Last Thursday, 8 December, the Club held our annual Lord’s Long Room Christmas Lunch. It was wonderful to be joined by so many of our partners in attendance, including the event sponsor, MHA MacIntyre Hudson. We’d like to thank them for their support and we are glad to hear they enjoyed the afternoon.
Our guests enjoyed a delicious three-course meal whilst hearing from some inspiring members from the Essex Cricket Community:
- Community Engagement Manager & County Lead for Ability Cricket, Patrick Ward
- Ability Player, Joe Freestone
- Women & Girls’ Cricket Coach, Grace Mehuish
- North Essex District Cricket Board U13s Representative, Paul Lees
- East London Cricket Operations Manager, Arfan Akram
- Henry Wagg
Joe told the story of his personal journey into cricket. Whilst he started out trialling out in the regular team, he soon found that his learning difficulties began affecting his play. But he didn’t give up there. Thanks to the support of the Essex Cricket Ability Staff, he was able to begin his route into ability cricket, where he would eventually earn his place in the Essex Ability First XI.
He has been with the Ability Team for over 8 years and has played for both the super 9’s and D40 teams helping both to win their county championships. He is now a player in the Disability Premier League and was in the pirates team that made it into the final which was shown on Sky back in September.
Grace shared her journey from playing cricket into coaching women and girl’s across Essex. Starting out in the Essex U11s, Grace worked her way through to the Women’s Team. She has coached men, women, girls and boys at varying levels from club to representative cricket.
More recently she has taken the split role of Girls Performance Pathway Lead for Essex and Sunrisers EPP Lead and was also part of the coaching team with both the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred and the Bunbury Festival. Grace is a brilliant example of how the Foundation sets up players not only to become a professional cricketer, but a become a professional in cricket.
We also heard from the extremely brave Henry Wagg, who completed a first aid course with the Essex Cricket Foundation and due to the skills he gained, was able to save a life by performing CPR.
Thanks to your incredible support throughout the event during various auctions and raffles, we were able to raise £12,855! The Essex Cricket Foundation will be able to use these funds to further develop our various cricket pathways and encourage young people into the sport from every walk of life.
We wish you and your families a restful Christmas break and we hope to see you at Lord’s again next December.
About MHA MacIntyre Hudson:
MHA MacIntyre Hudson is a national top 12 firm of chartered accountants, tax and business advisers. They work together to navigate an ever-changing business world and proactively identify the opportunities that tomorrow presents. MHA MacIntyre Hudson take the time to create great relationships with their clients to become not just their trusted advisers, but valued partners that face the future together.
Learn more by visiting their website: www.macintyrehudson.co.uk
