WHITE may be the colour most commonly associated with cricket but on Saturday the Swindon United Churches team turned the pitch pink.

The club’s Pink Saturday, which saw its Sevenhampton ground transformed into a fuchsia sporting festival, in aid of Against Breast Cancer.

The Abingdon-based charity works to fund pioneering research into new treatments, tools for earlier diagnosis and advice to reduce the risk of recurrence and secondary spread.

Saturday’s event was inspired by similar pink days that have taken place in Australia but there was also an underlying reason that lies much closer to home.

Team member Dan Hunt is part way through an unusual fundraising effort in memory of his grandmother Iris Hibbins, who died earlier this year and he was delighted when his teammates decided to hold the Pink Saturday event in her honour.

“My nan had suffered from breast cancer in her life and had done quite a lot of fundraising,” said the 29-year-old, from Liden.

“Back in April I was sat there - overweight and unfit - and I decided to give up fast food and alcohol for the entire cricket season.

“It started off as personal fundraising on my JustGiving page but then we had the idea for a pink day.”

Taking the field on Saturday against opponents Seagry, the United Churches players donned pink caps to go with the pink ball, pink stumps and pink decorations adorning the pavilion.

Not content with that effort, at the tea interval the players lined up at the far boundary, stripped to the waist but for their finest pink bras, before racing across the field to crown the Pink Saturday 100m champion.

Looking oddly comfortable sprinting along in a bra, Martin Garstang took the victory honours with Matthew Shadwick bringing up the rear.

“Today couldn’t have happened without the help of a lot of these lads,” said Dan. “We’ve had loads of great prizes donated for the raffle, we’ve got a barbecue and later we’ll be down at The New Inn, in Stratton, for a charity rock’n’roll bingo.

“In the memory of my nan it’s brilliant to see so many people out here helping to fundraise.

“But on behalf of the club I want to thank everyone for getting behind the Against Breast Cancer message.”

Richard Martin, the event fundraiser for the charity, said: “The Pink Saturday event organised in memory of Dan’s late grandmother was a wonderful success.

“The cricket ground was a sea of pink and the generosity of Dan’s supporters was extraordinary. A remarkable £933.22 was raised on the day.”

United Churches not only came out on top in the fundraising stakes, they also romped to victory on the field, beating Seagry by 90 runs.