POOLE cycle speedway club chairman Graham Sutton was among the big winners at the 2017 British Cycling Awards evening held in Birmingham recently, reports Gordon Day.

Well known throughout the world cycle speedway community, Sutton was presented with the Brian Cossavella Trophy for his services to event promotion by John Quarterman of HSBC, the new sponsors of British Cycling.

The awards evening was hosted by Sky Sports presenter Anthony McCrossan, who was joined on stage through the evening by a number of figures in British cycle sport including Olympic gold medallist and British Cycling policy adviser Chris Boardman, BMX world junior time trial silver medallist Beth Shriever and mountain bike downhill world champion Danny Hart.

A former rider for both the Bournemouth and Poole clubs, Sutton was one of the founder members of the current Poole club in 1974, since when he has concentrated on overseeing the club’s success both on and off of the racetrack.

During this time, Poole has risen to become one of the most respected and successful clubs at all levels of British and European competitions with the senior team winning the British League championship title on no fewer than 12 separate occasions.

His promotional skills came to the fore in 1981 when he organised the first tour of Australia by a British team and again in 1993 when he arranged Poole’s visit to Poland, the first by a British club side.

These two events formed the basis for the World and European Championships which have been staged bi-annually ever since.

Currently a member of the British Cycling Commission for cycle speedway, Sutton was also one of the founder members of the International Cycle Speedway Federation in 1981.

Situated in the town’s Harbourside Park, the Poole club raceway has staged many of the sport’s top events, hosting the ICSF World Championship finals on five occasions, the last coming in 2015, and the ICSF European Championship finals in 1998 and 2016.

This year will provide another test for Sutton’s skills, with the club staging the British Women's and British Women's Under-16 championships. The finals of both events will be held on 28 May.