A CRICKET club captain completed a 15-hour challenge to raise money for the club and the community.
Karl Allan, Earlestown Cricket Club captain, took on the challenge on Friday which saw £1000 raised so far for the club and St John's Church local food bank.
Karl said: "We’re completely self-funded so we don’t have any external revenue or support from the social side of things at the club.
"So, since covid, as every club was hit pretty heavily, we did a few challenges and it’s now become a regular thing where every season we try to do something to raise funds and support the community.
The latest challenge saw Karl bat for 15 hours with only two 20-minute breaks for refreshments.
His teammates took turns bowling throughout the day, with Karl’s 12-year-old son Jack, who plays for the Junior team, bowl his very last ball of the day.
It was later calculated that the 41-year-old had batted a total of 2787 balls.
Another challenge for the day was the hot weather, as Karl explained that the heat had not helped the cause.
He said: "I got here at ten past five in the morning to set up and it was already warm and by the time we got to 10 o'clock, it was absolutely roasting.
"Someone asked me this morning if I had been away on holiday because of my tan but I said no I’ve just been batting for 15 hours in the sun, so I've got a t-shirt suntan."
Local councillors and other members of the community came to support the captain in his 15-hour challenge, with pupils from Wargrave House School and College taking part by using the bowling machine.
Other local teams showed their support for Earlestown Cricket Club with contributions towards the fundraiser.
Karl said: "The league that we play our cricket in, there were two teams in that league who sponsored us. So the fact that we’ve had other clubs helping us is another nice thing in terms of the community.
"There’s often rivalry between teams that are local, but the fact that we’ve had other teams come and support just shows that people to respond well to people doing nice things."
After completing the challenge, Karl received a thankful message from a volunteer at St John's Church.
He said: "I got a nice text off the lady who runs the food bank. She’s so appreciative of the support because people are queuing up for food parcels and have to be turned down, so we’re hoping that half of the money that we raise is given to them.
"She got quite emotional when I told her what I was doing."
To donate to the club's fundraiser, visit their Go Fund Me page https://www.gofundme.com/f/stuck-in-the-middle-batting-challenge?member=19537533&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na%20share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&fbclid=IwAR0jgnjY3ZcHdY1vFLt539cC4jalzEb5_cS-AEp1gatP_Br4d3pEfJG-3dA
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