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Fundraisers for TV legend's beloved cricket club

BBC Sir Michael ParkinsonBBC
Sir Michael Parkinson, who retired in 2007, lived in Bray for decades

Special events will be held for the benefit of a cricket club which Sir Michael Parkinson “poured his heart and soul into”.

A keen cricketer, broadcaster Sir Michael joined Maidenhead and Bray Cricket Club in Berkshire in the 1970s and became its president in 1987.

His son Mike, who is the club’s chairman, is involved in two events to raise funds to revamp the clubhouse on two days later this month, including a celebrity cricket match.

Players are expected to include Chris Tarrant and his son Toby, TV presenter Toby Anstis, former England fast bowler Andy Caddick and BBC Radio Berkshire’s Ady Williams.

Getty Images Sir Michael Parkinson, wearing a blue jacket, grey jumper and light blue shirt under it, talking to Eoin Morgan, dressed in an England cricket top, in front of a tree and a hedge at the cricket club Getty Images
Sir Michael met England star and future captain Eoin Morgan at the club in August 2014

Chat show giant Sir Michael, who died in August 2023, was a keen sportsman and took part in many celebrity cricket matches.

Mike said: “Often fathers talk about how great they were at sport – I know I do to my children – but in the case of my father, he was a seriously good cricketer.

“He was good enough to go into the Yorkshire nets; he was good enough to be offered a contract to play for Hampshire. He was a very serious cricketer.”

But after the Yorkshire cricket great Fred Trueman “went about rearranging his stumps on many occasions”, Mike said his father, who was born and raised in Barnsley, realised he had “reached his peak”.

Getty Images Sir Michael Parkinson - wearing a red shirt and blue trousers and a white hat - stands behind stumps, with five players surrounding him at the Sydney match in February 2009Getty Images
Sir Michael took part in many charity matches and officiated in the Big Bash Twenty20 Victorian Bushfire Appeal charity match in Sydney in February 2009

Sir Michael came across Maidenhead and Bray’s ground while playing for Datchet when the Parkinsons lived in Windsor – but he moved his family to Bray and joined the club.

“He poured his heart and soul into the cricket club because he knew that [it] was a gem,” Mike said.

“He stood on the boundary of this magnificent ground with the [St Michael's] church in one corner and the River Thames slipping silently by in the other and this beautiful medieval village on the outskirts,” Mike told BBC Radio Berkshire.

Mike said his father “went about ensuring that [the club] never, ever got into the hands of grasping developers” and “never, ever got to a point where it couldn’t afford to play there”.

Getty Images Sir Michael Parkinson sat in the front row of a seated area at Lord's, with Theresa May sat behind him, them both laughing. Mrs May's husband Philip is sat to her right Getty Images
Sir Michael was snapped enjoying an England test match against Pakistan at Lord's in May 2018 with Theresa May, the then prime minister and his MP

“The one thing we really need to do is to make the facilities as a clubhouse fit for purpose.

"Like all of us who were born in the '70s – or before the '70s – we’re beginning to show our age. The pavilion, the clubhouse, is beginning to show its age and it needs a bit of a facelift,” Mike added.

A gala dinner on 24 August will include a performance by Joe Stilgoe, who Sir Michael championed, and the celebrity cricket day will follow the day after.

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