Race Night at St. Helens Cricket Club — a charity recap
A fortnight ago I hosted a virtual race night at St. Helens Cricket Club, raising money for St. Paul's Primary School PTA.
Final total: £2,400. Here's how.
The setup
Six-thirty kick-off, eight races, a projector on the back wall of the function room, and about eighty punters with sixty quid's worth of fake money each. We had a silent auction running in the background for the horse names — which, incidentally, turned out to be the single biggest earner of the night.
The bar was slammed. I've never seen a cricket club bar drop that much beer on a Tuesday.
What worked
Auctioning the horses — before the race starts, bidders pay real money to "own" a horse. If their horse wins the race, they get a share of the prize pot. If it doesn't, their money goes to the charity. Genius, and entirely the PTA's idea.
A decent commentator — not me, I'm biased. Race nights live and die on the commentary, and the PTA had drafted in a local teacher who turned out to have missed his calling. He was remarkable.
Free fake money, nominal real drinks — the bar takes care of itself when people aren't nursing a single pint all night.
What I'd do differently
Start twenty minutes earlier. Eight races plus commentary plus auction plus interval is genuinely a long evening, and by race seven the nursery-age kids were asleep on their mums.
The aftermath
Three people asked about hiring me for a race night of their own on the way out. Two of them have booked. The school has enough funds to paint the library.
Worth the drive.
Want a race night at your venue? Ask Alex.