Fun in the Sun at Soccer Six

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Celebrities take to the pitch in aid of Samaritans

Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge hosted a hugely successful Soccer Six tournament in Saturday's summer sunshine.

Stars from the worlds of film, TV, music and sport joined in

the fun, which for the fifth year running was held in aid of emotional support charity Samaritans.

The eventual winners for the men were the Babyshambles team (minus front man Pete Doherty) who beat the stars

of the TV show Inbetweeners in the semi-final.

Winners for the girls

meanwhile were a team

led by former Liberty X

singer Michelle Keaton,

after vanquishing

Cleopatra in the

semi-finals.

 

There was disappointment for X Factor finalists JLS, who

were hotly tipped to win. With Fulham's own Orise Williams

in their ranks they had the support of the crowd, but were knocked out in the quarter finals.

However, the group said they were all delighted to be at Stamford Bridge and to be helping the charity.

" Because a service like Samaritans can sometimes be forgotten about,  an event like Soccer Six is really great for raising awareness," said Ortise.

 

Undefeated world super middle weight boxing champion Joe Calzhaghe faced

defeat on this occasion, when his team, a side from the Sun newspaper which

won last year's tournament, where knocked out.

"I'm a bit gutted we lost, we were a good team and we deserved to win," said

Joe. " I'm a bit rusty on the pitch though. I got some dribbling in but I just

couldn't get the shots on target.

" But we're here for a good cause, we enjoyed the football and we helped raise money, which has got to be good."

Other stars donning football boots for the day included stars from hit TV shows Skins, Waterloo Road, Skins, Shameless and Hollyoaks, comics Omid Djalili, Russell Howard, Milton Jones and Lee Mack, members of pop groups Spandau Ballet, The View and N-Dubz, X Factor finalist Austin Drage, models Charlotte Mears and Nicola McLean and actors Nick Moran, Dominic Cooper and Danny Dyer.

"It's all been for charity and it's been a top day," said Danny, who has starred in TV series including Skins and Hotel Babylon, and is also chairman of a non-league football team Greenwich Borough. "It's been beautiful weather and my kids have been here supporting me.

"I just hope we raise enough money for the cause."

 

 

Money for Samaritans was raise both from ticket sales and donations from the celebrities who took part. Samaritans' Claire Duncan said: " Soccer Six has been a fantastic event for everyone involved. Around 150 celebrities and 4,000 members of the general public were supporting Samaritans at Stamford Bridge today."

May 26, 2009