THE life of Worcestershire and England cricket legend Graham Dilley was celebrated at the 2011 UK Coaching Awards.

Dilley, who lost his battle with cancer in October, was honoured with a special lifetime achievement award at the prestigious London ceremony attended by Sports Coach UK patron, HRH the Princess Royal.

The former England bowler played a key role in the development of a number of international cricketers as a coach at Surrey and Scotland and as head coach at Loughborough University.

He also worked with the England bowlers on their tours of India and New Zealand in 2001/2 and Australia in 2002/3 and his award was unanimously agreed by the judging panel.

Also successful was Evesham’s Oli Woodcock, who scooped performance development coach of the year for his efforts in the world of windsurfing.

The 29-year-old has been a high performance coach for the Royal Yachting Association for more than eight years and was recently recognised for his work with their youth and junior windsurfing programme.

Woodcock’s passion for windsurfing continues to feed the Olympic programme with keen, motivated and exceptionally capable sailors.

Over the past 12 months, he has led his charges to success at the highest level, including a total of 21 medals in the RYA Volvo youth and junior programmes and on the world and European stage.

He said: “It’s absolutely amazing to have won this award and a great achievement for me as a coach.

“It’s incredible to get this sort of recognition for windsurfing within the wider sporting world.

“It was at first a shock when I was nominated by the RYA but then to go on and make the shortlist and now win is completely mind-blowing.

“It is extremely special and most definitely a career highlight.”