Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Hemsworth wing wizard Richard Collier burst on the NCEL scene from nowhere last season
Hemsworth Miners Welfare have secured their prized young assets – Harry Viggars and Richard Collier – after persuading the pair to sign contracts.
Centre-back Viggars re-signs, a year after signing his original contract, while Collier is staying in Fitzwilliam after a superb first season in the NCEL.
Collier burst onto the NCEL scene from nowhere after playing local football for Crofton Sports previously. His performances for Glasshoughton quickly earned him a move to Hemsworth.
The wing wizard went onto finish third place in Non League Yorkshire’s player of the year.
“This is fantastic news for the club and in Richard’s case we have had to fight really hard to keep hold of him in the face of a lot of interest from clubs in higher divisions,” Wayne Benn.
“This was made slightly easier by the fact that Richard really wanted to stay with the club and can see what we are trying to achieve.”
Benn has been tight-lipped until now about his summer recruitment, but with Viggars and Collier signing, plus new attacker Chris Ovington joining, momentum is building.
“We have also secured the signing on a permanent basis of youngster Lloyd Henderson who joined us briefly for a few games at the end of last season from Doncaster Rovers,” he added.
“Whilst it might seem like it’s been a quiet summer for Hemsworth it has been anything but. Our priority has been to retain last seasons squad and apart from Nick Guest and Brice Tiani and a question mark over one other we have managed to do that, which I’m very pleased about.
“We also have the added bonus of Danny Critchlow working back to fitness and Dom Blair who missed a large chunk of last season and they are almost like having two new signings in place and we have missed their quality.
“We are casting our eye over a few trialists and we will be making decisions on those in the next week or so and we are also in conversations with other players about coming in.
“We have had to be patient this summer and it may be that a couple of things will happen fairly late in pre season but we are happy with the way the squad is shaping up.”