story by: DAVE KING

When England striker, Ollie Watkins, scored the dramatic Euro 2024 semi-final ​winner against the Netherlands last month, a big cheer particularly went up ​among Rotarians in Devon and Cornwall.

The Aston Villa forward netted a 90th minute goal in Dortmund to send England ​into the final against Spain.

The Watkins family has a close connection to Rotary with his mother Delsi-May ​awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship several years ago by Torpoint & Eddystone ​Rotary Club in Cornwall.

Wearing Ollie’s England shirt, she was pictured on television after the game in ​Germany holding her son’s face in her hands as they celebrated the most ​important goal of his career.

However, it is as a singer that Delsi-May, who goes by the stage name of Ruby ​Washington, has worked closely with Rotary over the years performing at a ​number of charity concerts in the south-west.

“Some people have suggested she has a better voice than Shirley Bassey,” said ​John O’Driscoll, a former member of the new defunct Torpoint & Eddystone ​Rotary Club, who now belongs to Liskeard & Looe Rotary Club. He says the PHF ​was awarded by his former club “eight to ten years ago” for “her amazing support ​for Rotary fund-raisers”.

John added: “When I was President at Torpoint & Eddystone, Delsi-May sang as a ​joint Presidents’ dinner for myself and Tony Britton, who was with Liskeard & ​Looe Rotary Club.

“Delsi-May did a lot for Rotary supporting many of our charity events, she was ​always willing to do stuff for us. She was always performing at the Babbacombe ​Theatre in Torquay – and her smile is simply amazing. You can see the smile ​reflected in Ollie,” added John, who is a keen football fan and a supporter of ​Reading Football Club.

“I know her very well, and I have followed Ollie’s career very closely from the time ​he was playing at Exeter, his move to Brentford and then to Aston Villa, and now ​scoring for England. Whenever I used to call Delsi-May at home, Ollie would often ​answer the phone. He’s a lovely man, one of the nicest people you could meet ​and a credit to his mother.”

Delsi-May was a member for the band The Superstitions in the early 1990s. Like ​many of the original soul singers, she was trained in Gospel before making from ​the big ballads of Bassey and Houston, to Motown, Soul and effervescent dance-​pop.

She has worked on TV, in theatre, cabaret and cruise ships, working with top ​artists such as Bob Monkhouse, Des O’Connor and Ben E. King, and is a recording ​artist in her own right.

Graham Lovegrove, also a member of Liskeard & Looe Rotary Club, is a well-​known comedian with the stage name Tank Sherman. He knows the family well ​and had texted Delsi-May to congratulate her on Ollie’s success.

“He’s a great lad. I remember him from when he was very young and he ​challenged me to keep-me-ups in the garden,” recalled Graham. “They are a ​lovely family and it’s great to see Ollie doing so well.”

Back in 2012, Delsi-May collaborated with Torpoint Eddystone Rotary with ​producing a musical Christmas card in aid of the Children’s Hospice South-West. ​Each card contained a CD featuring 12 of the best young soloists from the local ​area, most of them former contestants in the annual Young Singer of the Year ​contest for schools, organised by John O'Driscoll and Tank Sherman.

Ollie Watkins grew up in Newton Abbot with his three other siblings.

In an interview with The Times in March 2021, the singer described how her son ​showed sporting prowess from just nine months old. She would take him to an ​arcade where Ollie’s early footballing skills came to the fore.

She said: “There was a little machine where you put a 2p in, and a little rubber ​ball fell out. He’d stand there and you’d drop it, and he’d kick it. He never used to ​miss. He was only nine months old.”

In The Times’ interview, Delsi-May, who was a single mother-of-four, would drive ​her son regularly on the 35-minute drive from the family home in Newton Abbott ​to Exeter City’s football academy where his skills would flourish.

She said: “I had to bomb it over to school, bring them back, get them something ​to eat, get them in the car, bomb it over to Exeter during rush hour, then make ​sure I got back in time for me to get to work.”

During the Euros, Delsi-May was captured on social media at a concert urging ​England manager Gareth Southgate to pick her son. That he duly did as a second ​half substitute against the Netherland when he scored the winner which grabbed ​back page headlines around the world.