SPONSOR COMMITS TO THREE MORE YEARS ON NIGHT OF NATIONAL HONOURS AND CELEBRATION

The Football Association and Northern Premier League sponsors Evo-Stik turned the league’s annual awards presentation dinner into a night of triumph at Blackpool’s Hilton Hotel.

The FA kicked off the celebrations as the NPL’s League Respect Manager and Vice President Phil Bradley lifted the Bobby Moore Trophy - the governing body’s highest individual FA Respect Award – before First Division North champions AFC Fylde were honoured with The FA Respect Award for Step 1 to 4 clubs, grassroots football's top honour.

More than six hundred guests then saw Tony Davison, Managing Director of Bostik UK, step on stage to reveal that the league’s sponsors would be taking up their option to extend the partnership by another two years, with a year of the current deal still to run.

While heavy rain and high winds forced 12,000 drenched and disappointed Elton John fans to abandon a seafront concert a mile down the road on Blackpool’s famous front, they were dancing long into the night at the glitzy Hilton after Evo-Stik’s commitment to at least another three years of title sponsorship.

Davison told guests including Caroline Barker, host of the BBC’s Non-League Show, and Charlie Clapham MBE, the Football Conference Vice Chairman, that Bostik - Evo-Stik's parent company - were taking up their option to renew early after being ‘delighted’ by the work of the NPL’s clubs, fans, players and officials in making the deal work and the fantastic commercial results the multi-national had enjoyed and was continuing to reap by partnering the NPL.

First Division North champions AFC Fylde, already the toast of Non-League after their national Respect award, later did their best to reclaim the night's headlines with manager Dave Challinor winning the NPL's Manager of the Year award soon after the club was officially crowned First Division North champions.

The presentation of the former FA Vase winners' latest silverware was made by Tony Davison and League Chairman Mark Harris, now back in rude health after illness and clearly delighted on a night of great news for NPL fans that the league's financial future is now secure until at least the end of the 2014-15 campaign.

The duo also teamed up to present First Division South champions Grantham Town and Premier Division winners Chester FC with their champions' trophies.

The NPL Chairman happily stood aside later as League Secretary Angie First presented his own club Witton Albion with the First Division North Play-Off Winners Trophy while League Operations Manager Alan Allcock took charge of the presentations for the First Division South Runners-Up and Play-Off Winners - Carlton Town and Ilkeston Town respectively.

Chester’s Premier Division winners waved goodbye to the NPL with Jeff Banks, chairman of the reformed fan-run club, making a very public and ringing endorsement of the NPL. In interviews afterwards with the BBC he said the club couldn’t have joined a "better league in their darkest hour" and would never forget the "support and friendship" they’d received from the NPL's clubs, fans and officers.

The NPL’s star players weren’t forgotten either with Chorley’s Steve Foster heading home with the Premier Division’s Golden Boot, Skelmersdale’s Shaun Tuck picking up the First Division North gong and Belper Town’s Jonathan Froggatt collecting the First Division South award from League Secretary Keith Brown.

North Ferriby United - winners of the Doodson Sport League Challenge Cup - picked up their trophy from Ian Hesselden of sponsors Doodson Insurance, as the NPL's second tier sponsorship partners made their own mark on a weekend that had seen confirmation at the NPL's Annual General Meeting that finances were in good shape, the financial news ruling out any need for a rise in the league levies paid by individual clubs ahead of the 2012-13 campaign.

Evo-Stik Northern Premier League 2011-12 Roll Of Honour

Football Association Awards
The Bobby Moore Trophy - Phil Bradley
The FA Respect Award Step 1-4 Clubs - AFC Fylde

Fair Play Awards
Premier Division Winners - Ashton United
First Division North Winners - Lancaster City
First Division South Winners - Leek Town
League Challenge Cup Winners - North Ferriby United

Player Trophies - The Golden Boots
Premier Division - Chorley Town’s Steve Foster
First Division North - Skelmersdale United’s Shaun Tuck
First Division South - Belper Town’s Jonathan Froggatt

Manager Trophies
NPL Manager of the Year - AFC Fylde’s Dave Challinor
April’s Managers of the Month - Buxton’s Martin McIntosh & Ilkeston’s Kevin Wilson

Clubs Trophies
Premier Division Champions - Chester FC
Premier Division Runners-up - Northwich Victoria
Premier Division Play-off winners - Bradford Park Avenue

First Division North Champions - AFC Fylde
First Division North Runners-up - Curzon Ashton
First Division North Play-off Winners - Witton Albion

First Division South Champions - Grantham Town
First Division South Runners-up - Carlton Town
First Division South Play-off Winners - Ilkeston FC

Picture highlights and more news from the season's showpiece weekend to follow.