A team of football playing growers from the Vale of Evesham has raised over £27,000 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Cancer Research UK. Made up of growers from horticultural businesses in the local area, Growers Utd FC was started in 2012 by Bal Padda, of Vicarage Nurseries at Bretforton.
From left: Steve Hughes (technical area sales manager ICL) Alan Kennedy (Liverpool Legends League Championship 1978/79, 1979/80, 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84; League Cup 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984; European Cup 1981, 1984), Bal Padda (commercial director Vicarage Nurseries) and Bern Jordan (BHGS area sales manager).
“The aim was to raise money for charity while using football as a vehicle to bring together the many different nationalities working in the UK horticultural industry,” explains Bern Jordan, area sales manager at horticultural suppliers BHGS, and a committee member at Evesham Utd FC. “Evesham Utd has a number of pitches and with an active kids programme were only too pleased to provide a venue for us.”
It all kicked off on a very wet November evening in 2012 when Growers Utd played Evesham Utd in a friendly - proceeds going to Birmingham Children’s Hospital and to support a local child diagnosed with cancer.
By 2013 the annual event had grown into one-day 9-a-side tournament with 24 teams. The following year 32 teams competed over a weekend. This year it has grown in to a two-weekend affair with teams of growers taking part from across the UK horticultural industry – soft fruit, vegetable, protected salads, ornamentals and parks and gardens sectors.
“Teams are coming from as far afield as Poole and East Anglia as well as a team from West Mercia Police and Wychavon District Council,” says Bern. “Last weekend Growers Utd played Liverpool Legends. This coming weekend 32 teams will play 9-a-side with Growers Utd then taking on the Soap Stars celebrity team on Sunday afternoon. We never dreamt the event would become so popular and we are obviously delighted it is raising so much money for charity.”
The match balls have been donated by ICL (formerly Everris), providers of leading precision nutrition, growing media, turf seed and plant protection products in the UK.
For more information
Vicarage Nurseries
Bal Padda
bal@vicaragenurseries.co.uk
07971813334
BHGS Ltd
Bern Jordan
bern@bhgsltd.co.uk
07980 866763
Steve Hughes ICL
steve.hughes@icl-group.com
07799 481489
SMJ Coms
Sue Jupe
sue@smjcommunications.co.uk
07803 906356






Announcements
Job Offers
- Export Sales Manager Europe Division
- Directors - New Zealand
- Nursery Production Manager Victoria Australia
- Technical Sales Consultant, Washington
- Export Sales Manager North America Exports
- Head Grower Hydroponic Greenhouse
- Account Manager – South-East Asia
- Vegetable Seed - EU Sales and Regional Manager
- Business Developer – High Tech Horticulture
- Operations Manager Organic Farm Barka Oman
"Tweeting Growers"
Top 5 -yesterday
- New greenhouse machine Zeus protects crops and operators
- Photo report HortiContact: Catching up in over 300 photos
- Canada: B.C.'s cool, wet spring playing havoc with farmers
- Dutch strawberry greenhouse Kalteraardbeien closes its doors
- The Netherlands produces almost 7 times more cucumbers per square meter than Spain
Top 5 -last week
Top 5 -last month
- "Honduras greenhouse park to become the largest producer-exporter in the Central American region"
- Netherlands: Codema Systems Group declared bankrupt
- Shanghai: Young people who can't get vegetables start to "help themselves" through hydroponic vegetables
- Canada: Dutch holding company acquires Ontario Plants Propagation
- Google meets agriculture at Go Green Agriculture
Receive the daily newsletter in your email for free | Click here
Other news in this sector:
- 2022-05-18 Dutch propagator grows vegetables and flowers under the same (glass)roof
- 2022-05-13 Ontario premier visits Canadian cucumber greenhouse
- 2022-05-09 US (MA): Roxbury’s Dudley greenhouse gives residents chance to grow their own food
- 2022-05-06 New innings: Pro sportsman trades cricket bat for aquaponics
- 2022-05-06 "You just can’t fool the consumer"
- 2022-05-02 Richard Ward wins the 2021 ANBP Award of Excellence
- 2022-05-02 Irish grower secures new €7.5M contract with Aldi
- 2022-04-22 "Cooperative marketing will prove its worth, even in times of crisis"
- 2022-04-22 Have a look in the Lufa Farms greenhouse
- 2022-04-22 India: Ex-accountant uses hydroponics to help thousands of farmers increase profits by 35%
- 2022-04-20 Germany: "We will not be able to avoid gas as an energy source in the medium term"
- 2022-04-20 Google meets agriculture at Go Green Agriculture
- 2022-04-19 In memoriam: Rick Donnan
- 2022-04-15 "We sell most of our Israeli salicornia to Italy"
- 2022-04-14 “Despite the increase in energy costs, we are still following our initial production schedule”
- 2022-04-13 Shanghai pandemic lockdown, residents try hydroponics at home
- 2022-04-13 Singapore: Supplying modular aquaponic farms to the 3 C’s
- 2022-04-13 Strawberry sales are doing better in the large-scale retail trade and abroad
- 2022-04-13 "China's avocado cultivation has a long way to go"
- 2022-04-13 "Austria's agriculture came to a standstill 20 years ago"