Tommy Docherty, head groundsman of St Mirren FC, is the IOG Scottish Football Groundsman of the Year for the 2010/11 season. He collected the accolade this month from IOG Chief Executive Geoff Webb and David Carson of Award sponsor Rigby Taylor, in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the IOG Scotsturf exhibition in Edinburgh.
Tommy, who is 46 years of age, was also awarded the trophy for topping the Premier League category in the IOG Awards. The coveted award is judged on criteria that includes weekly pitch reports from referees.
The award is testament to the groundsmanship skills that Tommy has demonstrated at the St Mirren Park ground for the past 28 years, maintaining and presenting the sand-based pitch in excellent condition to withstand the rigours of 40-50 games a season. Until the recent appointment of an assistant, Tommy formerly worked alone on the pitch.
The Groundsman of the Year Award is competed for by the winners from the Scottish Premier League as well as Divisions 1, 2 and 3. In the Premier League, the runners up were Celtic FC’s John Hayes (who has won the Award three times in recent seasons) and Tommy Cumming of Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC, who won the Groundsman of the Year title last season.
The winner of the 1st Division award was Mark Farrell of Greenock Morton (who was runner up in the division last year) and runner up was Queen of the South’s Kevin McCulloch. The 2nd Division Award was won by Stuart Speirs of Livingston FC, and Forfar Athletic’s Martin Gray was runner up. The 3rd Division trophy was collected by Clyde FC’s Dave Gilmour while Peter Clark of Arbroath, was runner up. Sponsor Rigby Taylor also presented each division winner with a monetary award.
