Russell Grant's Statement

Dear Friends

I broke ties with the Summer Colts Cricket Leagues well over a year ago due to ill-health and business matters. One year later, early June, I received a Mayday call from the organiser, Bob, asking if I would help out. I said I would.

Three weeks later, another call came would I help, again, I said I would.

After discussing the situation with Jeff Barnes, the new Chair of the competition, I said I would be happy to get involved once more, but being based between Snowdonia and the Isle of Man my help could come via administration and talking to various sponsors.

When I looked at the amount of entries for the this season and also the administration of the competition I must admit to being surprised.

My reason for contacting you is to let you know about the changes in the competition, including a change of name, Premier League Cricket for Colts. We are now dedicated to one charity (my wish) Alzheimer's and Dementia: Research for a Cure - and also follows the vision of Jeff Barnes to create a more national colts competition, which, I was very pro.

In the past week we have been given generous sponsorship by the Rothermere Foundation (Daily Mail) who are fellow supporters of the Alzheimer's Society, and ITV have also come in to support the competitions by broadcasting on their website games on www.itvlocal.com

As part of the changes I have suggested to Jeff that the hefty deposit of £50 is dropped as any deterrent should be in the loss of points - much as the FA does when a club goes into administration - this will be outlined in the rules.

I do hope you will support the competition, if only because a lot of hard work will be active from now to ensure that what we do what is good for young cricketers, their/your clubs, a most worthy charity (now the second biggest killer in the UK) and also investing the sponsorship money into our family of clubs; there will be prizes and awards invested up to £500 into each age-group. How this will be determined will be announced in the next week.

If you left us because you were unhappy in anyway, I hope I can assure you that this not-for-profit venture is back in business and we welcome you and your friends to join us once again. Deadline for entry is noon next Monday.

Entry is £15 per team plus a discretionary £5 donation to Alzheimer's - £500 invested in awards to each age-group.

The website, which I note has not been updated since I left (!) is now being quickly updated and rebranded www.cricketcolts.co.uk by Editor Sean McArdell: we would welcome any information from last season for archive although we are chasing this up with the previous organiser.

If there is anything you would like to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me or Jeff Barnes direct, we are here to do what we can to make summer cricket for colts enjoyable.

Thank you for your past support and hoping to enjoy it in the future - at the bottom of this E-mail is the flyer we mailed out yesterday with other information.

Best wishes
Russell (Grant)