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Michael Vaughan opens the Cricket Centre The pupils and staff were delighted to meet Michael Vaughan, England’s ex Captain of Cricket, and his wife Nichola when he formally opened the Cricket Centre on Friday, 16th October. Representatives from Worcestershire County Cricket Club were present with Tom Newman, Master i/c of Cricket at Malvern (Housemaster of No.5) and professional coach Tim Roberts (ex-Northamptonshire County Cricket Club) along with Mark Hardinges (exGloucestershire CCC and Essex CCC) and Matthew Cleal (exSomerset CCC) who are also teachers at the College. The
Grand Opening of Sports Complex sporting guests for an informal question and answer session : the aforesaid Michael Vaughan, Jason Leonard, ex England rugby player, ex-England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, ex-England cricketer Graham Gooch and dual Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes. Inverdale is a past master at gently extracting anecdotes and indiscretions from his guests and, one after the other, they all entertained us with fascinating and humorous insights into the world of professional sport. Like many, I guess, I could have stayed all night. Alas, I had to go and I knew that my “Of course, this used to be a swimming pool,” impression of the whole occasion as being I told my neighbour, “and you’re sitting a rip-roaring success was confirmed when in Lane 4.” “Rubbish,” she scoffed, “Pour I saw all the taxis lined up outside. You yourself another glass of wine.” But she had always know it’s been a good do when taxi to eat her words when Lord MacLaurin, the drivers mill around in little groups, looking Chairman of the Council, made that very impatiently at their watches. point in his welcoming speech. We were all there to celebrate the opening of the new Andy Murtagh, ex-Master i/c Cricket and Sports Complex and I don’t suppose there ex-Housemaster of No.5 and No.7 was a man jack amongst us, either in his cups or not, who was not greatly impressed by the stunning building and the fabulous facilities. The cricket nets alone, opened earlier by Michael Vaughan, were to die for and brought to mind the old shed we used to practise in during wet weather down at Hampshire – and we were professionals! Not to mention the new (proper-sized) swimming pool, fitness suite, dance studio, squash courts, shooting range and other state-of-the-art amenities incorporated in this… this… complex. Aptly named, because I had got lost in it earlier. But Malvern doesn’t do razzmatazz, I said to myself as we searched for our table in the new Hospitality Suite, with flashing lights, loud music and colourful displays erupting all around. Well, it does now, I was forced to reconsider when the stage was illuminated with brilliant spotlights picking out the Malvern crest, looming large and luminescent, as a spectacular backdrop. Then the Head called us all to order to say Grace and the world tipped back on its axis.
Over coffee and chocolates, the suave and avuncular figure of TV presenter, John Inverdale, took to the stage to introduce his
school’s 1st XI cricket squad put on a display of fielding in the eight court sports hall and batted in the new nets, to demonstrate how useful these facilities will be both for the school and for WCCC who are using the centre as their indoor training facility. The boys were very excited to bowl a few balls at and thrilled to be able to meet him – he may just have been, to some of them, the most important visitor of the day.