A sportsman blended his twin passions of cricket and golf to complete a unique fundraising challenge.
Burghley Park cricketer Alex Ashwin joined forces with an old university friend, Steve Williams, this month to complete the 18-18-10 challenge – 18 holes of golf in each of the 18 first-class cricket counties over 10 days.
Having worked at The Leicestershire Golf Club, Alex, from Wittering, now runs his own business, doing cricket ground maintenance in the summer and garden maintenance over the winter.
Alex (left) took on 18 courses in 10 days in 18 different counties with Steve
“We thought ‘let’s do something next year’ because we don’t see each other a huge amount,” he said.
“We’re both golfers and cricketers and met at uni playing cricket, so we thought let’s try and link the two together.
“It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but it was good fun.”
Alex turned down golf buggies and instead walked 130 miles while playing
The challenge produced some impressive stats.
Alex, who plays off a handicap of plus-one, refused golf buggies and walked 130 miles over the 18 rounds – the equivalent of five marathons – while driving 1,400 miles between courses.
“It was very hit and miss,” Alex recalled. “I had some very, very good rounds mixed in with some very, very poor rounds.
“There were some pretty dark times on the course between a fair few holes when we didn’t say much to each other because golf was definitely beating us.”
Alex admits the quality of golf was mixed during such an intense schedule of rounds
Fundraising for Alzheimer’s Research and prostate cancer charity, The Bob Willis Fund, their tally so far stands at £1,850, exceeding their £1,800 target.
They would now like to reach £2,000 and their fundraising page – www.gofundme.com/f/alex-steves-181010-challenge – will remain open until at least the end of August for donations.
Alex’s clubmates at Burghley Park, where he is First XI captain, have helped boost the total with a sweepstake to guess how many shots he would take to tame the 324 holes.
Steve in action
Despite the physical and mental fatigue, he got round in 1,328 shots, averaging an impressive 73 shots per round.
While choosing the Bob Willis Fund, set up after the death of the former England cricket captain, speaks for itself, Alzheimer’s Research is close to the Ashwin family’s heart.
“My grandma’s suffering with Alzheimer’s and has been for seven or eight years now,” Alex explained.
“Every opportunity I get to do anything fundraising it tends to be for Alzheimer’s Research now.”
Alex (left) and Steve started their challenge with the southern counties
Starting around Steve’s Guildford home, they opened with Essex and Kent on day one before tackling Surrey, Middlesex, Sussex and Hampshire.
“We did two counties a day other than the weekend in the middle of the 10 days,” Alex explained.
“It’s very difficult to get a spot as a visitor at a decent golf course on a Saturday or Sunday morning because it tends to be reserved for members, so two in a day at a weekend wasn’t going to work.”
Swinging west they conquered Somerset, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Lancashire before heading north to Yorkshire and Durham.
They then came back down, using Alex’s home as a base to tick off the East Midlands leg – Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
