It’s the summer season, which means sports season is here with Wimbledon and the Cricket World Cup having been gone; congratulations to England on winning the Cricket World Cup! And, even locally we got sporty ourselves when we joined 19 other businesses for a football tournament for one of our partner charities, Bolton Lads & Girls Club.
The Bolton-based children’s charity organised their first patrons’ 5-a-side football tournament since 2016 with all the proceeds going to help support the vital work Bolton Lads & Girls Club do for young people.
The event was hosted by the charity at their Sports Facility at Hacken Lane, Bolton with all the pitches packed full of local business teams. The weather started off overcast in the morning but by the time we started, the sun came out for the players.
Twenty businesses took part overall, coming along with their own teams’ football kits. Each team brought their all with passion and a competitive spirit. Especially our own team who brought their A game with Andy Tate (New Business Consultant) as the team captain and Matt Monks (Sales Negotiator) as our goalkeeper, who saved some tricky shots for us.
The whole team did us proud and fought out there, but a special shout out goes to our Star Shooter, Andy Ramsdale (Senior Sales Progressor) who scored every single goal for us! The rest of the team comprised of: James Cunliffe (Sales Negotiator), Gareth Smyth (CEO), Kai Pollitt-Parry (Sales Negotiator) and Rob Walker (Sales Negotiator).
The tournament worked by having four pitches, each with five teams playing on a pitch. Whoever won the most games from each pitch made it to the semi-final, where four teams fought it out to reach the final.
The results for our team were as follows:
Round 1: Hilton Smythe v Russell & Russell 2-2.
Round 2: Cowgills v Hilton Smythe 3-2.
Round 3: Ryans Accountants v Hilton Smythe 4-1
Final Round: Stafford & Co v Hilton Smythe 4-1.
We started off very strong with a close game with Russell & Russell (who are just a few doors down from us on our street) but it came to a draw. Sadly, we were just losing from then on, but we never gave up, especially when our goalkeeper wouldn’t let us with his passionate directing!
We gave it our all but came up short on the day unfortunately. The winners on the day were Love Energy Savings with Barton Grange Garden Centre as runners up. Big congratulations to those teams, well played!
The teams that took part were: UK Healthcare, USN Bolton Arena, RRG Group, Watson Laurie Insurance Brokers, Last Drop Village Hotel & Spa, Barton Grange Garden Centre, Domis, The Vinden Partnership, Hilton Smythe Business Sales, BLGC Heroes, Benchmark International, Clever IT, Stafford & Co, Ladderstore, Love Energy Savings, Fieldings Porter, Russell & Russell Solicitors, Cowgills, Ryans Accountants and Car Benefit Solutions.
It was a fun, positive and active day overall with our talented team making us so proud by turning up and supporting; we have some very skilful players with Kai Pollitt-Parry (Sales Negotiator) and Andy Ramsdale (Senior Sales Progressor) showing off their kick-up skills in between matches.
Our team captain, Andy Tate, also summed the day up aptly for the team: “fun but painful!”
Bolton Lads & Girls Club are endeavouring to run this Patrons & Supporters Football Tournament annually after the success of this year, so with a bit of practice before next year’s tournament, we’re hoping to come back and get to the finals, aim high!
