Head coach Mike Westall receives Chairman’s Award at Southsea Nomads’ virtual presentation evening

And his assistant, Robert Camp, was also honoured for his efforts during the club’s 2019/20 Hampshire 2 season.

Westall was chosen by chairman Ken Walker for his efforts during his three seasons as head coach.

He initially joined Nomads towards the end of his playing days - he still appears occasionally - but was forced to miss a chunk of last season due to family commitments.

In his absence, Camp assumed extra responsibility and was rewarded with Nomads’ Clubman of the Season award - as chosen by players and committee members.

Matt Smith was voted the Players’ Player of the season for his displays at No 8.

‘He’s a high quality player,’ said skipper Ben Horrod. ‘He’s made a big difference to what we had previously in that position.’

Utility player Lewis King was voted the Coaches’ Player of the Season.

He turned out at scrum half, centre, on the wing and as a flanker in 2019/20.

Ben Case was awarded the Ash Clarke Young Player of the Season award.

That is open to anyone under the age of 23 and is named in honour of the former Nomads player sadly killed in a work accident in February 2013.

Case, 22, made his debut in adult rugby for Nomads after joining the club around Christmas time.

‘Ben coped well with the physicality of adult rugby,’ said Horrod. ‘It can be a big change making that step up.’

Nomads were fourth in the third tier of Hampshire rugby, only two points adrift of second-placed Winchester 2nds having played a game more, when 2019/20 was halted in mid-March.

They were on a great run, having won eight of their previous nine games.

Victories included a 68-5 win at Hook & Odiham, a 64-0 trouncing of Basingstoke 2nds, a 52-5 success at New Milton 2nds and a 45-12 victory over Bognor 2nds.

The only match Nomads lost during that run was against Havant 3rds, who ended up topping the table.

By the time the RFU had calculated the final positions using a points per game methodology, though, Nomads had dropped to fifth - two places lower than their 2018/19 finish.

‘We had a good season, and it could have been even better had the season not finished early, said Horrod, who was skippering Nomads for the eighth season running.

‘We were fourth at the time but we still had two of the teams above us to play.

‘We had a tough start as we lost our head coach for family reasons and I couldn’t play until Christmas time.

‘But the boys who were involved did really well, and once we got some experienced players back we pushed on.’

Horrod was absent as he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in September. Happily, after an operation and a dose of chemotherapy, he returned to action.

Nomads have always played in Hampshire 2 since Horrod arrived from Gosport & Fareham eight years ago. But the club are keen to bolster their numbers and hopefully win promotion to Hampshire 1.

‘We would like to try and field a 2nd team more regularly - be that once a month or every couple of weeks,’ Horrod admitted.

‘The club’s aim is to boost the size of the playing pool and push for promotion to Hampshire 1.

‘We have had the odd 2nd team game in recent years, but we need more players.

‘Our biggest challenge is recruitment.

‘We are the third club on the island after Portsmouth and United Services, so we have to recruit where we can.

‘Even Portsmouth’s 2nd team are playing at a level higher than we are.

‘That’s our biggest challenge. Most of our recruitment is from people who have hardly played before or never played at all, and we’ve developed them into players.’