Groom seeks helicopter ride from wedding to play at Lord's

A groom is trying to secure a helicopter ride so he can play in a dream cricket match at Lord's immediately after his wedding in North Wales.

Peter Melhuish, from Guildford in Surrey, is due to play at Lord's on 6 September for his club Blackheath after they made it to the final of the Cawston Press Village Cup.

But the team captain is marrying his fiancée, Izzy Upton, in North Wales less than 24 hours earlier.

The couple, both 32, planned their wedding for the Saturday after Blackheath's local league fixtures finished for the season.

However, they did not factor in the club's success in the Village Cup, a nationwide tournament played on Sundays by local teams across the UK.

Now, Melhuish's clubmates are trying to raise around £9,000 so the pair can make the one-hour flight from North Wales to London by the game's 11:00 BST start.

"It'd be amazing if we can afford it and pull something together," said Melhuish.

"The only other way is a 5am taxi down from the wedding which wouldn't be much fun.

"It's amazing how the club are pulling together and helping us with it.

"It's really nice to have that support from them," he added.

Blackheath - which Melhuish first joined aged six - has entered the Village Cup since the tournament was first launched in 1972.

Melhuish added his fiancée Izzy had been "great".

"We've been organising the wedding for well over a year so the fixtures for the Village Cup hadn't even come out when we started organising it.

"She's been really supportive and very understanding of how much it means, not just to me but the club too," he continued.

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