Hundreds of people paid a poignant tribute to Shropshire teenager James Fox by turning out at a charity football match in his honour.

The match played at Ludlow Town Football Club’s SBS Stadium yesterday attracted 450 people – the biggest crowd at the ground for a number of years – and raised more than the £1,000 target to provide memorial benches in James’s home village of Orleton, near Ludlow.

The event is set to become an annual fixture after the huge reaction it prompted from residents and businesses in Ludlow.

James Fox

James, 18, a former Ludlow College and Wigmore High School student, died in a car accident on the A49 at Hope-under-Dinmore, near Leominster, on September 19.

The match was organised by his friends and members of the family also turned out for the occasion, described as “fantastic” by football club officials.

The match between a Ludlow College XI and Orleton Colts Reserves, Mr Fox’s old team, finished goalless, with Orleton winning 5-4 on penalties.

Jamie Pitman, manager of Hereford United FC, also attended and kicked the match off.

A number of raffle prizes were also donated by local businesses after a mass poster campaign saw leaflets put up in shop windows across Ludlow town centre. More than 350 people also signed up to a page on social networking site Facebook to support the event.

Mark Siveter, commercial manager at Ludlow Town FC, said: “It was a pretty emotional occasion for a lot of people involved. You hear a lot of bad things about young people, but what James’s friends have done in arranging this has been nothing short of fantastic.

“We had more than 450 people there, which is the biggest crowd we have had for a charity match not involving celebrities. We’re still adding the money up but it’s well over the £1,000 fundraising target.

“The generosity of the people and businesses of Ludlow has also shone through, the raffle went on for 45 minutes because we had so many prizes donated.

“We’ve decided ­to hold this event every year. It probably won’t be on the same sort of scale every year but everyone involved enjoyed it and it feels like the right thing to do.”

By Peter Kitchen