Cal Crutchlow - Man Of The Match

Last week I wrote the story on a Charity Football Match taking place between the Air Ambulance Racers v Leicester City Legends.

At half-time, the bike racing boys were 10-1 down after being absolutely destroyed by the Leicester Legends and were only saved from total embarrassment with a goal from Nigel Bosworth.  Dan did however, feel that the racers were more respectable in the last 30 minutes and added that they only scored 2 goals in that time, the other 8 were just lucky!

Dan Cannell, who was the main man behind the charity fund raiser, gave his half-time talk to the boys, which went something like this,

To Cal Crutchlow after seeing him here, there and everywhere on the pitch,

“Where are you playing Cal”, “Everywhere” replied Cal, “OK, Cool…er…carry on then”

At one point during the second half of the match, the racers appeared to have 17 players on the pitch while the Legends only had 13, so that sort of made it fair I guess!

The Legends also lent a couple of players to the Racers side, Muzzy Izzett and David Busst with the Racers finally winning the game, which had been re-scored by 1-0 with Mark Dicken scoring a screamer into the top corner of the net.

Cal Crutchlow was named the ‘Man of the Match’ for the Racing side, after proving himself to be one of the few men who can actually multi-task, on the football pitch anyway.

It turned out to be a fantastic day for all involved and Dan Cannell would like to especially thank Tom Naughton without whom this wouldn’t have happened.  Well done to everyone involved, a fantastic day’s work and hopefully it will be an annual event.

Cal Crutchlow and Kenny Gilbertson are now both confirmed as playing for the Air Ambulance Racers alongside the rest of the team which is made up of;

Graham Read, Tristan Knowles, Sam Middlemas, Nigel Bosworth, Mark Dickens, Dieter Struck, Hudson Kennaugh, Martyn Lewins, Dean Ellison, Mick Price, Kev Jones, Julian Perry, Shannon Etteridge and David Johnson.

I will add any further changes as they happen.

Dan Cannell 2006

This weekend there is to be a Charity Football Match between some well known Motorcycle Racers and some of the old faces from Leicester football club.

It’s taking place at the Hinckley Utd Football ground on the 29th March at 1.30pm with all money raised going to the Air Ambulance Service.

On the side of the Air Ambulance Racers are reported to be;   Dean Ellison, Aaron Zanotti, Alistair Fagan Mark Dicken, Julian Perry, Shannon Ethridge, David Johnson and Martyn Lewins amongst others, and apparently even Cal Crutchlow has asked to play, so you never know!

On the side of Leicester City Legends, possible players are; Steve Walsh, Matt Elliot, Gary McAllister, Dean Thomas, Tom Naughton, Muzzy Izzet and  Neil Lennon to name a few plus it is now rumoured that two of the Coventry City FA Cup Final Players have signed-up.

The teams will be wearing shirts donated by Triumph and there is to be a host of raffle prizes to be won including, a range of clothing from Honda UK Racing,  gifts from the Ron Haslam Race School and romantic meals to name a few.

This is all happening because of one man’s gratitude to the accident and emergency services after nearly losing his life in an horrific motorcycling accident in June 2008, Dan Cannell.

His motorcycle was in collision with a van outside the Axe and Compass pub, near Wolvey on the 16th June 2008, and as luck would have it, a doctor was inside the pub at the time of the accident.

The doctor had to perform an emergency tracheotomy on Dan at the roadside to re-inflate his lungs.  He was transferred by road ambulance to Coventry hospital where he remained in a controlled coma in intensive care for almost three weeks.

Dan suffered serious head injuries in the accident amongst a host of other injuries, 2 collapsed lungs, shattered upper right arm with nerve damage, broken left arm/wrist/ broken left thigh, his lower left leg was broken in 3 places and he suffered 2 broken bones in his face.  His left arm/wrist and hand were pinned as was his broken thigh, lower left leg and hip.  He had to have his left knee re-constructed and his right elbow is now made out of metal.  On the road to recovery, Dan has had to have skin grafts taken from his right leg but was actually let out of hospital on 17th November 2008, much to everyone’s amazement.

Dan was competing in the East Midlands Racing Association Championship before the accident and is determined that he will one day compete again but while he regains his fitness he is putting his time to good use by repaying those that have helped him.

Go along and support this great cause, you never know when you may need to call on their services!

Here’s a link for further information;

http://www.dlraa.co.uk/index.asp?page=Leicestershire