The cricket community got together at the weekend to ensure the Rainbow Run smashed expectations.

Around 750 people from across Kent and as far afield as South Africa took part in the charity event, covering over 10,000km to raise over £10,000 for NHS charities.

They had initially hoped to complete 500k and raise £1,000.

The Rainbow Run was born out of the cancellation of the Bluebell Run - scrapped because of the coronavirus crisis. The original run has been going for the last 10 years, organised by the Friends of Egerton Primary School and Egerton Running Club.

Kent Cricket backed the event and challenged teams across the county to compete against each other. The Initial target was collectively smashed.

Volunteers from Kent Cricket’s playing and admin staff, along with a team of 10 from Shepherd Neame, covered a combined distance of 775 kilometres throughout the day.

Sevenoaks Vine Cricket Club won the adults competition, clocking up 1,860km between them, with Matt Wilson cycling 213.33km. They were closely followed by Sandwich Town with 1,599km.

Other notable contributions came from five-year-old Robbie Rogers, a pupil at Egerton School, raising over £300.

The Greer family from Buckingham walked and ran 70km collectively in memory of their mother who had received cancer treatment for 20 years at a Medway hospital.

Additionally, four-year-old Sylvie Masters, from Grafty Green, raised over £100 selling plants on a plant stall in her garden.

Kent Cricket captain Sam Billings was among those supporting the run and Canterbury Rugby Club also took part.

The cricket community alone recorded 8,268km.

Sevenoaks Vine won a signed and framed 150th Kent Cricket playing shirt for their efforts.

Reculver Cricket Club had the most junior participants and also covered a valuable 154km, winning a Kwik Cricket set for the club.

James Moss, Kent Cricket’s community officer, said: "It has been incredible to see the cricket community across Kent come together to support our local NHS heroes.

"We have seen efforts from clubs around the county who have supported this initiative, with some remarkable distances covered, truly exceeding our expectations.

"It's a fantastic reflection on the club cricket network and we'd like to give a massive thank you to everyone that supported The Rainbow Run."

Ellie Rogers, co-founder of The Rainbow Run, said: "The total raised by The Rainbow Run has far surpassed our expectations and it was incredible to see so many people connected with Kent Cricket getting involved.

"We wanted to help get people moving and give everyone something positive to get involved with during the challenging lockdown period. As well as bringing the community across Kent closer together, best of all, we have raised over £10,000 for Kent based NHS charities to support their amazing staff through the crisis and beyond.

"When we first started planning The Rainbow Run, we could never have imagined that so many people would take part or that so much money would be raised.

"Thank you to all who supported and took part, from the bottom of our hearts."

Distances (in kilometres) travelled by each cricket club competing are;

Sevenoaks Vine 1860.02, Sandwich Town 1599.40, St Lawrence 743.41, Shipbourne 482.92, Town Malling Swans 414.58, Town Malling 348.80, Bromley Town 301.44, Mersham Sports 225.77, Deal Victoria & Barnes Close 210.00, Hythe 206.55, Kent College 187.99, Reculver 174.88, Folkestone 129.62, Bexley 128.01, Dulwich 113.02, Street End 62.18, Cudham Wyse 23.71, Under 13s 280.2, Kent Cricket & Shepherd Neame 775.53.

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