Surrey TV Go 'Off the Long Run'

1 March 2010

Surrey Cricket are going on the road on Saturday 20th March, visiting all 45 ‘Focus Clubs’ in 24 hours to raise money for the Surrey Cricket Foundation and Sport Relief.

Surrey County Cricket Club have granted The Surrey Cricket Foundation benefit years in 2010 and 2011 to raise money for young cricketers in the county, and Off the Long Run sees the launch of this activity.

Surrey TV and BBC London’s Mark Church and First Team Analyst Steven Rudkin will travel 239 miles throughout the length and breadth of the county, recording a video and collecting a Club cap at each ground they visit.

Early in the day they will be greeted by England and Surrey legend and Surrey Cricket Foundation patron Alec Stewart, who will attend Ashtead CC at 10am on Saturday March 20th to cheer on the boys and help promote their efforts.

In an effort to raise as much money as possible for the two excellent causes, Church will be ‘Tweeting’ throughout the trip on the official Surrey Cricket Twitter feed @surreycricket and will be available to provide regular phone updates to all local radio stations. In addition, the pair will be collecting a club cap from each ground to auction later this summer to raise further funds for the two causes.

Speaking this week, Church said: “Although it will be a lot of hard work, I am hugely looking forward to this journey! As well as raising funds for two great charities it will us both a chance to visit some great Clubs in Surrey and see what they are doing ahead of the 2010 season.

“Although it could get cold on the night shift, I am relying on the generosity of our supporters and the reliability of our faithful club van to get us around in time!”

The first person to donate to the fund was Surrey skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown who added: “I’d like to wish the boys all the best, the whole squad is behind this challenge. The Surrey Cricket Foundation is an excellent cause – as is Sport Relief – and I hope we are able to raise a lot of money by doing this.”

To donate to the cause, please visit www.justgiving.com/offthelongrun.

To see an interview with Mark Church - conducted by Alec Stewart in a slight role reversal - click on Play Video in the top left hand corner of the picture at the top of this article.