Volunteers have been at the heart of our club since our inception in 1984. Without our dedicated, tireless and passionate volunteers, Cheshire Phoenix would not exist. This couldn’t have been more relevant than the ‘Covid season’ just gone.
In association with our sponsor – Rent A Space – we wanted to today show our appreciation by announcing the winner of the Mickey Clifford Outstanding Contribution Award.
The award is named after Mickey Clifford – a dearly loved, charismatic and selfless volunteer from our days at the Northgate Arena in Chester – and it recognises the outstanding work of our volunteers.
Mickey had a great passion for our club, he always had time for everyone and volunteered with unending enthusiasm. We miss him every game and not a season goes by where his name doesn’t pop up with a smile on our face.
With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that this year’s winner of the award is Karl Bridges.
Karl is one of the most loyal and harding fans around, having followed the club for over 20 years. He has been an incredible volunteer for the majority of that time and has truly seen it all!
Karl owns Olympic Trophies which is based in Hoole, Chester, and whenever he is called upon, he is on hand for printing jerseys for new signings. Karl also supplies all of the end of season awards to both the pro club and junior club.
He does a tremendous job leading the preparation of the court on match days, ready for when the Nix Nation sees it at 5:30pm – transforming it from an empty sports hall into a professional match day set up at tip-off.
Phoenix General Manager, James Brice, congratulated Karl on his much-deserved award:
“We have a great group of volunteers and Karl is a huge part of the group.
“If we need anything moving, fixing or sorting out, we can alway rely on Karl to be there. He is often the first one to arrive at the venue on a match day – setting up the venue – and the last one to leave packing it all away.
“We often sign a player mid season, and Karl is the first person I call to tell so we can sort the jersey out. Never a fuss, no problem too big for him and we are extremely grateful and thankful for his years of loyal support.”
Congratulations, Karl – you deserve this.