Cricket for Change take on the Army at Aldershot

May 26, 2010

On Tuesday 25th May 2010 at the sunny, warm and very impressive Army Cricket Ground in Aldershot, a Cricket for Change XI (C4C) took on a very strong Army Development team.

With C4C arriving on time we managed to get the match started at 11am as requested by the Army.  The skipper for the day, Donovan Miller, duly won the toss and decided to bat on a lovely day and pitch. 

C4C got off to a flyer, with former Middlesex CCC batsman, Shaun Leavy and Arfan Akram (of the new Clydesdale Bank 40 over side, The Unicorns and The MCC) hitting the ball to all parts of the ground. It looked like we were going to set a big score as after 10 overs C4C had 100 on the board. There was also a beautiful and stylish 50 from C4C staff member, Tony Jopseph. However, after the fall of his wicket we began to lose regular wickets but managed to set a total of 256 for the Army to win. 

After a fine lunch, C4C started well in the field with skipper, Donovan, getting 2 early wickets with the new ball along with Simon Pullan (who supports C4C on the Refugee Cricket Project) picking up a couple of wickets as well. But then the strong Army batting line up began to make inroads into their target.

Another point to note was the sucessful match had by three of the young lads from our Refugee Cricket Project. They all got into the game and played very well and looked to have had an enjoyable time.  They all contributed with the ball and at one stage two of the lads combined to take the wicket of the Army's opener, for 97, with one bowling and the other taking a maginificient steepling catch on the boundary.

In the end we lost the game but that did not matter because we met some new people and contacts to talk about the charity to and for which the charity received plenty of support and admiration for. 

We are already looking forward to next years match!

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