ALAN Ford has been rewarded twice over for his services to the Spenser Wilson Halifax Cricket League.

He won the Frederick Stallard Bowl for his long and distinguished service to the league and is also groundsman at Low Moor Holy Trinity, who won the H Robinson Trophy for the most improved ground.

Ford was invited on to the league's executive committee as soon as Low Moor HT joined them from the now-defunct Bradford Central League, becoming an umpire and the league's assistant secretary.

After receiving the honours at the league's annual dinner and prize presentation at The Venue at Barkisland, Ford said: "I was amazed to win the Frederick Stallard Bowl.

"I never expected anything like that but I half expected that we might win the H Robinson Trophy.

"We have made big improvements to the general appearance of the ground, and the outfield in particular.

"We have put flowers everywhere - Richard Clough was instrumental in that in memory of his son Michael, who died at the beginning of the year - and the ground just looks good, including such things as the outside nets.

"It takes many, many hours a week to keep the ground up to scratch. I do a lot of the donkey work on the square and the outfield, and other people help me out, such as Craig Smith, with keeping them in trim."

Other leading trophies went to Blackley (University of Huddersfield History & Heritage Award), Mytholmroyd chairman Martyn Astin (Maude Trophy for Sportsman of the Year), Upper Hopton (Roy Smith Trophy Sportsmanship Award) and Bradshaw's Mick Turner (Simon Lees Memorial Trophy).

Clayton picked up four trophies - skipper John Hartley for winning the second XI Second Division, Andrew Sutcliffe for the Second Division second XI batting (average 65.50) and fielding (five marks, shared with Leymoor's Tom Sharp) and Mitesh Mistry for the first team First Division bowling (average 12.05).

Mount matched them with four trophies - the Sunday League Division Three trophy (skipper Yahya Acudi), the second XI Premier Division trophy (skipper Imran Kayat), the Sunday League Division Three bowling (Bashir Sadat, average 8.56) and the second XI Premier Division bowling (Siraj Patel, average 9.52).

Not far behind the duo were Great Horton Park Chapel and Queensbury with three trophies each.

Park Chapel won two Sunday League awards - for Division Two batting (Isaaq Daud, average 44.43) and wicket-keeping (Brett Gray, nine victims) - and a Saturday award for First Division fielding (Ryan Frankland-Martin, four and a half points).

Winners for Queensbury were Sunday League Division Three fielding (Robson Moore, three and a half points), second XI First Division wicket-keeping (Julian Kirkby, 16 victims) and first team Second Division wicket-keeping (James Broadbent, 20 victims).

Lightcliffe picked up two awards in Sunday League Division One - bowling (Mark Whiley, average 8.13) and fielding (Neil Harvey, four points) - while Oxenhope's sole winner was Joel Fothergill (under-20 Premier Division bowling with 18.75).

In addition to Joshua Hutchinson's five trophies for Thornton, their skipper Ross Soames collected the Briggs Priestley Parish Cup.

Tributes were paid to those who departed during the year, including league stalwart Leyland Smith and, at the age of just 31, Bradley & Colnebridge's Ishtiaq Hussain, who won the second XI First Division bowling award with the remarkable average of 5.93.

A superb evening was rounded off by guest speaker Geoff Miller, the former England all-rounder and national selector, and MC and comedian Pete Emmett.

Guests and officials at the Halifax Cricket League dinner, from left: Bob Airey (league treasurer), Pete Emmett (MC), Paul Whiteley (league media officer), John Helm (guest), Geoff Miller (guest speaker), Chris Yowdall (sponsor), Richard Hemblys (sponsor), David Normanton (league president), Anthony Briggs (league chairman), Paul Hand (sponsor), Dan Moss (sponsor), Adrian Furness (sponsor), Tim Helliwell (league secretary), Andy Rawnsley (league results secretary), and Steve Williams (league development officer)