Chorley game fundraising nets almost two thousand pounds

Tuesday night v Chorley was one of those special games and the Pound for the Ground raffle was no different. An unbelievable 1,255 tickets were sold by the PFTG platoon and the winning number for the £200 was 1444, has been claimed and will be collected at the game on Saturday. The second prize ticket, a meal for two, was 1473 and as yet is unclaimed. So, £1,055 rockets into the Development Fund.

Where do we start with the barrels?!!

There are a number of heart-warming stories from the various donations we received. The winner of the football card in the Mason’s pub last Saturday before the Blyth game put £20 in. There was a Grand National sweepstake on Vinny’s Blyth battle bus that raised a further £40. Jake and Ross Keys came up from the south for the game and handed in a bag with £33 of change and a large vodka bottle that contained a motley collection of coins that came to £137. We managed to get them out without breaking the bottle, so if anybody wants it to start a collection then get in touch with one of the team.

A winning scratch card was in one barrel, for, wait for it . . . £1, but as we always say, every penny counts. So after all this we totted up the remainder of small bags, loose change and notes and we arrived at a mammoth £722 for the DF. There was also a varied collection of foreign coins and notes along with 10 euros.

Counting and sorting the barrels is a labour of love and whether we win draw or lose the game, it always provides a real positive glow the day after. But in this case, the adrenalin was and still is pumping. Mighty big thanks again to all the philanthropists out there for your support and as Tom Greaves always says: "Lets kick on again this Saturday".