Ickwell Cricket Club played host to the first of the East Beds Charity Cricket Shield competitions on Wednesday night (5 June) as a Representative XI beat Flitwick Cricket Club in the Butcher Shield final.
A number of Bedford-based charities, including Headway Bedford and the King’s Arms Project were beneficiaries of a bumper summer of fundraising last year and now the series of charity tournaments has expanded as the East Beds Charity Cricket Shield aims to raise more money in 2024.
Read: Local charities benefit from another successful East Beds Shield cricket season
The series of competitions have now grown to include a brand new Women’s Knockout Cup featuring Bedford CC, Ampthill CC, Flitwick CC, Luton Women’s and Girls CC and Luton Town & Indians CC.
This will feature alongside the main competition, the East Beds Shield which has already reached the semi-final stage, with Sharnbrook & Bromham CC still involved with the Heritage Cup also at the semi-final stage.
There is also an Under-18 Knockout competition featuring Bedford Cricket Club and Elstow Cricket Club.
In the high-scoring, 16-over a side Butcher Shield final on Wednesday night, the Shield’s Representative XI beat Flitwick by 5 wickets at Ickwell.
Batting first, Flitwick amassed 141-5 with David Powles top scoring, hitting five boundaries and two sixes in a 26-ball 44 while James Howlett’s brace of wickets (2-26) was the stand out with ball in hand for the Representative side.
Captain, Connor Heaps led the Representative XI home with an unbeaten 40 of his own, and despite a late flurry of wickets for Rhys Mariu (3-23), the East Beds Shield team reached their target with two balls to spare.
More importantly, the fundraising for a series of charities kicked off and with four more tournaments to be completed, the East Beds Shield are well set to beat last season’s tally of £7,400 raised in aid of a number of good causes across the county.
For more information on the raft of charity activity taking place this Summer, please email the competition’s secretary, Ian Smith at cricketsmithy@gmail.com or visit the Competition’s play-cricket page here.
