Eastleigh Cricket Club handed out the Christmas presents between 9am and 1pm at The Stile Inn on Saturday as they looked to give back to the Shirley community.
The club only formed in 2019 after splitting off from other cricket clubs, and chairman Brandon Matthews said he has wanted to do an event like this for years.
“It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but we’ve never really had a stable base at the club until this year,” Brandon said.
“We’re four, five years in the game now and we’ve got some really good members at the club that we can’t do without.
“This is a way of saying thank you to them but also a way of saying thank you to the rest of the community.”
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Brandon has been with Eastleigh Cricket Club since it was founded.
There was a mixture of toys given out, ranging from ‘glitz and glam’ sets to Paw Patrol sets and Lego.
Brandon explained that while the event could not cater for everyone, they tried to get as much as they could for children up to 10 years old.
“We had 100 to give out and we got through them all quite quickly. We would’ve loved to do more but we think we got the best value for money with those sorts of gifts.
“It was such a nice thing to be a part of.”
Eastleigh Cricket Club are looking to do more events like this, not just for Christmas but for other holidays too.
Chairman Brandon Matthews said he wants to do more events and not just at Christmas time. (Image: Supplied) Brandon said that while the team will be taking a short break over the festive period, they are already looking towards Easter as the target for their next toy drive.
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The Stile Inn sponsored the cricket club for the first time this year and wanted to help out by giving the team a space to hold the charity event.
“The landlady and landlord are amazing,” Brandon said.
“They’ve done quite a few things in the community personally around Christmas but never on the scale we’ve done today.
“You can see the pride in their eyes today, not just for the club but they’ve been involved in something special today, and we’re so grateful for their help.”
