BEING in charge of one of the North-West’s top junior football leagues must be an arduous task.

But each week, Warren Barlow, chairman of the Bolton, Bury and District Football League, gives readers an insight into the exciting projects in the competition.

TODAY, I would like to touch on the work of our age-group secretaries.

Many leagues have one or a couple of fixtures secretaries who are responsible for creating and allocating fixtures.

The BBDFL does things different as we have a specific age group secretary for each of our age groups who are responsible for everything that occurs in that group.

Take the under-16s for example. Bev Watson is the age group secretary for that group.

Bev is there at the beginning of the season compiling her list of teams from the applications received and, from those, she will generate the divisions, hopefully pitting teams of similar ability in the same sections.

The next job is to register all the players to each of the teams, checking birth certificates and other identity documents along the way.

She generates the fixture schedule, being mindful that the great British weather will have a big say in the fixture programme as the season unfolds.

Any changes to the programme are managed by Bev, including postponed games and adding the two cups that are played each year in each of the age groups.

Finally, Bev is on hand for any assistance, advice or support that her age group needs and is the conduit for the teams to raise things with the committee.

The benefits of this process are huge with age group secretaries staying with “their” age group as they move up the age bands, thereby building up a great rapport with their managers and coaches.

People like Bev are the unsung heroes who keep everything ticking over in the background and we owe them our gratitude.