PCA Past Players' Day at Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival
11 July 2016
More than 100 former county cricketers, including 20 who played Test cricket, will gather at The Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival on Thursday July 14 for the annual Professional Cricketers’ Association’s Past Players’ Day.
The former stars will watch the second day of Gloucestershire’s Specsavers County Championship match against Essex while catching up with old friends over lunch and tea.
The past players range in age from former Leicestershire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire wicketkeeper Steve Adshead, who is the youngest at 36, to Roy Booth, the former Yorkshire and Worcestershire wicketkeeper, who is the oldest at 89.
Former Test players who will be attending this popular annual event include 2005 Ashes winner Simon Jones, MJK Smith, , Graeme Fowler, Bob Taylor, Robin Hobbs, Alan Brown, Norman Gifford, Clive Radley, Pat Pocock, David Capel, David Steele, Roy Swetman, Alan Butcher (England), Vanburn Holder, Ron Headley and Winston Davis (West Indies) and Younis Ahmed (Pakistan).
Davis, who played county cricket for Glamorgan and Northamptonshire, is one of the former players who has been supported by the PCA Benevolent Fund in recent years.
The former fast bowler has been wheelchair-bound since he was paralysed from the neck down when he fell from a tree in a gardening accident in November 1997.
Thanks to the PCA Benevolent Fund, who provided a specially-adapted vehicle, Davis’s mobility has increased.
Fowler has been an important figure in helping the PCA to raise awareness of mental health through the Association’s Mind Matters initiative and he was recently appointed a PCA Mental Health Ambassador.
The former Lancashire and Durham opener was part of the PCA team who visited every first-class county on pre-season visits where he spoke openly about suffering from depression.
Among the first-time visitors to PCA Past Players’ Day will be Hallam Moseley, the former Somerset pace bowler, who was among 500 former players who had lost contact with the PCA who have now been traced ahead of the Association’s Golden Jubilee in 2017.
Moseley, who lives and coaches in London, will form part of a strong Somerset contingent at Cheltenham along with Peter Eele, John Harris, Perry Rendell, Graham Tripp, Steve Wilkinson and brothers Roy and Ken Palmer and Ken’s son Gary.
The day will be hosted by David Fulton, the former Kent batsman and captain, who will be guest speaker at lunchtime. Mike Soper, the former chairman of Surrey and a past chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who will talk about his battle with prostate cancer.
Jason Ratcliffe, Assistant Chief Executive of the PCA, said: “This will be our fifth year at Cheltenham and it is always great to meet in a convivial festival environment and see players from different generations catching up and enjoying each other’s company.
“We are always pleased to see former players who have enjoyed themselves at previous Past Players’ Day returning but we are also delighted to welcome some first time visitors, particularly those that may have lost contact with us for a period of time.
“The day gives PCA staff and Benevolent Fund trustees the chance to meet in person and acts as another reminder that the PCA is there for the members should there ever be a need.”
During the lunch interval at Cheltenham on July 14 members of the PG Wodehouse Society will plant a tree on the college ground to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Warwickshire all-rounder Percy Jeeves who was killed in the Battle of the Somme.
Wodehouse saw Jeeves bowl for Warwickshire against Gloucestershire at the 1913 Cheltenham Festival and was so impressed that he later used his surname for his famous valet.
The real Jeeves was killed at High Wood on July 22 1916. His body was never recovered but Jeeves is among 72,000 names on the Thiepval Memorial.
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