Lashings Support Staff

Buddy - Head of Security

Buddy is Lashings official mascot and the undisputed Head of Security.

Buddy came into David Folb's life as a young dog rescued, by David, from the pound.  Buddy's big sad eyes captured David's attention immediately and it wasn't long before David took him home and adopted him.  Buddy is definitely "too cool for school", spending his days relaxing and taking David for walks down to the local parks to chase a rabbit or two!

Although Buddy leads a perfect batchelor's life and is a real "ladies dog" there is actually one little lady who can push him around.  Little Sophie Harris and Buddy can often be spotted strolling around cricket grounds making the most of their time together before Sophie departs for New Zealand every year.

Buddy is getting on in years now and although he is covered in grey hairs round his mouth he still turns up to every game full of energy and ready to greet the spectators... and their left over lunches!

Scott "The Voice" Charlton - Lashings World XI MC/Commentator

Scott "The Voice" Charlton is now in his fifth season commentating on the Lashings tour and is a well recognised and highly respected comedian/after dinner speaker who, unlike everyone else in the club, keeps his personal playing statistics very close to his chest, although he claims he was robbed of a first class cricket career due to "injury"! He played club cricket for Abbey Fire CC and Colhill CC, as well as golf (badly!) and football. Apparently, his school sports master remembers Scott well - when we asked him about Scott, he said he thought he could have become a professional footballer, saying that "Scott was good for F.A!"

When he's not with Lashings, Scott frequently writes for television and radio (television and radio frequently write back!) and works as an after dinner speaker all over the UK, where he has now notched up well over 3000 performances! If you want to find out more about Scott, his website is http://www.scottcharlton.com/

Linda Harris - Match Liaison Officer  

Linda is the wife of Lashings World XI's very own Chris Harris.  They have been together for 18 years and celebrated their 11th year of marriage in April 2008. Linda is mother to Sophie who is Lashings very own "Junior Executive in Training."

2008 will be the 7th year they have been associated with Lashings CC.  Linda considers it a privilege to have watched Lashings grow into the professional roadshow it is today and to have been an active part of that over the last few years.

Never one to sit idle, as a player's wife Linda would offer help in the Lashings shop when it got overly busy and also helped in preparing housing for the players.  This quickly grew into a more permanent role with Lashings and today she is an integral part of the Lashings Management team.

She has a genuine passion to ensure that every person who comes into contact with Lashings has a truly memorable and wonderful 'Lashings Experience'.  Linda believes that this is achievable, right from the Players to our hosts, sponsors, spectators and our staff.

Linda is our principal contact during the season, with our hosts, to ensure their day goes to plan and co-ordinates our players and staff throughout the season. 

Although she loves the nomadic life her family leads, away from Lashings, Linda relishes her quiet routine life back home in New Zealand being just 'mum' to Sophie.  She enjoys walking and jogging and taking the time to enjoy the peaceful things in life.

Sophie Harris - Executive-in-Training
Daughter of Chris and Linda Harris, Sophie dreams of one day taking over Lashings, although some would argue she already has!

Sophie has a very important role at Lashings, namely to eat as many ice-creams as she can at the games before her mum catches her!  Sophie likes to help in the shop and ensure that our team is never short of cheeky cuddles. However, she is always careful to save the biggest and best cuddles for our illustrious Chairman, David Folb. 

Although now only 6 years old, Sophie declared last year that she had accepted a proposal and was in fact engaged to Greg Blewett!  Wise beyond her years, she listened to her worried parents, took their advice and has since moved on, deciding that Rashid Latif would make a good husband instead!

Sophie has been a part of Lashings life since she was a few months old and can not wait to head to England every year to melt the hearts of David Folb and her naughty little friend Buddy!

Steve King - Scorer/Statistician 

Steve's very first experience with Lashings came as a club cricketer as long ago as 1992, when his club took on Lashings way back in the days when they were a decidedly average club team playing in the Maidstone & District Riverside League! Exact details of the game are somewhat sketchy, but he distinctly remembers taking the wicket of a certain opening batsman by the name of D. Folb! Steve played for Rainham CC in Kent (including six years as club secretary) as an erratic but effective left arm wrist spinner and an utterly useless tail end batsman (career average: 2.1!) who classed his best shot as the play-and-miss! Spotting his lack of playing talent quite early on, a bright spark at Rainham encouraged him to take an interest in umpiring and scoring, and seeing as he preferred the concept of sitting at a table with some pens to standing on a field wearing a white coat for hours on end, scoring quickly became his forte.

Away from cricket, Steve is an accomplished musician with a degree in Popular Music and is widely regarded as one of the top all-round bassists in the UK. He is particularly known for his versatility, working as a freelance performer and session musician all over the UK and Europe "playing anything for anyone!" Among many other projects, he has played in back-up bands for the X-Factor's Ben Mills and former Pop Idol contestant Rik Waller (a truly heavyweight lineup - despite tipping the scales at a hefty 19 stone, Steve was the lightest member of Rik's band!). He still works regularly with Frank Sinatra's trombonist Chris Smith and his String of Pearls Orchestra; records and arranges all manner of backing tracks and library music; plays for musical theatre productions, including appearances in "Beyond the Barricade" and "Mad About the Musicals" (the two leading Musical Theatre compilation tours of the moment); and has even found time to do "the knowledge" and qualify as a taxi driver in the Medway Towns, just in case he ever needs a real job! He lives in Chatham with his wife Ellie and Elvis the Budgie and is delighted to be entering his third year with the Lashings World XI.

Dave Lee MBE - Lashings World XI MC/Commentator

Born at a tender age and weighing more than the ambulance and midwife put together, Dave Lee has shunned numerous approaches from top European sporting clubs who have been waving open chequebooks for his signature, instead choosing a life of driving up and down motorways stopping at wayside cafés building up his public image - All 19 stone of it! 

Dave started his career as a drummer in the 60's and played on several records that were released (or rather they escaped!), going on to form his own comedy show band as lead singer and impressionist. A chance meeting with Eric Morecambe changed Dave's life forever - Eric watched Dave performing with his group and advised him to start a solo career as a comedian/actor in his own right! He began his TV career as a warm up man for Michael Parkinson, Michael Aspel and Jimmy Tarbuck, then appearing in front of the cameras in his own right on the likes of "Des O'Connor Tonight", "The Generation Game", "Celebrity Squares", "Live from the Palladium", "The Brian Conley Show", "Big Break", "Only Joking", "Des and Mel" and recently hosting his own golfing series "Through The Green" for Sky TV. Besides that he has made numerous radio appearances including his own "Fat Bloke Show", has been a British Comedy Award nominee in the Best Stand-up category and has entertained troops in the middle of war zones - something he describes as good training for acting in pantomime! He has been a regular performer in pantomime for some 25 years, including the last 12 at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. He is also a regular on the after-dinner circuit and spends his remaining spare time running his charity.

"Dave Lee Happy Holidays" is a charity that he set up to take sick, disadvantaged and disabled children from Kent and their immediate families on holidays, which has so far raised well over £1.5million. He was awarded the MBE for his work for charity, and has also recently received the inaugural Kent Invicta Award by Kent County Council in recognition of his efforts. More about Dave Lee and his charity can be found on his website, http://www.dave-lee.co.uk/

Karen Shand - Accounts Manager 

Karen has just celebrated her first year working for the Lashings World XI. Having spent the first ten years of her career working in a bank, she then married her husband Terry and moved to the pub trade, operating pubs in the Medway Towns, Slough, Rackheath in Norfolk and Swalecliffe on the Kent coast. They then changed their direction of work and she moved on to work for a computer software company for two years before joining the Lashings World XI setup.

She claims that one of her major selling points when she was interviewed for the job at Lashings was that she has absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about the game of cricket, has never picked up a bat in her life and previously wouldn't have been able to identify Alvin Kallicharran in an identity parade! However we can confirm that the latter has changed, although she remains convinced that the bats are more useful as a vehicle for the signatures of star cricketers! She enjoys working for Lashings because "no two days are the same - you never know what's going to happen next!"