Danny Mardell Knockout Challenge - June 10th 2006

A few of the Newbury Forest family were involved in a 6 a side tournament at Upton Park on June 10th 2006. It was for the Down’s Syndrome Association in memory of Danny Mardell. He worked tirelessly for the DSA while also having a son with Down’s Syndrome. Danny Mardell passed away tragically in 2005, and this was the DSA way of paying tribute to a fantastic man who meant so much to so many people.

Many teams from all over the country came to be crowned inaugural champions, this included the Patron to the DSA; Everton and Republic of Ireland international Kevin Kilbane and Ex Wales and Everton Goal Keeper Neville Southall plus a host of players from Sky’s fantasy football programme Dream Team.

However, it was the team of 3 Irons that consisted of Alfie Egembah, John Hassan, Mark Butler and soon to be Newbury Forest Jey Siva that won the whole thing. The final being played on the full pitch 10 a side, and with the hammertte cheerleaders. On top of that Alfie ended up as the tournament top scorer with 7 goals in as many games and Jey was man of the Match in the final, which included a fantastic run and Zidane spin which had the crowd at Upton Park applauding.

It was a really good day hopefully next year we can get a whole team of Newbury Forest down there.