Charity football game to remember Louis Bell, Graeme Gee, John Robson, Ray Jones and ex-News reporter Kevin Ricketts
Former Hawks and Bognor manager Mick Jenkins has arranged a charity game to remember some of the local non-league scene’s best-loved names.
A team of Hawks Old Boys will take on a Moneyfields Old Boys XI at Westleigh Park this coming Friday (7.30pm).
The match is in memory of five men who have passed away in the last 18 months – Graeme Gee, John Robson, Ray Jones, Louis Bell and former News sports reporter Kevin Ricketts.
‘I just thought it would be a nice way of remembering these lads,’ said Jenkins.
Monies raised – via donations upon entry at the turnstiles – will be split between cancer and dementia charities.
Gee, Ricketts and Bell all passed away from cancer last year, while Robson was suffering from dementia.
Gee was assistant manager at Chichester City for many years, after also working with Chi boss Miles Rutherford at Moneyfields.
Jenkins played alongside Gee’s father, Micky, at Waterlooville in the club’s Southern League days in the 1980s.
Robson was one of the best-known names in Hampshire non-league, after spells with Petersfield, Alton, Winchester City, AFC Totton, Gosport Borough and Blackfield & Langley.
He won the Hampshire League title at Alton and Winchester, as well as the Wessex League Cup in his first season at Totton.
Additionally, he was manager when Worthing won an Isthmian League promotion in the mid-1990s.
Robson also played for Waterlooville in the 1970s, alongside Godfrey White who sadly also passed away, while suffering from dementia, the day before Robson died in April 2024.
Jenkins got to know Jones well during the latter’s time as a director at Havant & Waterlooville, having been the newly-formed club’s first manager alongside Liam Daish in 1998. The likes of Dean Blake, Paul Wood, Tim Hambley, Calvin Hore, Aaron Cook, Gary McDonald, Neil Champion and Craig Anstey are down to play for the Hawks Old Boys XI on Friday.
Louis Savage has been involved in piecing together the Moneyfields Old Boys squad.
Hawks chairman Derek Pope has allowed Jenkins to use the Westleigh Park facilities free of charge for the game.