Our Deputy Chief Executive, Ben Morrin, has shared a short article about being invited to represent our Trust at Goodmayes Cricket Club’s annual family event:

I was touched to be invited to Goodmayes Cricket Club. It is a lovely club that plays at Goodmayes Park with women’s, men’s, and youth teams.

We were invited because the club wanted their annual event, for all their players, their families, and friends, to honour what the NHS has achieved for them in the last year.

The Mayor of Redbridge Councillor Roy Emmett, who is councillor for those of you who live in Hainault ward, came along and passed on a certificate to all of us.

The Mayor and I then gave out certificates to all the players and one young bowler who bowled a lot faster than me!

Close to a hundred people were there to enjoy ‘Masti’ (which translates as fun and mischief) – wonderful food infused with colour that is designed to create an expression of a new India.

Many of our teams here are of Indian descent and it was lovely to enjoy the event on Indian Independence Day too. At the end of the awards, the crowd kept shouting “vijay!” which means victory. Though I was told that was normally shouted out to remember independence, the chair of the cricket club said that this year, the message was meant for us, to wish us continued success in tackling Covid-19!