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Ben Kay swoops player of the season

Members awards
By TigerRock
May 3 2002
The trophies were presented by Miss Leah-Anne Hall, who’s name was chosen at random from participating voters, during the Members Evening hosted by Tudor Thomas and Ian Cockerill, in the Tiger Bar at the Club on Thursday night.

When accepting the award Ben modestly claimed that he had expected the award to go to Lewis Moody, and was clearly delighted to have won the acclaim of the fans. The voters, however, had clearly remembered the way Ben has had to step up for the club during the lengthy absences of Martin Johnson, whilst still cementing a place in the England side ready for the World Cup.

Kay, who has also been nominated for the Players' Player of the Year in the Professional Rugby Players' Computacenter Awards, and Zurich Premiership Player of the Year Award, received a massive 46% of all votes cast by Tigers fans.

As exclusively predicted on this (or equivalent) site, the title of Young Player of the Season was retained by Tigers' centre Ollie Smith, who, at only 19 years of age, has already made 39 first team appearances for the club since his debut in August 2000, and is the first player to retain this award. Smith, whose form has been such that an England cap can only be a matter of time, thanked the fans for their votes, and was plainly amazed by his achievement.

The Award for Outstanding service was awarded to hooker Richard Cockerill, an appropriate choice in his testimonial season, and the third member of the legendary ABC Club to receive the award. Richard, who had been told he had to get back to the Tigers Bar from an ABC testimonial dinner to replace Neil Back.

He was genuinely surprised and pleased with the award, although apparently the trophy itself is seen as a jinx since Darren Garforth’s win was followed by a serious back injury. In an excellent speech his final words were “I’ll see you all next season.” Is that a hint as to his future, or was he talking about the European Cup?

Previous recipients (in descending chronological order) are:-

Player of the Season: Pat Howard, Austin Healey, Martin Corry, Neil Back and Martin Johnson.

Young Player: Adam Balding, Lewis Moody, Michael Horak, and Eric Miller.

Outstanding Service: Darren Garforth, Graham Rowntree, Stuart Potter and John Wells.

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