Cricketers grin and bare it! (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Cricketers grin and bare it!

THE wicket looked unusually bare for late September when the men of Corsley Cricket Club strolled out to the middle for the final time last season.

With stumps, bats and balls strategically and tastefully placed, the team abandoned their whites for an afternoon of exposure, all in the name of charity.

As the England cricket team were posing for magazine covers after their famous Ashes victory over Australia, the local versions of Flintoff, Pieterson and Vaughan were posing for a naked calendar on Corsley playing field, which has gone on sale this week.

The photoshoot took place in September, the week after the final village game of the season.

Club chairman Dave Johnson recalled the bright autumnal day he and his teammates stripped bare for the cameras.

"At the beginning of the season there was soon talk in the changing rooms about doing a charity calendar," he said.

"Fraser Carruth, the landlord at The Cross Keys where we go to drink after each home match, suggested we should do a nude version.

"Before we could say no he'd organised the whole thing. In September he arranged for local photographer Lucinda Stokes to take our pictures and that was that.

"She took four snaps of each of us I believe I'm Mr January. It was a bit of a laugh really and we decided the funds should go to Cancer Research UK, and specifically to the male cancer research department."

Team captain Gavin Pratt said: "I know some of the team were quite nervous but we all enjoyed it really.

"While some of guys were having their pictures taken, the rest of us played cricket in our towels on the outfield it was all very relaxed."

To order a copy of the calendar, which cost £5 each, contact Gavin Pratt on (01985) 216425.