The Sue Dyke Award

The Sue Dyke Award is Open Morris’s Annual Competition for young people in the Morris world.

Sue Dyke (nee Spick), who sadly died in 2017, was a former officer of Open Morris and a stalwart practitioner of dance in and around Nottingham. Sue danced North West with Nottingham Pride and Cotswold with Jacquard, Bunnies from Hell, Scragenz and, since 2000, with Lady Bay Revellers, with whom she danced up until her final illness.

To continue Sue’s involvement with a tradition she loved so much, her husband, Ken, requested that donations made in her name at the funeral should be passed on to Open Morris, to promote and support the Morris tradition. Sue was always concerned with the future of Morris and recruitment, so it was agreed that the money should be used to set up an award for young people.

Lady Bay Revellers donated an inscribed pewter tankard, to be awarded annually by Open Morris to the winner of the Competition and in 2019 we received generous donations to the Sue Dyke Award fund from The Lobster Potties Festival, and from Shinfield Shambles Border Morris. These donations mean that the competition can run for a long time to come and will hopefully inspire many young people in the Morris world. We’d like to say a huge thank you to the donors!