Our Blues & Volunteer Awards evening returned to the James Watt Centre this year with 80 students and staff in attendance to celebrate the hard work dedication and achievements of our students. Sports Union President, Hope Reilly and University Principal Prof. Richard Williams both gave a thoughtful speeches, reflecting on the year and congratulating our student athletes and volunteers.
We started the evening with a video that encapsulated some of the successes of the 23/24 year.
Volunteer Awards
The Heriot-Watt Sports Union Volunteer Awards celebrate the vast contribution that our students make to our community. This year our 350 volunteers gave over 21,000 hours of time to their clubs and the sports union through running club committees, helping at open days and welcoming new students to our Heriot-Watt Community. Our award recognise students who reach milestones of 50, 100, 250, 350 and 500 hours across their years at Heriot-Watt.
You can find all of our volunteer award winners HERE.
Len Burnett Trophy
The Len Burnett Trophy is presented to a platinum winner that has shown the most significant contribution to their club and/or the SU during their time at University. This year we had 10 students receiving platinum awards for volunteering over 500 hours during their time at Heriot-Watt. These students were: Alex Chan-Taylor, Andrew Wiseman, Evie Cuthbert, Jack McIlvenny, Nikole Maliavskaja, Ross Scott, Sarah Duff, Tilda Winqvist Tjader, Todd Blacklaw and Vincent Pemberton.
Len Burnett Trophy Winner – Jade Vincent Borde
(Cheerleading Club & Sports Union Health & Wellbeing Exec)
Deputy Principals Leadership Award
Our leadership award is presented to an individual, group, committee or club who have shown exceptional leadership this past year. This year there have been some fantastic example of students showing immense leadership.
Deputy Principals Leadership Award – Evie Cuthbert & Lauren Sandison (swimming Club)
This years leadership award was presented to Evie Cuthbert and Lauren Sandison for their work creating and delivering a learn to swim programme, teaching students the valuable life skill of swimming in Oriam’s Hydrotherapy pool. This programme provides a clear pathway for complete beginners to start their swimming journey and is a fine example of imitative and leadership within our community.
Bell Connor Memorial Award
This year saw a new award introduced in memory of the 40th year since the tragic accident that took the lives of 3 mountaineering club students. Trustee and Heriot-Watt Lecturer Prof. Stephen Morrow gave a moving speech about the introduction of the award and the impact the fund has had over its 40 years.
The award was to brought in to recognise a student who has shown a dedication to passing on knowledge and safety to members to ensure all trips are a safe place for students.
This years winner was Ciara Raftery for introducing route cards for their trips and provided feedback to the club after attending the student SMART weekend training course.
Blues
Blues are awarded to students who have achieved a consistent and exceptional performance throughout the season normally culminating in SSS/BUCS representation (if applicable).
There were 22 Blues awarded and these winners with their exceptional achievements can be found HERE.
The Neil Campbell Trophy is presented to the blues winner that has excelled in their sport over the past year. The nominees were:
Adam Hoole (Athletics)
Ally Miller (Rugby)
Greg Lobban (Squash)
Neil Campbell Trophy Winner – Greg Lobban
Greg has had an unforgettable season on the PSA tour, reaching a career high world ranking of 16 after reaching his fist world tour final in May 2024 at the Manchester Open. Greg has also captained the Scottish National team at both the World and European team championships in December and April respectively.
Greg also captained the Squash Men’s 1s BUCS team to their highest ever finish in BUCS, finishing 2nd in the country at BUCS Big Wednesday, beating number 1 seeds UWE along the way to the final.
Special Sporting Achievements
The nominees of the Joy Wilson Trophy for Fresher Performance of the Year were:
Connor Hayes (Squash)
Ewan Ramsay (Volleyball)
Meggie Martin-Lyall (Dance)
The Joy Wilson Trophy Winner – Connor Hayes
The nominees of the Steve Chapman Trophy for the Team of the Year were:
Aikido Team
Football Women’s 1s
Squash Men’s 1s
The Steve Chapman Trophy Winner – Squash Men’s 1s
The Men’s Squash 1s made history this year being the first team in the universities history to make it to BUCS Big Wednesday finals day at Loughborough university. The team finished convincing winners of BUCS Premier North once again, cementing themselves as the best team in Scotland and a top 4 side in the UK. The team decided to go one better and make the finals by beating number 1 seeds UWE in the semi to set up a title decider with university of Birmingham.
The team also had impressive individual performances in SSS competition, with 7 of the last 8, 3 of the last 4 and the eventual winner being HW players.
