Mansfield Hosiery Mills honour long-serving clubman at inaugural President’s Day but lose derby clash with Clipstone

Hosiery Mills honoured president and long time member Stephen Maurice Brown, former player, trustee, committee member and the son of Maurice Brown, one of the original founders of the club, on the day.

But the game itself did not go so well for the home side as Clipstone chalked up a huge 319 score to win by 44 runs.

Hosiery Mills vice chairman Craig Gould said: “The day honoured Stephen for all his hard work and dedication over decades at the club.

“He is, and has been, integral to everything that happens at the club and is the reason, along with his wife Bernadette, that we are all here today and have such a fantastic facility, cricket club and place many of us have called home for many years.

“The work, dedication and personal sacrifices that the Brown family have made to keep this club going for so many years cannot be justifiably put into words.

“So it is only right that we uneviled a plaque and named our clubhouse The Stephen Maurice Brown Cricket Pavilion.

“The day went fantastically well thanks, it had a little bit of everything.

“Over the past few weeks, we have been in close contact with Clipstone CC to name our President's Day charity beneficiary as The Lashes Foundation, in honour of Evie Wilson who took her own life at age 13.

“The Wilson family, who run the Foundation, are Clipstone members and were in attendance.

“It was an emotional day, the cricket game was fantastic, and Stephen was overwhelmed with the speeches and plaque unveiling and the Wilson family and Clipstone were really touched by everything about the occasion.

“Both teams and guests dined together in the interval and really came together.

“The pink hats worn by both teams and pink stumps really brought the Lashes Foundation into the fixture and occasion.”

Choosing to bat, Clipstone were 319-9 from their 50 overs and it was written in the stars that Evie’s dad Lee Wilson was the standout performer, opening the batting and scoring 156 runs from 92 balls.

On reaching his century he became very emotional, running from the pitch to hug his son who was in the scorebox - a lovely and touching moment for Lee and his family which was met with loud applause across the whole ground.

“Lee said after the game ‘she was definitely with me today’ which nobody could argue with,” said Gould.

Taylor Wright added 57 runs and Chris Fletcher 40 with Dan Harris taking 3-60 and Ranitha Liyanarachchi 3-69.

Hosiery Mills made a good fist of the chase but fell short with 275-9, Sri Lankan professional Liyanarachchi hitting a superb 110 runs from 88 balls.

Opener Kamal Manek scored 26 and Charana Nanayakkara 58.

“Although it was a very competitive game of cricket, both teams embraced the occasion for Stephen Brown, a true local cricketing legend and he was honoured accordingly, as were the Wilson family and the Lashes foundation,” said Gould.

Lots of current and ex-Millers players travelled from all over the country to attend on Saturday.

Gould added: “Mansfield Hosiery Mills and Clipstone would like to send our deepest condolences to Blidworth Colliery Cricket Club for the sudden passing of their club legend and local cricketing icon Ritchie ‘Gibbo’ Gibbons, who passed away suddenly on 23rd June.

“Our thoughts are with his family and everyone connected with Blidworth Colliery Cricket Club at this time.

“Hosiery Mills will be wearing black arm bands in their upcoming fixtures as a tribute to Ritchie.”

Also in Division Two, Thoresby Colliery lost by seven wickets at Collingham & District.

Thoresby were all out for 139 and Collingham reached 142-3 in 29.3 overs.