HUNDREDS of people turned out to support this year’s New Milton Rugby Club Boxing Day match.
The annual event was held at the Normans Way ground in Ashley in honour of soldier Stuart Wilson, who died in Bosnia in 1997, aged 19.
After the game, which ended in a well-contrived draw, a raffle and auction raised £615 for the Pilgrim Bandits, a New Milton-based charity set up in 2007 by special forces veterans to help and inspire wounded soldiers to live life to the full.
Stuart’s brothers Jim, who lost both his legs in Afghanistan in 2011, and Bob, who has a broken leg following a rugby injury, watched the game with their father Wally.
Wally said: “The Pilgrim Bandits is a brilliant charity for injured servicemen and they really take an interest in the families, too.
“The support my family has had from New Milton Rugby Club has been brilliant and the town should be very proud to have a club like this on their doorstep.”
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