TWO indoor five-a-side tournaments held at TDS Leisure Centre in Redditch have raised £700 in support of UK-registered charity Penny Appeal’s various causes.
Some £200 was raised from the adults tournament for the charity’s ‘Love thy Neighbour Appeal’, which supports homeless people in the UK by providing hot meals and food packs to families.
In addition, a brilliant £500 was raised at the youth tournament which was organised by the youth of Redditch to help support the ‘Winter Emergency Appeal’, which supports Syrian refugees who find themselves fighting to survive due to the war in Syria.
The amount raised will help provide warm clothing, blankets, shelter and food packs to Syrian families and children who are starving or freezing to death.
The adults tournament, which is designed to allow adults of all abilities and fitness levels to get involved and compete in a competitive tournament, was won by Yassar Mahmood’s team.
Led brilliantly from the front by player of the tournament Mahmood himself, they produced some fine quality when it mattered as, supported excellently by Asif Ahmed in goal, they defeated Rashed Ahmed’s team 3-1 in the final.
All three goals were superbly taken by hat-trick hero and man of the match in the final, Raheem Basharat.
Rashed Ahmed and Orrin Pendley, who won the Golden Boot with ten goals, excelled throughout the tournament including some brilliant shot-stopping from Ahmed and a typically dynamic display from Pendley, but ultimately the team lacked the composure at critical moments to win a competitive final.
There were also leading contributions from Leigh Bell, Delroy Thompson, Sabial Hanif, Umar Khan, Rizul Ali and Shariq Mazhar amongst the losing semi finalists in what overall was a highly competitive tournament in which the pre-event favourites were knocked out in the group stage.
The youth tournament, held on Saturday, was won by Naseek Hussain’s Highland Springs as they beat Raheem Basharat’s Prostars 6-5 in an epic final.
Springs were grateful to the outstanding Malique Williams who scored ten goals overall and who won the Player of the Tournament award, including scoring all six of his side’s goals in a man of the match display in the final.
Haris Ali in goal also produced some brilliant displays for Springs and it will have been a difficult defeat to accept for Basharat, who was outstanding from start to finish for ProStars.
Basharat himself bagged four goals in the final and finished with the Golden Boot Award overall after netting 11.
A tournament spokesman said: “To raise £700 collectively for Penny Appeal and the two mentioned causes is absolutely brilliant, considering the tournaments are small-scale local events.
“We know through Penny Appeal it will really make a difference within the UK and abroad. The youth tournament’s amount of £500 was absolutely phenomenal considering it was organised by the youth themselves and much credit must go to tournament organiser, 19-year-old Umer Khan, for his excellent organisational work in such a short timescale.
“We would like to thank everyone who participated in both events and everyone at TDS Leisure for their support, alongside Haroon Mota of Penny Appeal for his advice and guidance and the youth tournament sponsors Pepe’s Redditch, Star Taxis, Adeel Continental Food Store, Caspian Pizza Redditch, Grillicious, Brooklyns 5, K&N Autos and the events management team at Academy of Champions.”
