Blog #4
What do a university ski trip, Ally Pally and a kitchen table all have in common? Together, they became the foundation of how the idea of Sixes in the City was created.

*Part of the initial message I’d sent to a friend on the 22nd December 2022 about the idea.*

Introduction

The idea for Sixes in the City didn’t come from a business plan - in fact, it was never meant to be a business at all.

For the first two years, it was nothing more than a charity tournament between friends. We ran it for fun, raised over £10,000 for the Ruth Strauss Foundation, and treated it as an annual summer tradition. At the time, I never thought of it as anything more than that - only later did the penny drop that it could become a business. But that’s for another time!

Here’s the story of how arranging a simple cricket match grew into the first Sixes in the City charity tournament in 2023.

Ski Trip

*We managed to get the match arrange, although it was the day after a big house party, a few weary heads!*

Without setting up a social cricket side, there would be no Sixes in the City.
My recollection is hazy, but I’m fairly sure it began with a conversation in a club on our university ski trip with the captain of a year‑above social cricket side. A long chat about cricket later, and we’d thought up the idea of a fixture for that summer between our year groups!

With our first fixture agreed, this got me thinking, why don’t we set up a proper cricket side? And with that, the idea of AB De Villagers was formed.

Ally Pally

Working at Ally Pally, selling portable chargers after a financially crippling university ski trip. The unlikely birthplace of a cricket events company.

*You can imagine my delight at having to walk around with a big balloon on my back at the Darts…*

I’ve always had a habit in these casual jobs of daydreaming and scribbling ideas on scraps of paper. Looking back through my notes from this period of time, I’d crafted some rather ridiculous ideas, such as plans for how I would set up an investment company one day, as well as how I could create a property fund to benefit from the boom of the Durham student property market yields!

However, one reasonable idea I did have was a Cricket Tour to Bristol or Edinburgh, which got me initially thinking about fixtures against different groups of friends.

It was while thinking about this that the penny dropped: why not do it all on one day? That evening, messages were sent to friends, emails to potential grounds, and we were underway!

Kitchen Table

The idea only became real in April 2023, when we finally secured a ground: Barn Elms Sports Ground in Barnes. Four pitches, a good location, and a pub next door.

It was then at our university kitchen table that the plans took shape. I’d bounce ideas off my housemates, usually Annie, who still brings it up today! They were influential in shaping some of the big decisions about the logo, formats, marketing, and many of my silly ideas, though they were probably sick of me by the end!

Event Preperation

Preparations over the summer were manic. I was juggling an internship whilst chasing payments from captains and trying to market the event.

One memory stands out: the Pimms run. On a sunny bank holiday, the day before the event, we drove around South London in a tiny Mini, buying every bottle of Austin’s (the Aldi Pimms equivalent) we could find. By the end of the day, we’d cleared out every store south of the river!

Event Day

The event went better than I could have ever hoped, we managed to get just shy of 500 people down, we raised £4,058 for charity, and there were no major issues, apart from people sneaking in!

However, it wasn’t all great, I was emphatically clubbed for 6 to lose our team the semi-final, prompting my favourite photo to date from our events!

While the Red Lion opposite was rammed with a few hundred of our attendees, we were still picking up cigarette butts and litter. Two and a half hours later, we finally joined them - and that first pint was the best moment of the day.

Next Steps (2023)

At the time, my vision was simple: make it an annual charity event. Grander ambitions were developed - a corporate tournament, maybe even a golf day - but third‑year workload and a slow dissertation meant those plans were shelved. We did, however, grow the charity event in 2024.

Final Thoughts

It’s been interesting trying to piece together exactly how it started, as I’d actually forgotten certain parts! I’ve been under the impression for the last two years that I had come up with the idea in April 2023, only to look through the timeline and realise that it was, in fact, in December 2022.

What stands out is how I’d never considered it as anything other than a hobby. Yet the simple idea at its core, friends playing against each other, still forms the basis of our business strategy today and going forward.

The Origin Story