Bower scoops three awards after Old Rishworthians’ promotion winning season

Not only was he the season’s outstanding player, but he also took the players’ player and the supporters’ player of the season awards.

They were presented at a special “covid-friendly” event held on the pitch at Copley with sanitising and social distancing measures to the fore.

Introducing the event, club president Tim Thornton said it had been a strange season with Storm Ciara damaging the pitch and lockdown bringing an early end to the leagues.

“But it’s also been a great season for us, gaining promotion back to Yorkshire One after a 12-game unbeaten run for the first team and the development team finishing second in their league,” he said.

The awards were handed over by director of rugby Jon Bake with Liam Phillips picking up the trophy for the most improved player, Tom Oldroyd for the best newcomer and Joe Billing receiving the coach’s award.

There were also similar awards for the Development team and the under-17s team.

Peter Cowie received the president’s award for the clubman of the year and Gerard Rollings won the Lewis Hilton memorial award A new digital scoreboard, dedicated to the memory of Lewis, who died aged 19 from meningitis in January 2018, was also unveiled.