The annual Frank Windas Memorial matches took place on Saturday, June 3, on the Hull Road playing fields.
The charity fundraiser started with both Withernsea under-15s teams playing each other in a competitive but friendly contest, resulting in the Drypool team coming out on top.
Freddie, team captain and Frank’s grandson, lifted the trophy for another year, presented to him by Frank’s daughter, Carron. Zach Garbutt was named man of the match.
Following a short interval, the golden oldies hobbled on to the field for the main event. Two teams, made up mainly of past players, family and friends, were handpicked by Frank’s son Mark and Withernsea AFC stalwart Tom Finn. The game was refereed by Nath Iley.
The match was played in the right spirit with a high level of competitiveness, strong tackles and attractive football. Finno’s younger, fitter team struggled to live with the classy play of the older lads.
The scoring started with Rutter heading in from a free kick early on. Then came a tap-in from Ross Darbs and two goals from the evergreen Gav Thurkettle. Frustrations were then aimed at Richy when Windas rounded the keeper to score after a slightly dubious offside decision. Ref Nath Iley couldn’t take it much more and decided to swap his ref shirt with Finno’s forward Richy to try to take control back in the midfield.
Richy then sent himself off for poor refereeing, on came Gaz Wilks for the third referee of the game! The first half ended 5-0 to the Windas 11.
The second half was a different story as legs started to tire, Finno’s boys were getting more joy in the game and pulled one back from Ben Harrison. A sympathy penalty was awarded and stepped up Meddy… and missed. Still 5-1.
The goal of the match was still to come with a sublime lob from Chris Hardcastle from a full 35 yards. The past (it) masters once again triumphed for the second year running – a great game by all players and all three referees!
The Man of the Match trophy was awarded to centre-back Neil Rutter.
The family would like to thank everyone who took part on the day, on and off the field. A whopping £417.73 was raised for the British Heart Foundation in player subs and donations.
