An annual charity football match returned to Manchester Grammar School on Friday to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The The Stuart Dale Macmillan Trophy has been an annual event since 2005 when the school’s porter, Stuart Dale passed away from cancer and was cared for by Macmillan.

The fixture has not taken place the last couple of years amind coronavirus restrictions.

Graeme Warner, the event organiser who is based in Whitefield, said: “The reason that we initiated this and why I was asked to do something was the school porter who had been at the school for many years died of cancer and Macmillan looked after him.

“They said we’d like to raise money for Macmillan how can we do it, so with my previous football contacts I said why don’t we do a charity football match.”

The event has so far managed to raise over £3,000 for the charity and they will do a presentation to Macmillan the first month of term in September.

Graeme said: “This year’s event was one of the best because we had a huge crowd, and another reason is probably because we’ve not done it since before Covid in 2019.

“Most of the pupils came out to watch as their teachers were playing.

"There was also a tombola and all sorts of other fundraising things on the day. The weather was fantastic, and we were lucky to have a few ex-pro footballers taking part as well.”

A few notable players who took part were Matt Jansen and Marlon Broomes, who played for Blackburn Rovers, Ian Baraclough, who starred for QPR and is the current Northern Ireland manager, and Colin Murdock, the ex-Northern Ireland international.

Bury Times:

Marlon Broomes, Matt Jansen, Graeme Warner, Ian Baraclough and Simon Jones, director of development at Manchester Grammar School

There is a JustGiving page where people can donate to if they could not make the charity match, which has raised more than £2,000.

People can donate by visiting - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stuartdaletrophy-mgs.