Saltmill Park, Saltash, is the place to be on Christmas Eve as two teams packed full of Saltash legends go head to head to raise money for sports kits for children and young people in Africa.

The noon kick-off sees ex-Bodmin, Saltash and Plymouth Argyle centre back Brinton Nute together with ex-St Stephens Borough defender Will Swales select a team to go up against a side picked by Callington Town goalkeeper Sam Borthwick who is ably assisted by Adam Stiff. They will be competing for a trophy which has been donated by Patrick Fort, of Stylus Engravers Ltd which has been named the Saltash Legends Annual Charity Cup.

Brinton and Will have selected a side of over-28s to take on Sam and Adam’s young pretenders who will be under 28, although they have drafted in ex Saltash United and St Stephens Borough playmaker Andy Wright as a designated over age player.

Others featuring in the line-ups include the likes of Stuart Fort, George Stokes, Luke Kelly, Tony Jane, Jeremy Blake, Sam Ticehurst, Tyler Borthwick & James Phelps.

Benefiting from the match will be ex-Borough secretary Julian Chenery’s kit collecting project which sees sports kits donated to children and young people in Africa. There it is used to encourage children back into school and education as described in this recent e mail from Katie Hayes, a volunteer at the Kailend project in Togo:

“Greetings from Lome, Togo, West Africa. Last Friday we donated some of the kit to the 10-17year old street kids. We have kept the remaining kit to use as their ’match’ kits. The kids were ecstatic when we gave them out and all were on their best behaviour for the rest of practice. Many of these kids are orphans or come from broken homes and as a result sleep rough every night. We are using football as a way to engage them and offer them educational or vocational training opportunities to get them off the streets and into real jobs. Your kit has been used as a great incentivising mechanism. We are all extremely grateful for your generous donation.”

To support the appeal anyone attending the game is asked to bring an old item of sports kit to donate. This can be a shirt, a pair of shorts, socks, boots – basically anything.

In the absence of a kit donation an entry fee of £1 will be collected to go to the specialist kit collecting charity Kits4Causes.