Worthing owner George Dowell: ‘I’ve been able to build a career and save my club at the same time’

Former player on taking inspiration from a hospital visitor after being paralysed, and his hopes for his National League South club in their FA Cup tie with Morecambe

Three days before the National League South side Worthing face Morecambe of League Two in the first round of the FA Cup, builders are putting the finishing touches to the main entrance of the club’s Woodside Road stadium. Nestled in a suburban neighbourhood of the west Sussex seaside town, the Rebels have enjoyed a rapid rise up the non-league pyramid and on Saturday will officially open their new North Stand that takes the capacity to 4,000.

For the owner, George Dowell, who was paralysed from the chest down in a car crash when he was 17, days after being named on the bench for Worthing’s first team, it will be a particularly proud moment. “It’s going to be amazing to see it,” he says. “We’re starting to get that ‘North Stand, give us a wave’ chant so the atmosphere is going all around the ground these days.”

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‘The challenge attracted me’: Peter Odemwingie’s move from Premier League striker to golf pro

Former Nigeria international on starting in slippers, hoping to inspire African golfers and that attempt to join QPR

“It’s unbelievable,” says Peter Odemwingie. “I never thought I could get so obsessed with this game.” On a cloudy Tuesday afternoon in the affluent northern suburbs of Birmingham, the former West Brom, Stoke and Nigeria striker has just ripped a drive well beyond 300 yards down the third fairway at Sutton Coldfield Golf Club.

Watched by Odemwingie and his friend and fellow pro Lewis Pearce from nearby Aston Wood GC – not to mention Pearce’s pet dachshund, George – it is soon my turn to step up to the tee. Having somehow scrambled a par to win the 1st, my early advantage has evaporated thanks to a miscued tee shot into the trees at the 2nd. With the match level, the pressure is on. But sadly my tee shot fails to get off the ground and comes to rest in a big patch of heather no more than 80 yards away.

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