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Thames Water Blades won the Mace Charity Cricket Challenge at the Oval on Friday 24th July by beating Balfour Beatty Utilities Solutions in a keeny contested and well supported final.
The day began well as the teams strode out onto the famous turf at the Oval in South London to compete in a 6-a-side day with cricketing celebrities and stars of sport to raise funds and awareness for Water Aid. The brainchild of Andy Sharples, Utilities Director at Mace, this unique day brought together eight company cricket teams, specifically their water utilities departments.
Video interviews by each of the captains will be uploaded soon and appear here.
Jim White
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Official Press Release
Mace Group, the global consultancy and construction firm has hosted its first ever Celebrity Cricket Challenge and raised an impressive £28,000 for WaterAid.
The event, held at the BritOval in London, saw teams from the UK water industry battle it out against each other with a complimentary Bunbury player thrown in for good measure.
The Bunbury’s – the world’s number one celebrity cricket team includes famous cricketers and sporting / non- sporting celebrities. Players who gave up their time to support the day included Mark Ramprakash, England cricketer and winner of Strictly Come Dancing, Paul Davis (ex-Arsenal footballer), Paul Pritchard (Essex CCC), Jonathan Batty (Surrey CCC), Darren Cousins (Essex CCC), Perry Groves (Ex- Arsenal footballer), Lou Vincent (New Zealand Cricketer) and Phil de Freitas (ex-England).
The heavens may have opened an interrupted play in the afternoon, but this did nothing to dampen everyone’s spirits and play continued on the indoor nets, with a gripping Balfour Beatty and Thames Water final, with Thames securing a narrow 47-2 win over Balfour Beatty’s 45-2 runs. Top scores of the day went to Veolia Water who scored 79-2 runs.
Head of National Fundraising for WaterAid, Alan Machin said: “WaterAid is delighted with the
support we have received from Mace and the amazing £28,000 that was raised. This will have a huge impact on WaterAid’s vital work. We are pleased the Celebrity Cricket Challenge proved to be such a success and provided a fantastic opportunity to bring together teams from across the UK water industry for an action packed day of cricketing prowess.”
Mace director of utilities, Andy Sharples adds: "We planned an informal and enjoyable day as we wanted to offer the water companies an event with a difference. The comments from those that attended confirm that we achieved what we set out to, not least raising so much money for WaterAid."
© Cricket World 2009
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