GEOFF Holt, the disabled yachtsman who sailed around Britain, is amongst the Hampshire names on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The 44-year-old, who also left the comfort of his Shedfield home to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo, has been awarded an MBE.

He is paralysed from the chest down, having broken his neck in a swimming accident in the mid-1980s.

Mr Holt said: “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet I don’t think. I feel a bit of a fraud. I do what I do because I love it not for accolade. It seems quite weird to be recognised for it.”

He added: “I genuinely believe sailing is one of the few sports if not the only sport that is available to anyone regardless of their ability.”

The former chief executive of the Royal Yachting Association, Rod Carr, who lives in Winchester, has also been saluted.

Having retired earlier this year from the RYA, which has its headquarters in Hamble, he will become a CBE.

It follows unprecedented success for British Olympic yachting during his decade in charge.

The sailors to capture gold medals include two that went to Peter Symonds College in Winchester, Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy.

Mr Carr spent 30 years at the RYA and received an OBE in 2005 for his role in Britain becoming the world leader at Olympic sailing.

Back on dry land, Mike Glogg, who also hails from Winchester, is another sportsman recognised in the honours list.

He is the county president of Hampshire Rugby Football Union, and will become an MBE for voluntary services to rugby.

It is not the only sport in which he takes an interest, having also captained one of the teams at St Cross Cricket Club in Winchester.

Sporting blood also runs through the veins of Judge Khurshid Hassan Drabu from Otterbourne near Winchester, who will become a CBE.

As a young man in Kashmir he was a talented cricketer, but it is for his legal work that he is being recognised.

Having arrived in Britain in 1971, he worked as a barrister until eventually becoming Senior Judge at the Asylum and Appeals Tribunal.

He retired two years ago, having also been one of the founders of the Muslim Council of Britain in 1995.

Award winning poet Wendy Cope is also amongst the Wintonians to be recognised on the honours list.

She will receive an OBE for services for literature, which comes after she received an honorary degree from the University of Winchester.

She lives in the city with Lachlan Mackinnon, himself a poet, critic and literary journalist who teaches at Winchester College.