You’ll know by now if you’ve read the previous instalments, Football in Berkshire hasn’t been able to hold its annual awards ceremony this year, so we asked our regular contributors to come up with their own winners for a series of headline awards.
Our women’s football correspondent Abi Ticehurst has posted her selections below. You can see Tom Canning’s here, Alicia Povey’s here and Neil Maskell’s here.
Player of the Season
Katie Hougham at Eversley & California Ladies, I can’t answer one of these questions without looking at statistics and this is nomination is it. She is a prolific striker, 77 goals in 60 games in the last four seasons and having played just 4 games this season, she’s still managed to grab a goal for every fixture.
Manager of the Season
Darrel Evans, manager of Ascot Ladies and head of women’s football at Ascot. He was instrumental in the safe return of both the women’s teams back to training this season. He lives and breathes the club. He always got time to answer my questions whether that be for an interview, FA Cup fixtures or the issues women’s football currently faces. Ascot’s girls youth section goes from strength to strength and that’s largely to do with Darrel’s years of commitment to the club. The club’s recent social media posts have also been a happy welcome to this difficult time!
Volunteer of the Season
Neil Graham, we wouldn’t have so many of the quality images you find across the FiB website if it wasn’t for the hard he puts in week in, week out across the grounds of Berkshire and beyond, he’s been paramount to my reporting, be that of Reading or our county leagues, including Neil’s photos is a privilege. He’s so incredibly devoted to the development of youth football at FC Bracknell too, working tirelessly to promote them and I was honoured to be amongst the people he picked to promote Children’s Mental Health Week for the club. A man of the people!
The best game you went to was..
Binfield – Windsor, an eight goal thriller and end to end the whole game! Sean Moore and Asa Povey were standout players in that game and there’s that much-discussed Windsor kit. If you’d been playing goal bingo that night you’d have shouted full house by the full-time whistle, it had everything you’d want in a non-league game and the passion amongst the players and the fans was a joy to see. It also helps they have a great selection of Siren beers at the bar. And in this strange old year Binfield were certainly leading the way in how to put the practice of guidelines into place to keep everyone safe but still allow them to enjoy a game at Hill Farm Lane.
Your favourite ground was..
Arbour Park, I don’t have too many to choose from here having only recently dipped into the non-league scene in the last year coupled with the suspension of football but I watched Langley play Holyport, at the venue they share with Slough Town, and that is a smart looking ground.
Your favourite social media outlet was..
Caversham United aka The Billy Goats, this nomination probably comes as no surprise! They’ve barely had a chance to kick a ball this season but they’ve made up for that in bucket loads off the pitch. Goal GIFS, a 5Live interview, the wheel of misfortune, a scandalous twitter admins poll competition, a new training top and a home kit competition, 10K followers and a charity raffle to follow suit. They are doing SO much for a good cause in their sponsors Balls to Cancer and keeping to their Sunday League roots all the while. They’re also huge advocates of women’s football with their own hashtag, so that’s a big tick in my book. Plus, they ruffle the occasional feather and who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of light-hearted football controversy now and then. And let’s not forget they signed an actual goat last summer!
Honourable mentions
Every single women’s team in the county, thank you so much for making it so easy for me to write interviews, match reports, ones to watch, fixtures and results and history on you all, it’s an absolute pleasure. Alicia Povey bossing it on the pitch, when she can, smashing it doing media at Wycombe and one of my number one supporters. I can’t really do honourable mentions without including you too, Tom, indebted to all the support you offer me in my footballing pursuits and a much needed straight talker!
Now have your say:
Please try to avoid one-word answers and give a little explanation as to why you have chosen them.
