Pink Hat Project

This one feels as if it's getting more alive now.

The Pink Hat Project was an idea that first came up a couple of months ago now while chatting with one of my dearest friends over online chat. We had a colleague who touched our team a little while ago ... She was one of the mainstays of a small team that got absorbed into our larger team and always answered my big popup meerkat grin with a little smile of her own.

But ... she's also been touched by breast cancer over the last couple of years and although we've seen her occasionally feeling well enough to be able to come in, she's really struggled. So remembering her (aka The Rose) is part of my inspiration to be the focus for a charity effort instead of just the contributor.

Thumper is also an inspiration for this, the original Pink Hat Project idea was spawned after me thinking "Why can't I do that too ?"

There's a simple answer to that : In a year or two, I won't be able to. Although I don't look much older than when I was at uni, at 37 I can feel the advancing years catching up to me. I'd still be able to bat and impersonate a fielder but if I can't Run Real Fast, I don't think there'd be a point in continuing the cricket. I have to be in the team on merit or not at all. Hopefully losing weight will give me another few seasons, at least long enough to make it worth buying the gear I'm intending to pick up.

But ... most sporty charity stuff involves running a half marathon or something like that. I'm not built for that. I don't have any significant run-for-miles endurance but have very good recuperation powers. I'm built for short fast sprints and lots of them. Cricket is the perfect game for me. And cricket over a season is a marathon because it's a very easy game to get injured in and someone like me will be carrying injuries over several games, plus you do more running in the field than you'd expect.

So my sponsorship idea revolves around cricket. And that can get really complicated as (if the shoulder behaves) I can do everything on the cricket field :

Cash for runs as a batsman (I'll expect lots*)
Stumpings if I'm needed as a wicket keeper (these are rare)
Catches held (more as keeper)
Run outs caused (lolworthy if I'm batting!)
Wickets (unlikely to happen unless I can bowl more than just doosras)

* While I've held my catches and won games with my bowling, (6 wickets in a game once, 4 wickets several times) I've never scored a 50 with the bat. That's something I Want to do, it's unfinished business. I've also turned games with my fielding, keeping the runs down, getting key run outs or holding important catches. But while I've anchored sides to wins, I've never had that massive innings of my own.

Other performance sponsorship options are things like Cash per Game played. And I intend to play as much as my body lets me this summer. And then play anyway if I'm feeling slow. Oh, another reason for thinking about doing this is to give me some solid motivations to continue playing.

So there we have it :

Pink Hat Project = Sleepypete trying to get as much cricket in as possible, wearing as much pink gear as I can acquire. That's been a struggle :

Pink cap - acquired, although I'm uncomfortable about wearing England badged gear on the field. I haven't earned that right.
Pink floppy hat - only idea I have here is to get a red one and leave it outside to get sunbleached.
Pink keeping gloves - these exist ... but I'd need to know I'd be keeping wicket.
Pink bat grip - I can get one of these at Globe Sports and will do so when I know which bat I'll use this summer.
Pink helmet - think I'd be able to get a pink cover for mine ... more investigation needed.

That's the limit for pink stuff though. We play with red balls and in the evenings when the light starts becoming a factor, so pink outfit + red ball = tricky to see -> unhappy opposition.

As for the fund raising bit, I'll be looking at Justgiving.com. I've seen other people posting up links to Justgiving and a colleague did a similar sponsored cricket thing a couple of seasons ago, I think using Justgiving.

That's it for now - Pink Hat Project feels like it's getting closer to reality the more I show people the picture of the Pink Hat I got last Friday :-)