ROGER Reeves was quick to praise all the other dedicated volunteers in Swindon and the surrounding area after picking up the Adver’s Unsung Hero award.

Reeves is a Swindon Town stalwart and has played a major role in the development of Swindon Town Ladies over the past 20 years.

He is referred to as Mr Swindon Town Ladies. It is a title that’s fully warranted, given that he has served as manager, fixtures secretary, chairman of the South West Combination and all-round general dogsbody for the club in that time.

But having received his prize on Thursday night, Reeves was typically modest and looked to shift the spotlight away from him and onto those just like him across Wiltshire.

“I’m a bit flabbergasted, really, and a bit tongue-tied,” he said. “There are lots of people who do background work for local sport and to just get nominated was an embarrassment almost because I’m one of so many.

“The trouble is I’m not an Unsung Hero any more but it feels absolutely fantastic. There are loads of people who do the sort of thing I do and to be picked from all of those really is an honour.

“It’s not work, it’s football. It’s a labour of love and that means it’s not work.”

The other nominees for the Unsung Hero award, all of whom have contributed greatly to the success and ongoing well-being of their respective clubs, were Pat ‘Ma’ Lewis of Nationwide House Cricket Club, Walcot ABC’s Harry Scott and Wroughton Football Club legend Mal Criddle.

Lewis has been making the teas at Nationwide for as long as the club has been in existence, giving up each of her summer Saturdays to lay on what the club believe are the best spreads in Wiltshire.

Scott has been the lifeblood of Walcot boxing for four decades and opens the gym most days, offering a leaning post for young boxers in the town.

Criddle has fulfilled just about every role at Wroughton since the mid-1970s and his hard work has, on more than once occasion, kept the club afloat.