Bahrain Rugby Football Club’s (RFC) West Asia Cup-winning captain Lindsey Gibson was the big winner on the night of the club’s annual End-of-Season Ball at the Diplomat Radisson Hotel, as he picked up both the Player of the Year and the Players’ Player of the Year awards.
Nominated alongside powerful number eight Elliot Behan and tearaway flanker Rhys Fitzgerald for the Player of the Year award, Gibson also beat off stiff competition from the same two players for the coveted Players’ Player of the Year gong, which went right down to the wire.
The latest accolades capped off a magnificent campaign for the Scotsman, who started every league fixture for Bahrain for the third season running and ably led the team virtually throughout, in the injury-enforced absence of regular skipper, Adam Wallace.
Gibson was also named the league’s outstanding player of the season by UAE-based newspaper Sport 360 earlier this month, based on a vote by captains, coaches and chairpersons from the West Asia Premiership clubs.
Highlight
Elsewhere on the night, Iwan Phillips picked up the top try-scorer award in for his impressive tally of 11 touchdowns in 14 league and cup games, while Wallace collected the try-of-the-season award for his superb effort away to Abu Dhabi Harlequins in the West Asia Champions League clash back in September, a rare highlight in an otherwise frustrating campaign for the player-coach.
The departing Charlie Fraser fittingly picked up the Golden Oldies player-of-the-year, while a special presentation was made to three of the stars of the recent West Asia Cup triumph in Toby Borrow, Ollie Luke and Rich Wilkinson, as they were recognised for contributions to Bahrain’s first XV over the last four, five and – quite remarkably – 11 seasons respectively.
Other awards on the night went to Arabian Celts’ Mairead Kennedy, John Doherty and Scott Little, with club favourite Lee Stones named ‘Clubman of the Year’.