YOUNG Afghan refugees in Berlin will be receiving a welcome surprise from Marlborough Cricket Club after the club donated sports kit for the children to enjoy.

Earlier this year the charity mayor’s match raised a total of £640 which was being raised to buy equipment for the Afghan refugees who are settling in Berlin. As well as pads, gloves and stumps, the cricket club also donated a score board for the team.

Ed Puddick, 36, of St Martins, Marlborough, said: “The local rector at St Mary’s Church, Janneke Blokland, comes from Germany and used to work in a church in Berlin. She was saying how there are young Afghan refugees there, so we decided to make the annual charity cricket match a fundraiser so we could send some things over for them. The match took place in August and we managed to smash our fundraising target of £400, so we were very happy.”

After finding a supplier for the sports kit in Uzi Qureshi from Uzi Sports in Swindon, Mr Puddick just needed to find a way of getting the kit over to Berlin.

“We have a good relationship with Uzi, we buy kit from him often. He offered to sell us the things we needed to send at a lower cost, trader prices really. After that it was just finding a place that would be able to deliver the kit. I was expecting it to cost over £100 but was hoping to see if they could maybe pop the kit on a delivery already going to Berlin, so I called Young European, a delivery company in Marsden, and asked and they said they would be more than happy to help,” added Mr Puddick.