ST Clears 2nds and Pendine played out a 4-4 draw last night as the Bluestone Foundation League got underway.

Goals for the Saints came from Lewis Driscoll (2), Andrew McCabe and Will Evans - but Calum Syddall (2), and Jamie and Julian Blewitt also struck for the visitors.

The new charity league will continue on Saturday when Bluestone AFC travel to play Narberth, 6.45pm kick off at Jesse Road.

As well as raising funds for the Bluestone Foundation, it’s hoped the league will engage more young people with sport and community activities.

Set up in 2010 the Bluestone Foundation was established by Bluestone National Park Resort to help people to help themselves through environmental, economic and social projects in Pembrokeshire and the surrounding areas.

The League was the brainchild of Ian Darbyshire, manager of the Blue Lagoon Water Park at Bluestone, after staff were encouraged to think of new ways to support the Foundation. 

“The aim of this proposal was to present an inimitable idea for the foundation,” said Ian.

“The ambition was to engage staff, raise money, increase awareness and allow Pembrokeshire people to assist in the movement of the foundation’s success.

“From the birth of ‘Bluestone AFC’, I started brainstorming for an innovative way to integrate awareness of the foundation whilst allowing staff to be part of an exciting movement.

“I thought it would be amazing to win something on behalf of Bluestone like a Cup or a league. With the nature of the business, and staff not being able to commit to Saturday games and training once, maybe twice a week, this seemed just a distant thought until our first training session.”

Having created a poster for the staff communications brief to gauge interest in playing six-a-side, the team held its first session just two days later on January 25.

“Coincidently, that was the same day the communications brief was sent to staff, giving very little chance for word of mouth to work its magic.

“We met at 7pm in Bloomfield’s Narberth, not expecting much.

 To our amazement 10 Bluestone employees attended.

The next week 18 boys showed up and instantly we knew we were on to something good.”

It was from that initial idea that the league was born.

The other two teams involved are Carew and the West Dragons.