Cricketing Legends do battle for Children’s Hospital

On a bright September day, two illustrious teams of cricketing legends from past and present were brought together by England international Michael Vaughan at the Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Ground – home to Michael’s cricket academy, to play a one-off T20 match in support of both Junior Cricket Development and the Sheffield Children’s Hospital of which Michael is patron.

 

The day started ominously overcast for the build-up to the afternoon’s match between the ‘Michael Vaughan SCCC XI’ and the ‘English Cricket Legends XI’ teams that included a dazzling array of great names from both the professional cricketing world and wider sporting community such as Andrew Flintoff, sporting a black eye and various cuts and bruises from a boxing match the previous day – apparently part of Andrew’s new quest to become a boxer. There was also, amongst others Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison and footballer Robbie Savage. A complete Team listing can be found the end of this article.

The morning kicked off with batting and bowling master classes for 90 local school children hosted by some of our cricketing legends and ably assisted by Plain Sports Solutions, the ECB’s cricketing road show, the Yorkshire Cricket Board and Collegiate staff.

As lunchtime approached and the sun started to make an appearance, the 400 corporate guests arrived for a sumptuous five-course champagne lunch and to mix and mingle with the cricketing personalities and celebrity guests with entertainment led by England test batsman and Sky Sports presenter, Mark Butcher and cricketing icon Geoffrey Boycott. This was followed by an auction with a glittering range of items on offer including two separate prizes which both went for £500 a piece, where the lucky winners participated in a team photograph taken by sportsshots. There were also guitars signed by the Rolling Stones and Lady Gaga, running spikes donated by gold medallist Jessica Ennis and a signed yellow jersey by gold medallist and Tour de France Winner, Bradley Wiggins.

At 3:30pm, with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of the City of Sheffield in attendance and with a fantastic crowd gathered under clear blue skies, the match that everyone had been waiting for began. The ‘English Cricket Legends XI’ batted first and were quickly in their stride scoring 24 runs off 5 overs. However, there was some inspired bowling especially from Robbie Savage who clean-bowled Philip DeFreitas!

After the first 20 overs the ‘English Cricket Legends XI’ had thrown down the gauntlet leaving Michael Vaughan’s team chasing 190 runs to win as they went in to bat. Despite some valiant batting it appeared that Michael Vaughan’s team would fall just short of the ‘Legend’s’ total; however by some startling ‘twists of fate’, a couple last minute ‘no-balls’ allowed both teams to draw on 189 runs.

As the sun began to go down and the shadows grew long across the wicket, the day drew to a close with a question and answer session in the marquee from Michael Vaughan and ‘Bumble’ himself, David Lloyd, who had the audience wiping tears from their eyes with their hilarious anecdotes of events and characters from the cricketing world.

Although the final figure for the money raised by the event has yet to be confirmed, initial estimates, as quoted by Michael Vaughan himself, suggest the amount is in the region of £40,000, which is an amazing achievement!

A Big Thanks must go to Roger at Iconic Event Management for all the hard work to put this day together.......apparently they can even book the weather.

The Teams:

Michael Vaughan’s SCCC XI (including subs)

Michael Vaughan (Capt)

Andrew ‘Freddy’ Flintoff

Steve Harmison

Simon Jones

Paul Collingwood

Matthew Hoggard

Robbie Savage

Dan walker

Simon Guy 

Matthew Dixon

Richard Kettleborough

Nick Gaywood

Edward McKenna

Neil Preistley

Ross Desmond

Dave Jones

English Cricket Legends XI

Neil Fairbrother

Devon Malcolm

David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd

Philip De Freitas

Alex Tudor

Chris Schofield

Mal Loye

Dean Headley

Paul Nixon (Capt)

Warren Hegg

Richard Blakey

Words by Steve Gresty

Images by Steve Gresty,Mark Ludbrook