100th year of charity football competition celebrated at Molineux with final

An historic charity football competition played for since 1926 celebrated its centenary with the traditional final game of the season at Molineux last night (Tuesday).

And former Wolves player John Richards was on hand to present trophies to the players of Dudley Town and AFC Wolverhampton, with the former winning on penalties to take the JW Hunt Cup for the second time in succession.

The competition was formed in 1926 to raise funds for the benefit of the local blind and is named in memory of John Hunt who founded the local ChillingtonTool Company.

Now sponsored by William Gough and Sons of Bilston, it has raised close to £500, 000 for the blind and partially sighted, with the principal recipients the Sedgley based Beacon Centre.

Representatives of many teams in the region were guests at the final and new Wolverhampton mayor Councillor Paul Singh and his wife Ranjit Dhillon were also at Molineux along with another former Wolves player Mel Eves.

President of the committee Alex Hamil MBE blew the ceremonial first whistle in the centenary final - in a long refereeing career he officiated on all 92 football league grounds in England and Wales and hundreds of others.

He said: “There is a lot of hard work goes into the fundraising and the staging of the competition which traditionally is played for by amateur or semi professional club from the West Midlands, Staffordshire and Shropshire.

“The final is always a great occasion and gives players of the teams who make it the chance to play at Molineux which is a fine stadium and indeed the JW Hunt Cup trophy is housed here.

“To have John Richards on hand is always great, he gives up his time freely and we also must thank Wolves for their use of the ground and John Gough, who is a director of the club and of William Gough and Sons for his sponsorship and support.

“It is amazing to think the competition has been going for so long and we believe it is the longest or only existing charity football competition in the country - we hope it will continue to go from strength to strength.”