Jones gets on his bike for charity Geraint Jones has become the fourth member of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning squad to sign up for Big Bike Ride 3 which will raise money for the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust and the Tom Maynard Trust. The former Kent and Gloucestershire wicketkeeper batsman retired from county cricket two years ago after he had helped Gloucestershire win the Royal London One-Day Cup. Jones took part in Big Bike Ride 2 in October 2015 and has now signed up for all for all five days of this year’s event between October 13 and 17. He will join Marcus Trescothick, who will also ride all five days, Michael Vaughan, England’s captain in 2005, and Ashley Giles on Big Bike Ride 3. Vaughan will ride only the second day from his hometown of Sheffield to Nantwich while Giles has signed up for the fourth day from Worcestershire’s New Road headquarters to Monmouth School. The route, from Edgbaston to the SSE SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, will take in a number of community cricket clubs in England and Wales including two where Jones played his formative cricket in England. Big Bike Ride 3 will call in at Lydney on the fourth day of the 400-mile journey and at Abergavenny on the final leg from Monmouth to Cardiff. Warwickshire and former Yorkshire seamer Oliver Hannon-Dalby has become the latest county player to sign up for Big Bike Ride 3. Hannon-Dalby, who is the PCA representative for Warwickshire, will ride all five days. The first two Big Bike Rides in 2013 and 2015 raised more than £ 320,000 and this year’s event takes on added significance as 2017 is the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s 50th anniversary. A Legacy Year Appeal has been launched to raise an extra £ 250,000 for the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust. Big Bike Ride 3 will be launched with a dinner at Warwickshire’s Edgbaston headquarters on October 12 with the riders setting out on their 400-mile journey early the next morning. Big Bike Ride 3, which is generously sponsored by Full-Time Cover insurance and Sanderson Contracts will travel from Edgbaston on October 13 via Sheffield, the Peak District, the Cheshire Plain, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and South Wales to the SSE SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff where Tom Maynard, who died in tragic circumstances in 2012, played his formative cricket and where the Trust set up in his name is based. Big Bike Ride 3 is also supported by Yorkshire Tea and Toyota. The peloton of cricketers, which includes past and current county players, PCA and England and Wales Cricket Board staff, sponsors and cricket fans, will link the recreational and professional games by stopping off at clubs along the route including four that have hosted first-class cricket in the past – Sheffield Collegiate, Buxton, Lydney and Abergavenny. Former England batsman Matthew Maynard, Tom’s father, and Trescothick will be taking part in their third Big Bike Ride and they will again cycle every yard of the 400-mile route, just as they did in 2013 and 2015. Ceri Maynard, Tom’s sister, will be taking part in her first Big Bike Ride while Surrey Chief Executive Richard Gould and Chairman Richard Thompson will be among the elite group of cyclists who have ridden in all three. All proceeds from Big Bike Ride 3 will be shared between the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust and the Tom Maynard Trust. The PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust was set up in 2000 and supports past and present cricketers and their immediate family members in times of hardship and upheaval. The Tom Maynard Trust was set up in 2012 and supports aspiring young sports people in a number of ways including sponsorship of the PCA’s annual Rookie Camp. The full Big Ride 3 route is: October 13: Edgbaston to Sheffield Collegiate CC via Atherstone CC and South Wingfield CC October 14: Sheffield Collegiate to Crewe Vagrants CC via Buxton CC and Middlewich CC. October 15: Crewe to Worcestershire CCC via Calverhall CC, Broseley CC, Cleobury Mortimer CC October 16: Worcester to Monmouth School via Ledbury CC, Ruardean Hill CC, Lydney CC October 17: Monmouth to SSE SWALEC Stadium via Abergavenny CC, Newbridge CC, St Fagans CC There are still a few places left to join Big Bike Ride 3. Interested riders can register here.
