Army Ready For Service's 2018 Sports Awards

The 2018 Army Sports Awards take place on Tuesday evening.

In a year where the British Army have seen six soldiers head to Australia for the Commonwealth Games, Army sport has had a successful year including winning their first Rugby League Inter-Services title for five years in September.

Other accolades include a men and women’s Inter-Services double in football, a successful defence of their Golf title and an Army Championship Cricket triumph.

The two main awards are for Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year and it is tough competition for both awards.

In the running for the men’s award are Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Sam Gowen, boxing champion Chez Nihill and Scottish cyclist Mark Robertson.

For the women, Welsh international netball player Fern Davies is in contention against para ski guide Jen Kehoe and boxing star Karris Artingstall.

Other awards on the night include Team of the Year, Official of the Year, a Rising Star award as well as a Lifetime Achievement award.

As well as marking the centenary for the end of the Great War in 1918, this year’s event also celebrates the milestone of 100 years since the creation of the ASCB (Army Sport Control Board) which is the organisation that formally organises Army Sport.

Major General Shaun Burley is the Director of the ASCB and explained how the creation of the organisation came about: "The chain of command realised the benefit of formalised sport to individuals who came out of the line and were given food, given clothes, were deloused and all the rest of it," he said.

"The first thing the blokes did was play a game of football or do a bit of boxing and that’s what seemed to raise morale.

"The chain of command realised that and after the war, they thought ‘actually we need to formalise.’ We always played sport. It’s just it wasn’t formalised and resourced."

He said: “I remember in my day, it was a magnificent and still is a magnificent achievement to reach Army level but there wasn’t much beyond that apart from a few individuals.”

“We had six soldiers at the Commonwealth Games. We think we might be lucky enough to get six soldiers to Tokyo.

"All of a sudden, the UK is starting to realise that the British Army is a great source of talent.

"We’ve got Commonwealth solders in the British Army who are then going off and representing their countries as well. I think that’s a really good thing for us to do.”