Team Kenya 2019
Opening the batting is our esteemed leader Tanya Boardman, who demonstrated a Brearley-like unflappability in answering our most inane questions in the teams What’s App group. Also distinctly Brearley-like is her self-professed low to medium cricketing ability. Her ‘portfolio’ career (she does, like, loads of different things) gives her the diverse skillset required to head up this motley crew.
Tanya’s opening partner is Huddersfield’s own Lee Booth. An experienced cricket coach, podcaster, and digital media specialist, CWB stalwart Lee manages all the charity’s relationships with in-country partners and Ambassador coaches. Lee’s extensive konwledge of Africa, his dry sense of humour, and awareness of where his off stump is, are all vital ingredients for a successful project.
At first drop we have Rachel Krieger, our Canadian Kolpak signing. After mistaking Old Trafford’s watery outfield for a swimming pool, she decided to her water polo background was clearly transferable to cricket, and is now desperately hoping September is rainy season in Kenya. Her nursing skills will surely come in handy, may even help ensure Lee takes the malaria pills he still has left over from three trips ago.
Coming in at 4 is the indefatigable Sian Williams. Usually found jumping up and down a lot, she gets very, very excited. By everything. All the time. She volunteers with Park Run and is keen to find more ways to help others out while promoting the positive ideas of equality and inclusivity. While she may be a cricketing novice, her energy, enthusiasm and willingness to learn make her an invaluable asset to the team.
In the middle order ‘engine room’ we have Philip Makatrewicz. A failed musician and woeful cricket tragique, he is returning to Kenya twenty years after teaching there in his gap year in a bid to assess where it all went wrong. Having been burned by the fierce Coventry sun on the training weekend, he is sure his Polish skin will be absolutely fine in Kenya’s famously mild climate. He will be editing these blogs and trying to get some good pictures for his Tinder profile.
New ball bowler, night watchman, and general green shoots of youth is Nicholas ‘Nick on a Sunday’ Withers. A 22 year-old student of human geography at Sheffield Hallam, he brings those famously youthful qualities of nibbly military medium bowling and placing a high value on his wicket (even if his batting average of 9.52 suggests he places less value on the actual scoring of runs). He fell in love with cricket as a seven year old watching the ’05 Ashes, and hopes this trip will cap his ultimate cricketing summer.
Steaming in from the Kirkstall Lane End is the raw, Trumanesque pace of Dan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick. Variously described in absentia at the training weekend as ‘a professional Northerner’ and ‘the biggest cricket badger you’ll meet’, Dan is returning for his second tour of duty, having been to Uganda with CWB as recently as March. He’s a practical joker and all-round entertainer with a love of deep conversations, so if you’re not prepared to talk, do be prepared to listen!
Last not least, holding up an end with some wily off-spin is Paul Maggs. Not one to shirk a challenge, this 41-year-old father of two is using our trip as a springboard to taking up boxing and running an ultra-marathon, because ‘how hard can it be?’ (Answers on a postcard c/o The Great North Resort, Muranga, Kenya.) Paul also brings a history of competitive Subbuteo to the table, boasting a one-time national ranking of 40(!), which could be useful if rain stops play.
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