Charity cricket game on top of mountain

ELEVEN friends from Henley are to participate in the highest ever altitude cricket match in England to raise money for a team-mate.

Past and present players from Henley Cricket Club will play a game at the summit of Helvellyn in the Lake District, which is 3,116ft above sea level and the third highest mountain in England.

They will take on a Helvellyn XI, comprising players from local teams.

The teams will have to carry equipment up the mountain, including stumps, bails, balls, bats, gloves, helmets, a scoreboard, boundary markers and a 120kg plastic mat which will form the pitch.

The match will be played on Monday and will be in aid of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Research Foundation, which was set up to find a cure for CMT, a form of muscular dystrophy.

The players are supporting their friend John Neville, who lives with the condition, and have already raised £9,774 of their £10,000 target.

Organiser Nick Johnson, 33, said: “We wanted to do something with John while he still has a relatively good range of mobility.

“We all grew up playing cricket together in Henley.”

Mr Neville, 33, described CMT as “the most common rare disease you have never heard of”.

He said: “It’s a condition where the nerves in the extremities of the body die. In my feet and below my knees I don’t really have any movement at all and I use braces to walk.

“Holding a knife and fork or a pen or doing up shoelaces are things I struggle with. There is no cure so I rely on external supports.”

Mr Neville said he was flattered by his friends’
support. He said: “It means the world to me. It shows me just what good friends they are. The climb will be a challenge but Nick and his dad Chris are very experienced climbers. I was nervous about it but managed to do it when we went up to scout out the area.”

For more information and to donate, visit www.just
giving.com/page/highestcricketmatch