United in Business Football Tournament June 5th 2008

Gemini created a wonderful tournament for 8 teams, with participating companies from Royal Bank of Scotland, Progress Software, Reaction Records, Abacus and GOVNET amongst others, with 8 players per team. Each team was managed by an ex-Manchester United legend who provided the benefit of their wealth of experience to their players, along with a little of the Manchester United magic.

 The Tournament took place at Manchester United’s state of the art training facility at Carrington. Usually off-limits to everyone except the Manchester United team and coaching staff, Gemini secured exclusive access for this tournament and hosted a thrilling series of games, with support from members of the Manchester United coaching staff.

  Once the Royal Bank of Scotland had been awarded the honour of winning the tournament, all the players and supporters transferred to Old Trafford for a gala dinner and auction. Using the stadium’s stunning facilities Gemini staged an auction with a host of excellent lots. The star lot was undoubtedly David Beckham’s 100^th England cap which generated huge amounts of interest and £2,500.00 alone for Children Today. Later in the evening once the music and celebrations had started the group were joined by Manchester United’s latest additions to their trophy cabinet, the Champion’s League Trophy and the Premier League Trophy. This provided yet another highlight to the day with people invited to pose for photographs with the magnificent silverware and to take away some truly special memories of their time with Manchester United and Gemini.

For more photos please visit our facebook page

With the help of Betfair and a wonderful auction the event raised in excess of £5000 for Children Today. Thanks again to all who were involved. To see more pictures please visit our facebook page.

12 intrepid teams took part in our It’s a Knockout! with the utterly brilliant Timmy Mallett adding extra wackiness to the proceedings

Thanks to the Manchester Evening News for their support and pictures

The next It’s a Knockout Challenges are on Saturday 26th July in Sheffield and Saturday 9th August in Liverpool. If you know anyone who would like to enter a team please contact Children Today on 01244 335622.

Saturday May 10th was the first of our summer series of It’s a Knockout! events taking place at Longford Park in Coventry. It was a fantastic day with the “utterly brilliant” Timmy Mallett on hand to ensure everyone enjoyed themselves fully! 8 intrepid teams took part in this fabulously fun event, getting wet, sunburnt, bumped and bruised (not to mention Malleted!) and generally having a fantastic time. Thanks to Hannah from BBC Coventry & Warwickshire for these pictures. Thanks to the following teams for taking part and raising funds:

• Barclays Contact Centre, Birmingham
• Circus Casino, Birmingham
• David Wilson Homes, Coventry
• Glade-Tech Ltd, Redditch
• House to Home, Sutton Coldfield
• Seton Health & Safety, Banbury
• WSP Group, Birmingham

For more photos or to order prints please visit purepix.co.uk.

On Sunday May 18th the It’s a Knockout crew headed south to Kent County Showground for another day full of fun and foam! Our huge thanks go to the following teams who took part and raised funds for Children Today:

• Acxiom Limited
• Bedfont Scientific Limited
• D & R Jointing
• Fugro Seismic Imaging
• Hartsdown Technology College
• Ikon Office Solutions
• Instant Link UK Limited
• Powakaddy International Limited
• Sarena MFG Limited
• Summit Aviation
• United House Limited

The next It’s a Knockout Challenge takes place on Saturday June 21st in Manchester. If you know any companies who would like to enter a team please contact Children Today on 01244 335622.

The fantastic It’s a Knockout team challenge is back! And this time we’ve brought the “utterly brilliant” Timmy Mallett along to add to the fun!

We need teams of 10 people, friends/colleagues/family to take part in a series of fun events across the country. There will be inflatable games, silly costumes, lots of foam, water and general mayhem.

Each team member will need to raise only £125 in sponsorship to join in the fun!

To find out how to register your team please call Ruth on 01244 335622 or e-mail info@children-today.org.uk

Dates and venues for this year’s events are:

Saturday 10th May - Longford Park, Coventry

Sunday 18th May - County Showground, Kent

Saturday 21st June - Platt Field, Manchester

Saturday 26th July - Graves Park, Sheffield

Saturday 9th August - Riversdale Police Club, Aigburth, Liverpool

The team included husband and wife Lydia and Kevin Warren who agreed to take part on their first wedding anniversary - wearing their complete wedding attire!  They sacrificed spending a quiet romantic weekend together to run for us in their wedding clothes, hoping to raise £1000 in sponsorship money for Children Today.  Despite the terrible weather Lydia and Kevin managed to complete the run in 1hr 12 minutes - and they were still smiling at the finish line!

It is still possible to support this special couple with their fundraising by donating online or contact the fundraising team on 01244 335622.

Huge thanks go to all our runners who took part in the race and raised funds for the charity - Dave Rippingale, Sarah Brocklehurst, Sue Robertson and Wayne Bishop.