Player Of The Season Awards at the Turf on Friday 14th May from 7.30pm

[Shropshire Red]

First of all apologies for clashing with the quiz night, but as I explained to Dave, our hands really were tied in the end.

I would like to inform everyone that the Player of the Season awards on the evening went like this.....

Wrexham Supporters Association - Andy Fleming

Wrexham Supporters Association Young Player - Chris Maxwell

Wrexham Supporters Trust - Andy Fleming

Shropshire Reds - Andy Fleming

Buckley & District Reds - Andy Fleming

Mold & District Reds - Andy Fleming

Kings Mills Reds Most Improved Player - Chris Maxwell

Two other awards were made on the night........

The Dave Lovett Memorial Award, which is presented to a person who is reagrded as an 'unsung hero' in providing a service to Wrexham FC above the 'call of duty'. The trophy was donated by the Evening Leader in recognition of Dave Lovett's love of Wrexham FC. Previous winners of this award have been....

2005 Geraint Parry for his efforts on the administration and matchday jobs during our spell in administration.

2006 Wyn Griffiths for his efforts during the clubs spell in administration in which he worked tirelessly as a Trust Board member and played a major part in turning over the club shop, which the Trust took over, into a profit making revenue for the club.

2007 Dave Bennett for his efforts as club director during the Hamilton era, and during the clubs spell in administration. Most certainly above the call of duty.

2008 Johnny Edwards for his efforts as a servant of Wrexham FC for over thirty years as player, coach, and groundsman.

2009 Les Evans for his efforts as the official club photographer for almost thirty years, which has provided an historic collection of photo's of Wrexham FC for us all, and for our future kin to look back on.

The 2010 winner presented by Dave's prodigy, Richard Williams, was this year awarded to Colin Edwards, who has This award is designed to honour just such a person as the club’s Safety Officer for some 10 years – Colin Edwards.

The following is a testament by our club secretary Geraint Parry to the efforts that have earned Colin the title of 'unsung hero'.

"Many supporters who come to games at the Racecourse, will have little knowledge of the work that Colin has carried out over the last decade, ensuring that fixtures ran smoothly and safely for all those who were in attendance.

His primary role on matchdays was controlling the 70+ stewards and other staff, who make the Racecourse function, as well as liaising with outside bodies such as the police, ambulance, St Johns and fire brigade.

Colin also looked after all the formal paperwork, associated with running a sporting venue. He would arrange all the different annual inspections which covered the likes of barrier testing, electrical tests, floodlighting inspections, pa checks, boiler tests and emergency lightening – as well as getting repairs or upgrades carried as necessary.

You would be surprised by how many different certificates are required by the local authorities, before they will grant a safety certificate for the club to allow in spectators.

That in itself would have been more than enough for one person, but Colin consistently went above and beyond the call of duty.

As well as looking after maintenance jobs around the site from cleaning dressing rooms to repairing toilets, he was available 24/7 for any incident that might happen at the ground, from burst pipes during the winter to early morning fire alarms, he never shirked a call.

Colin would always be the first to help the groundstaff in getting a game on when the weather turned nasty – shifting snow, clearing away flood water, you name it he’s done it.

Also, it’s not putting matters too strongly to say that in the dark days of entering Administration, without Colin’s efforts, then we might well not have had games to watch in the middle of all the turmoil that surrounded the Racecourse at that time.

Through his efforts and good relations with the different bodies that make up the Club’s Safety Advisory Group, we were able to overcome numerous obstacles to staging games and therefore at least able to let the team function on the pitch.

Colin Edwards has genuinely been one of the Club’s unsung heroes over the last decade and is a very worthy recipient of this award.

We should all join in thanking him for his sterling efforts and also wish him well in his retirement – as he is already sorely missed by his many friends at the Racecourse."

The final award of the evening was the Wrexham Supporters Trust 'Extra Mile' award. This trophy is presented to a Trust member who has contributed to Trust activities in what the Trust board regard as being above the 'call of duty' associated with being a fan of the club.

The winner of this award is Toby Clark for his efforts in making a huge contribution in organising the petition for the Racecourse ground to be included in the Local Development Plan to secure the safety and the security of the Racecourse Ground as a venue for Wrexham FC and international sport in north Wales. Congratulations.

Congratulations to Toby, Colin, Andy and Chris on your contributions.

[shinyredadidaskit]

A nice testimonial there for colin. God help us the next time we have a bad winter. Ratty has boobed big time with his treatment of colin.