Ex-Arsenal ace Ray Parlour aids junior cricketers at charity dinner

A CHARITY dinner that scored soccer ace Ray Parlour as special guest stumped up more than £1,500 to help fund a junior cricket club.

The former Arsenal midfielder and ex-England man was the main attraction at Barton Town Cricket Club's sportsman's dinner on Friday.

OWZAT: Former Arsenal and England footballer Ray Parlour, left, is pictured being welcomed to the Barton Town Cricket Club Sportsman's Dinner, held at Forest Pines, by club chairman Alan Sanderson, right, and centre event sponsor Paul Vickers, president of Barton Town Old Boys Football Club.

The club's 12th Sportsman's Dinner was held at Forest Pines Hotel And Golf Resort, near Broughton.

It raised £1,500 to help youth development at the club.

Richard Birch, who compered the evening, said: "It went very well – 160 people attended. We made quite a lot of money on the night hopefully we've raised around £1,500.

"Both Ray Parlour and comedian Austin Knight were received very well.

"Ray was telling a lot of jokes about his days at Arsenal and his friend Martin Keown.

He didn't speak too much about his Hull City days because he only played 14 days for them."

The star prize was a John Terry signed England shirt which fetched £130 and was bought by the club's Australian overseas player. Mr Birch said the club held the fundraiser at Forest Pines Hotel and Golf Resort to try to raise as much money as possible to fund junior cricket coaching and equipment.

He said: "We need to get coaches who are qualified 100 per cent, we need to buy new bats, stumps, pads and take care of the ground maintenance and repair the new training nets from last year which have holes in them."

Mr Birch explained the club is growing as kids love to play cricket.

"We get 50 under-11s on a Friday night. They enjoy themselves and keep coming back for more," he said.

He said the fundraiser was vital to the club's existence.

"For every eight children we have to have one coach at level one then also level two and onto a level three, so we have to make sure we have the money to provide the facilities and coaching for the juniors next year.

"In February we start the junior indoor coaching so we don't finish totally for the winter."

The club is looking forward to doing another dinner fundraiser next year.

As reported in the Telegraph in April, the club had drawn up plans to build a £750,000 clubhouse and entertainment venue at the town's cricket club.

The ambitious plans will create a two bay indoor cricket net facility for the use of local cricket clubs, a club member gymnasium and a 15-to-200-capacity entertainment suite.

"We are expecting a planning response by the end of the week," added Mr Birch.