An early morning mist was lingering on the pitch at Richmond Athletic Ground when the LandAid team pitched up for the annual National Surveyors Rugby Sevens competition on Sunday.
Now in its 44th year, the tournament has become a major fixture in both the property and rugby 7s calendars, and is often attended by the rising stars of both fields.
In spite of the damp and blustery conditions (for the second year running), 24 eager teams took to the pitch for a ’round robin’ competition, with each team representing a UK property company. LandAid’s Partners were out in force, with Gerald Eve, CBRE, JLL, Allsop, Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ, GVA, Lambert Smith Hampton, Savills and last year’s champions RICS Matrics each footing a side.
We were delighted to be chosen as the charity partner of the event, along with the innovative and inspirational FRE Flyers sports programme run by our charity partner Community Links. The LandAid fundraising team braved the elements to collect donations and spread the LandAid message to the crowd. We were joined by a group of up-and-coming hockey stars from the FRE Flyers.
Thanks to the superb sales techniques of the FRE Flyers, the perseverance of the now-windswept team and some brilliant raffle prizes donated by the Harlequins and Wasps rugby clubs, by the time the sun finally appeared at 5:30pm we had collected almost £2,000. A fruitful day of fundraising for two fantastic causes and, with more donations still to come from the surveyors committee, we’re on course to make a substantial sum for LandAid and buy two new goalkeeper kits for the FRE Flyers.
Back to the action, and it was Knight Frank who were eventually crowned tournament champions, having beaten JLL in a competitive final game. Well done to Knight Frank and all the teams who took part, we reckon there’ll be a few bruised limbs this week!
A special thank you to Turner & Townsend for their fundraising efforts and to the generous Gerald Eve for supplying the team with much-needed sustenance at lunchtime! We’d also like to thank the committee for choosing to support LandAid – your generosity makes a big difference to our cause.
See you for another sporty weekend next year and here’s hoping the weather plays ball too!
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@LandAid