Matt Maher: Whistle blowers shining a light on latest venture
One of the region’s most popular cricket tournaments has been revived – thanks to a group of non-league football referees.
Teams from the Black Country and Shropshire will descend on Himley Cricket Club next week for five nights of high-paced entertainment as the ground hosts its first floodlit competition since 2019.
The relaunched event has been rebranded The Floodlit and is an evolution of the Black Country T20 tournament, which took place every August for 10 summers from 2010.
It has been organised by The Whistle Foundation, a charity which – as the name might suggest – has its origins in a very different sport.
“We’re all football referees, who officiate in non-league. That’s how we know each other,” explains Jamie Lunn, the foundation’s strategic projects director. “It started with four of us, now there are seven.”
Like many charities, the foundation grew out of one fundraising event, though its story also contains an element of tragedy.
That inaugural event, a referees v referees football match at Wolves’ Compton Park training ground in support of the St John’s Ambulance, was organised in part by Richard Eades, a fellow non-league official who was more popularly known for playing Albion’s Baggie bird mascot. When Eades passed away suddenly in December 2017, the fundraising continued in his memory.
“We vowed to keep the football match going. We also held a couple of golf days,” says Lunn. “We started the Foundation up expecting to maybe do a couple of events but from there it has completely snowballed. We never dreamed it would become what it has now.
