University of Exeter Cricket Club win the Ashes

The club fought off tough competition from 288 teams to win a competition, hosted by 505 Games, which offered one club from both the UK and Australia the opportunity to have eleven players appear as a team in the game.

The Ashes 2013 is the official game of the infamous England – Australia test series and is fully endorsed by the England Cricket Board and Cricket Australia. Players will have the opportunity to play the Ashes as seen on the television or select from 24 other teams to compete in one day matches.

The computer games designers visited the Sir Christopher Ondaatje Devon Cricket Centre on Streatham Campus to take photographs of the eleven players which will be used in the game and to take down important statistical information. Alison Greagsby, Marketing Director for 505 Games said:“We designed the competition to really engage with grass roots cricket. The opportunity to be built into a video game is a real once in a lifetime opportunity and nearly 17,000 people voted for different clubs. The University of Exeter Cricket Club ran a brilliant campaign. We have all watched their celebratory video which was fantastic.”

1^st Team Captain Joseph Barrs signed the club up to the competition and was delighted with the result. He said:“It was very close and extremely tense. We mobilised a lot of people and are incredibly grateful to all of the Athletic Union clubs who helped and supported us. The hardest part has been picking the people to feature in the game. We have tried to pick the people who had worked the hardest to get us in the game, which is a mixture of the whole club, but a lot of people deserved a space.”

The 2013 Ashes players who will be immortalised in the game are: Joe Barrs, Richard Croney, Ollie Greaves, Archie Hood, George Williams, Chris Wheatley, Bradley Lane, Ollie Strong, Andrew Curtis, Alec Stuart and Rob Graham.

He added:“From the first XI to purely social members, the whole club will be represented. This is something we can talk about for the rest of our lives; we can all say ‘we were there’.”

Club Captain Richard Croney said:“All the guys are delighted and it’s nice to give the cricket club recognition. It’s been a new and exciting experience for all of us and it’s a bit of fun.  I’ve always quite fancied my chances of taking the Ashes’ winning catch behind the stumps.”

The Men’s Cricket Club are hoping this success will set the tone for the rest of the season. The side have made it through to the second round of the British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) indoor cricket knockout competition, and are set to start pre-season training for the outdoor competition in April.

Director of Cricket Julian Wyatt commented:“The boys have done fantastically well and it is a great achievement to be immortalised on the game. This is a superb piece of publicity for the club but our main focus is always performing in BUCS. They have been working incredibly hard so far this season, and we are confident that they will not only be beating England and Australia in the living room, but also Loughborough and Durham on the pitch.”