Clyde Powerchair FC Presentation Day

This year’s Clyde Powerchair FC presentation event was held on Sunday 21st August. As is now traditional, the first part of the event was the Clyde Powerchair Cup competition held at Ravenscraig Sports Centre. This year the Clyde players were joined by friends from Glasgow Gladiators Powerchair Football Club – formerly Queen’s Park Powerchair Football Club.

Players were organised into six teams representing countries which had taken part in the European Championships in France in June. The teams were managed by volunteer parents and friends. Each team played every other team and the winner was the team with the most points at the end. To add a little bit of excitement, drawn matches were decided by a penalty shoot-out. Not a normal penalty shoot-out. The object was not to put the ball in the goal but to hit the post. Much more difficult than it looks! It really was very close with the outcome being in doubt until the last match. In the event, as in the football, ‘Portugal’ was triumphant. Who needs Ronaldo

Everyone then made their way to Pather Community Centre in Wishaw where they were faced with the challenge of trying to finish the fantastic buffet laid on by the Clyde Powerchair family. They did their best but ultimately failed.

Before moving on to the presentation of awards, there was a very poignant moment when everyone paid tribute to those players who had passed away during the season with a very loud minute of applause.

In the Awards part of the proceedings, every Clyde Powerchair player received a commemorative trophy and several players received special awards. Paul McGinley and Craig Grant received the Players’ Player of the Year for Clyde Caledonia and Clyde Alba respectively. Jade Twist was awarded the Goal of the Season Award. Robert Watson was awarded the Miller Family Award and Kate Walsh and Colin Shields received Special Merit Awards for their contributions to Clyde Powerchair FC.

The final award was a sad one. Stuart Aitchison, who has been involved in powerchair football in Scotland since 2010 and was instrumental in setting up Clyde Powerchair FC, has decided to step down from his coaching and secretarial roles. Stuart was presented with a Clyde Powerchair FC top signed by all the players. 

We then moved onto the disco dancing. As has been said before, the sight of powerchair players and friends dancing ‘Gangnam Style’ has to be seen to be believed. The whole event was a tremendous success and thanks are due to all those who made it happen.