What an incredible experience 8 COGS had at Manchester’s Media City UK, for BBC One’s Sport Relief! The Event is held every two years and is a time when the British public get active, have fun and raise cash to help people living tough lives both in the UK and around the world.
Many tough Sport Relief challenges had been completed during the week and the 12-hour 5 a-side Challenge would test the legs of Robbie and all his team mates, to the limit.
After playing in the First Round of the FA People’s Cup, teams who had entered were invited to travel to Media City UK in Manchester, to take on a team of Robbie Savage’s Allstars, managed by the Legend, Peter Reid. Alison McMullan decided that she would answer the email for the COGS 3 team and luckily we were chosen to be one of the opposition teams.
The #5liveaside, 12-hour Challenge was a test of endurance and every 15 minutes a new team would come on to take up the mantle of trying to beat Robbie and his celebrity team mates. Included in the team for our match were Robbie, Harry Judd, Warren Brown, Rachel Yankey OBE, Sam Quek and Peter Reid who substituted himself on near the end.
Other celebrities who were involved in the day included, JB Gill (JLS), Michael Vaughan, Kirsty Gallacher, Joleon Lescott and Danny Webber, to name a few.
The 5 a-side pitch was constructed on the Plaza, along with another area alongside, where former Newcastle and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, Shay Given, took to the nets to complete 12 non-stop hours of penalty shoot outs, with members of the public lining up to take their best shots at him. Each of the COGS took a few penalties but didn’t test the experienced keeper too much! It was then time to hand over the cheque for £156.00, to Robbie Savage, which had been raised the previous evening with an Inter-COGs tournament, cake sale and raffle.
At 6pm it was time for the COGS to take on the Allstars but just prior to that Carol Bates was called over to do a short interview with BBC 5 Live Sport’s Caroline Barker to talk a little bit about the COGS and how older women were now getting the chance to learn and play football.
Then it was time for the “big game”. It didn’t take long for Rachel Yankey and Sam Quek to score for the Allstars but the COGS didn’t give up and even scored 2 goals, with the final score ending 6-2 to Robbie’s team. Special mention to both Karen Turner and Laura Caffrey-Curley who scored, with Laura’s goal nutmegging Robbie! The game was full of laughter and everyone got their own medal for participating.
If you have 20 minutes to spare, you can watch all the action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84iOXGnsGFg
You can also watch it here, along with all the other games, too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p062gt40
The rest of the evening was spent supporting the Allstars team until that final whistle went on the 12 hours. Robbie’s team only just beat the FA People’s Cup teams, by 2 goals, with the final score 111 vs. 109.
You can find the live feed for all the action throughout the day, here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e8gv2m/live/c4cv4f
An amazing effort from everyone! Bring on 2020!
COGS’ Team: Alison McMullan, Kim Whitley, Carol Bates, Karen Turner, Charlie Cooper, Maria Iula Harris, Laura Caffrey-Curley and Stacey Chandler in goal.