NEWSLETTER August 2016
PRINCIPAL PARTNERS
Cover picture
Time out during an initial sort of the donated kit.
Project Front Foot (UK)
Breaking News
Project Front Foot has joined forces with the Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation. This was confirmed during a meeting at Old Trafford on 22 August. A busy summer for Manchester: Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Paul Pogba, and now Project Front Foot!
The partnership agreement was signed in the Old Trafford pavilion under the batting Honours Board; Joe Root’s 254 against Pakistan the latest gold lettering addition.
In joining forces with Sandy Mitchell and his team at Old Trafford, the newly formed partnership will take the Foundation’s mantra - Inspiring Communities Through Cricket - into schools, projects and communities in Mumbai and around Maharashtra.
Kit 4 Kids
A crucial month in the project year, August saw kit collections in Bradford, Derby, Nottingham and Manchester.
High Jinx at Low Moor
It was all hands to the kit at Low Moor Holy Trinity Cricket Club. Keen young cricketers Ryan (9) and Madeleine Jenkins (4) along with Mum, Emily, were only too happy to join in and help load the van. No mean task given that some of the bats and pads were as big as the children.
Low Moor to High Viz
At some point during the day there just had to be a forklift truck involved, and so it proved at Meachers Global Logistics in Derby. Seamlessly swapping Low Moor for high viz we rolled into town to collect a pallet of donated kit courtesy of the Lord’s Taverners.
New Balls
From Derby it was just a short trip down the Brian Clough Way to collect 727 (no typo - yes folks - seven hundred and twenty-seven!) tennis balls from the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
The generosity of our donors will enable us to do some serious good, and have some serious fun, in Mumbai and beyond this autumn. Old Trafford
The recent visit to Manchester was doubly significant in that, along with signing the partnership agreement with the Lancashire CCC Foundation, we collected another donation of new bats from Sandy Mitchell. To quote Rick in the closing scene of Casablanca: “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Sort & Pack
A sunny August afternoon provided the ideal opportunity for an initial sort of the donated kit. The exercise produced some interesting results including a near battalion of batting pads.
In early September the kit from our Friends in the North will be taken to base camp in Berkshire to be added to the balance of last year’s kit for its final sort and pack. There is still much to be done, but after a busy August Mumbai moved just that little bit closer.
Front Foot Forum
For more details and pictures of Project Front Foot in August please click on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/projectfrontfoot/.
Project Front Foot (India)
Images of PFF VII
PFF Picture Archive
Launched in January, this archive enables us to take a fond look back at the project’s early days. This month’s picture dates back to November 2009 and was snapped en route to an early morning meeting with Chris and Krishna in Dharavi. No warming of the pot for this tea vendor. What you see is what you get: hot, milky, and SWEET! An acquired taste perhaps, but the match of any early morning cup of coffee.
Acknowledgements
Huge thanks to Martin Jenkins and all at Low Moor Holy Trinity CC for their support of PFF. So too to Dave Pemberton, the Lord’s Taverners, and Meachers Global Logistics. And a laurel (and hardy) handshake to Mike Wisner and his team at the Nottingham Tennis Centre for donating an outrageous amount of tennis balls.
Sincere project thanks to Sandy Mitchell and the Lancashire CCC Foundation for their kit donation and in joining forces with PFF for our upcoming work in Mumbai and beyond. For their support in a variety of ways my thanks to Gary and Will Rook, Pat Bowers, and John Dwane.
And finally ….
to a pair of batting gloves unearthed during our initial kit sort in mid-August. To nudge and nurdle is a respected way of conducting yourself at the crease. Imagine the amusement then - during our long, hot, afternoon slog - to discover a pair of Little Nudger batting gloves. A fitting find, too, in that Project Front Foot is constantly seeking to nudge and nurdle the great and good in both the UK and India.
Vic Mills. September 2016.