Football clubs pay tribute to coach and policeman killed in devastating A66 crash

Two football clubs paid tribute to PC Matthew Blades, 37, and fellow officer PC Tom Clough, 38, both killed in a crash on the A66 in South Bank in the early hours of Saturday, August 22. The police vehicle they were travelling in was struck by a Volkswagen Passat that was reportedly driving the wrong way along the road. Blades and Clough were not part of the original pursuit; they had been called to help search for the vehicle. All five occupants of the Passat—Cole Robert Worthy (17), Theo Rae (17), Makai Saddington (18), Michael Robert Cahill (23) and Jakub Matusiak (23)—were also pronounced dead at the scene. Hartlepool and Seaton Carew football clubs described Blades as a coach off duty, with a fundraiser already raising £228,000, and the police said 12 people had been arrested.