Alderley Edge Hockey Club Mascot Eddie the ‘Edgehog is celebrating with a saucer of milk after a busy and successful weekend.
On Saturday, April 16th, he went down to Tonbridge in Kent to support the Edge Ladies Hockey team as they won the Vase, the England Hockey Board National Knockout competition. A terrific 2-1 win beating Guernsey Ladies with two cracking goals from Irma Laskevice.
With just a few hours sleep, Eddie went up to Yorkshire on Sunday and beat 55 other mascots including cuddly characters Zak the Zebra and Ozzie the Owl to win a national charity race, the Sue Ryder Mascot Gold Cup at the Wetherby racecourse family day.
Eddie Edgehog the mascot was only 'born' a month ago to support the club in its fundraising efforts for an artificial grass pitch at The Ryleys playing field and to help promote the clubs junior development work in the local community. Eddie is the brain child of Andrew Donaldson from Hockey Club sponsor BiG Storage and Hockey Club Hon.Secretary Kelvin Briggs who doubles up as Eddie’s coach and race trainer.
He said “I thought it was going to be quite a difficult race as there were some quite sporty looking creatures out there, but we had a plan to come late and, with his spikes on, it worked perfectly.”
The event raised about £15,000 for the Sue Ryder health and social care charity who organised the race.
Eddie fit from morning training runs up the Edge was making his debut in the race but found the one furlong trip over 6 fences to his liking. However, Zack the Zebra of road safety charity BRAKE also shone in the Wetherby sun and it took an official photo finish to prove that Eddie had indeed won by a short spike. Sheffield Wednesday’s Ozzie the Owl was third and also took the prize for being the first professional mascot home. The prize for being last home without stopping went to Sue the Sausage representing Sue Ryder retail.
Prior to the race, the traditional Mascot Parade was held where a panel of judges elected ‘Eddie the Edgehog’ best mascot in the parade - making him the first mascot in the race’s history to take both top awards.
All Mascots were thanked by Sue Ryder Fundraiser Andrew Wood who explained how he was delighted with the race and the amount it had raised.
“Mascots have now raised over £75,000 in the five years that the race has been run and we are very lucky that the majority of this has come to Sue Ryder to help us to fund our crucial care in hospices and neurological care centres throughout the country.
"We need to raise over £4 million each year just to provide our services so events such as this which raise both funds and our profile are very important to us.”
This is a member post by Kelvin Briggs.
