Galashiels judo stalwart Rick Kenney given honour marking four decades’ service to Scottish ClubSport

The Galashiels 72-year-old was presented with a certificate commemorating that plaudit by the agency’s chairman, Jackie Smith, at its 2024 annual meeting, held in Perth.

Kenney is delighted by that latest accolade – following on from many others including the Order of the British Empire in 2020, a Live Borders award to service to sport in 2018 and a Scottish Ethnic Minority Sports Association lifetime achievement award in 2017 – and he told us: “I am deeply honoured and grateful to receive this recognition as a life member.

“Scottish ClubSport has played a significant role in my life and it’s a privilege to continue being part of its legacy.

“I look forward to contributing and supporting its growth in the future.”

Kenney, originally from Motherwell in North Lanarkshire but Borders-based since 2003, is a past chairman and vice-chairman of Scottish ClubSport, having joined its board in 2014 after first signing up with an earlier incarnation of the agency back in 1982.

Closer to home, the former Scottish Borders Council sport and recreation manager still chairs ClubSport Ettrick and Lauderdale and ClubSport Borders.

Promoted to eighth dan in 2022, Kenney was British Judo’s team manager at world and European championships in the 1980s and was vice-chairman of the British Judo Association from 1997 to 2004.

He has been a member of the national governing body for the martial art in Scotland since 1963 and joined its executive committee in 1976, being appointed vice-chairman in 1989 and chairman in 1994, until 2004, as well as being elected president of the Commonwealth Judo Association in 2013, a position he continues to hold.