AS Bury Cricket Club look forward to another season, one date is already causing much excitement. On July 26 a Bury Select XI will play Lashings CC.

Lashings are a team based out of a Kent wine bar with a team sheet that reads like a Who's Who of world cricket.

Under the captaincy of Richie Richardson, players who turned out last year included Brian Lara, Allan Donald, Sir Viv Richards, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Inzaman Ul Haq, to name but a few!

The game has been arranged at the request of Bury player-coach Steve Dublin to raise funds for Hope Hospital Renal Unit. A while ago Steve underwent life-saving kidney surgery there and so the gate money from the game as well as funds from a sportsman's dinner with the Lashings team on the eve of the match should provide a handsome thank you!

On the playing front, senior winter nets are under way at Coney Green School every Sunday (4.15pm-5.45pm). All players old and new are invited to attend.