Honour for football stalwart

7:44am Saturday 17th May 2008

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Youth football club stalwart Marion Pictor has been named as Malmesbury's Citizen of the Year.

Mrs Pictor, of White Lion Park, had no idea she had been nominated for the title by fellow members of the football club and was up against six other pillars of the community.

The announcement was made at a presentation last Tuesday night and Mrs Pictor was given a certificate and a silver plate.

Originally from Wales, she moved to Malmesbury as a young girl and has been a key member of the community ever since.

Mrs Pictor first became involved in youth football with her husband David when their son was ten and they realised there was a shortage of teams for young footballers in the Malmesbury area.

They set up a youth team and the club now has 13 teams and more than 200 members.

She has been secretary of Malmesbury Youth Football Club for 19 years.

In 2002 she was presented with an FA National Football Volunteer Workforce Award in front of 60,000 spectators at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

She said: "I knew absolutely nothing about it so it was a nice surprise.

"It's nice when you get something like this to just know that you are appreciated. I never would have expected to be rewarded for something that I just enjoy doing.

"The high point was when we were awarded Charter Standard in 2003 because we were only the second club in Wiltshire to get it."

Mrs Pictor has been heavily involved in the club's bid to raise £300,000 for a new changing room and toilet complex at the Red Bull playing fields at the Bristol Road sports ground.