THE North Walsham branch of the Referees Association held their annual meeting at the community centre in North Walsham, 19 members attending with Christine Gadd, wife of the late treasurer and colleague Brian Gadd.

THE North Walsham branch of the Referees Association held their annual meeting at the community centre in North Walsham, 19 members attending with Christine Gadd, wife of the late treasurer and colleague Brian Gadd.

Chairman Jerry Kelly introduced Christine there to present the Brian Gadd Memorial Shield to the branch member of the year, a new award that branch members decided to initiate in Brian's memory.

Vice-chairman Kevin Green explained about the award and its significance. He also for a few silent moments for Brian. Mr Green read out some quotes from the voting slips and announced that Ricky Owen from North Walsham was the winner. He lives in North Walsham and had a very good season, gaining promotion from level six to five and being offered the chance to jump straight to level four in readiness for the new season.

Christine presented him with the shield and said that she was delighted and honoured to be there and felt that Brian would have been overwhelmed by the kindness and thoughts expressed by all the members.

In his chairman's report, Mr Kelly was delighted with a great season for all the members. Branch numbers were up by eight per cent and a solid core of a dozen members were training every Thursday under Mike George. He also invited any member from any branch to join them at Cromer High School when the training resumed on August 6.

Last year there were some interesting speakers. John Covell, physio for Wroxham FC, gave a talk on preventing injuries by warming up and down after a match. The discipline committee of the County FA kept them on the edge of their seats with the mock commission. Shaun Turner, CEO, and Barry Knights, refs development officer for the Norfolk FA, were very welcome and forthright guests and Jack Smith from the Anglian Combination was also entertaining.

This next year will see a shift towards more 'training' evenings with some local stars already pencilled in.

Neville Chamberlin was re-elected unopposed as the president. No one came forward to take over from the chairman Jerry Kelly.

Dave Myhill continues as treasurer with Andy Marshall counting the pennies and Kevin Green staying on as vice-chairman.

A surprise was sprung when Robin was made a vice-president in recognition of all his years of hard work on the Rodney Bell Trophy, the branche's other memorial trophy.