Last week we hosted our Referee Awards Evenings across three consecutive nights at our headquarters in Culver Road, Lancing.

The evenings were a chance to honour, celebrate and recognise those match officials who have given 15, 25, 35 or 40 years continuous service to the game.

Each official received the relevant framed certificate, and bronze, silver or gold badge, followed by a sumptuous buffet provided by the Deli Bean in Lancing.

Our Referee Development Manager, Paul Jeffery, commented: “These evenings have brought together friends and colleagues that haven’t seen each other for years. The natural common denominator was refereeing, with 1,160 years’ service between them, there were many stories recalled over the evenings, and I honestly didn’t hear VAR mentioned once. Camaraderie was evident throughout.

“47 referees attended, with 23 guests and 3 county members. It would be remiss of me not to mention John Edwards, interim chair of the Sussex County FA, who presented the awards on Tuesday, and also attended on Thursday. Martin Bodenham, who presented the awards on Thursday, and my fellow staff members, Abi Knight, Karen Harrington, Lisa Benn and Darren Ford for assisting with the smooth running of each night, and Paul Saunders for taking over from me as master of ceremonies on Wednesday, allowing me to present the awards.

“The undoubted winner of each evening, however, was grassroots football, due to the recipient’s dedication and service to ‘The Peoples Game’ and long may it continue!”

In addition to the awards evenings, there were three 50 years’ service to refereeing awards that were presented at the American Express Stadium in a special ceremony during the half-time break of our Sussex Senior Challenge Cup Final.

Phil Forsdick, Arthur Gray and Tim Lawrence were each invited pitch-side to receive their prestigious awards that include a gold medallion from The FA.

The following match officials received their long service award:

15 Years
Chris Attwood
Nick Baker
Lisa Benn
Duncan Brooker
Philip Brown
Grahame Brown
Mervyn Coomber
Stephen Ellis
Michael Forman
Ian Gough
Andrew Hinton
David Joseph
Karl Luckhurst
Andy Manville
Garry Mitchell
Theo Parfitt
Mark Parsons
Andrew Prodger
Brian Richardson
Ross Simmonds
Andy Symons
Greig Walker
Johnathon Walker
Jamie Wells

25 Years
Stuart McKenzie
Chris Porter
Dylan Snashall
David Warden

35 Years
Peter Coleman
Darren Eaton
Paul Farmer
Colin Fines
Sean Gibney
Mark Lawford
Mark Lidbetter
Frank Meilack
Robert Minty
Peter Moran
Barry Myers
David Rogers

40 Years
Nigel Bullen
Peter Lindsey
Ian Moore
James Slaney
John Wilkins
David Winter
Irvine Woodward

50 Years
Phil Forsdick
Arthur Gray
Tim Lawrence

(A selection of photographs can be found on Facebook - courtesy of Simon Roe Photography)

For further information about Referee Awards please contact:

Refereeing
T: 01903 768573
E: Referees@SussexFA.com