Barmy Army Fundraiser 1st Jan 2003

The first of January saw the Barmy Army's largest fundraising event of the tour so far. Somewhere between 1,300 and 1,500 people came along to the Beach Palace Hotel in Coogee for a fundraising evening in aid of the Leukaemia Research Foundation of Australia.

The highlights of the evening were the Oasis tribute band that played for around 4 hours in total and according to most Oasis fans that were there was the best concert that they have ever been to!!! Roni Irani being questioned by Dermot Reeve on stage about the legitimacies of calling "No Ball" to Brett Lee from the terraces, and the local DJ on the top floor who had everyone dancing the night away (especially when Dermot put in a guest appearance on the bongo's)

Paul 'leafy' Burnham and members of the Barmy Army present a cheque Photo © Barmy Army

Firstly, I must say a massive thank you to Fiona Reeve who was responsible for organising the evening, and who spent several months traipsing around Sydney to find the right venue for the night, DJ's, bands, marketing and a celebrity ex-England player to host the evening!! Despite being heavily pregnant in the lead up to the event she still managed to make it the huge success that it was. Congratulations Fiona and Dermot, firstly on the birth of your son Jude and secondly for the $23,000 that we raised for the Foundation.

Thank you Dermot for running the evening, you were the most sociable being in the building; giving everyone an equal share of your time. The piece de resistance being charging people for your autograph or photo depending on what they could afford to help raise those few extra bucks for the fund.

Roni Irani's Q & A session was probably the biggest crowd puller, with people cramming to get into the bar in order to at least hear what he had to say. As usual he amused the crowd with stories of the tour, but also patted everyone on the back for the support that they had shown to the England Team over the last three months.

The funniest incident of the evening involved our erstwhile door wardens Lisa and Deena, who were confronted by a good looking young man called Nick Knight! "Nick who" said Lisa. "Nick Knight from the England team" said Nick "oops" said Lisa and Deena, who promptly escorted him through to the party somewhat red in the face!!!

Well done everybody for the massive amount that we raised.

Lets hope that in 4 years time we have a nice day and can play a game of cricket too!!

We are currently looking for kidney donations from sober people if you know anyone?

Signed bats x 3 (Adam Hollioake)

Green D 30
Orange A 25
Red F 34

Pair of tickets for the ODI between England and Sri Lanka on the 13th Jan at the SCG x 5

Orange C 15
Green D 78
Purple B 18
Green B 80
Green F 52

Trips to the Blus Mountains x 7

Green F 55
Green D 98
Orange E 66
Orange E19
Red D 46
Red B 32
Red F 67

MCG Tours x 5

Red F 1

CUB Brewery Tours (Melbourne) x 5

Red D 5

Weekend retreat for 2

Green F 1

2 Bottles of wine

Purple A 70

2 tickets for the sunday of the South Africa Test at Lords

Orange A 97