A charity football team made up of 11 fundraisers fought torrential weather conditions to raise over £1,000 for Cancer Research.
At Salford Sports Village on Saturday 1 August, the Salford Boys took on Knights Grange of Windsford in Cheshire in a rematch from a 9-4 drubbing in February 2015.
The organiser Paul Hughes, from Salford, stepped in to arrange the game to celebrate his friend Peter ‘Huggie’ Hughes being in remission from testicular cancer.
Six months before, they had raised £800, and this time bettered even their wildest dreams to break into a four figure fundraise.
Despite being on the wrong end of a 7-3 loss, the Salford Boys were chipper with the result, the real winner being cancer fundraisers.
Paul, 44, told SalfordOnline.com: “It was a great game of football, despite the torrential rain and both teams fought hard.
“The scorers for Salford were Myles Jevons, Ryan Ballard with a 20-yard free kick and Craig Shenton, who celebrated with a Mario Balotelli inspired ‘Why Always Me’ T-shirt, which raised a few laughs.
“The Knights Grange team play on a regular basis, while we are just a bunch of mates from Salford who like a kickabout – that’s my reasoning for the defeat anyway!
“After the match we retired to the Royal Oak pub in Pendlebury for a few pints and then we had refreshments and a charity raffle which helped boost our fundraising.
“Among the prizes were a signed Ronnie O’Sullivan snooker cue and a signed Salford Reds match shirt, they raised £200 each.
“This year we had a specially made trophy to present to the winners, sadly not us!
“However we managed to smash our intended figure of £1,000 and raised £1,416.60 which is going to a great charity.”
Paul is already planning another rematch next year and is already quietly confident of victory.
If you want to donate please head over to Paul’s JustGiving page.
Salford Squad: Paul Hughes Kevin Fox, Ryan Ballard, Jordan Ballard, Jordan Winstanley, Myles Jevons, Gaz Shenton, Damo Shaw, Joe Jackson, Daniel Kilfoyle, Sam Jackson, Nige Berrisford, Lee Hall, Craig Shenton, Martin Amos
Knights Grange Squad: Sam Hilditch, Ricky Billenge, Josh Oakes, Paul Jones, Ashley Hardman, Matthew Barton, Dean Mundy, Gary Buckley, Matthew Hunt, Craig Dixon, Mark Spruce, Callum Nowell and Peter ‘Huggie’ Hughes.
