Secure One Limited has sponsored five Leicestershire Constabulary police officers who all used to play for the Leicester Panthers American football team.
The team has been reunited for a one-off charity match to raise money for the Matt Hampson Trust, which was set up to support Matt Hampson, a young Leicester Tigers player who broke his neck during an England U21 training camp and is now paralysed.
PC Rex Harrison is organising the game, which is to be played on Monday May 28, 2007 at The Leicester Tigers ground on Welford Road, Leicester, and will include the former Tigers player and England captain, Martin Johnson.
PC Harrison said: “Some of the former players met up for a reunion and we talked about how it would be good to play again. We decided to get as many former players together as possible and play a one-off match for charity. After an appeal in the Leicester Mercury for ex players to contact us and we had thirty replies in the week!
“Martin Johnson, who is a huge American football fan, called and said he wanted to play. The only problem was that each player needed to be fitted out with kit at a total cost of GB pound 300 each, and that’s where Secure One stepped into the breach.”
Secure One managing director Ian Bass said: “We’re very pleased to help fund such a worthy cause. I’m sure the Police players will excel themselves and I’ll be there cheering them on! Secure One will be giving away twenty free tickets for the event. Anyone interested should visit the News section of our web site at secureone.co.uk for details.”
The game will be played against the Loughborough Aces – a university team that won the Collegiate National Championship in 2005. Tickets are GB pound 5 for adults and free for under 14s, and are available from the Tigers ticket office. Phone 08701 283430 or go to the Tigers’ web site.
