Four club officials with a combined total of 150 years’ service to Sutton United received long service awards at the Surrey FA Grass Roots awards evening held at Thorpe Park on Friday evening.
Club chairman Bruce Elliott (second left) received an award to mark 45 years’ service to the club. After originally starting the Club Shop and serving on the Supporters’ Club committee Bruce joined the club Management Committee as assistant secretary in 1979, and he has been chairman since 1996 and is also now the Club President.
Receiving awards for 35 years’ service were (from left) Dave Farebrother, Graham Starns and Tony Dolbear. Like Bruce, all three started as supporters of the club. Graham has for many years served as the first team match secretary having previously been secretary for the reserve team, and was a director of the club for twenty years. Dave and Tony both transferred from the Supporters’ Club committee in the late 1980s, since when Tony has been responsible for the majority of the club’s media work and was Company Secretary for five years, as well as being the matchday PA announcer, while Dave held a variety of secretary’s posts, including club secretary, before being elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2011, a post he held for ten years. He was also the club’s Covid Officer, guiding the club through the pandemic.
Dave received an additional award from the Football Association for 50 years’ service to football in general, having formed Sunday League club North Sutton Athletic in the mid 1970s while still at school.
There was a further Sutton United presence at the event, with the compere being our vice chairman Adrian Barry.
