One game, one winner and £100 in the bag! Our brand-new Crossbar Challenge has arrived at the Docherty Walks, bringing some exciting half-time entertainment while helping raise funds towards supporters' away travel.
At the start of the season, my message was simple, we are here to work with our supporters, listen to ideas and explore new ways of doing things together. I couldn't promise every suggestion would become a reality, but I could promise we'd listen and give things a go.
One issue became clear very quickly, the rising cost of away travel. With transport costs and the cost of living continuing to increase, we needed to find a way to work together to make following the team on the road more affordable.
I sat down with two of our supporters, Adam and Wayne, and we had some open and honest conversations about the costs involved and what we could do to help.
It started with a few small fundraising games, but then came our away trip to Darlington, where we returned with more than just three points, Adam and Wayne came back with a plan!
"Why can't we do a crossbar challenge at our home games?"
It seemed simple enough! My first concern was getting the idea past Ben, our groundsman, but once we'd cleared that hurdle, we were good to go! We reached out to Andy at The Crossbar Challenge, and here we are today.
What a Start!
One game in and we've already had our first £100 winner!
Around 30 minutes into the match, Leon received the text confirming he'd been selected to take part. As he stepped up to the penalty spot at half-time, the crowd offered plenty of what I'll loosely describe as "words of encouragement!"
On his third and final attempt, Leon smashed the crossbar and bagged himself £100!
He even had the opportunity to go double or quits, but wisely decided to walk away with his winnings!
A Big Thank You to Sleafordian
-pw9mgzk.jpeg)
We're delighted to have Sleafordian sponsoring our new Crossbar Challenge, and a huge thank you goes to Danny and his team for their continued support.
Danny said:
"We are very pleased to support the football club with this new challenge. We totally appreciate the costs that go into following the team on the road, and we wanted to give something back to assist supporters in travelling.
We love working with the club, transporting both the first team and supporters to fixtures up and down the country, and will always support as much as we can."
This Is What It's All About!
For me, this is exactly what working together with our supporters should look like. An idea from the fans, developed together with the club, and turned into something that can make a real difference.
We hope the Crossbar Challenge becomes a regular highlight of half-time at the Docherty Walks, with both home and away supporters getting involved, having some fun and helping raise valuable funds towards away travel.
A massive thank you to everyone who has helped get this off the ground, and congratulations to Leon for getting us off to a flying start!
Now, who's next to step up and smash that crossbar?
Get involved, have some fun and help us keep our supporters on the road!