The Taunton Plumbing & Heating Rowbarton
Charity Cup
The Rowbarton Charity Cup is a
competition that these days all the clubs from the Somtech Taunton and District
Saturday League enter but how many of the players participating know anything
about it.
Proceeds from the
competition are given to local good causes, last year these included the
Children’s Ward of Musgrove Park Hospital and St Margaret’s Somerset
Hospice. Funds are raised by sponsorship, and the committee would like to thank
Taunton Plumbing and Heating who have sponsored the competition for the last
four years. Clubs pay an entry fee and many generously pay more than the
statutory fee, tickets are sold on the gate for the Cup Final normally held by
the kind permission of Mr Tom Harris of Taunton Town FC plus a raffle on the
night.
The
magnificent cup itself was made in Sheffield in 1909 and originally presented to
the Rowbarton Carnival Committee as a challenge cup.
It later became a football competition and the earliest records show that
it was first won by the Somerset Light Infantry in 1921.
The competition has run ever since with a short break in the 1940’s due
to the war and cancelled due to terrible weather in both 1963 and 2001.
Teams
from all around Somerset participated for many years until it became exclusively
a TDSFL competition about 11 years ago. The
most successful sides over the years have been Merriott with seven wins followed
by Dulverton with six and Priorswood with five, of those three teams only
Dulverton can still win it.
We
are assured of the cup going into new hands this season as the holders Knight
Rangers folded at the beginning of this season.
If
any players feel that they would like to help increase the size of the fund
being donated at the end of the season please contact your club secretary who
will be only too pleased to pass funds onto the Rowbarton Charity Cup committee.
The two teams reaching the final each chose a local charity or good cause
that they would like to benefit from the fund raised that season.
The
committee would like to thank all the teams that have entered this year and wish
you all good luck in the competition and hope you enjoy your football.
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