Hawks’ Richard Maxton has been awarded the club Player of the Year at the S.R.U’s Awards Dinner last night.
The honourable Richard who started his rugby with Hamilton before playing for Stewarts/Melville while at University in Edinburgh was a Scottish under 21 Internationalist in 1999/00.
He then joined Hawks and has been a mainstay ever since.
Richard currently teaches in East Kilbride
Richard’s father John now Lord Maxton played with Glasgow Accies in the 1960s whilst teaching at Glasgow Academy.(a concession granted to non Academicals at that time)
On one occasion having just arrived up from Oxford the bold John was playing for Accies against Hawick at Mansfield Park and according to Accie legend was “leaping like a salmon” until one Hugh McLeod decided to stop him as only he could.

During his long spell as a MP he sat on a Commons Committee that investigated “professionalism” in English club rugby .

Rugby’s prize-giving event of the season, the Scottish Rugby Awards Dinner, took place at Murrayfield this evening with a raft of winners from all levels of the game in Scotland being honoured by their peers.

Edinburgh Rugby back Chris Paterson beat national team mates Chris Cusiter, Sean Lamont, Jason White and Ally Hogg to the coveted title of Scotland Player of the Season – his second honour in as many weeks – while Scotland Sevens Player of the Season, sponsored by The Famous Grouse, went to Mark Lee (The Army).



Tara Kildare, Sponsorship Manager, The Famous Grouse, said: “As sponsors of the Scotland team and the Scotland Sevens team, we are delighted to be involved in the Scottish Rugby Awards. This is the first time the Scotland Sevens team have taken part in the full IRB International Sevens circuit and Mark [Lee] has been an inspirational role model for the younger guys who have come into the squad this season so we feel that he was fully deserving of the title The Famous Grouse Scotland Sevens Player of the Year.”



The Scotland Player of the Year award and the three pro-team Player of the Year Awards were voted on by members of the public through the Scottish Rugby website (www.scottishrugby.org) and notched up more than 100,000 votes in total.



Marla Cunningham, Scottish Rugby Commercial Manager, said: “The Scottish Rugby Awards offer us the chance to say thank you to all those who take part in the sport throughout the year and we’re very grateful to our sponsors and partners BT, The Famous Grouse, Magners and Maclay, Murray & Spens for their involvement in sponsoring awards. The event is a celebration of all that is good at all levels of the game in Scotland.”



From club rugby, Glasgow Hawks’ Richie Maxton took the BT Premiership Division One Player of the Year title and BT Premiership Division Two Champions, Stirling County emerged victorious as BT Premiership Club of the Year, having finished a clear 21 points ahead of nearest rivals Stewart’s Melville FP.



Highland stalwart Colin Baillie, former rugby coach at Millburn Academy in Inverness, who over the years has introduced countless youngsters to the sport and who once, while refereeing a schools match involving Gordonstoun, was reported to have said to team captain and son of Scottish Rugby’s Patron HRH The Princess Royal Peter Phillips at the coin toss: “Tails or your Granny?” was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award.


THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS:

BT Premiership Division 1 Player of the Year: Richie Maxton (Glasgow Hawks)

BT Premiership Division 2 Player of the Year: Adam Roxburgh (Kelso)

BT Premiership Division 3 Player of the Year: Chris Dickinson (Cartha QP)

BT National League Division 1 Player of the Year: Blake Whitehead (Dalziel)

BT National League Division 2 Player of the Year: Alan Hotson (Langholm)

BT National League Division 3 Player of the Year: Andy Clark (Morgan FP)

BT National League Division 4 Player of the Year: Mark McKenzie (Falkirk)

BT National League Division 5 (East) Player of the Year: Scott Ramsay (Penicuik)

BT National League Division 5 (West) Player of the Year: Johnny Sloan (Dumfries)

BT National League Division 5 (Caledonia) Player of the Year: Alasdair Knight (St Andrews University)



BT Premiership Club of the Year: Stirling County

BT National League Club of the Year: Hamilton

BT Premiership Coach of the Year: Bob McKillop (Stirling County)

BT National League Coach of the Year: Adam Gray (Stewartry)



The Borders Player of the Year: Calum MacRae

Magners Edinburgh Rugby Player of the Year: Brendan Laney

Glasgow Rugby Player of the Year, Sponsored by Maclay, Murray & Spens: Scott Lawson



Scotland Player of the Year: Chris Paterson (Edinburgh Rugby)

Scotland Women Player of the Year: Rimma Petlevannaya (Murrayfield Wanderers)

Scotland U18 Player of the Year: David Lambert (Nottingham HS)

Scotland U19 Player of the Year: Ross Rennie (Stewart’s Melville FP)

Scotland U21 Player of the Year, the David McGavin Cup: Stuart Corsar (Aberdeen GSFP & Grampian Institute of Sport)

Scotland Sevens Player of the Year Sponsored by The Famous Grouse: Mark Lee (The Army)

Scotland Rookie of the Year: Sean Lamont (Glasgow Rugby)

Modern Apprentice of the Year: Grant Talbot (Dalziel)



Try of the Year: Andy Craig (Scotland v England)

Referee of the Year: Malcolm Changleng (Gala)

Spirit of Rugby Award/Volunteer of the Year: Barry Sinclair (Portobello)

Lifetime Achievement: Colin Baillie (Highland)

This article was originally posted on 7-May-2005, 21:57 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 7-May-2005, 23:42.