GET BIDDING FOR A SPECIAL PIECE OF WELSH SPORTING HISTORY
15th February 2005, 2:50 pm By Principality Stadium
Having already raised more than £5,000 for the Toby Lloyd Cockbain Foundation by selling more than 300 pieces of turf, the Millennium Stadium is now offering the exact spots on which Shane Williams scored his first-half try in the famous win and Gavin Henson kicked his match-winning penalty.
“We are putting a reserve price of £250 on each of these famous pieces of grass and once again all money raised will be given to the Toby Lloyd Cockbain Foundation fund,” said Millennium Stadium general manager Paul Sergeant.
“There has been a fantastic response to our initial offer and all 200 pieces of turf we offered at £20 were snapped up almost immediately. We then made a further 200 smaller pieces available at £10 and we’ve only got a handful of those left.
“It means we have raised in excess of £5,000 for the fund and we hope to add a further £500 or more through the sale of the Shane Williams and Gavin Henson spots.”
The two pieces of turf were pin-pointed by the ground staff immediately after the match and were cut up today (Tuesday, 15 February) just before the remainder of the pitch was taken out for re-turfing.
“Having assessed our existing pitch, and examined all the options, we have decided to completely re-turf the pitch ahead of next week’s Carling Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea,” said Sergeant.
“We sent our pitch consultant, Dave Saltman, to examine pitches in the north of England and Holland and we will be laying a completely new surface, made of Dutch grass, this week. The old pitch will be out by Wednesday and the new surface will be laid by the end of play on Friday.
“We have a big job to do in a short space of time, but we will have a pristine surface for the Carling Cup final. While it is disappointing to have to do this, we have to provide a top class playing environment for all our events.”
IMPORTANT NOTES
In order to bid for either the Williams or Henson piece of turf then log on to the WRU website (http://www.wru.co.uk/) and follow the link to explain what to do or send an e-mail to the WRU Webmaster (competitions@wru.co.uk) stating which piece you wish to bid for, how much you wish to pay and leaving a contact telephone number.
The highest bid will be posted at the end of each day on the WRU website. Bids will close on Wednesday, 23 February.
Each piece of turf is around 2ft square and will come with a note of authenticity signed by both Paul Sergeant, the Millennium Stadium Manager, and Brent Cockbain, the Wales lock who played in the game. You will also receive a copy of the WRU’s Official History of Wales v England DVD.
Please note, purchasers of these products must be available to collect them from the Millennium Stadium. Due to the physical nature of the product we are unable to post or courier them.