9:52am Monday 6th July 2009
By Rachel O'Connor
Two long-serving stalwarts of Craven football were honoured when the Craven and District Football Association celebrated its centenary with a dinner last Friday at the Rendezvous Hotel in Skipton.
Invited guests included John Goodfellow, former chief cxecutive of Skipton Building Society; Roy Carter, JP, chief cxecutive of the West Riding County FA; Peter Marsden, president of the West Riding County FA; and representatives of the County’s district associations as well as members of clubs, referees and friends of football.
They all gathered to pay homage to 100 years of football in Craven.
The Football Association’s long service awards were made to Peter Marsden and Craven FA president Allan Cawood.
One of Craven’s most loyal football servants, Cawood has worked tirelessly for local football as an administrator and referee to both junior and senior football in the Craven area.
He established a junior league in West Craven in 1948 and a year later joined the Craven FA. He commenced refereeing in the early 1950s, acting as secretary for the Craven Referees’ Society and for a two-year spell in the 1960s was secretary of the Craven FA until pressure of his newsagents business led to his resignation.
However, Allan continued to hold his interest in football and he re-joined the Craven FA in 1977 and a year later became secretary and held this position until 1994. He was instrumental in re-establishing the junior league in Craven with 11 teams and this has now grown to 160.
Allan’s wealth of knowledge of the laws and rules of the game at both national and local level are highly respected within Craven.
He is one of life’s rare breed - a true gentleman - and despite his personal handicap he has displayed a high level of commitment to football, maintaining his high level of impeccable standards.
Peter Marsden first came into football when he joined the Skipton Bulldogs in 1948 and he spent his time helping with the nets and other mundane tasks, continuing this work until he left school.
He was then restricted by his work but still helped out when he could until he joined the RAF in 1953.
He had a three-year break and then was back in civvies helping Bulldogs when he was able.
His football really began in 1958/59 when he applied to ‘Ossie’ Fairhust to become a referee. He joined the Craven Referees’ Society and became their representative on the Craven FA for a season in 1960 and then went on to the Craven Football League.
In 1963 Peter became registration sSecretary for the Craven Football League and at the same time took over as secretary of the Referees’ Society from Allan Cawood. In 1963 he became referees’ appointments secretary, until 1972, when he gave the job to Colin Beck.
In 1973 he became league secretary – a position he held until 2003. He relinquished the Referees’ Appointments position to Roy Warman and gave up the position of referees’ secretary after 12 years – becoming a life member of the Association and also a life member of the Craven Football League.
Marsden rejoined the Craven FA in 1974, being allocated as their representative to the West Riding County FA in 1978, joining the Youth and Minor Cup Committees.
However, on retiring as a referee after some 28 years he was allocated to the Referees’ Committee and the Disciplinary Board and became Chairman of the West Riding Referees’ Committee on which he served until 2003. At that point he was elevated to the position of County FA chairman followed by elevation to the position of County president in 2005. He was also appointed as chairman of Directors and as chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. He is a life president of the County FA, life member of the Craven Referees’ Society, and a vice president of the Craven District FA as well as the Craven Football League.
In addition, both he and his wife Maisie are honorary members of Trawden Celtic for services rendered.
During this whole period the Craven District FA have been indebted to him for all his work in assisting them through often trying periods.
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