LOCAL football stalwart Bob Casey has been honoured for his services to the game, writes STEVE BOTT.

Mr Casey has served the Bury Amateur League and the Lancashire Football Association for the last 50 years, having been chairman of the BAL for half a century and a delegate to the LFA for 40 years.

He has worked alongside seven league secretaries in that time and is one of only two people in Lancashire to receive the 50-year commemorative medal.

Bob, who now lives in Marks Street in Radcliffe after moving from the Blackford Bridge area of Bury, played himself in his younger days -- he's 80 now -- and was a founder member of Blackford Bridge FC. He first started playing in the Bury Amateur League in 1938 and also turned out for Bury High School Old Boys team and Radcliffe Borough.

Bob, a postman in Bury during his working years, has Football League connections too. During the war he served in the Army in London and played for Clapton Orient, later to become Leyton Orient.