BRADLEY BACK AT WEMBLEY

Tuesday May 31st 2011 | Bowling, Club

Bowling section member Phil Bradley took a weekend off from his cricket umpiring duties over FA Cup Final weekend and for the second season in succession he was invited to the Wembley, which this year of course featured Manchester City, to receive the FA’s National Respect and Fair Play Award for semi-professional football in this country.

He is Secretary of the Northern Premier Football League (also known as the Evo-Stik League) and was the power behind the League’s efforts to improve club discipline.

The League reduced dissent from players by 12% and Technical Area dismissals of managers was down by by almost 50%. Watford, Rochdale and Crewe Alexandra won their respective Divisions in the Football League whilst the Premiership award remained undecided at the time of the Final.

Phil narrowly missed out on a double as he finished runner up in the prestigious Bobby Moore Memorial Individual Award but gained some compensation when he was named as the FA’s sole nomination for a UEFA Fair Play award.

The photo shows Phil being presented with the award by Sir Trevor Brooking with FA Chairman David Bernstein looking on.