44
When the opportunity arose for local mental health charity, Fine & Dandi, to start sponsoring local talent across the region, it became somewhat of a no-brainer for founder/creator, Steven White, to add his name to that of Spennymoor Town midfielder, Jamie Chandler. Personally I’ve known Jamie, and interviewed him a few times, but not for a while, for best part of a decade, so to interview him for the Fine & Dandi website, I was not going to knock it back – it just became a game of chess between us, as to who was free when – we got there in the end, and the following is what came of that of interview (reprinted with permission, also via https://www.fineanddandi. co.uk/jamie-chandler-i-alsoknew-that-deep-down-i-neededto-talk-to-someone/) In the ever-increasing world of sporting endeavour, whether that be of a professional, or an amateur ilk, collecting a serious injury can often be career-threatening (even worse as we all saw during this past summers’ European Champi-
onship). In our quaint little corner, in Northern England however, Spennymoor Town’s ex-Darlington and Gateshead midfielder, 32-year-old Jamie Chandler, has not once, but twice, experienced such injury and, on both occasions, risen above and made successful returns
from them. It doesn’t always happen that way, as Jamie well knows, in fact, his most recent injury, a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament which was inflicted during a match between Spennymoor, and visitors Brackley Town, in February 2020, came scarily close to ending his playing