Notts Sport team members enjoyed a fun day out of the office on Friday 1st July at the Jack Patrick Memorial Cup cricket day, raising money for Help For Heroes in memory of esteemed co worker, friend and family member Jack Patrick.
The charity, which was important to Jack, has been chosen as the company’s Official Charity of the Year, with a pledge to raise £30,000 over 2016.
“The charity is important because it helps support so many soldiers and allows families to continue with their lives even after the worst may have happened.” Laura Bennett
“220,560 individuals were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2014. Up to 75,000 servicemen and women (and their families) will need HFH support in the future”. Shaun Patrick
The charity event was held at local ground, Lutterworth Cricket Club, with help from the club, The Barmy Army and Help For Heroes. The first match kicked off at 2pm, with the Help For Heroes cricket team vs. The Barmy Army, walking on to a rousing rendition of Jerusalem from Notts Sport’s resident DJ Tom Douglas.
Help For Heroes comfortably won the first game against the Barmy Army, whose team featured appearances from BBC Radio 5 Sport Extra’s Charlie Dagnall and Henry Moeran. Both batsmen made good contributions to the final total of 139, but Help For Heroes made short work of chasing their target down, the ball sailing over the boundary and causing the spectators to scatter.
Prosecco and cocktails were the order of the day, as the stylish converted horsebox ‘Ranieri’s Prosecco Bar‘ pulled up to hand-mix drinks for the steady queue that formed throughout the evening. Other attractions included two bouncy castles, a BBQ, cake and sweet stalls, and a huge raffle with donated prizes worth over £2,000.
“On the day I sold raffle tickets, the prizes donated were fantastic and numerous and I was flabbergasted by the amount of generous people wanting to buy tickets. I was so glad that some of the prizes went to people who really had to dig deep to find the money.” Keith Parker.
Special guest ‘Billy The Trumpet’ performed classic cricket tunes to rally the crowd, and Wasim Khan MBE presented the trophy to both Lutterworth CC and Help for Heroes teams who drew after the exciting second match was cut short due to unexpected rain.
The evening culminated in an al-fresco auction with the crowd bidding on items such as 4×4 experience days, a signed England Cricket shirt and bat, personalised pet portraits, a luxury picnic hamper, and a signed Leicester City programme from the winning season, all kindly donated from local businesses. Notts Sport chairman Shaun Patrick’s best moment of the day was watching a novelty Help For Heroes cake sell for an astonishing £400, and says that the amount raised was “Amazing. Simply amazing.”
Fundraising for Help For Heroes was great team building for the Notts Sport team, and an opportunity to socialise with the community at large:
“It is fantastic for the entire company & their families to come together for such a good cause and allows us to develop and build community relationships here in Lutterworth” Duncan Bennett.
“It’s always nice to be with colleagues out of the office as well as in, I think it’s what helps in all the team getting on so well and a great part about working for Notts Sport.” Laura Bennett.
“It is an incredible achievement to raise such a large amount of money for charity in one day.” Jason Palmer.
“The day was such a fitting way to remember Jack and to support his charity Help for Heroes. The turnout was incredible, cricket great and to raise £8,000 was an unbelievable effort, thanks to everyone who gave their time and money so generously!” Mark Coeshaw.
Notts Sport would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along, donated on Just Giving, played cricket, volunteered, gave prizes, bid in the auction, baked a cake and generally helped to make this incredible afternoon go with a bang (despite the occasional downpour)! We are pleased to announce that we raised an amazing £8,000 for Help For Heroes, and we hope that the money will go a long way in helping to improve the lives of the UK’s injured servicemen.
When asked to sum up the day in three words, cricket fans decided upon:
“Generosity at large!”
“Sun, fun, beer!”
“A worthy cause.”
“A GREAT DAY.”
and “Same next year!?”
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