News Article
Letchworth X1 play Arsenal X1 as a tribute to Tony Samuels
On a hot sunny afternoon on Sunday 24 May a crowd of around a thousand spectators watched a Letchworth team composed of ‘ veteran’ Letchworth players of yesterday and a few current first team players take on a team of Arsenal celebs including Tommy Walsh of the TV series Groundforce in goal. The match was organized by Eagles manager and assistant manager Roy Boon and Jason Valentine as a tribute to the late Tony Samuels, with a third of the profits going to an Arsenal charity and the rest to Flavascum, a local Royston charity which is committed to educating young people against the use of knives, and some permanent memorial to Tony at the Eagles home ground.
Our man in the middle Malcolm Lee managed to keep order in a good natured game where some players clearly had problems getting enough wind to run with let alone argue with the ref.
Letchworth were caught out first half ( a lot of talk about past glories not quite being repeated on the day!) and by half time went in 4-0 down. They managed to grab a consolation goal but eventually lost 5-1. The result though was unimportant. This was a great community day out, with plenty of chilling out, which Tony would have liked.
Tony’s sister Maria was presented with flowers at half time and wanted to thank everyone for turning up and for the support of Tony’s friends.
We are thinking of having this as an annual event – perhaps a game against Spurs next year?
Our thanks to our principal sponsors the Comet newspaper whose girls provided some glam on the day, and to Stapleton’s Tyres, where Tony used to work. Also thanks to all the many smaller sponsors who helped make the day a great success
Other links: See PDF Poster. - Story on Comet site. - See Eagles mourn Tony Samuels.