Two local under-9 football teams have new shirt sponsors for the new soccer season.

Following the withdrawal of sponsorship from Mill Garages-BMW and the Abbey National Building Society, John Bowman, the chairman of Grindon Rangers and Grindon Rovers under 9's football teams in Sunderland sent out an SOS to Mercedes-Benz of Sunderland (Andersons as was before becoming part of Ryland plc) to see if they could help.

As a result, Henry Whale, operations manager at the Sunderland dealership, agreed to step in and sponsor both teams as part of the dealership's community involvement programme.

Henry, son of Ryland plc chairman Peter Whale, said: "We are delighted to be the new shirt sponsors of both Grindon teams as part of our CIP and hope the new strips are lucky for them. They are a great bunch of lads who even took the trouble to come over and shake my hand after the presentation. That's something you don't see too often these days!"