Cricket fan takes on race

A cricket fan is taking part in this weekend’s Bath Half wearing full whites, gloves and carrying a bat as part of a 14-month challenge to raise over £10,000 for charity.

Rob Cross, a 23-year-old marketing associate, is running 18 halfmarathons – one in each of the 18 first-class cricket counties – to raise money for Mind and cricket charity Chance to Shine.

He has so far travelled over 3,300 miles around the country as part of the challenge, and raised over £5,600 for the two charities. This weekend’s race will be Cross’s 16th and the second in two weeks, having run in Surrey last Sunday.

The challenge will finish with the full London Marathon in April next year, where Cross will also run in pads and a helmet.

“I decided to do the challenge because I want to try and raise more awareness of mental health,” he said.

“It’s a topic close to my heart as I h-ave close friends who have strug gled with it. This challenge also combines my love of cricket and Chance to Shine does amazing work in schools and communities throughout the country.

“-It’s definitely the most physi cally challenging task I’ve ever undertaken but I’m really proud to be able to support two fantastic charities and I’m really focussed on r-aising as much money and aware ness as possible.”

Cross’s current personal best without cricket kit is one hour, 36 minutes and he now has his sights set on breaking the Guinness World R-ecord for the quickest half-mara thon in cricket gear, which curr-ently stands at one hour 40 min utes.

“Breaking the world record would be amazing,” he added. “I’d love to do that and my times are getting quicker so I think I have a chance, but the main thing for me is raising as much money as I can for two fantastic charities.”

You can donate by visiting u-k.virginmoneygiving.com/rob Cross.