Micky to take to the field on Friday 10th
Manager Micky Mellon will be pulling on his cricket whites to play for a Shrewsbury Town Staff XI in a friendly challenge match in the town next week.The Town boss will take his place in a Greenhous Meadow side to be captained by chief executive Matt Williams, a keen cricketer.
The Town XI will play a Reman Services junior representative team at their Albert Road ground next Friday, July 10 (6pm start) in a 10 overs per side match.
The Town team is also expected to include CEO Matt Williams, physio Chris Skitt together with Jamie Edwards, the club's community development manager, and kit man Dave Ashlin will also be in action. Australian James Wesolowski and defender Nat Knight-Percival, both on the comeback trail from injury, are expected to attend to take part in the presentation to the juniors.
The match has been organised through Ashlin's close links with Reman where his son, Ed, is first team captain while he also regularly turn out for the club too.
Micky Mellon is looking forward to taking a break from football ahead of the first game of pre-season the next day at Market Drayton.
“I would use the term playing cricket very loosely, I’m going to stand on a cricket pitch and be seen to be taking part”, said Micky.
“I think it’s a good thing and we try and get into the local community and try and get involved as much as possible.”
“We’ll go and give some lads a game of cricket, it’s about as basic as that really and hopefully we come out of it one piece.
“Matt Williams is self appointed captain as I think he fancies himself a little bit and he’s the opening spinner and all that type of stuff.
“We will let him go and enjoy himself and we will make the numbers up and see how well he does.”
The Town manager made around 500 appearances during his football career but cricket isn’t something he’s taken part in much. He has though lined up opposite England international James Anderson, “I’ve played one game when I was seventeen, actually when I was at Burnley I played against Jimmy Anderson.
“We used to play them pre-season on the cricket club next to Burnley’s ground and Jimmy played.
“He threw one ball and I didn’t even know he had thrown it, the next thing I knew the ball was about 20 yards behind me so I thought I needed to get out of there sharpish.
“That’s the only time and then you couldn’t really call it playing cricket, rounders is the national racket sport of Scotland.”
Reman stalwart Shane Gwilt hopes plenty of people will flock to Albert Road to enjoy what promises to be a fun evening which also features a barbecue. Bar facilities will also be available.
Gwilt said: "It will be a fantastic night and we're really looking forward to welcoming the Shrewsbury Town staff team to Albert Road.
"As a club, we're keen to build on our strong links within the community and our junior sides, and having Shrewsbury Town come along for a friendly match can only enhance that.
"There's been lots of connections between our club and Shrewsbury Town over the years as the likes of Arthur Rowley, Bob Tooze, Alan Boswell and Nigel Pearson all played cricket at Albert Road as well as serving the football club well."
The cricket match will be followed by Reman's junior presentation night in the Albert Road social club.