Double accolade for proud Bassetlaw Bulldogs RLFC

Judged by an independent panel of RFL staff, the club has won both the 'Club of the Year' and 'Team of the Year' categories, cementing their place as one of the region’s top-rated junior sports clubs.

In announcing the awards, Stephen Guan, the Southern and Midlands Regional Development Manager for the RFL said: “The Club of the Year category saw nominees from across the Region and they were judged on nine key criteria, including areas such as their outreach and number of active teams.

“Bassetlaw Bulldogs have won the inaugural award with the club currently boasting 80+ players, competing across seven different age groups.

“Throughout the nomination process, the Bulldogs have been praised by other clubs their professionalism, friendliness, participation in every Midlands Festival this year and impressive facilities.

He continued: “There was plenty of competition from across the Midlands for Team of the Year and Bassetlaw Bulldogs Girls U13s have been crowned winners.

"This season, the team became the first and only Midlands team to enter the National Girls Leagues, playing in the East Division B.

"They won two of their games against heartlands clubs and fulfilled 11 league fixtures and 3 round-robin cup matches, which has resulted in the team travelling more than 800 miles this season to play the game they love.”

As well as their pride for those winners, the Bulldogs were also delighted to have been recognised in two other categories also.

Martin Brown was on the shortlist for Volunteer of the Year, and similarly Matthew Pennington for Coach of the Year.

Chair of the club, Phil Abbott said: “Congratulations to everyone at the club for this marvellous recognition and to all of the other worthy nominees and award winners across the Midlands.

"We are incredibly proud of the inclusive, fun, aspirational club that we have built and to have this recognised at a regional level is both humbling and exciting for us.

"It is so important to us that our young people have a positive experience when they come and play rugby league and we are delighted that this has been recognised beyond the club.”

As part of the award, the Bulldogs Girls team received a personalised video message from England and St Helen’s captain, Jodie Cunningham

In her message, she praised the commitment, effort and never-say-die attitude that the girls, the coaches and their parents had shown throughout the season.

The club now offers Masters rugby for the over-35s too and will host a Masters Rugby League match in East Markham for the first time ever with the visit of Rebel Masters this Saturday (2pm) following their debut game at Doncaster last week. This social, hybrid version of the game involves full-contact, semi-contact, and tag rugby league rolled into one.