FOR our latest Pride of East Lancashire Award we are searching for the area's amateur sporting legends.

The Grass Roots Champion accolade, backed by Blackburn Rovers, is dedicated to highlighting the outstanding amateur performers who form the lifeblood of the community sporting scene.

The winner of this award will be someone who, in their own chosen sport and at their own particular level, has become renowned as an amateur sporting legend.

Without such participants the rich vein of sport which flows through East Lancashire could not survive. It is these people of whose dedication to and love of their sport makes them participate week in, week out, that the Grass Roots Champion award is aimed to reward.

We are looking for a competitor who has left a lasting mark on the club he or she plays for or on their chosen sport locally.

The Grass Roots Champion may be someone who is still playing or someone who no longer participates. Either way they must have put in a consistently high performance over a number of years and become a 'name' within their sport, revered by fellow competitors.

Nominees can be able bodied or disabled sportsmen and women and may well have triumphed over adversity.

The winner of this award will win £1,000 in cash, plus a £2,000 holiday. Make your nominations by visiting www.thisislancashire.co.uk or by completing a coupon in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph or Citizens.

Later this month we will launch our second sport-related award, the Sprit of Sport Award, sponsored by Burnley Football Club, which is designed to reward the unsung heroes behind the scenes.

This award is aimed at the hard-working managers, committed coaches, league organisers and founders, kit-washers and grass-mowers of the sporting world.