More than $21,000 in donations was raised during last month's inaugural Benefit Football Game held at the National Sports Centre (NSC) pitting 'legends' from Social Club Bluebirds against Pembroke rivals North Village Red Devils.

Red Devils prevailed 3-1 but the biggest winners were the inaugural beneficiaries (Mel Bowen, Webster Mills and the late Wendell Lindsay) of the charity event. Organiser Fred (Pinks) Lewis plans to stage this annually as a means of raising funds to assist financing medical costs of former footballers Island-wide who may become stricken with illness.

Each of this year's beneficiaries received a sum of $7,000 revealed Social Club president Lewis who praised all those who helped make last month's football spectacle a "huge success".

"It was a success all the way round and after the game fans were asking us when are we going to have the next one," he said. "Everybody enjoyed themselves."

Lewis added that Social Club's Benefit Committee - headed up by former Bluebird team-mate Gladstone (Sad) Brown - has already considered various recommendations to enhance the event, such as extending invitations to other clubs who may have former players stricken with illness to battle it out for charity.

"What we are trying to achieve moving forward is to stage at least one game per year to assist players who have become ill and are in need of financial help - and not just from one or two clubs," Lewis added. "We want all of the clubs to call us up and inform us they have a player who is sick.

"We want to help all of the clubs and hopefully we can all get together and work things out because we don't want to eliminate anyone. The more the merrier."

On target for Village in last month's star-studded match was famous Red Devil striker Ralph (Gumbo) Bean, former pro Dale Russell and Richard Robinson.

Cal Raynor netted Bluebird's consolation in a match showcasing talents from yesteryear.