Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club chair Des Smith wins Unsung Hero award on BBC SPOTY 2023

A leading light in Sheffield's grassroots sport community has made an emotional plea after winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero award.

Desmond Smith, better known to many as Des Smith, is the co-founder and chairman of Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club, based in Ecclesfield.

He and his friends set up the club after arriving in the UK as Windrush children during the 1960s and finding themselves prevented from joining existing local sports clubs.

Sports club works with hundreds of young people from across Sheffield

All these years later it is still going strong, with some 11 junior football teams, two senior football teams, three senior cricket teams and a hockey team, and it works with hundreds of young people from across the city.

Des was presented with his award on the live BBC One show on Tuesday, December 19 by England cricket legend James Anderson and Olympic hero Denise Lewis. In a moving video segment, he explained: "This club really provided a lifeline and a safe environment, and that's why this club is so important to so many kids. We grew up together, we faced the challenges together and I think that togetherness has kept us going, and it's still there today.

'Club provided a lifeline'

"The club ethos is one that's open to everyone. Just to see the young people appreciating each other, the different races, the different colours, and just having fun, that's made me very, very happy."

Devon Malcolm, the former England cricketer who was supported by the club when he arrived from the Caribbean, said: "Des is 100 per cent an unsung hero. He's one of those guys who put in all the hard work but he just sees that as a part of life, of giving back, always finding a way to enable people, to enlighten people."

The audience also heard from some of the young people at the club today, one of whom called Des a 'really good man' who was always 'helping people out' and described the club as 'like a family'.

Having initially been set up to provide a place where children from the West Indies could play sport and socialise, the club is today open to people from all backgrounds, with Des describing it as an 'open, welcome community'.

Next target is to build a new pavilion

Accepting his award, Des thanked everyone involved for what he called a 'real surprise'.

He said: "The club I'm involved in really started a long, long time ago. It started in around 1965 and it started really because of the difficulties people like myself, who loved cricket and football, had in trying to get involved in local cricket teams, mainly white dominated teams.

"So we had to set up our own team and we started off as a youth club side. I was a member there and I'm now a little bit older and I'm still involved with the club, and there are people in their 80s who are still involved in that club and doing excellent work.

"At the moment we have about 11 junior football teams, three senior cricket teams, two senior football teams, a hockey team. We also do the holiday activities and food during the half-term, we have fun days, we have the ACE (Afro-Caribbean Engagement) programme, which is trying to encourage more kids from black African-Caribbean backgrounds into cricket.

"It's well supported by so many kids from all races, we're working with four schools at the moment, about 250 kids, who love the game of cricket, and football as well.

"Our next target is to build a pavilion. We need a new pavilion. The one you see there has been up for years and it's really falling apart, so if there are any sponsors out there..."

For more about Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club, visit: sheffieldcaribbeansports.club.