A cheque for 70,000 euros was presented at a Gala Dinner on Saturday evening by Lady Elsie Robson to Luis Villas-Boas, Director of the Refúgio Aboim Ascensão taking the total now raised in Sir Bobby Robson’s name to 847,000 euros with a target to get to a million Euros over the next two years.
Amongst the variety of great auction prizes the holiday for two on Richard Branson Necker Island raised £20,000 with the sum to be split 50 percent, (£10,000) to the Refúgio and the other 50 percent to Sir Richard’s charity Virgin Unite. The ‘Manchester United experience’ donated by Louis van Gaal, which included four VIP seats to a home game next season plus the four getting to visit the AON training ground, watch the players train and meet with them and the coach and his team. On the night this fabulous auction lot went for £8,500.
Thirty teams entered to play with the same number of celebrities who this year included Alan Shearer, Steve Bruce, Sam Allardyce, Mick McCarthy and Bryan Robson to name a few.
The Tournament was won by a team of Geordies from ‘Engineering Property Services’ led by Celebrity captain Steve Bruce, a Geordie himself and manager of Hull City.
They won the tournament with a score of 94 points with a number of pars and two birdies.
The second-placed team ‘Swift Construction Group’ led by celebrity captain Alan Shearer, came in with 92 points and the third placed team was Bauer Asbestos led by celebrity captain Jim Beglin with 91 points.
But the overall winner was the Refúgio Aboim Ascensão which is now 70,000 euros better off with the continued support of the tournament.
In comments to The Portugal News this week, Luis Villas-Boas said that it was “nothing short of extraordinary how, after 12 years, the event still has the support it had back in 2004” when it was launched, and how the “same friends still support it, many of whom have never missed an event.”
Dr. Villas Boas said he was “very pleased” with the outcome of this year’s event, and that the funds raised are “very good for our projects and needs, which are many and in many areas.”
He extended particular thanks to Roger Eastoe, “who works all year round to organise the event”, to the Pestana group and Dr. Pedro Lopes, head of Pestana Algarve, and to all others who help support it.
He added he was particularly moved to see how Sir Bobby is “revived” through the event and pleased to once again be in the presence of the late football legend’s wife, Lady Elsie, and the Robson family.
Dr. Villa Boas highlighted the “very close relationship” that has been forged between the Refúgio and the British community both in Portugal and the UK over the past decades, describing it as an “important alliance and friendship.”
At the weekend, tournament founder and organiser since it started in 2004, Roger Estoe, announced his and Lady Elsie Robson’s plans to build a statue of Sir Bobby Robson at the side of the 18th green.
Roger explained that after Sir Bobby’s death in July 2009 “we felt it would be fitting to build a statue of Bobby at Pestana Vila Sol as a mark of respect for the fundraising efforts of Bobby that go on six years after his death.”
He explained the idea was then put on the back burner as they moved through the recession years, but the project was re-ignited last year and they started raising funds in Portugal. The plan is to raise 50 percent of the cost of the statue in Portugal and 50 percent from the UK.
Through various ways including the win- a-team competition in this year’s tournament, run in Portugal at the Pestana courses, nearly 17,000 euros has been raised.
The fundraising from the UK started this weekend and we hope to have raised 25,000 euros from the UK by September of this year to enable us to commission the statue.
The bust of Sir Bobby Robson (pictured) was sculpted by a Portuguese artist from Lisbon and Lady Elsie Robson and Mark Robson visited the artist’s studio in April and approved the work and are very pleased with the likeness of Bobby. The sculptor worked from photographs supplied to him of Bobby from the period he was based in Portugal when he was the coach at Sporting and then FC Porto.
Subject to raising the required funds, it is hoped the unveiling ceremony at Pestana Vila Sol will take place at the 2016 or 2017 tournament.
The Portugal News will update its readers as the fundraising progresses.
Readers wishing to donate to the statue fund, please contact Roger Eastoe at his email address rogereastoe@re-a.co.uk
The tournament date for next year is yet to be confirmed, but the objectives remain the same, to celebrate the great man’s life and as Bobby Robson would have wanted, to keep raising funds for the Refúgio Aboim Ascensão.