Dale star wins top media award

EVO-STIK STIK Northern Premier League Tividale say defender Richard Huckfield has scooped a prestigious media award.

Delighted officials at the First Division South Dale announced on Monday that the 31-year-old has been named the 2014 Dudley, Stourbridge and Halesowen News’ Sports Personality of the Year, beating off competition from third placed Ben Haseley at Halesowen Town and runner-up, Commonwealth gold medalist Jordanne Whiley, with more than half the vote.

The club captain, pictured, played a pivotal role last season leading the team from The Beeches to a Midland Football Alliance league and cup double and came out on top in an online poll to highlight the area’s sporting stars of the last 12 months.

Huckfield claimed 55 per cent of the vote to take the title ahead of wheelchair tennis star Whiley in second with 22 per cent and Yeltz striker Haseley in third with 11 per cent.

Signed in July 2013 from Tipton Town, he was a regular in Tipton Town’s tremendous FA cup run to the first round and voted MFA Player Of The Year in 2012-13.

A club spokesman said: "This is a massive sporting award in the Black Country. As it is classed as an individual award Richard was nominated on behalf of Tividale FC as Ben Haseley was on behalf of Halesowen Town. To beat a Commonwealth gold medallist is an amazing feat."

Speaking to @TiviFCofficial, Huckfield, who played in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Loughborough Dynamo, called winning the accolade as the memorable moment in his career and thanked everyone at the club for the support he'd received since arriving.

Huckfield said: "It’s fantastic to have won the award, I’d like to thank everyone who has voted for me. The lads and staff have been giving me grief since I was first nominated!

"Although my name was nominated, this is a team effort and everyone at this football club should be extremely proud of the success over the past 18 months.

Manager Ian Long is delighted that both Huckfield and Tividale’s hard work has been recognised in the awards.

He added: "I’m really pleased for Richard, he’s a great leader, both on and off the field. To be fair, we’ve all been giving him some stick over the past month but on a serious note he’s a worthy winner of the award.

"I worked with Rich at Tipton and he’s been fantastic here at Tividale. I’m proud of Richard but the players and staff have all played their part in this, too."

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