night Diversionary Rugby sessions that Bryden mentions use rugby as a means of combatting anti-social behaviour in the community and, as he said, the take up has been excellent with youngsters aged between 11 and 18 from all different walks of life getting involved.

“As a club we would just like to really thank all the volunteers and all our sponsors for making what we do possible because as without them it just wouldn’t happen,” Bryden added.

“Rugby is about so much more than just matches and we will continue to strive to make it a sport that engages our local community and is of benefit to it.”

In terms of Carrick’s competition for the Club Sport Award, well North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club turned 20 in 2024 and the club caters for all abilities, from beginners to the country’s most elite players, with 52 tables across eight different centres in the region and members from 7 to 92-years-old.

Passion4Fusion delivers positive change by empowering young people, particularly those from BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds, to get involved in sport.