The old Town shirts recently collected at Planet Blue for Christian charity Hands at Work have arrived in the village of Chilabula in Zambia and are being put to good use.
Ken Donaldson was one of those who took the kit out to Zambia and he told TWTD how it was received: "The impact on a very poor community which is all but ‘lost’ to the rest of the world with a hand to mouth existence is and has been immeasurable.
"There is a distant awareness of the West's football world. Walking in the more salubrious towns in the Copperbelt of Zambia we come across shirts of some of the bigger clubs so it is fabulous for an impoverished rural community to make a link, a connection of hope for them, a contact which lets these friends of ours know, to their utmost amazement, that a major, top level UK football club cares about them.
Ivan clutching some of the shirts, Kennedy, Lyndsey, Alice (from Suffolk) and Ken
"Many of the recipients of the shirts struggle for clothing - orphans wear the same items for months on end and some, therefore, only wear rags. Apart from the hope offered, the shirts give practical warmth and protection.”
Ken will be on Lesley Dolphin’s Radio Suffolk show next Monday afternoon to talk, amongst other things, about the kit collection and its impact on the village.
During their visit to Chilabula, the Hands at Work team took part in a football match in which the donated shirts — including some contributed by the club — were worn. Keith Clempson, who instigated the collection on the TWTD forum, reports.
Zambian Allcomers (Chilabula) 3 v 3 The Motley Crew
Venue: School field, and I mean field! Although they use it as a pitch. Grass a foot tall one side and almost a desert the other.
Date: 22nd April 2014.
Conditions: Overhead sun and 85F or 27C
Zambian colours: Brand spanking new ITFC Marcus Evans white away kit.
The Motley Crew colours: Various blue ITFC shirts from previous generations. Fisons, Greene King, E-on to name but a few sponsors.
Zambian team summary: Young, enthusiastic, had local carer Hendrix as the tireless playmaker, all male, all played in bare feet.
Our team summary: Fat, slow, knackered (and that's only me), novice keeper (novice at football as well), but had an ace female star and two fit male care workers.
The game was due to start at 2pm, but it appeared that as we waited for more lads to turn up, some thought the game was the next day. A well-known expression here is TIA - this is Africa, and the game started 45 minutes late, by which time all my water had been consumed, not by me but by the opposition lads who weren't used to this luxury item at games!
The match kicked off and immediately a star was born. Ivan Pike, the not so svelte like figure and the wrong side of 50, and that's his waist by the way, stuck out a left leg and frightened the opposition striker into firing wide. Undaunted by his success, he did the same again just a few minutes later deflecting this time for a corner.
As I left the pitch for a brief while with a water divining stick, the Zambian Allcomers nicked two goals. When I returned to the field we pulled a goal back starting from a sumptuous cross-field ball from the now rehydrated self, that was then firmly planted between the two marker cones passing themselves off as goalposts.
As there was no crossbar, we decided that anything the keeper couldn't reach was a goal. The barefooted youngsters resorted to a new tactic that I had taught them the previous day, tickling. They knew that I was very susceptible to this ugly side of football and so they successfully stemmed the quality flow of balls into their half and the period ended 2-1 in their favour.
Underhand tactics The half-time interval was taken, and while I and my two travelling companions, Ken and Ivan, looked and stared deep and hard into one another’s eyes wondering what the fffff...lippin' 'eck we were doing to ourselves in the heat.
The lass on our side who, without being patronising, was one of our star performers in that half, seemed to coolly take in her stride the whole experience.
I was to later find out that she regularly attended soccer school in USA, in heat that made this seem chilly! Yes, Lindsey was Beckham-esque in the first half and unlucky not to be on the scoresheet with two superb efforts on goal.
The second half was a revelation for me. I was playing on the side of the pitch where you could actually see the ball through the grass. In fact on this side of the pitch, there was hardly any grass at all.
We soon got into our stride once the wonderfully named Hendrix for the opposition, had taken a string of throw-ins that were dealt with in no uncertain manner by our mean defence which now saw Ken taking a more withdrawn but creative stance in the middle of the park, sorry field.
Two goals from local Hands At Work employee Mike, gave us an unexpected lead. His silky barefoot skills for us, let alone his fit physical presence, combined with another Hands At Work employee, Kennedy, were to prove the undoing of the Zambian Allcomers.
Kennedy tripped past two tackles to slide a ball through for Mike to finish coolly, if you can finish coolly on a day like today. Mike's second goal you can see in the picture below. Stylish indeed, as were all the Zambians. Masses of natural footy talent here and all in bare feet.
The move of the match however deserved a goal, and if the wind or Savior (yes, with a name like that he ought to be good goalie, and he was a superb keeper) had not moved the cone in anticipation, the move would have ended in a deserved goal.
Yours truly was fed by a cross-field ball on the left delivered at some pace from Ken. Unable to bring the ball down under full control on the hard bumpy pitch, I decided to volley a diagonal pass to Lindsey over on the far right-hand side. Without breaking stride, because the pass was of pure quality, she ran on and controlled with one touch and volleyed with the second. The ball flew agonisingly wide.
While we were still bemoaning our luck, the lads from Zambia nipped up field and caught Ivan (the terrible) off his line and scored perhaps a deserved equaliser. So we won, 3-3!
Thanks to Alice our substitute in the second half and for the action piccies, and thanks to all ITFC fans who donated their old shirts.
The rest of the shirts will be handed out to the other inhabitants of this impoverished community as invaluable items of much-needed clothing. Our trips to Chilabula will continue and more tough and tickly action will occur no doubt. But we hope the promise of our at least annual fixture will further the cause to get the new pitch up and running soon.