A charity football challenge has raised more than £10,000.
A team of former Dalbeattie Star players kicked off a series of seven-a-side games at 6pm on Friday evening that continued until the same time on Saturday.
The matches took place at the North West Community Campus in Dumfries, Queen of the South’s Palmerston Arena and Star’s Islecroft Stadium.
And, as well as raising money for Marie Curie and the British Heart Foundation, the game also paid tribute to club heroes Gary Holden, Jimmy Hannay and Frankie Styles.
And so far more than £12,000 has been raised - more than four times the original target
Former Star manager, Ritchie Maxwell – who was part of the side – said: “The support we’ve received has been tremendous - from the three families, North West Community Campus, Queen of the South and Dalbeattie letting us use the facilities, the 26 teams that turned up so we had opposition, the sponsors of every hour and the raffle prizes. The support has been unbelievable.”
Frankie Styles – known as Mr Dalbeattie Star – died in October, 2020.
He had been involved with the club for 35 years having helped with its reformation in 1975 and served as chairman, groundsman and kitman.
Gary Holden, 51, was assistant manager when he passed away on Christmas Day, 2020. He had also held a number of roles at Threave Rovers.
Jimmy Hannay, who had played and coached with Star, died in March 2021 at the age of 43. He was a PE teacher at North West Community Campus, where the matches kicked off on Friday night.
Many of the teams providing the opposition for the Star side had links to at least one of the trio.
Joining Ritchie on the pitch were Darren Kerr, Curtiss Wilson, Paul Cook, Grant Parker, Lewis Sloan. Ali Cathro was also due to play but had to pull out after testing positive for coronavirus.
Ritchie said: “At short notice we had boys come in and fill in slots to make up that seventh man. For them to come in at short notice and do shifts for us through the night over the two days ago - without them we’d have been a man short and it would have been even more difficult so we’re very appreciative of their support over the 24 hours.
“It was harder than we ever expected. By two or three o’clock on Saturday morning we were all pretty sore. We had a couple of boys who came in to give us some rubs and we had food to help us through the day.
“By the time we got to Dalbeattie we were pleased to be back in the fresh air on the grass. There were a few sore bodies on Sunday - I think legs were in pieces!
Donations can still be made online at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/24-7s
