Shropshire Star

Watch: Charity 'battle of the backsides' challenge at Shrewsbury Town

It was a contest with a difference as workers from two businesses raced to sit on every one of the 9,875 seats at Shrewsbury Town's Greenhous Meadow.

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Max Ball in the race to sit on every one of the 9,875 seats at Shrewsbury's Greenhous Meadow stadium

Staff from Salop Leisure and Greenhous in the town took on the gruelling competition as part of Max Ball's challenge to raise £8,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support by taking part in 12 sponsored challenges throughout the year.

Max, 25, who works at Salop Leisure, has launched the fundraising effort to support his father Steve who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Max Ball in the race to sit on every one of the 9,875 seats at Shrewsbury's Greenhous Meadow stadium

The seat challenge, a recreation of Alan Shearer and Robbie Savage's "Battle of the Backsides" for Sport Relief, was won by the Salop Leisure team, although Max, from Bayston Hill, said their opponents deserved the credit having battled through with one less participant. Both teams started at the halfway line opposite the dug outs and then raced to see who could reach the other side first.

Asked about winning, Max said: "It was quite a difficult one, we did more seats but they had four and we had five.

"Technically we got to the end first but it's difficult, in terms of the number of seats sat on per person they probably won."

Max, front, with teammates

Anyone who saw the efforts of Shearer and Savage will have seen the strains the challenge can put on the body, although Max insisted he had fared well, despite an injured ankle. He said: "I thought it was easier than I thought it would be.

"We thought it would take a few hours but we actually finished in about 55 minutes.

"There were a few who found it difficult though."

He added: "You don't realise how many there are. If you had to do it yourself it would be so much harder, so thankfully we had a couple of great teams."

The challenge is the third in Max's series and so far he has raised £3,500 towards a target of £8,000.

He offered his thanks to all those from both companies who had taken part in the effort.

He said: "I am really thankful to everyone at Salop Leisure and Greenhous for their support, they have been fantastic."

  • Visit Max's JustGiving page here

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