Celebrities Announced for BTCC Charity Football Match
A football World Cup hero, Coronation Street actors, Big
Brother winner and TV presenters as well as other former professional
footballers are all lined up to play in the Dunlop MSA British
Touring Car Championship's charity football tournament.
Robbie Earle, the former Wimbledon and Jamaica World Cup
star (he scored Jamaica's first ever World Cup goal in 1998),
will lead out an ITV Sport team taking on Celebrities United
as well as the Dunlop BTCC Wanderers this weekend.
Coronation Street actors Thomas Craig and Danny Young (who
played Tommy Nelson and Warren Baldwin in the popular soap),
TV presenter Mark Durden-Smith and Big Brother Australia winner
Blair McDonough will join forces with former Arsenal players
Paul Davis and Nigel Winterburn and ex-Watford defensive ace
Nigel Gibbs in the Celebrities United team.
While ITV Sport's team will also feature presenter Matt Smith
and reporter Gabriel Clarke. ITV commentator Peter Drury,
a vice president of Iain Rennie Hospice at Home (IRHH) charity
for whom the afternoon is in aid of, will also attend the
tournament.
The event will take place at Chesham United's The Meadow
ground at Chesham, nr. Hemel Hempstead, on Sunday, 29 October,
kick off at 1pm. It will be a round-robin tournament with
each team playing two games of 30 minutes duration with the
two best teams facing each other in a final to try to claim
the trophy.
All proceeds from the event will go to the emergency appeal
of the IRHH which provides terminally ill patients with a
24-hour on-call nursing home care service. The charity needs
to raise £200,000 by April 2007 in order to prevent
reducing its service.
In between the matches, spectators who buy a 10p match-day
programme will have a chance of being picked out of the crowd
for on-pitch competitions to win exclusive British Touring
Car Championship prizes.
Ex-England and Watford star and Manager of Chesham United
Luther Blissett will take on the managerial duties for the
Dunlop BTCC Wanderers for the afternoon. He said: "I'm
looking forward to the challenge. They know how to drive but
I'm not sure they know how to shoot, so it's up to me to get
them into some sort of shape.
"The main aim of the day though is to raise money for
the Emergency Appeal by entertaining the crowd. I'm hoping
the ex-professionals will put on all their party tricks. Showboating
will be encouraged."
The Dunlop-backed BTCC team will consist of former champions
James Thompson and Jason Plato and other star drivers such
as Colin Turkington, Robert Collard, Darren Turner, Gareth
Howell, Paul O'Neill and Mark Proctor.
Entry on the day will be £5 for adults and £1
for children under 16 with all proceeds going to the appeal.
After the event, the BTCC players will sign and donate their
football shirts to an on-line auction - to be held on btcc.net
- to further boost the appeal fund.
Further information about Iain Rennie Hospice at Home can
be found at: www.irhh.org
All three SEAT drivers will be playing on Sunday at Chesham
United, in addition to other BTCC drivers, TV celebrities
and former professional footballers
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