League's finest honoured at national awards

The EVO-STIK League’s top groundsmen will be going about their business with an extra spring in their step this season whatever the weather throws at them after collecting their accolades at the Football Association’s 2014 Groundsmen of the Year Awards.

Now in its 14th year and held at the FA’s state-of-the-art National Football Centre at St George’s Park near Burton-upon-Trent for the second year running on Wednesday, the event saw more than one hundred groundsmen, including six from the Northern Premier League, honoured in front of their peers as they collected national and individual league awards and commendations from members of the FA’s Pitches & Facilities Committee.

EVO-STIK League Operations Manager Alan Allcock represented the league at the event after the league’s 68 clubs were asked to submit their nominations for the FA’s prestigious annual awards back in December and the finalists were chosen by a panel of league judges.

Along with other guests, he enjoyed a tour of the facilities and a presentation from the FA’s Alan Ferguson, the governing body’s head of grounds and estates, before seeing Loughborough Dynamo striker Kris Nurse, who doubles up looking after the First Division South club’s pristine playing surface at the Nanpantan Sports Ground when not scoring goals, named as the EVO-STIK League’s top groundsmen.

Stocksbridge Park Steels’ Michael Grimmer was named as runner-up and AFC Fylde’s Daniel Bunce in third spot. In the national awards Nurse and Grimmer also flew the flag for the EVO-STIK League in the Step 3 & 4 finals. They were both highly commended by judges who named Southern League Taunton Town as the overall winners, Tiverton as runners-up and Dunstable Town in third spot.

Nurse’s national recognition comes as no surprise as the 28-year-old is not short of experience. After being released by Notts County as a 20-year-old he learned his trade working with the ground staff at Rolls Royce before joining Loughborough University four years ago to tend their sporting facilities.

Witton Albion’s Peter Robinson, Trafford FC’s Graham Foxall and Ilkeston FC’s Michael Vickers were also highly commended by judges for their efforts in the Northern Premier League category while Mark Harrison at former EVO-STIK League club North Ferriby United was highly commended in the Football Conference section.

Image courtesy of www.thefa.com