BRAINTREE Bullets BMX Club head coach Julian Allen says winning a top honour at the Active Braintree 2018 Sports Awards allows them to continue showcasing themselves to the local community and celebrate the achievements of their riders.

The Bullets capped another excellent 12 months by picking up the Community Club of the Year award at a gala ceremony at Braintree Arts Theatre after they picked up the East Anglian Championship title and finished in the top-six at the British Championships.

The club also celebrated a host of individual successes on national, European and World stages, including ones for Oli Cutmore, who enjoyed individual recognition by taking Sports Personality of the Year.

While the club’s achievements are well-known within cycling, though, Allen said it was important for them to be recognised by the local community.

“It’s always great to win an award,” said the Bullets’ head coach.

“It’s been a couple of years and it’s always nice to get recognised on the local scene and to bring BMX, which is a minority sport, into the mainstream arena.

“An awards ceremony like this one allows us to put the club into the mainstream and that’s really important locally. This is where our club-base comes from.

“We have members primarily from the Braintree District but we also have riders come from all over Essex, so to be able to promote the club and hopefully drum up more interest from local people is so good.

“We’ve had another strong year.

“We won the East Anglian title again and finished sixth in the nationals., while we never want to get complacent, that’s almost become an expectation from the club.

“We slipped a little in the national standings as there were a few injuries and a few riders moved on, so some of our regular points scorers didn’t score as heavily, but we still got

“Within the sport that’s still a big feat among 67 clubs overall and we had a couple of World Championship finalists, European finalists and national champions. So it’s been another good one for us.”

Meanwhile, Sport for Confidence won the Services to Disability award for their work in running various sporting activities including boccia, fencing, karate and swimming for those with learning and physical disabilities at Witham Leisure Centre.

There was also a notable award for Ed Booker, who runs the Witham Town under-11’s football team.

He won the Unsung Hero award for his work planning matches, training and social events for the team and the way he works with some children in the team suffering with autism and dyspraxia, going out of his way to ensure all children are included and have a smile on their face.