Milford Hall to clock up miles to boost charity

MILFORD Hall Cricket Club are on a tour of South Staffordshire to support a charity launched by a former player.

Players and members are walking, running and cycling the return distances to all the clubs in the Staffs Club Championship throughout the month of June.

And that clocks in at a whopping 1,126 miles... and to make the challenge even harder, they’ve rounded up the figure to 1,200.

It’s all in aid of the charity Milestone, which was launched by ex-milford Hall player Chris Paget.

Paget went on to play for Derbyshire, but has suffered personal issues in recent years. He now works as a lawyer in London.

“Chris was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and he hid it for a while,” said Milford Hall captain Stuart Phazey.

“As a result he went through mental health issues and didn’t know where to turn. That was until his wife said she had booked him in for therapy and he was going to attend.

“He’s now set up the charity to help to tackle mental health through sport.

“I’ve been through some iffy times with mental health and most men are stubborn and don’t talk.

“Sport is used to vent frustrations and this is a way to signpost people about awareness.

“As a club we’re happy to be supporting this charity and I’m keen that if people are struggling, they can pick up the phone to me and say as much.”

Milford Hall’s challenge has been split in to two parts.

Members and players will be taking on the huge distance collectively... while Phazey and Kev Royce will be doing it as a duo.

“The idea is that members use any form of leg power - walking, running, cycling - to do it together,” added Phazey.

“There could be 10 members chipping away at it or 40. We will then get the data through Strava to check our progress.

“The second part is myself and Kev Royce. We spoke about cycling to every ground in our division, which is 80 miles, in one day.

“But we decided against that and are now going to do the main challenge between us - 600 miles each.”

If you would like to support the club in their charity effort, please visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/milfordhallmilestone