Outstanding Service award for Ruth

Long-serving Whites fan Ruth Crawshaw has become the latest winner of the George Warburton Outstanding Service award.

An accolade which was introduced in honour of George Warburton to show appreciation of those who have given remarkable service and dedication to Bolton Wanderers Football Club, previous recipients have included Nat Lofthouse, Eddie Davies CBE and Joe McGlynn.

The 71-year-old from Breightmet was presented with the award on Saturday before Bolton’s clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.

An ever-present at Wanderers matches both home and away for nearly six decades, Ruth is also a regular at reserve team and under-18 matches and has not missed a competitive Whites game since 1957.

“I was very pleased when I found out I was being given this award,” a delighted Ruth told the official club website. “It is a great honour to have been chosen and to have my name up there alongside Nat Lofthouse and Eddie Davies.”

“I’ve been attending Bolton games for 57 years. I was only 15 years old when I went to my first match, but I can remember the game.

“It was a friendly against CSKA Moscow at Burnden Park on a Monday night if I remember correctly -  I think the score was four-something and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Everybody associated with the club would like to thank Ruth for her contributions over the years.

The award itself can be viewed in the stadium’s main reception.

Source

When I was a lad she was always at the match selling last weeks away programme. Remarkable achievement and anybody who thinks they are the dog's bollox when it comes to watching the Whites has a target to aim for. Nothing but respect for the lady.

Soul Kitchen wrote:When I was a lad she was always at the match selling last weeks away programme. Remarkable achievement and anybody who thinks they are the dog's bollox when it comes to watching the Whites has a target to aim for. Nothing but respect for the lady.

Couldn't agree more.

Second that.

It's a fantastic achievement but does no one else think it's a waste of a life?

Football is just a game - not a reason for being.

I guess it is her life and she is free to do with it what she wants but she could have filled it with many more wonderous things than watching 22 hairy blokes kick an inflated pigs bladder about every week for the best part of the last six decades.

You old cynic Sluffy. Who is to say that what you have done with your life, (away from football), is the right way to live ?

I've met Ruth on a few occasions, ands she's a really nice lady, but just happens to follow the Whites.

I know exactly where you are coming from Sluffy but without knowing her personal details none of us are in a position to pass comment. 
My mother told me many years ago after his death that when her mother died my grandad threw everything into his hobbies which were music, the Buffaloes and Wigan RL. Whilst he had 6 grand children he always seemed distant towards them and when I look back and see how other men and women treat their grand children I can see exactly what she said. 
He was never interested in a hug from his grand kids and never gave the same, despite the fact that he was called Father by all and held in such high esteem. It's odd how we all lead our lives but that's how it goes.

Sluffy wrote:It's a fantastic achievement but does no one else think it's a waste of a life?

Football is just a game - not a reason for being.

I guess it is her life and she is free to do with it what she wants but she could have filled it with many more wonderous things than watching 22 hairy blokes kick an inflated pigs bladder about every week for the best part of the last six decades.

Spot on.

I was just about to post something similar then I read your comment.

Yeah, in a parochial "What a great fan!" kind of way, her achievement merits some sort of acknowledgement, but in the grand scheme of things, I find it a bit sad.

It's only a bloody game.

There's a big wide world out there to be explored.

Fair play to her, but I agree that it's a bit of a waste to spend sixty years devoting your life to a football team.

And the club should subsidise her future match tickets and travel at the very least, not just give her an award that she can't even take home with her......

gloswhite wrote:You old cynic Sluffy. Who is to say that what you have done with your life, (away from football), is the right way to live ?

I've met Ruth on a few occasions, ands she's a really nice lady, but just happens to follow the Whites.

Maybe I am and I'm sure she's a lovely woman but what as she had to give up in her life to fit all the football (and its cost) in.

Everything is fine in moderation it is when it becomes obsessive that the problems start.

Is Ruth a better fan than me, you and everyone else because of her incredible record - probably yes, is the answer - but is she a more rounded and experienced person than us, probably no, as she's spent most of her life on just one single focus.

I'm not deliberately trying to belittle her achievement - I can't see anyone getting close to it but musing to myself why anyone would want to spend their life achieving what she as done?

Basically she as 'collected' 57 years of Bolton matches.  It's not as though at times she's thought Christ, the football is so dire I'll give it a miss for a few weeks or so - it is right, done that match, can put a tick against it, now where are we next week, how do I get there, got to keep the 'run' going.

Good luck to her and I hope she manages another 57 years of following too - just think there most have been times during all those years where she could have done something else but couldn't break free due to her compulsion to keep her 'streak' going.

I used to work with a bloke who was truly obsessed with City.

He organises independent coaches to away games, hasn't missed a city game for thirty years or something and completely organises his life around City.

He's married with three kids and they've all got daft names - Colin Bell Lake Rosler Arnfield (a girl by the way), he won't have any SHARP appliances in the house and he won't wear anything red.

Every year he used all his holidays to book shifts off so he could go and watch City, so his family never got a proper holiday.

I once asked him if he thought he was obsessed and whether or not he thought his devotion to City was, to say the least, a bit "odd".

He looked at me like I had two heads and clearly didn't get what I was getting at.

He was a laughing stock behind his back and I often thought he was borderline autistic.

And I felt sorry for him.

There's a thin line between enjoying something because it makes you feel good and being genuinely, crazy-bat-shit obsessed.

Bread, thanks for telling the world about my brother. We always thought he was odd too.

Breadman wrote:

Fair play to her, but I agree that it's a bit of a waste to spend sixty years devoting your life to a football team.

It's a remarkable achievement. Different strokes for different folk. Maybe it is her raison d'etre? We all have to have a purpose in life and she has chosen following Wanderers as hers.

Some people will see it as sad and others will see it as dedication. It all depends on what you have going for you in your life.

Reebok Trotter wrote:

Breadman wrote:

Fair play to her, but I agree that it's a bit of a waste to spend sixty years devoting your life to a football team.

It's a remarkable achievement. Different strokes for different folk. Maybe it is her raison d'etre? We all have to have a purpose in life and she has chosen following Wanderers as hers.

Some people will see it as sad and others will see it as dedication. It all depends on what you have going for you in your life.

I agree entirely, it's her choice.
I can't understand folk supping Stella Fizzade but loads of morons do.

Reebok Trotter wrote:

Breadman wrote:

Fair play to her, but I agree that it's a bit of a waste to spend sixty years devoting your life to a football team.

It's a remarkable achievement. Different strokes for different folk. Maybe it is her raison d'etre? We all have to have a purpose in life and she has chosen following Wanderers as hers.

Some people will see it as sad and others will see it as dedication. It all depends on what you have going for you in your life.

But is that not sad in itself?

Dedicating your life to following a football team.....?

Life's too short for that, in my humble opinion.

Soul Kitchen wrote:

Reebok Trotter wrote:

Breadman wrote:

Fair play to her, but I agree that it's a bit of a waste to spend sixty years devoting your life to a football team.

It's a remarkable achievement. Different strokes for different folk. Maybe it is her raison d'etre? We all have to have a purpose in life and she has chosen following Wanderers as hers.

Some people will see it as sad and others will see it as dedication. It all depends on what you have going for you in your life.

I agree entirely, it's her choice.
I can't understand folk supping Stella Fizzade but loads of morons do.

Stella Fizzade?

Is that a lager top?

Hayley Cropper has croaked so Roy has thrown himself into to playing with his train set now. Is that sad?

Stella Fizzade is just lager, no top. Perhaps you know it as Stella Shite?

Football is a hobby not a reason for being.

Her reason for being I would suggest is her streak.

It sets her apart from other people and gives her something that few if any others can match - it makes her feel special, noticed and probably in her eyes, validates her life.

Break the streak and she reverts back to being like any other match day fan.

The streak is her being - but it also imprisons her too.

She's on a tredmill she can't get off of.

The streak is now far, far, far more important than the football ever was. It now transcends whatever were the reasons she went to the matches for in the first place.

Sluffy - Trickcyclist.

Soul Kitchen wrote:Stella Fizzade is just lager, no top. Perhaps you know it as Stella Shite?

I know that many people used to call it wife beater.

I might have had the odd can in my teens but definitely not keen on it plus most of the pricks near to where I live drink it which says a lot.

Well there you go, it's Timmy Taylors for me!!