Faith in Humanity

Some of the cricket kit Project Front Foot have provided for refugee teams in Normandy

This week, a van from Project Front Foot arrived in Caen and mes’ garage was filled by loads of cricket kit, equipment and clothing, for the refugee cricket teams in Caen and Avranches: bats, pads, gloves, helmets, boxes, lots of cricket clothing including cable-knit sweaters, all donated by various bodies and people in the UK. There are even some junior/Kwik Cricket bats and other bits and pieces.

It all arrived on Thursday and this morning mes and Julia, the social worker for the refugees, have gone through it all, making inventories and dividing it into two equal parts for the two groups.

They are keeping back some extra-warm stuff for refugees who arrive this coming winter and also a bag full of brand new tops which will be prizes in the cricket tournament they’re going to be organising this summer.

Mes and Julia with just some of the kit
This photo is from Thursday evening, before everything was sorted through

Today, the kit began to be distributed. If you want to see what a happy refugee looks like, see the next photograph.

With all the shit going on all over, and my faith in humanity being sorely tested, this story has kept me together in recent times and I have the utmost respect for everyone involved, from mes and Julia to the donors in the UK, the players in Normandy and elsewhere, but especially for Front Foot Forward, who have been doing this stuff for fifteen years.

They started off in the slums of Mumbai (or Bombay, as Ravi would have said) and this next picture is of them doing just that:

This is their website. Please do look at it:

https://projectfrontfoot.org

You can also get more up to the minute news on their Facebook page (if you can face Facebook). It’s https://www.facebook.com/projectfrontfoot

I’ll either post more photos up here or below the line. I want to get this out now, so will not fiddle around any more.

394 thoughts on “Faith in Humanity”

  1. A poem, a veritable poem, for the season.

    THE MAY-POLE.
    by Robert Herrick

           THE May-pole is up,
           Now give me the cup,
    I’ll drink to the garlands around it ;
           But first unto those
           Whose hands did compose
    The glory of flowers that crown’d it.

           A health to my girls,
           Whose husbands may earls
    Or lords be, granting my wishes,
           And when that ye wed
           To the bridal bed,
    Then multiply all, like to fishes.

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    1. The only place I ever came across a permanently used maypole was the George Inn at Belton (Leicestershire), spent many enjoyable tays there whilst working in the East Midlands. Wonderful food, great company from the locals.

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  2. Parky returns to OT tomorrow, for those of you who enjoy it when events reach the ‘find out’ stage.

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  3. Duane Eddy.

    I’d never heard of him when this was released in 1975 and I went out and bought it. Still have it.

    Not his greatest-ever record but I’m very glad I have it. Proper legend, when you think about it.

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  4. Don’t forget to load up your teams with Sussex and Lanky players; not only are they certain to succeed, these teams also play twice in this extended round. (Also Glammy players and presumably someone else.)

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    2. That is just terrible news. I picked up on the story while updating fantasy sides for the next round. Joe Baker had done so well in the few first-class matches he had played. Seemed to be a very well liked young man and a very promising cricketer. Feel gutted for his family and for Worcestershire CCC.

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    2. Yesterday, during the midday Colombia news, within the section of international news, for which they always reserve about 5 minutes, they showed this ship arriving in France and the Olympic torch being lit for the first time on French soil. At the moment Colombian news is very much dominated by serious flooding in various parts of the country, this includes avalanches, so we have a weather double whammy at present. Low levels of water in the reservoirs due to the dry weather over several months, with water and electricity rationing being applied, and now serious floods because the rain has arrived with a vengeance.

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    1. The article is a must-read.

      Ronay wrote this yesterday (it’s linked in today’s article):

      https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/may/08/the-hundred-franchises-english-and-wales-cricket-board-stake

      I remind everyone that:

      There are 41 members of the ECB:

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    1. They knocked Barcelona out of the basketball Euro League last night, so sort of and in a weird way.

      Some of their followers are complete c**ts though, dangerous people with weapons, so I don’t support them at all, as such.

      Their ‘owner’ also ‘owns’ Nottingham Forest, as I expect you know.

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  14. Following up on my long reply to you on CCLive! about St Fagan’s, the last sentence was a serious ‘thank you’, as just being able to think about St Fagan’s for 5 minutes really helped her to calm down after suddenly finding the homework that some See You Next Tuesday of a Philosophy teacher put online on the last weekend of the holidays, when Monday is her ‘Bacc Blanc’ (or Mock A-Level). Good news always helps! Cheers, rrt!

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      1. My Cardiff born wife knows St. Fagan’s well but is still trying to recall where The Vulcan used to be located before the rebuild …

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        1. The articles say at 10 Adam Street, but from a very long look at Google maps and their street view, I think it’s where the new University of South Wales ‘campus’ is, and that address is 86-88 Adam Street.

          It’s that north side of the road, I’m sure, near the arena place/where Churchill Way starts. Not sure which side of the railway line that would be…

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        2. If you’re coming into town along Newport Road, and then you turn left before going under the railway (before Queen Street), you’re now heading towards the prison (which is on the right). The road bends to the right, and now there’s a big junction where you can turn left again and head down the dual carriageway towards the Bay (cinemas, Doctor Who museum, etc.). If, instead of turning left, you continue straight on, I believe the pub was along there on the left.

          See map down this page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vulcan,_Cardiff#/map/0

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          1. If I’m right this time, it is indeed south of the road, and the spot should be marked by a big red pointer in this. It’s now a car park, for god’s sake.

            https://www.google.com/maps/place/Adam+St,+Cardiff+CF24+2FN/@51.4785509,-3.1694882,51m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x486e1cc9d19437f9:0x63b2d11a01c17def!2sAdam+St,+Cardiff!3b1!8m2!3d51.4794535!4d-3.1679463!16s%2Fg%2F1tf6lmvk!3m5!1s0x486e1cb61e9c2d59:0x9cac5e2baa016b6d!8m2!3d51.4785843!4d-3.1693598!16s%2Fg%2F11ckqmcjst?entry=ttu

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            1. A bit further west, the other side of the railway but on the same side of the road, is what’s now known as the Citrus Hotel.

              It’s a converted 1960s office block, which when it opened as a hotel, 25 years ago, was called The Big Sleep and was part-owned by John Malkovich and maybe some more Hollywood film people.

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    1. I’d forgotten that Paul McCartney wrote this back in 1969, but still to this day remember the fragment “Songs that linger on my lips
      Excite me now and linger on my mind”

      it’s a funny old thing, memory ..,

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  19. I’ve said on here before that Jason Holder is one of my favourite cricketers.

    He’s just gone up in my estimation.

    Do watch the video in this:

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    2. Anyone who follows cricket will have come to admire Jason for his performances on the field at the highest level over many years. His simple, sincere gesture in memory of Josh Baker on reaching his century in the last round has endeared him to most cricket lovers, including myself, who now regard him not just as a fine cricketeer but as a very special human being – and who has surely made a lot of new ‘chums’ in the UK. Just hope that he comes back soon, and hasn’t been put off by coming to play in temperatures near zero with the wind chill factor. The cold must have been something of a shock to him coming from the West Indies.

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  21. Urban dictionary corner:

    Good news for Lankies, I’ve discovered that ‘golf’ is an acronym of ‘Games of Lower-division Fruitfulness’. (citation needed) So, when Jimmy Anderson said he’d have more time to “play golf”, it means he’s intending to steer Lanky to next season’s Party Division title.

    HTH!

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    1. Jimmy ought to be careful as YJB found out golf can be an extremely dangerous sport. I can also vouch for this. I never was a golfer because my working life was so busy that I simply never had enough time to do the game justice. But probably like most people I got conned by people I knew to give it a try once in a while. So one day I went to Uxbridge golf course and did play a round. The only ball I hit out of the middle of the club in that round went like a missile and hit a sappling about 40 meters away. The sappling duly bent from the force of the ball hitting it and acted like a catapult sending my ball back from whence it came. I swear that had I not immediately dived to the ground it would have taken my head off. To make matters worse the ball continued on its way and I ended up twenty yards further back from the green than where I had played the shot.

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  23. There haven’t been many free-to-read versions of Times articles recently, but there are two today:

    Atherton

    West Indies show replacing Anderson and Broad could take years

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e66dd0f9-c298-4965-bc82-e022804e0eb8?shareToken=059b994fe0f65d99b1c16d33ed66d705

    And Elizabeth Ammon

    T20 World Cup pitch grown in cake tins and driven 1,200 miles to New York

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/81d7dde8-8885-488d-83c8-8fc63bcb05d0?shareToken=03b9b69e716316ca51c49afe4dae4534

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  24. Like

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  25. Next Monday is the 83rd anniversary of the start of the Battle of Crete and I plan to go to the annual ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery a few kms from here on the 25th.

    Many Australians as well as New Zealanders and British fought in it, and the first memorial in Australia dedicated exclusively to the battle was unveiled last Saturday in Kings Park in Perth, a couple of kms from the WACA.

    A 105 year old veteran of the battle, Arthur Leggett, was there.

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  26. Parky (C) is in at Abergavenny (where Mark Wallace and Geraint Jones played) and Lancashire 2nd XI are 66 for 6 in reply to Glamorgan’s 333 all out.

    Two wickets each (so far) for Timm van der Gugten and Harry Podmore on their return after injury.

    It’s the third day of four and I wonder how the match will go.

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  27. I see that Sunak intends to stay on as an MP even if the Tories are defeated. A year ago I was in Richmond and out of curiosity asked one or two locals what it was like to have the PM as MP. The politest response I got was ‘never see t’buggar’. Not saying that the Tories will lose Richmond – it’s almost unthinkable, but if he thinks he is popular in his constituency this is yet another instance of him being totally out of touch with reality.

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