On 15th April we held 3 matches at the Tigers Trust Arena with Crystal Palace fans who had travelled up from London that same day arriving in Hull just 30 minutes before kick-off at 3 pm.
Here is Ray Barry’s account of that day.
A walking football tournament was arranged for 15th April at the Tigers Trust Arena Walton Street in Hull when my brother Des and nephews Darren, Billy and Andy travelled to Hull from South London to Hull for the weekend I first moved to Hull in 1983 to facilitate the birth of the Housemartins, and more recently chose to move back to Hull last year after separation and divorce, and my family came up to check on my welfare.
An Actor and Author I used to play for Hull City Supporters Club in the mid-1990s. I formed my new team around my family and kitted them out as Thomas More Old Boys, the school we all went to as children in South London.
As an added surprise I arranged for Hull City Brass Band to receive them at Hull Paragon Station, and upon their arrival they would play the theme tune from Only Fools and Horses, my family all donned masks of the same programme. This came about as the WhatsApp group created to arrange the trip was entitled ‘to Hull and back’ after the famous BBC programme.
The Matches were played on the indoor Tigers Trust pitch, with Hull players making up three teams, in this East Riding FA-sanctioned event. Walking Football is available to everyone over 50 years of age and is usually held on Mondays and Thursdays for an hour from 10 am til 11 am. Money raised from the event went to Tigers Trust.
Dennis Mills says we won the first game 7-6 but sadly lost the second game 5-4 with the winning goal coming from Ray with the last kick of the match. Dave Bingham scored a great goal, I scored a brilliant chipped goal but it went over everybody’s head so was disallowed. In the third game, we lost 7-4, the referee was excellent and well-respected and the food went down well with some having seconds. All in all a very good day.
