Last week sport in Aberdeen came together for the 25th anniversary awards ceremony at the AECC. It was another successful year for the city’s sportsmen and women and our very own Dave Macdermid was once again in charge of proceedings as he announced the winners of each category.

The evening celebrates the success of the North East’s sporting stars and this year runner Zoey Clark, who competed in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games back in April, won the top prize of Sports Achiever Of The Year in the adult section.

After all the awards were presented, Dave, who works in the communications & marketing department at AFC as well as being one half of the RedTV Commentary team, was presented, much to his surprise, with his own special award by Active Aberdeen Partnership Chairman, Tony Dawson and Director Colin Taylor to recognise his outstanding commitment to Aberdeen’s sports awards since its inception.

As well as his duties for the club, Dave is a well-known face around the city and shire due to his tireless work he does with various organisations and sports in the area.
Dave explained his long-standing relationship with sport in Aberdeen and the awards evening.

“In the early days the announcing of the awards were split between myself and Dave MacDonald. I would host the Chris Anderson Trust and Aberdeen Council awards and Dave took the Sports Council, and then after a few years they asked me to do the whole lot.”

Dave has witnessed the awards evening rise to become a prestigious annual business night which allows for further investment from local organisations. The event now takes place at the AECC and Dave was quick to mention the success stories to come out of the city’s sport scene over the years as well as pay tribute to the hard work from volunteers who more than play their part to help sport flourish in the area.

“We have an amazing amount of sporting talent in the North East of Scotland, many of whom have excelled on the world stage. Over the years Neil Fachie, Richie Ramsay, Katherine Grainger, Tracey Robb, David Carry, Robbie Renwick David Florence, Tim Baillie and Jackie Lockhart have all won awards and have all gone on to achieve great things. Our volunteers have also deservedly been recognised and if it wasn’t for them we simply wouldn’t have the levels of success that we enjoy.

“There has been a strong affiliation between AFC and the awards evening. I remember Brian Irvine and Jim Crawford being recognised over the years and more recently the AFC Community Trust have been rewarded for the fine work they are doing. We also won team of the year one year. Although I can also think of a few years where it wouldn’t have been us!”

With every event comes different challenges and the awards evenings have had inevitable hiccups along the way. Dave recalled the time good friend Neil Fachie was receiving an award, which was due to be collected by his Mum. Unfortunately, nobody told Dave of the change in script and he proceeded to introduce Linda Fachie just as Neil’s Dad entered the stage! Also Neil, who again picked up an award this year, commented that he was disappointed not to be able to attend because standing next to Dave on stage is the one time he feels tall!

“Another memory that stands out was when Kenny Herriot, who won for a few years, award got stuck in his spokes of his wheelchair and he went flying off the stage. Thankfully he was ok, but it did look for a few seconds that it was something serious. We were waiting to see if he was ok and then I heard this voice shout “Carry on young man”. You would have thought we were in the middle of the Blitz. Even Kenny could see the funny side!”

As each awards night passes, Dave and his team adapt to the changes in technology and Dave remembers what it was like back at the start.

“Technology has changed since the early days and my good friend John Purcell used to have to be behind the Beach Ballroom stage trying to really listen because the screens are quite thick for insulation and he was trying to hear the timing, so he could change the slide. It was very nontechnical, but John did a masterful job for years. These days every finalist has a video presentation on why they deserve the nomination. All the winners are interviewed on stage by myself which can be a challenge at times because you have everything from primary school of the year, so you are working with kids at a very young age and things can go wrong.

“It’s such good fun and everyone’s in the mood to enjoy the evening when they go there.

“The evening also highlights what a wonderful array of talent we’ve got in the North East.”

Congratulations to all the winners on the night and congratulations to Dave from all your colleagues at Pittodrie.

 

Full List of the 17 Winners from the 2018 Aberdeen Sports Awards

Lifetime Achievement
Sue Morgan

Inspiration Award
Dean Stott

Adult Sports Achiever of the Year
Zoey Clark

Junior Sports Achiever of the Year
Kirsty Muir

Student Sports Achiever of the Year
Kim Beattie

Disability Sports Achiever of the Year
Conner Morrison

Disability Junior Sports Achiever of the Year
Toni Shaw

Adult Volunteer of the Year
Ronnie Kain

Junior Volunteer of the Year
Rebekah Singer

Adult Coach of the Year
Eddie McKenna

Junior Coach of the Year
Matthew Scott

Club of the Year
Grampian Flyers Basketball Club

Team Performance of the Year
Aberdeen Sports Village Table Tennis Academy

Community Sports Project of the Year
Food and Fun

Primary School of the Year
Seaton Primary School

Secondary School of the Year
Bridge of Don Academy

Community Partner of the Year – Business
John Clark Motor Group