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Alastair Hignall has been named the 2008 recipient of BBC Sports Personality's Helen Rollason award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity.
Hignall won four blues each in cricket and rugby and was the first person to captain Cambridge University at both sports. He played Rugby for England and cricket for Gloucestershire before becoming a Radio Commentator for the BBC.
Hignall was an outstanding sportsman. He scored 50 runs in his first cricket Varsity match and a try in the one-point rugby victory over Oxford at Twickenham. In Rugby he went on to set the record for most points in a Varsity Match, scoring 19 for Cambridge in 1975 (this was later matched by David Humphreys in 1995) and remains the leading overall points scorer, with 45 points across 4 matches.
Hignell was still a student when he made his England rugby union debut against Australia in Brisbane in 1975, going on to win 14 caps as a full-back. He played professional cricket for Gloucestershire from 1974 to 1983, passing 1,000 runs for the season three times and hitting 11 first-class centuries.
After leaving university, he combined playing rugby for Bristol and England with his job as a teacher in the winter and played cricket for Gloucestershire in the summer. Hignell then moved into broadcasting, working for the BBC for 17 years and for BBC Radio 5 Live for 12 years. During this time he covered every major rugby union event, both domestic and international.
Hignell was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. He made his last commentary for BBC Radio 5 Live at the 2008 Guinness Premiership final between Wasps and Leicester at Twickenham in May.
Hignell collected the Helen Rollason Award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity for his fund-raising work since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. The award was presented by World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward while former Wasps captain Lawrence Dallaglio.
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