Empowering Hope

After a worrying few days watching the weather, match day came around and the game was on! The captains for the day, Mozza and James Ganderton, took to the field to toss up…Mozza won and put MCC into bat. 

The sun was out, local legend, Dave Bradley, was on the mic and the ground started filling up.

Openers Dan Patrick and Simon Van Tongeren took to the field to face the opening bowling attack of Hayes and Repton - a partnership that had been on hiatus since the late 90s. With Mozza in at first slip, could these has-beens roll back the clock one more time? No, but neither batsmen could take advantage of these long hop specialists and both departed without making double figures. 

Olly Saunders (16) and Harry Howes (13 retired, not out) had a bit more success with the bat - the latter getting bored knocking his old man around the square, so taking an early exit.

First and second change bowlers Jamie ‘Mario’ Howes and Will Rushgrove had some success with the ball, keeping the run-rate down. John McGahan came and went quickly for 1 run and Dom Colwill followed suit with 4. This only gave way to more threatening willow wielders in the form of Rich Birchley and Dom Jones and the run rate started to rise. 

With vice skipper Matt Repton having his hands full - literally not having enough fingers to keep track of how many players were on the pitch at any one point - players took it into their own hands to change fielding positions, as they saw fit. Both Gary Smith and Phil Baldwin made some great contributions in the field, not to the success of the team but to the fines kitty, through dropped catches and catch avoidance, respectively. 

Third, fourth and fifth change bowlers saw Phil Baldwin hold one end up (Ooh Matron!) while Charlie and George Morris made their bowling debuts at the other end.

Birchers went on to make a respectable 19 before Rushy Snr took a catch off Gary ‘Teflon’ Smith’s bowling. This was actually the last wicket Mozza’s 11 took as all batsmen from this point on retired to make room for the next. Lovely to see such great sportsmanship, although I think trips to the bar was the main factor. 

Dom Jones was next to retire with MCCs highest score of 31. Following batsmen Pete Gardner, James Ganderton and Alex Basford all made double figures, with Owen Birchley and Dan Johnson chipping in at the end. Mozza’s 11 were given a target of 162.

With the traditional midway tea exchanged for the more modern liquid lunch of HPA, Amstel and Thatchers, players were fully refreshed and ready to take to the field for the second innings.

Openers for Mozza’s 11 were Alan ‘Barking’ Taylor and Jamie ‘Mario’ Howes.

Big Al going for a third ball duck off the father son partnership of ct Dan Patrick, bowled James Patrick. Jamie Howes then got the big send off from his own lad, Harry Howes, after taking his dad’s wicket...does he still remind you about this Jammer?

The next pair to take to the wicket were Dan Mayfield and Chris Collins. Mayf was our most likely chance of a few runs as Chris had recently suffered a rather nasty injury following some intense pre-match nets practice. Not that anybody would know, as Chris keeps these things to himself, but it may have had something to do with a bowling machine that had been set at 82mph! Chris actually went onto make 16, before being cleaned up by Dom Jones, so not too shabby.

The next two into bat were Will Rushgrove and Stu Hayes, but these came and went without causing any damage to the total required. What we needed here was someone with some determination to get some runs on the board, but more importantly some oil to get him moving again after 30 overs behind the stumps…Ade Morris took to the crease. Some flashes from yesteryear saw Ade knock up a respectable 14 before being caught by ‘No lift’ Harry Howes, off Owen Birchley’s bowling.

Phil ‘blue suede shoes’ Baldwin was in next and, after 3 quick singles, fell foul to the bowling of Owen Birchley.

This made way for a man with some making up to do (only joking pal) Gary Smith, and boy did he make it up! Gary set about smashing the ball around the park - I’m guessing in fear of more fines coming his way! Gaz put another 42 runs on the board, bringing Mozza’s 11 back into contention. 

With Justin Rushgrove adding another good knock of 29 to the total, Mozza’s 11 still needed something special to get them over the line. With the beer flowing and nobody having any idea of who was on or off the field, we managed to get a total of 13 batsmen to the crease, but it all came down to the last over.

Pete Gardner had the ball in hand, all batsmen number 13 needed to do was get 3 off the last 4 balls. Matt Repton, this is your moment to shine. Pete, starts his run……he releases the ball...with a swish and a miss……the bails go flying……’NO BALL’ is called for a front foot a good foot inside the crease. If ever there was a time to cheat, it was now! 2 runs were required off the last ball of the match for the win. Pete’s delivery, wider and slower than previous ones, was dispatched straight to Simon Van Tongeren at deep mid-wicket and with some quick footwork he managed to get himself out the way of an easy catch! The ball rolled across the rope for a 4, leaving Mozza’s 11 victorious!

With the match wrapped up and players suitably rehydrated, Dave Bradley continued the ongoing auction for some amazing prizes that had been donated by some very generous people. Holidays to Scotland, numerous tickets to cricket matches, golf tickets and a signed England cap from the Ashes ‘Red Ruth’ game at Lords, to mention but a few. This, in conjunction with players’ fines, raffle and great takings from both the bar and BBQ means another fantastic donation of £3k to Mozza’s Justgiving page, by MCC.

The final event of the day saw an old tradition return to the Jewry Field - the ‘wibbly wobbly race’ - hosted by Steve Hayes. Players Owen Birchley and Olly Saunders took to the pitch to compete and the outcome wasn’t pretty. Head groundsman, Jim Basford, looked on in disbelief at Olly’s street art pavement pizza that now covered his outfield.

There are many people to thank; Martley Cricket Club for hosting such a great day, all of Mozza’s friends and family for attending and making it the success it was, Bradders for his mic and DJ skills, Jim ‘Bangers’ Basford - the resident BBQ technician, and Si ‘Shunty’ Hunt for honouring us with a brief, yet early appearance and getting the top fine for turning up and not playing.  

This was one of many events being planned to help raise funds for our friend, Scott, and research into finding a cure for MND. Let’s all continue the great support already given and attend as many of the upcoming events as we can. Cheers. Reps, AKA Gilly x

About MND

 MND is the short term for motor neurone disease, which affects the nerves known as motor neurones. These nerves are found in the brain and spinal cord and they help tell your muscles what to do. 

Find out more about MND here:

https://www.mndassociation.org/

August '23

We are looking to wind down the Gofundme site now we've reached the target and would like to point everyone to Martin's JustGiving site:

 https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/scotty-morris?utm_term=XWNy2QQqq&fbclid=IwAR03UPkQgDmAdoM420EWGPqisdsZLGfz-EuoYp5qQLUx1vKJ7Nka7jn4dbU 

Thank you to everyone who has donated. It means such a lot to us all. 

I'd also like to thank all of you who are running the 60 miles in August for MND. Keep it going all, you're bloody amazing. Here's a list of some I'm aware of......

AJ Hanson 

Alan Taylor 

Clare Worley

Jodie Tipping

Martin Lakeman

Natalie Gowing

Nathan Jones 

Nick Herbert

Paul Thomas

Phil Baldwin (also the Leeds marathon!)

Phil Eggleton

Well what can I say about the golf day we did for Scott Morris and the MND community on the 10th of Sept. 

There were 72 people who came to support Scott at Cloebury Mortimer golf club. Great to see so many friends seeing each again having a laugh, pint, and lots of banter. 

Before I tell you a bit about the day, I would like to say a massive thank you to Wayne (Moose) Trowbridge for sponsoring the whole day through his company giving us the opportunity to to raise an amazing amount for Scott and the MND community. A thank you to Garry Smith who did a great job on getting prizes too!

Good old British weather didn’t hold up for us but didn’t dampen the day at all. 

So after lots of good shots, bad shots and lucky shots, we had some great scores coming in. Some funny sights like Gilly walking all the way down one hole with his shorts by his ankles for not beating the ladies red tees. James Houston even had a swing which we have video evidence of. 

Adam Baldwin, Wayne Baldwin, Phil Baldwin and Jay Wood came out eventful winners to take the Mozza trophy. There were some wooden spoons given out to the worst team and lots of other prizes and raffle prizes given out too. 

I would like to give you the great news that we have raised over £10,000 pounds and would like to thank everyone of you who came on the day and all the sponsors who donated money. You all are extremely generous and just want to say thanks again. 

Tippo x

A huge thank you to everyone who came to the quiz at The Huntsman Inn kempsey on Sunday. A fantastic £1020 was raised. Alongside our running (Clare Bush, Wendy Joberns-Harris and Martin Lakeman) 60 miles in August, that’s just shy of £2k.
Amazing efforts all
A really important fundraiser, in support of MND and most importantly raising funds so that we can ensure Scott Morris and family can have the support they deserve. To hopefully at least take care of some of the more practical elements associated with an MND diagnosis
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/scotty-morris
It was heartwarming to see a community come together for this cause and get behind it
None of it would of been possible without the amazing organisation and tenacity of Phil, Mo and John and a huge thanks to The Huntsman for hosting (& Sean who ensured we were all looked after and donated a sizeable chunk to the bucket !!)  also huge thank you for those prizes donated to the raffle Nicola Gibbs Richard DarkeAtheva Beauty

We need to keep this activity up in support of Scott and his family. All donations and ideas welcomed.