Legends and celebs set to turn out for kit man Steve in special match on Sunday

Steve Dukes has called on our modern-day legends and a host of celebrities and former professionals for his latest fund-raising venture - all in the continued memory of his father, Charlie.

Our Head of Kit and Equipment has organised a friendly match between a Spurs Invitational Charity XI v Celebrity Invitational XI at Bishop’s Stortford FC on Sunday (1.30pm) to raise funds for Essex & Herts Air Ambulance and charities in the local area.

Managed by Harry Redknapp, the Spurs cast list is impressive - at the time of writing*, the squad list includes Heurelho Gomes, Stephen Kelly, Younes Kaboul, David Bentley, Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Wilson Palacios, Michel Vorm, Jermain Defoe, Seb Bassong, Michael Dawson, Ledley King, Sandro and Pascal Chimbonda.

Meanwhile, led by inimitable actor and West Ham fan Ray Winstone, the Celebrity Invitational XI has called on the likes of Spurs fans Majestic (DJ), Luca Bish (Love Island) Michael Bridge, Adam Smith (Sky Sports) and Anthony Costa (singer, songwriter, member of Blue), former Spurs Jamie O’Hara, Wayne Routledge and Charlie Daniels, former Spurs Academy player Mark Wright (TOWIE, Heart FM) and former professionals including Joe Cole, Fitz Hall, Carlton Cole and Yaya Toure, who is currently working in our Academy as Under-16s coach.

“I’m humbled, I really am,” said ‘Dukesy’, who has already raised £88,000 for Essex & Herts Air Ambulance through shirt auctions in 2021 and 2022. “Sometimes I pinch myself to think that these players, idolised by millions worldwide, have given up their time for me to help raise funds for charity. It’s amazing. I feel so privileged.”

Unfortunately, Dukesy’s fund raising was sparked by tragedy. Back in 2020 his father, Charlie, sadly lost his life after a cycling accident. “He was a fit man,” reflected Dukesy. “We used to go to the gym together, he used to cycle from London to Brighton, London to Cambridge, he walked, he was an active man.

“One morning, we got a phone call to tell us that he’d come off his bike, just 10 minutes up the road. We thought maybe he’d broken his arm, something like that, but we were then told that the air ambulance was on its way, and he wasn’t in a good place. He spent six days on a life support machine before we had to turn it off...

“I guess everyone is different, and this has been my way of dealing with it. I could sit back and let my dad’s legacy live in the past, but I want it to live in the present.”

It's important to note that tickets have already SOLD OUT, but supporters unable to attend can still very much play their part as Dukesy, ‘one of our own’, a Spurs fan who started working as a steward at the Club in 1987, explained...

“The event has just grown and grown, and we’re sold out! I can’t thank everyone enough, it means so much to the family. We’ve still got the Just Giving page - that’s up to £14,500, so if anyone would like to donate, that would be brilliant.

“I can’t wait. I’m nervous, it’s the first time I’ve done anything like this...  it’s sad circumstances, but the big thing for me is my dad’s legacy, and that’s what we’re here for.”

*Players subject to change...