Chesterfield team spirit
by Mike Taylor, 11th June 2003

Rumours that the Chesterfield Cricket Club, currently leading the Derbyshire Premier League, is fuelled with vodka are dismissed as being highly inaccurate. Having said that, some of the more senior members of the squad are well stocked up with a premium brand now that VK Vodka Kick are sponsoring a Man of the Match Award for Premier games on Queen’s Park.

The Award (restricted to members of the home team!) is in the form of a large bottle of VK Vodka Kick’s excellent Pure Vodka. The potential problem of the Award going to one of the First Eleven’s younger (and under-aged) players was an issue, but this has now been satisfactorily resolved and carefully constructed contingency plans are in place should one of the young players be selected as Man of the Match.

These plans include giving full recognition to the young player for his achievement whilst withholding the vodka. Skipper Grizzly Adams has kindly offered a way out of the predicament by taking responsibility for ensuring the bottle is consumed by an older and more experienced player. Grizz has also offered to keep the young Award winner in soft drinks for the rest of the night.

To date the system has not been tested as the five Award winners have all been well above the legal age for consumption of alcohol. One such example was Andy Brown, who took the inaugural Award with his undefeated 83 to save Chesterfield against Clifton in what eventually became a rain-ruined match. He was followed by Simon Lacey for his all-round performance in the defeat by Sandiacre Town.

Thereafter the vodka effect kicked in as Chesterfield won their next three games on Queen’s Park. Grizz took a bottle for his fine 76 in the cup clash with Sawley and Long Eaton Park and Simon Lacey took his second Award with another great all-round contribution. The most recent winner was Ray Karim for his devastating spell of 5-23 against Denby. As a exceptionally healthy abstainer, Ray stayed on bottles of Apple Tango all night. Grizz picked a bad weekend to be away.

VK Vodka Kick’s generous support does afford an opportunity to pay a tribute in the pavilion to outstanding performances on the field and it works particularly well with such a great team spirit!