Craven League Football
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Skipton Town Reserves win Fair Play Trophy
Skipton Town Reserves won the Craven Football League's Fair Play Trophy for the 2007/2008 season.
The club received the trophy and a cheque for £200 at the league's annual general meeting held on Wednesday night. The trophy is sponsored by the Craven Herald and was presented to the club by sports editor Daryl Ames.
Pendle Athletic were the runners-up and they received a cheque for £50.
An award for the Top Referee was also presented on the evening. It went to Andy Bentham. He received a cheque for £50.
Matt Lord, registration and results secretary for the league, said: "The Fair Play Trophy was organised to initiate fair play and encourage referees."
In addition to the Fair Play Trophy the Craven League also announced other award winners for the 2007/2008 season.
The Premier Division Player of the Year was awarded to Carl Stanford of Hellifield, who league chairman Gerry Aldersley said: "He's got a collection of those now."
Ben Brown of champions Gargrave Reserves was the Division One Player of the Year.
Goalkeeper Adrian Campbell of Horton was named as the Division Two Player of the Year.
In Division Three three players shared the Player of the Year honours. They were James Robinson of Bradley Reserves, William Knight of Skipton Town A and David Cadwallader of Silsden Whitestar.
The top goal scorers in the league were Adam Steventon of Grassington in the Premier Division, Ben Brown of Gargrave Reserves in Division Two, James Oldroyd of Earby Town and in Division Three both William Knight of Skipton Town A and Liam Swain of Silsden Whitestar.
The Administration Trophy was awarded to Cowling's Mike Topham and Graham Smith of Skipton LMS was given the Bill Huck Trophy.
Aldersley said that despite six or seven blank weekends the league concluded its fixtures in good time.
However he did say that during the season there had been a problem with fixtures, as many matches had to be rescheduled due to late cancellations.
This brought about three proposals for rule changes, all of which dealt with clubs having to submit an explanation in writing within three days after a match cancellation.
Aldersley said: "Clubs are calling games off too easily. This is why we've had a backlog of fixtures at the end of the season."
All three rules alterations were passed by the attending members.
A motion was also passed to accept the applications of five new clubs into the league.
Long Preston, Colne United, Keighley side Ingrow, Wilsden and Bradford side Ravenscliffe were all unanimously accepted into the league.
Five league clubs will also introduce reserve teams into one of the divisions for the 2008/2009 season. They are Settle United, Silsden Whitestar, Barnoldswick Barons, Long Lee and Pendle Athletic.
The league also had three teams leave.
One of the most notable was Keighley side Oxenhope, who have been a member of the league for 55 years.
Oxenhope, who won two cup competitions this season, were also the Premier Division champions for the 2007/2008 season.
They have applied to become a member of the West Yorkshire League. Their reserve team, however, will remain in the Craven League.
Another team to depart is Intake. They have been a member of the league for 25 years but had problems recruiting players this past season.
Pendle Forest's membership in the league was very short.
The club, who have several teams dotted throughout various Lancashire leagues, were only with the league for this past season.
Aldersley said that the league will therefore have to make room for seven teams.
However they were unable to place the teams in the various divisions because they are awaiting a Settle United appeal to the West Riding County FA for a six-point penalty, which would deny them the Division Three title.
The league were unhappy with the club as Aldersley said they won the division because they fielded several players from their East Lancashire League first team during their seven-game winning run at the end of the season.
Aldersley said the club were first given a warning but he said they ignored it and so at the league's May management committee meeting they decided to deduct six points, which would award the division title to Silsden Whitestar. Barnoldswick Barons would then be the runners-up.
Aldersley said: "What they did was completely irregular and unsporting. So we decided to take it to the next step."
On a positive note for the league and its clubs, treasurer William Simpson announced a £2,350 profit for the league.
Simpson said: "Because it was the "highest ever profit for the league, as a result we've decided there will be no team fees for the 2008/2009 season."
Fees for the clubs normally cost £40 for one team and £70 for two teams.
At the AGM, the league and its members also voted to start the 2008/2009 on August 1 and finish it on May 31, 2009.
2:25pm Thursday 29th May 2008
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