Steven Boyd, head ballboy this season at Manchester United, for instance,
recently received an award for his outstanding work on the touchline.
Earlier this month Sir Bobby Charlton presented him with the Torch Trophy
Trust's prize, given for services to the community. Boyd was, so the
citation read, a superb role model. Not only does he do the honours for United at every home game, instructing his
fellow ball boys on procedure, ensuring they uphold the highest of
standards, he also worked as a volunteer during the Olympics, taking on
ballboy duties in football matches at Old Trafford. Nor is it just in football that ballboys have been deemed to have interfered
in play. At the Millennium Stadium in March 2011, Ireland's rugby players were left
fuming when a ballboy chucked a ball with such dispatch to Wales's Matthew
Rees he was able to take a quick throw-in, from which his side fashioned the
game's winning try.
Source: telegraph