Legends beat Heroes – but good causes are the big winner at Polegate Town
Polegate Town FC Legends landed the spoils over British Legion Heroes at the War Memorial Recreation Ground on Sunday in an enthralling match to raise money for charity.
After an action-packed 3-3 draw, the Legends won a penalty shootout after scoring all their spot-kicks and keeping out two of the Heroes’ efforts.
The game was played to raise funds for the club and the Polegate Royal British Legion, as well as the two establishments’ chosen local charity Children with Cancer Fund.
CWCF collected over £130 from their charity buckets at the match, while £230 was raised at the Legion after the match and from players’ contributions that will be split between the three causes.
The event saw various former PTFC players don the orange and black kits again, all to help put on an entertaining afternoon for onlookers and raise vital funds.
Chairman Graham Holder said: “It’s been a fantastic day. We’ve had lovely weather. We’ve probably had crowds between 200 to 250 here at a rough guess – absolutely fantastic.
“It’s family-orientated, lots of children having a kick-about on the grass. All in all, it’s been a great day.
“We’re only a small grassroots football club – level seven. But even so, it’s very difficult to keep these things running.
“The cost of goals, corner flags, even the paint for running the line – all these things add up. So, we do a couple of fundraisers a year basically just to keep the club going.”
The fundraising co-ordinator for CWCF, Ella Rickers, who was at the match, said: “Events like this one are so important to our charity because not only does it raise significant donations for us to support children and their families, it also allows us to increase visibility and awareness for our cause.
“Even by standing here in my reds [uniform] like I am today, people know who we are locally. They can understand a bit more about what we do, and they can come and chat to us about what we’ve got going on and the help we provide for people.”
On PTFC’s partnership with the chosen charity, Holder added: “Obviously, we’ve all had children. It’s the most devastating disease for everybody, but especially children [and] for what the parents go through.
“Children With Cancer Fund is a local charity to us, based in Polegate. They do amazing work, and we like to use them as our chosen charity because they are local and it’s such a fantastic thing that they do.
“They give them respite, care. They take them on days out. We’re just doing our bit to help as much as we can really.”