Nominations Invited For Sporting Excellence
The race is on to find a champion worthy of Wyre Borough Council's coveted sports award.
Every year the Sheraton Trophy is presented to an individual, group or team who has excelled in their chosen sport and in doing so brought prestige to the borough.
This year's winner will receive their accolade from outgoing Mayor Councillor Gordon McCann during the council's annual meeting on Friday May 15. They will follow in the footsteps of speedway star Adam Wrathall (pictured in action) who took the title last year.
The council recognises that there are many Wyre people who give their all on the sporting field and feel they deserve to be honoured. If you know of someone who would make a worthy winner of this year's trophy we'd love to hear about their success.
Nominations for this year's trophy should be sent to the Mayor's Secretary at the Civic Centre, Breck Road, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, FY6 7PU, by April 24, 2009.
The Sheraton Trophy takes its name from HMS Sheraton, which was awarded Freedom of the Borough in recognition of the crew's work during the 1977 flood emergency while the ship was visiting Fleetwood.
and about Adam Wrathall..
Date of Birth : 27th November 1991
Place of Birth : Blackpool, Lancashire
Adam started racing grass track aged 8. He quickly progressed and two years later he was the British Junior Grass Track Champion. A step up to the Intermediate Class (ages 12-14) in 2004 saw him finish fourth in the British Championship and at the end of that season he started to practice on a 500cc speedway bike. 2005 saw him finish 6th in the British U-15 Championship but he missed three rounds because of a broken arm. Without that he would have been challenging for a rostrum spot but a year later that came when he was 3rd behind Joe Haines and Ben Hopwood.
2007 saw him start the season in the Oxford Cheetahs Conference League side but disaster struck in his very first meeting when both he and his bike cleared the safety fence at Oxford. He suffered a broken right leg, broken left hand, broken left and right shoulders, broken collarbone, compartment syndrome in an arm, severe bruising to his lungs and most worryingly bruising to his head with some internal bleeding on the back of the brain. He was in intensive care and spent 24 days in an Oxford hospital before they could move him closer to home.
As soon as he was home he was asking when he could ride a speedway bike again but doctors suggested it would be a year before he could contemplate that. Thankfully Adam's recovery has gone well and in January he returned to the track at Scunthorpe. Understandably tentative to start with Adam has built his speed up and the Scunthorpe management are delighted he has chosen Scunthorpe as the place to rebuild his career. Until June Adam will be concentrating on passing his GSCEs along with some second-half and grass track racing.
The above is courtesy of Scunthorpe Speedway
Last Edited: 07/03/2009