On Sunday 28 November 2021 Bootham Girls’ and Ladies’ Futsal Club – York had its first ever charity futsal marathon, in which they were raising money to buy the club its very own defibrillator. In fact before the start of the event they had already raised enough money to buy 2 defibrillators, so the day was all about having fun!

The games were 10 minutes with each player only allowed to score one goal in each game, and every team playing each other in a round robin event. If the players all scored in one game they had to try and keep the ball and run down the clock.

The teams were drawn from a hat with a player from each age group:

Emily-Sue’s Purples

Emily-Sue T, Sophie W, Eva T, Jessica H, Avva C, Madison P

Freya’s Blues

Freya D, Ellie R, Anna W, Isabella L, Jean Pugh, Arria Poole

Katie’s Reds

Katie H, Kiera L, Megan G, Hannah B, Naomi L, Esmee R

Ava’s Yellows

Ava W, Sophie T, Emily H, Heidi J, Martha P, Grace W

Emma’s Light Blues

Emma S, Katie J, Hattie F, Funmi S, Olivia A, Clare I

And of course they had the teams of the Very Dodgy Dads and the Darling Moms!

Even though the most goals you could lose by was 5, the Dads team still managed a 7-0 and a 6-2 defeat, VAR was obviously not working today! Here is the final league table after two and a half hours of futsal:

They had a special guest appearance from U16 Alice P who is having knee surgery in December, she was a brilliant Mom’s goalkeeper. The whole club wishes her a very speedy recovery and all our thoughts and best wishes are with her. Get back on court very soon Alice!

After some fantastic futsal, fabulous goals and the usual very dodgy refereeing decisions, especially against the Dads team, Katie’s Reds ran out worthy winners, closely followed by Ava’s Yellows.

After the girls had finished, they held a Dads/Moms Pay Per Play game in which every player had donated £20 to play in a futsal match, in which Coach Chris refereed. The two captains were Coach Suzy and Coach Katie, and at the last minute a guest appearance from Jorge Sagrades, York Futsal First Team Goalkeeper! The game swung both ways but Suzy’s team finally ran out winners. Huge thank you to the Dads/Moms for their amazing support of the event, they were:

Mark Preston, Penny Toye, Ben Whitworth, Andrew Hurren, David Chapman, Andrew Thompson, Jorge Sagrades, Ruben Pugh, Michael Wood, Dave Shiel, Richard Iggulden, John Hall, James Lunardi, Jake Shiel, Dave Leadbeater, Martin Pugh and of course Coach Suzy and Coach Katie!

A very special mention goes to Lizzey who ran a tombola and lucky dip stall, which proved very popular and raised another £100 for the defibrillator fund.

Click here to see the images from the days charity event.

At the time of writing this review, the players and parents had managed to raise a staggering £2460 with still more to be collected. What this actually means is the club can afford to buy not 1, not 2 but 3 defibrillators. Two of the defibrillators will be donated to similar organisations shortly, watch this space for more details!

We will leave the last word to Chairman Chris, who was on day 28 of his 30 day 5k running marathon, he said in conversation:

‘What can I say about this club, we have amazing players and fantastic parents who went well beyond what was expected for this event. To raise the amount of money they have is simply staggering. If by buying these 3 defibrillators we can save just one life, then all the hard work has been worth while. Simply put, a huge heart felt thank you to each and everyone of you who has helped in anyway.‘