12 days to go...

With just 12 days to go until the 2006 Evening Gazette Sports Awards, excitement is building towards what promises to be a memorable night.

The cream of Teesside's sporting elite from grassroots up to the higher echelons of professional sport will descend on The Tall Trees Hotel, near Yarm, for a celebration of a truly momentous year.

The awards don't just celebrate the sportsmen and women who score the goals or win the medals, they also recognise the selfless work that goes on behind the scenes.

The Unsung Sporting Hero category, sponsored by HSBC, celebrates the people who fill in the scorebooks, mark out the pitches, hang the nets, organise the competitions and show unstinting loyalty and dedication to the sports that they love.

HSBC have come on board as category sponsors this year and their timing couldn't be better.

The bank has made a pounds 1.25m commitment to the town of Middlesbrough by refurbishing the branch in Albert Road as part of their pounds 450m network overhaul.

It's HSBC's second largest investment in the area after City Centre Newcastle.

The refurbishment of the historic building, which has been a thriving business in Middlesbrough since 1868, when it first became home to the famous Hinton's grocers and tea rooms.

It proudly displays a heritage plaque as testament to the building's on-going success.

Joe and Mae Bratley were the winners of the Unsung Sporting Hero category last year.

The Redcar couple have helped to run the Cleveland Association of Swimming Clubs for more than two decades.

Entries have been flooding in for this year's awards and the independent judging panel face an incredibly tough task in picking the winner.

All will be revealed at the awards ceremony on Monday, December 11.

But there's no doubt that, in the field of Unsung Sporting Heroes, everyone's a winner.