On the evening of Thursday 11th October, East Grinstead Town Football Club were host, once again, to the 15th annual ‘Adam Dabell Memorial Cup and Trophy’ football match between Imberhorne and Sackville schools – in celebration, once again, of the life of my son Adam Dabell and to raise voluntary contributions to the charity ‘CRY’ (Cardiac Risk in the Young).
In front of a large crowd of mainly our Town’s wonderful young people, Imberhorne took the Cup and Trophy, beating their Sackville friends 2 – 0. (Reversing last year’s result!)
Once again the crowd looked forward to enjoying an evening of great sportsmanship and the two teams did not disappoint.
Coming out at the start of the evening looking evenly matched and, with the great skill we have come to expect, entertained us all with 90 mins of terrific football.
Steve Hill (School Sports Coordinator) reports:-
“IMBERHORNE 2 – SACKVILLE 0
After an early exchange of chances at both ends, Imberhorne started to exert some dominance on proceedings. Thanks to some diligent defending at the back from Henry Lester and James Campbell the attacking players were more able to build through midfield with some neat inter-change of passing to create a number of clear-cut chances. The first chance to be taken was by Imberhorne midfielder, Ben Manning, who calmly slotted home into the bottom left hand corner after a set-piece scramble in the Sackville box. Sackville then had a chance to hit back immediately with a penalty awarded for a foul right on the edge of the box. Imberhorne Keeper, Matt Crofts, stayed strong and saved the spot-kick. With Imberhorne now showing more confidence with their range of passing, a fantastic through ball from Lewis Michael set Man of The Match, Ben Remfry through on goal. With superb vision and assurance, he chipped the on-rushing keeper from 25 yards. At 2-0, Imberhorne created two more really good chances before half time, but couldn’t take advantage of their best spell of the game.
The second half proved to be a much more even contest, with Imberhorne happy to soak up the pressure and hit Sackville on the break. There were good chances at both ends, but both goalkeepers pulled off some great saves.
Fantastic effort from both teams! Thanks to Richard Tramontin and EGTFC and the fans that showed respectful support throughout.”
Another hugely successful evening for both schools and indeed the local Community as a whole, physical and skillful.
Imberhorne are currently leading 9-6 in the overall head to heads. Watch this space!
Rex Whittaker, our Town Mayor, who always attends for the entire evening, had photos taken with both teams and presented the Cup, Trophy and medals at the end.
As always, he had been most impressed with the standard of the football and by the fantastic spirit of the young people of the Town, attending this now well known Community Event.
In thanking, as always, Richard Tramontin and EGTFC , for their kind support of this annual memorial event, in memory of Adam, and also Steve Hill, the West Sussex Sports Coordinator, who, with Simon Bunn, the idea of the Match originally was, I spoke briefly to declare the event another huge success and asked that everyone dig deep in support of the CRY charity.
It is now 14 years since the death of Adam to an un-diagnosed heart condition.
Indeed, Steve himself was only last year diagnosed and, thankfully, is now fully recovered, following an operation to rectify just such a heart condition.
Voluntary contributions on the night of the match, plus donations from Adam’s family, raised £500 for CRY – Cardiac Risk in the Young. http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/ – for which we are very thankful.
John Dabell
