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A FOOTBALL fan has paid the ultimate tribute to his club - by naming his daughter after it.

Eva Toni Ann Pierce, who is eight months old, owes her name to her dad's love of Everton Football Club.
Danny Pierce, of Moorfields, Holywell, said: "I am Everton beserk. I thought up the name when I was in school and always said if I had a daughter she'd be called Eva-Toni-Ann."

But Eva's mum, Claire Cooper, needed convincing.

She said: "I'm not interested in football and I didn't like the name at first but it has grown on me now."
The couple have two other daughters, Tia and Casey, but it wasn't until the birth of the third that Claire allowed the football-themed name.

Danny said: "We put all the names we had thought of in a hat and I picked out Eva-Toni-Ann. Then we got our eldest daughter to pick one and she picked it too."

Claire added: "She didn't have a name for the first couple of days because we were going to call her Ciara but it didn't suit her."

If they had had a boy, he would have been called Duncan, after former Everton player Duncan Ferguson.
The unusual name has attracted a lot of attention.

"When we go into the chemist people always say what a great name it is," Danny said.

"People come up to me in the street to talk about it. Even Liverpool fans think it's great."

The name has extra meaning after Danny's father, a huge Everton fan, died following a house-fire earlier this year.

Danny said: "My dad was a big fan and a season ticket holder. He brought us up on Everton. "He was here when Eva was born and I know that he was proud."

A CRICKET club owner has been buried next to the scoreboard at his beloved Haslington ground.

Mike Trevor, of Fields Road, Haslington, was buried at the club he has run for more than 20 years on Friday following a funeral which family and friends say was more like a wedding.

Sam Trevor, son of 70-year-old Mike, said his dad had the day he wanted.

"It was unbelievable," said 39-year-old Sam. "A couple of people turned round and said it was the best funeral they'd ever been to and that it was more like a wedding. We wanted it to be celebration of his life and it was."

Sam said his dad decided he wanted to be buried at the cricket club two and a half years ago when he was first diagnosed with cancer.

Various checks with officials, including the environment agency, then had to be taken before permission was granted.

The funeral was held at the Clay Lane club and then Mike was taken in a horse drawn hearse to his final resting place - next to the score board.

"It was incredible about 500 people attended," said Sam. "We'd only catered for 200 but we managed. We'd just like to really thank everyone who turned up."

Some of those who attended had flown in from as far away as Canada. Others came from Scotland and Ireland.

They all took part in the celebration of Mike's life which was led by his widow, Pauline, elder son Michael, 44, and his wife Melanie and daughter Louise, together with Sam, his wife Nicky and their son Oli.

In keeping with Mike's wishes, there was a big celebration followed by a hog roast. "Again, that was just what he wanted," added Sam.

SATURDAY'S 6-0 loss at Dagenham was Chester City FC's worst opening day result for more than 100 years.

The only other time Chester have kicked-off a campaign with a heavier defeat was in 1892/93 when they went down 10-1 to Everton Reserves. They recovered from the setback to finish the season in third.

Other hefty opening-day defeats came in 1901 when Chester were thumped 6-3 by White Star Wanderers in their first game since emerging from a two-year period of 'hibernation'.

They were also beaten 5-0 at Sealand Road by Northampton in 1987 - but went on to finish 15th in the old Division Three with Blues legend Harry McNally at the helm.

British GT driver Hunter Abbott was lucky to escape unhurt last Saturday when his Ginetta G50 was involved in a horrific smash at Oulton Park. Abbott owes his life to a group of dedicated volunteers and unsung heroes - Oulton Park's marshals.

Steve Roberts from Wrexham, Incident Officer at Avenue last weekend, was part of a team of marshals on the scene after Hunter's accident. Steve said: "As soon as he went off we knew it was going to be big. After the car flipped over, two marshals went up to it with fire extinguishers, whilst three others from the marshals post at Cascades also attended.

"When it was safe we ran down the hill to help them, but it was difficult to see with all the smoke, fumes and powder. The drivers' door was stuck shut and it was hard to see if he was still in there, but thankfully he was all right".

Although Steve has been a marshal for more than five years, some of Oulton Park's volunteers are much newer to the role. In fact Steve's friend, Paul Davies, was marshalling for the very first time when the accident happened, whilst two others were also new on post.

Steve added: "Since I started marshalling in 2002, I've only attended two fires and they were not on the same scale. It's not that common to have spontaneous car fires but the impact on Hunter's car caused the fuel lines to rupture. It was hard to see the source because of the bent metalwork but we managed to put it out efficiently."

"The whole team handled the situation brilliantly, they coped extremely well. We had a training day at Oulton Park in February and all the marshals put what they learned into practice - everyone knew exactly what to do. I would like to thank everyone for doing a fantastic job, including the fire support and rescue units," Roberts concluded.

Jonathan Palmer, Chief Executive of MotorSport Vision, would like to thank all marshals, including those who attended the incident at Oulton Park last weekend, for their voluntary efforts and continued hard work at MotorSport Vision's circuits.