Roger Bowden presented with the Alan Farmer Award for outstanding service to the Society

  • August 2, 2024

President John Jeskins presented Roger Bowden with the Alan Farmer Award for outstanding service to the Society at the AGM in July.

When Roger’s refereeing career was cut short by injury in 1992, he was immediately recruited as an Adviser. From then his career within the Society and beyond started to take off. After three years as Chairman of Appointments and Grading, he had three separate stints as Chairman of the Society, holding the position for a total of 16 years between 2001 and 2024. During this period he also served as Vice President and then President.

Also during this period, Roger was the founder Chairman of the North West Federation and has been a committee member for 10 years to-date; Treasurer, then Secretary, of the RFRU; North Group and RFU Adviser; Panel Assessor, then Coach; and for the past two seasons, Regional 1 Coach and Assessor.

Roger’s counsel and advice is widely sought as shown by his involvement in RFU Task Forces and Working Groups. These included: on the formation of the RFRU; reviewing the Panel Reporting system; reviewing the Federation system; Pathways to Panels; Match Official Abuse; Tackle Height where he played a key role in drafting the guidance for match officials.