Footballs for Miller Academy pupils thanks to donation from memorial match
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Primary pupils at Miller Academy in Thurso will be able to enjoy showing off their football skills after the school received £100 from a game held in memory of a popular Caithness player.
The donation came from raffle money raised at the Craig Banks memorial match between Lybster and Keiss in April and has been used to buy footballs.
Craig, a goalkeeper who played for Wick Thistle as well as Lybster, died in June 2021 at the age of 33.
His mum, Susan Banks, chose to donate the money to Miller Academy, where her granddaughter Chloe Banks, Craig’s daughter, is a P2 pupil.
Head teacher Jacqui Budge said the children were "absolutely delighted" with the gesture.
"How incredibly kind of Susan to do this for us," Mrs Budge said. "The £100 bought a wonderful selection of footballs for our children to have great fun playing with, as we all know that football was a great love of Craig’s.
"He had played for Lybster and Wick Thistle and had also completed his referee training.
"It is a lovely legacy to see our children so happily playing with the balls and we are very grateful to Susan for enabling this to happen."
Formerly of Keiss, Craig had been living in Thurso. He was married to Rebecca and had two children.
The memorial match took place at Lybster's Cow Park, doubling up as the opening fixture of the 2023 Caithness Amateur Football Association summer season for both clubs.
Players, officials and a large turnout of spectators observed a minute's silence before kick-off. Lybster won the game 3-1, and after the final whistle Mrs Banks presented memorial trophies to the man of the match and the winning captain.
