GIVE your mates some needle – and challenge them to knock down the pins!For a big bowling evening is being organised for The Evening Star appeal in memory of murdered schoolgirl, Vicky Hall – and 40 teams are needed to make it a huge success.

By Richard Cornwell

GIVE your mates some needle – and challenge them to knock down the pins!

For a big bowling evening is being organised for The Evening Star appeal in memory of murdered schoolgirl, Vicky Hall – and 40 teams are needed to make it a huge success.

Fundraisers could strike it lucky and raise a big sum from the event . . . and have a great evening into the bargain.

Help is needed from Star readers – both to play ten-pin bowling and to sponsor those taking part.

It's an opportunity for groups of friends, neighbours or work colleagues to get together and have some fun.

The evening is being staged on March 14 at the Kingpin Bowling Centre at Martlesham Heath and is being organised by The Star and Kingpin, whose owner, Geoff Sheldrake, came up with the idea and is giving his complex for free for the event.

Forty teams are needed – 20 to play in each time slot of 5.30pm and 6.30pm.

Each team will pay £20 to enter and teams can be made up of four to six bowlers. They then seek sponsors from friends and relatives – either per pin, per strike or simply a donation.

People interested in forming a team can find out more details and book their place in the line-up by calling Ben Collins on 01473 282298 or Katie Chittock on 01473 282336.

The aim of the appeal, which currently stands at £3,000, is to raise the final £20,000 needed by the trust, seeking to build a memorial to sixth-form student Vicky, so it can go to the National Lottery for help.

The trust behind the fund wants to build a facility for children in Vicky's home village of Trimley St Mary – a brand new sports pavilion to be used by young footballers and for small community events.

Her parents Graham and Lorinda,, are right behind the project, which will be a lasting memorial to their much-loved daughter who was snatched so cruelly from them and killed after she walked home from a Felixstowe nightclub in 1999.

The pavilion, which will be constructed on the Stennetts Memorial Playing Field, is set to cost around £200,000.

n People can support The Star appeal for Vicky by sending donations. Cheques should be made payable to the Vicky Hall Memorial Fund and sent to Geraldine Thompson, Editor's secretary, Evening Star, Press House, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 1AN.

If you are holding a fundraising event or sponsored activities for the appeal, let us know – and we will help you in any way we can. Please contact Richard Cornwell, Felixstowe Newsdesk on 01394 284109.