Despite a rain drenched Saturday afternoon, a good-sized crowd, plenty of players and Cumbria police and crime commissioner Peter McCall turned out for a very special game.
Held at Workington Cricket Club, it was a charity fundraising game in memory of former player, Workington Reds Ladies captain and former serving police officer Andrea Buggy.
It was to support Every Life Matters, the Cumbrian suicide prevention and suicide bereavement support charity.
The much-missed Andrea died aged just 39 in 2020, and was a friend to many of the players who took to the field.
The team pitted the Allerdale Wildcats against the Cumbria police ladies team, the Blue Devils.
In an end-to-end first half, it was the Blue Devils who took their chances, and they were 4-1 up at the break, with the Wildcats getting just one goal despite a good spell of possession and repeated attacks at the end of the first half.
The second half began with the rain hammering down, but Commissioner McCall produced an umbrella and braved the downpour to see the Wildcats pull two goals back to make the final 10 minutes a very competitive affair with a busy spell for referee Geoff Ellison, and a nervy last few moments for the Blue Devils.
At the reception afterwards when the winner’s trophy was presented by Mr McCall, the Wildcats player of the game was named as Stacey Eland and the Blue Devils player of the game as Martine Symes.
With hundreds of pounds raised on the day, the fundraiser is still open for donations to support Every Life Matters whose aim is to reduce deaths by suicide in Cumbria through training, awareness raising, the development of a network of Suicide Safer Communities across the County, and offering support to individuals.
Organisers said that the message they wanted everyone to remember was that every death by suicide is an avoidable tragedy.
You can donate at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/aidan-bew
