Derbyshire Dales football cup clash raises hundreds for Ashgate Hospice

Thought to be the longest running local football fixture of its kind, this year’s match took place at Whitworth Park on Sunday, July 24, with under-30s from the current Winster & Darley Dale Lions FC side facing off against a squad featuring more seasoned club veterans.

The Ash Grey Lions emerged victorious over Sapphire Grouse after a competitive 90 minutes, but the biggest winner was Ashgate Hospice. Combined with the Winster Wakes game, the cup match raised £1,097.75 in memory of Richard Taylor, a former friend of the club.

Co-organiser Martyn Wright said: “The Darley Dale footballing community has been hosting the local fundraising fixture for many years and the event is always very well attended.

“Ashgate Hospice is a fantastic local charity that helps families across north Derbyshire with support for people with life-limiting illness. This is the most we have raised and the teams were very proud to wear their new shirts.”

As the saying goes, the match was a game of two halves as the Sapphire Grouse took a 3-2 lead into the break following a fantastic opening strike by Scott Taylor before Ben Ferreday and Jack Stephenson bagged two goals each for the Grouse and Lions respectively.

The second half saw the tactically innovative introduction of goalkeeper Tom Crapper whose relentless pace and power up front bagged him an unlikely brace either side of a strike by Chris Johnson to make the final score 5-3 to the Ash Greys.

Both teams wore kits created for the occasion thanks to sponsorship from the Wheatsheaf pub in Bakewell, Youlgrave Garage and housebuilding company Charles Church, which is responsible for the Whitworth Dale development a few minutes away from the park.

Charles Church managing director Ben Felton said: “Annual events like this are important to the fabric of our communities, bringing people together and cementing neighbourhood relations.

“We are very proud that both teams took to the pitch with the Charles Church logo on their shirts and hope everyone had a successful day.”

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