Worthians Football – 2011 Match Report
The Worthians versus School team annual football match, for the Henry Surtees Memorial trophy, is now a well-established fixture on the Worth Society Calendar and gathers in momentum each year. It is always played on the last Sunday of the Lent Term and on Sunday 27th March 2011 we welcomed a spectacular 45 players – enough players to field four separate teams!
The School Team played in a triangular tournament against both the ‘older’ Worthians and the ‘young’ Worthians teams, while both Worthian teams also played against a Staff team. Overall the School Team came out on top, beating the ‘young’ Worthians by 1-0, thereby retaining the trophy for the second consecutive year.
Our special thanks must go to John Surtees, father of the late Henry Surtees (C’09), for coming along to support and watch the tournament and witness the presentation of the Henry Surtees Memorial Cup to by Abbot Kevin to Nick Wallendahl, Captain of the School’s 1st XI. It was especially heartening to see so many of Henry’s year group and good friends present – especially the ‘young’ Worthians Captain, Charlie Forbes who, as ever, did not deserve to be on the losing side!
Match tea and the presentation of the trophy took place in The Pit stop café, named after Henry. His father said how delighted he was, to see not only the younger Worthians playing (many of whom were in Henry’s year), but also a staff team and an older Worthians team.
Chris Roberts sent us an e-mail afterwards summing up his feelings about the day; “I had a great day and it was so nice to be back at the school in the sun! It was also good to catch up with old classmates some of whom I haven’t seen since leaving Worth”.
A significant level of skill was demonstrated amongst the older Worthians, with Stef Humphries deserving particular mention – he really should be thinking of signing for Leeds!
For some families, football runs in the blood of course, so we saw brothers out in force – the Belpassis’, the Lalls’, the Matthews’, the Rivers’ and the Taylors’ (alongside their dad!). It was great to see Ryan Lall back on the pitch and his brother, Dylan, deserves a special mention here as, at the age of just 15 and a pupil in Year 10, he already plays for the School 1st XI – the only boy I have known to play four years above his age! Sadly we will be seeing less of him in the 1st XI next year as he is on Brighton’s books and will be progressing in a very different league.
Our thanks must also go to our stalwart supporters who came along to cheer us along on the day and who almost outnumbered the players – that in itself is a fitting testament to the skill of the football teams that we produce here at Worth.
So, to all you footballers out there – we know that our 2012 fixture will take place on the last Sunday of the Lent Term as the final match of the 1st XI season – so we accept no excuses, if you’d like to play, e-mail Olivia Henley straight away at worthsociety@worth.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
Andrew Taylor, Worthians Football Organiser