Town teams to fore in awards
THE Lancashire and Cheshire AFL celebrated the completion of a very difficult season of atrocious weather in style at Stockport County who were again excellent hosts for the awards for their 109th season at the annual presentation dinner.
There was a bumper attendance of 250 players, officials and guests with entertainment provided by comedian Bob Woolland.
L and C chairman Mike Yates proposed the toast to the guests and outlined the great work done by the committee and clubs throughout a tortuous season and Colin Bridgford, the chief of the Manchester FA, replied on behalf of the guests.
L and C President Graham Ellis was presented with his trophy by secretary Brian Davies and there was also a special award to Steve Johnson who has been the auditor for the league for 20 years.
The Fair Play award was won by Chadderton Park FC, Tim Roebuck of Abacus Media took the secretary of the year and Ryan Alderson was referee of the year.
The top league trophy is the SE Woollam Aggregate Trophy and it was won by Salford Vics who also saw their second team win the Division B championship.
It was a special night for long-serving L and C club Stoconians who won two divisional championships in divisions A and D, for the first time in well over 30 years and there to celebrate a great night was club legend Jim Edmondson at the tender age of 95.
New boys Dom Doyle also picked up a double winning the division three title and the Wray Cup and they turned out in force to celebrate their success.
At the top of the tree were Moorside Rangers who were the Premier division champions and runners up in the Rhodes Cup with close rivals High Lane being the Rhodes Cup winners and Premier division runners-up.
Waterloo have also enjoyed a great season cruising to the division one title and Chorltonians seconds were division two champions with their hotshot Aaron Rodger netting an amazing 54 times during a memorable season.
There was also success for new boys Radclyffe AFC who were runnersup in the Hellawell Shield and winner of the division C title with local rivals AFC Oldham thirds taking the Hellawell Shield and being runners-up to Radclyffe in division C.