By Alex Cosgrove
This week saw our 9th annual cricket bash, the Purity Match Special held at the home of Exhall & Wixford Cricket Club. A great evening was had by all and as ever we would like to thank everyone who came and who have supported Purity over the last 11 years and in particular JC and all the team at Exhall & Wixford CC for hosting us and preparing a cracker of a pitch!
This year teams were made up of a range of Purity team members, customers, suppliers and friends. The captains were Purity’s own Andy Cross and Gordie Houstan of Brewin Dolphin – a small bit of sledging mainly from the umpire was going on at the coin toss but it was all in jest so with batting line ups decided and field positions set the Googlys led by Andy Cross took to the field as they stuck the Yorkers into bat. So as the first two batsmen walked out to bat the game was on. It appeared from the crowd that the skipper had put his best batsman out first to try and build a lead with the rest of the team made up of let’s say differing ability. After the opening pair finished their innings with a good amount of runs it was up to the tail to carry it on with the last pair of our very own Director of Brewing Flo and Commercial Director Jim and despite Flo not having the best success with the bat the Yorkers finished their innings on 154. With each player having 2 overs batting and bowling with a wicket counting as minus 10 runs.
After refuelling with an excellently prepared BBQ by Claire, Julia and Mandy and some liquid refuelling it was time for the Googlys to try and chase down the target. The opening batsmen looked confident as they walked out to the middle but some excellent bowling and some even better fielding on the boundary kept the run rate quite low, so it was down to the guys from the Dark Horse in Moseley to try and get the winning runs in the final over and with a boundary of the penultimate ball it was neck and neck but a cracking Yorker that Freddie Flintoff would’ve been proud of from Purity’s Packaging Manager Bjorn, completely stumped the batsman and the middle stump was knocked out of the pitch which saw jubilant celebrations led by Bjorn. Meaning Gordie had led the Yorkers to a nail biting victory.
It was then time for the presentations which this year included, batsman of the match, and bowler of the match, the not-so-man of the match, Pure Gold moment of the match and the highly coveted man of the match. This year it was a tough pick and took much deliberation between the marketing departments due to the surprising exceedingly high standard of cricket from some players this year, but there were a few stand out candidates.
The winners from the night were:
Batsman of the Match – Jonny Winters
Bowler of the Match – Paul Evans
Not-so-man of the Match – Was a tie between Flo Vialan for losing 3 wickets in a row and Bjorn Richards for a calamitous mix up with a run out.
Pure Gold Moment of the Match – Myles Pinfold for an incredible catch on the boundary that saved a 6 and the match for the Yorkers.
Man of the Match – Alex Willis, for a great all round performance with bat and ball.
Overall it was a cracking evening of cricket, fun, laughs and was great to see so many people come and enjoy themselves in the sun with plenty of our award winning brews and as our founder Paul Halsey said on the night, “Our annual cricket match is one of my personal highlights of the year and it is always a pleasure to host these events with our friends, customers, suppliers and the whole team at Purity who have supported us since day one to today. Here’s to a lot more beer, fun and great memories!”
For more images from this years Purity Match Special head to our Facebook gallery here!
