THE sponsorship of Bedale AFC by Heck sausages is a real eye opener, obviously it's a scene stealer, how could any supporter fail to notice the eye catching advert, and bravo to the players for putting dedication to their team before sartorial elegance, sorry Heck but these shirts are not stylish, there can be no argument . The football club has been so impressed by the "phenomenal " reaction to them they're looking for an even more dramatic kit next time round to keep the momentum going.

However you have to wonder where can they go next with this, beating the pink and orange sausage strips will be tricky, we await with interest. It has shown the impressive backing clubs such as Bedale get, Heck Sausages not only support the team with the strips they hand out sausages to keep them going after the footy is finished.

And Heck have followed a proud tradition of sponsorship at Bedale previously undertaken by R and R Ice Cream and Hall's Fish and chip shop. This kind of support is crucial to so many of our amateur sporting and creative clubs, we're used to the big names and corporate entertaining, but to have a local sponsor such as Maxwell's who back Northallerton Town FC seems invaluable. And it's not simply sporting groups that benefit, the now famous Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writers festival has become a big event out of what started as small scale sponsorship by the Masham based brewery. But it can't compete on visuals with Heck, they only have a fingerprint and the Theasktons logo,. So maybe Heck have thrown down the gauntlet to use a bit of imagination when it comes to those sponsorship deals. If they can persuade a group of footballers to run around a field wearing a shirt of sausages, the sky is the limit.