On Saturday 18th May we held our second Charity Football Tournament at Bramall Lane home of Sheffield United FC. The first one was a year to the day last year 19/05/2012. Following the success of that we decided to make it an annual event in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. All free to enter.

We do a lot of community work throughout the year, but football is very close to hearts. So we thought that it would be great to get our sponsored junior/senior teams to be involved in playing on a professional pitch. We chose Sheffield United FC as they are known to be welcoming for charity events. We got our supplier Booker involved as well other major partners that work with us such as Mars and Kellogg’s. By working with Booker Sheffield United took us seriously and were a great help in making this such a great day.

Four junior teams involved were Eccelsfield Spartans, Sheffield Rangers, AFC Dronfield and Handsworth Boys. The adult teams were Booker FC, Singhs FC, Fox & Hounds and The Fox. The kids matches started at 10am. With the pitch was divided into 4 mini pitches which allowed all the junior teams to kick off at the same time. The teams got to play 2 games each and these took us to 12 noon. That’s when the adults match kicked off till 1 then the next till 2 and the final finished just after 3pm. Ryan Rhodes, the local boxer present the trophies and medals. All the kids got a certificate to say that they had taken part in a charity event at SUFC along with a goody bag.

There was food and drinks on sale all day in order to raise cash and also had a competition where you had to guess how many Premier/Macmillan balloons were in the Singhs Branded smart car which was pitch side with the opportunity to win a PS3. We had mascots including TONY the Tiger, Maltesers Bunny and the Macmillan Muggy. This kept the kids entertained in between the games.

The kids also did a lap of honour around the perimeter of the pitch headed by John Burkhill ‘The Mad Man with a Pram‘. There was a collection for Macmillan throughout the day. The kids tournament resulted in Sheffield Rangers and Eccelsfield Spartans crowned winner and the adults results were Singh FC crowned Champions and Fox & Hounds as runners up. Triple whammy for the family as both my lads play for the junior winners. All in all it was about making it a great day and raising as much money to fight the biggest killer out there! CANCER!!!