The Hudson-Evans Award
The Hudson-Evans Award is in the memory of David Hudson and Peter Evans who were both hard working and dedicated men who gave much to the running and advancement of the Club off the pitch for many, many years.
The award recognises an individual’s continuous and significant contribution to Paviors over a period of at least 20 years. Whilst contribution on the playing side can be included, primarily the award recognises efforts off the pitch. It is the highest accolade the Club awards and represents deserved recognition of those who have truly made a difference.
The award is not made every year and on this occasion we had two very worthy recipients.
Duane Broddell
Duane came to rugby late, some say fortunately, when his son Aidan had taken a keen interest and was developing as a youngster, which later saw him become a First Team player.
My first recollection of Duane, well over 20 years ago, was as a referee. The particular game was a contest between our Thirds and a team from just up the road. Duane was on the back row and the opposition fly half was a talented but volatile player. It would be a stretch to describe Duane as talented, but he had no problem with volatility. The pair spent the whole game trying to kill each other but as the game flowed and they seemed to be enjoying themselves we cracked on both giving as good as they got. All was well and in true rugby tradition they traded beers after the game and all was forgotten. At the time this coloured my opinion of Duane who I saw, at best, as a bit of a jack the lad. Later I was to realise just how wrong that was.
Shortly after that I was freshening up the bar which was pretty dismal when Duane appeared and offered his skills as a joiner and fortunately for Paviors I took him up on the offer.
Twenty odd years later I am proud to have him as a good and intensely loyal friend and grateful for this opportunity to share with you the unsung work he has done over that time for Paviors.
As mentioned, he joined The Club because of his son but his first love was water polo where he competed at a high level, apparently his aggression there also saw him at odds with the officials at times! It is timely that the man sponsoring today’s game, Pete Toseland also has illustrious water polo credentials and has known Duane since school days.
Back to rugby. He, like many parents, was soon offering to help with coaching his son’s age group and he continued this through to senior rugby. He also became involved in managing both the Second and Third Teams at the same time and later when his younger son Josh took up the game he was always there to help when needed.
Over the years Duane with the full support of his wife Helen, has been a generous supporter of the Club, he found work and accommodation for some of the foreign players who were attracted to us. He has sponsored the Club for many years not only in hard cash but with benefit in kind that has saved us a fortune. More than that though he has always been there to help with our improvements to the clubhouse. In 2007 we did a complete refurb of the clubroom over the summer, a huge undertaking. When you add the work involved in getting a marquee kitted out for our first Summer Ball things got pretty hectic over the close season but we got it done. Later we removed an internal wall creating much needed space. A complete changing room renovation followed. A disabled lift mention, by Sue Evans in her introduction, was installed particularly for Dave Hudson who was paralysed in a climbing accident and before the lift was carried up and down the stairs. Dave had a lot of respect for Duane and the feeling was mutual and drove him to put hours of work into completing the lift but sadly it was too late for Dave who died just before it was ready. The list of other jobs Duane has made happen is endless and he is heavily involved with our Centenary Project. We are well short of the amount needed to build the changing rooms but we have spent hours getting to the stage where we are now ‘shovel ready’ a position reached thanks to Duane.
Like all the previous winners of this award words cannot do justice to the time and effort put in but Duane stands tall with those and Peter and David would recognise Duane as an outstanding and selfless Pavior.
Ken James
We were very fortunate that when Ken left the army and decided to settle with his wife Maggie and daughter Bethany in the area he looked for a local rugby club. At the time we were his second choice but he soon realised that Paviors was the place for them.
He quickly became involved with coaching as his daughter Beth showed a natural instinct for the game and he helped guide that age group through to junior rugby. We had several girls playing in mini rugby and Ken jumped at the chance to develop girls rugby at the Club. In no time the numbers mushroomed and the quality of the coaching led by Ken and others soon attracted players from far and wide. Once included into the RFU playing structure we were playing highly competitive games against Saracens, London Irish and Wasps. Both our Girls Under 15 & Under 18 won through to become National Champions. Several of our girls achieved representative honours at club CBD, and international levels. The current Scottish scrum half, Jenny Maxwell, looks back with gratitude to her time at Paviors and has been back several times of late to help with coaching. Ken’s coaching skills were soon recognised at higher levels and it was at Midlands level he worked closely with Emily Scarratt and the rest they say is history.
That era of girls rugby ended on a high but the with no senior ladies rugby at Paviors sadly most of the home grown talent had to move on to clubs who offered this.
Now for a second time round Ken is at the fore in resurrecting girls rugby but with the addition of senior ladies so a similar fate is avoided going forward. The growth and development of the 4 age groups of girls rugby has been phenomenal and Ken will be the first to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of the coaches and parents who support the girls both currently and those of a few years ago.
During our major clubhouse refurb in 2007 Ken managed to acquire a huge amount of equipment for us, saving a small fortune, and much of that is still in use today.
With his professionally qualified knowledge of legislation, health and safety he joined the Board of the Sports Club as the Compliance Director much to our benefit. As with all the winners of this prestigious accolade Ken went about the job with little fuss getting the necessary jobs done and was a significant influence in helping the Club through Covid. As a club we are governed by the same laws and regulations that any business in ‘hospitality’ has to comply and Ken steers us through that minefield of necessary red tape wisely.
Ken has been Mini Chair, Junior Chair, President, Compliance Director and now Director of Girls Rugby. An impressive list both on and off the pitch and Ken’s contribution is up there with the best.
His addition to the illustrious list of previous winners was inevitable.
Graham Turner
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