A COMBINED total of 88 years service has resulted in awards for three retired members of the Wrangle HM Coastguard team.

David Pawson, Graham Gostelow and Greg Smith all received long service awards in a special ceremony held at the Three Horse Shoes pub at Bennington.

Chief Coastguard Rod Johnson presents Wrangle coastguards Graham Gostelow, David Pawson and Greg Smith with long service awards. Skegness based coastguards Wayne Topley and Mark Blythe also received awards.

Mr Gostelow, retired deputy station officer received a clasp for 30 years of service, and Mr Smith was awarded a certificate for 28 years service from Chief Coastguard Rod Johnson.

Retired station officer of the team, Mr Pawson, 58, also received a clasp for his 30 years of volunteering

Farm foreman Mr Pawson, started his time with the service in 1980 when a group were gathered together to form a team which would look after Benington, Leverton and Friskney Marshes.

Mr Pawson said: "Although referred to as the Wrangle Team we've always been based in Old Leake or Leverton and were responsible for a patch from Fosdyke Bridge to Gibraltar Point.

"The biggest event we ever had was when an American F1 Jet came down at Butterwick Marsh in the late 90s and we assisted the US Air Force for five days recovering parts.

"We were always on stand by any time of the day or night but call outs always tended to be in the middle of the night. It was very nice to receive the recognition at the ceremony."

The Wrangle team started out by training at the White Hart Pub in Old Leake and then moved to a mobile cabin, before moving to Mr Pawson's work office for John Saul Ltd in Leverton. Since his retirement in May the team is now based at Skegness.

Other awards at the ceremony were made to Skegness station officer Wayne Topley who received his Long Service medal for 20 years and Mark Blythe former Skegness Coastguard who was presented with certificate for 10 years service.