Saturday saw a wonderful occasion on South Road in Stourbridge when our charity football match between a young Hawbush team and a team made up of 40 ex-Amblecote FC players raised over £700.
At one point there were over 120 people on the side lines and many were congregation members, who really added to the atmosphere by being there. The Hawbush players especially loved playing to a big crowd of people.
In the end the more experienced older players triumphed 9-2 in a 2-hour match that among other highlights saw Simon Mills on the same pitch as his nephew Rion, Chris Straw running up the wing in his jeans and an old player of ours Liam Walton being subbed for his young son Jake who used to watch his dad when he was very little.
It was also great to see some old congregation members including Pete Sherwood, Luke Cartwright, James Newhill, Dean Russell, Ed Walker alongside Jadon Silva, Tim Fellows, Andy Conroy, Matt Welch, Stephen Cook and others from Amblecote.
Perhaps more so than football, this was a true demonstration of how together we can make a better world. Friends coming together to help a worthy cause and to benefit people they have never met, community spirit uniting young and old for a specific purpose and people from diverse backgrounds mixing together behind a common goal.
So for all those who attended thank you again, it was lovely to see so many unexpected faces from Philippa Faulkner on her bicycle to Amblecote’s No 1 fan Catherine Cook, from Pete Marsden who toyed with playing but decided against it at the last minute to Belinda Cook pretending to like football for an hour.
A huge thanks also to Nic, Eric and Paul from Trinity Property and Trinity Personnel who not only sponsor our Hawbush FC kit, but the game started with Amblecote’s original 1999/2000 red kit which was also sponsored by Trinity. Fifteen years of supporting local football teams which has been a great blessing to so many people. Please visit http://www.trinityproperty.net/ for more information.