The winner of the Scottish ClubSport Service to Sport award, sponsored by Forsyths is Peter Hardie. The award was presented at this years ClubSport Berwickshire awards evening to recognise Peter`s long standing commitment and efforts towards community and club sport.
This years recipient of the Scottish ClubSport Service to Sport award, sponsored by Forsyths is Peter Hardie.
Extract from the awards evening presentation:
As current Borders Badminton Group Convenor and former Berwickshire Sports Council member I am honoured to have been asked to talk about the contribution Peter Hardie has made to sport and Badminton in particular. A sport in which we share a mutual passion. I’ve known Pete since I was 8 years old when I started going to the Duns Junior Badminton Club. I was coached by Pete from the beginning and went on to play the club’s first match with his daughter Claire who was a fantastic partner with an enviable low serve who knocked shuttles off at the net like a ninja.
There are countless folk playing high level badminton around Scotland and beyond because of Pete’s coaching and advice. Many of them have moved on to do coaching and/or help run clubs. His reach is wide and long lasting. He’s often quoted to me that ‘they’ve all been through the system’, so all will be well.
Pete started with tennis. He was a member of the Duns Tennis Club and was on the committee and a coach at the club for over 35 years. During the summer he coached on Monday nights, Friday nights, and on Saturday mornings. He would pick players and help transport them to play matches in the Border Junior Tennis League and would run U14 and U18 singles tournaments. He would help run the Peter Redpath Mixed Doubles tournament and grassroots events during the week, with players aged 8 to 12 years from all over Berwickshire taking part. His skills and efforts didn’t stop there, he would also help keep the tennis club courts playable including changing the nets in the winter time. Pete had help from Fiona Hodge and Mary Weir throughout his time at the club. As a gesture of gratitude for everything he’s done, the club made him a lifetime member.
Pete’s main sporting passion over the years has been badminton. He has been a member of Duns Badminton Club since it was formed in 1978. That’s an amazing 46 years in which he has coached at the club. During his 46 years at the club he has undertaken the roles of treasurer, secretary, and committee member. He is a formidable coach and started out with his instructor badge in 1981 then achieved the club coach badge in 1982. He will have coached well in excess of 3000 players on Friday nights during the main season. The club has had over 50 players representing Scotland in full national squads. There’s also been 12 players in full Scottish national junior teams playing against players from across the UK and teams from Europe too. All of these players have gone on to win Scottish and Scottish Schools national titles. One player has won the Scottish Senior Men’s Singles title four times and went on to play for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. Pete is very proud of these achievements, and he’s also proud that the club were the first in Scotland to have two club members win all 5 Scottish National Junior Titles in 2013. Pete’s pretty sure we are the only club up to this time to have this honour.
Pete was a member of the Borders Badminton Group’s committee and a group coach for over 30 years. Most of this coaching was undertaken at the Berwickshire High School with him being coach in charge for the under 12’s on a Saturday morning and the U14’s and U16’s group on Saturday nights. Teams he coached played against other Scottish regions and North of England teams. As if that wasn’t enough, he ran the desk at the Primary and Secondary Schools Borders Championships for over 25 years. He was also coach in charge at the Borders Sports Academy for over 20 years.
Pete has been a volunteer coach at the Berwickshire High School for around 35 years. He had been approached by PE teachers Peter Gallacher and David Douglas who asked him if he’d coach at the after-school club, weekly on a Monday. Through this additional coaching the BHS have won the Scottish Schools U14 and U19 national school team titles. Many BHS pupils have won full SBU national titles and countless Borders Schools titles. He is still coaching at the school now.
Pete was a selector for the Scottish Schools Badminton Union, asked to pick full Scottish squads and full Scottish teams to play against teams from GB and from all over Europe. He was also asked to be a coach at full national coaching sessions, but he didn’t take this up because there were members of the Duns Badminton Club in national squads at the time.
Pete was involved with the Scottish Badminton Union and Badminton Scotland in 1994. At the time he was nominated for a place in the European Badminton Union summer school in Portugal. He was also nominated in 1995, this time for the summer school in Denmark, but he he didn’t take up either of those invites. He politely declined because the Border Sports Academy was on at the same time and he was the coach in charge and was fully committed to making that a success. In 2001 the SBU nominated Pete for a place on the performance coach development programme, but after much deliberation he decided not to go because he would have had to miss out on time at the Duns Badminton Club, and with the Border Badminton squads and teams. Suffice to say his commitment to local badminton has been, and remains, his No1 priority.
In terms of previous awards and accolades, Badminton Scotland selected Pete to receive the prestigious 2012 Donella Crawford Memorial Award, awarded to a volunteer badminton coach who coaches junior players in Scotland and who has committed significant time and effort doing so. He has numerous other awards for coaching badminton and tennis over the years.
Pete was awarded Duns Citizen of the Year 2015 and the British Empire Medal in 2017. Both awards recognising his significant contribution to coaching in Duns, Berwickshire and the Scottish Borders. He’s proud of being a member of the Berwickshire Sports Council/Clubsport Berwickshire for around 38 years.
I am sure you are all in agreement that Pete is a very worthy winner of both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Service to Local Sport Award for 2024. Congratulations Pete and thanks for everything you’ve done and continue to do.
