Signed Linfield football among charity sporting auction lots

Bobby Fields, a 48-year-old from the New Lodge district of north Belfast, is to host an auction of signed sports memorabilia next week in a Belfast city centre pub.

He said he was struck by what he regarded as a lack of entertainment equipment for youngsters in the Allen Ward, part of the children’s wing of the huge Royal Victoria hospital complex

Mr Fields said his son, now aged 16, had gone to the ward with asthma-related problems as many as four times a year between the ages of three and nine. The staff had been “brilliant”, he said, and he is intent on giving something back.

He has amassed a number of signed sporting goods which will be on sale at the Three Cs social club on Rosemary Street in the city centre, near the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, from 8pm until late on Friday, February 28.

He previously ran two similar fundraisers in north Belfast.

The items for auction this time include a ball signed by the whole Linfield FC squad; a Celtic shirt signed by the club’s old keeper Rab Douglas and ex-forward George McCluskey; and a Belfast Giants ice hockey shirt signed by the team.

In addition he has a pair of boxing gloves signed by no fewer than 12 fighters, including Steve Collins (who defeated Chris Eubank in 1995), Brian Magee and Eamonn Magee.

Mr Fields (who admitted to having a “brass neck” when it came to asking people and businesses for donations of goods to aid his fundraising) said he hopes to raise £1,000.