By Liam Price, photos by Peter Robinson
Nantwich Town’s men’s side held their annual awards on Friday night, where people from around the club were recognised for their achievements.
Joel Connolly and Alex Panter were the big winners of the evening, both taking home 4 awards.
Connolly, the captain for most of the season, won the big prize of Player of the Season, as voted for by the fans. He also won the Manager’s Young Player of the Season, jointly won Most Assists, and took home the final Player of the Month prize for April.
Meanwhile, Panter also shared Most Assists, as well as Top Scorer with a superb 26 goals in all competitions. The NTISA members also chose him as their NTISA Player of the Season. Finally, the squad chose him as the Player’s Player of the Season.
That assists award was shared between 4 players who all finished on 10, with Byron Harrison and Aidy Roxburgh also up there with Panter and Connolly.
Harrison also won the NTISA Golden Moment of the Season, with the supporters’ association choosing his first ever Nantwich hat trick against Sporting Khalsa at home as their highlight of the season.
There were a pair of awards also for Ben Hockenhull, a towering presence at the back throughout the season. The coaching staff chose him as the Manager’s Player of the Season, and the fans also recognised his success by giving him Young Player of the Season, another of the prestigious public votes.
The third fan vote was Goal of the Season, which went to Joe Collins for his brilliant first time strike away at Runcorn Linnets in January.
The squad handed out their shirts to the people or groups that kindly sponsored them throughout the season, a great tradition.
Earlier in the evening were the awards for people around the club. As always the stewards and volunteers were rightly recognised with nice bottles of red wine.
Jonathan White got a Special Recognition award as he recently marked 10 years as Club Photographer.
Supporter of the Season went jointly to Christine Edwards and Nick Hammersley for their great work through the season.
Being a supporter of a club at non-league level is often so much more than just going to games. Christine and Nick typify that, as do the Outstanding Contribution winners Keith Wilson and Steve Griffiths who were also recognised.
Steve turned provider for what was unquestionably the moment of the night. The Lifetime Achievement award, as suggested by Steve, was given to Bob Melling. Bob used to be the Stadium Manager at the Swansway when it had a grass pitch, but his association with the club and with football in Cheshire goes much deeper than that.
In emotional scenes he was given a standing ovation as he and those with him fought back tears. The reaction to this award on social media was almost unprecedented in the number of warm comments, with people recalling with fondness Bob managing the Shavington Shooters team and even playing alongside him at Shavington Boys Club.
