How do we begin to thank you?

Tuesday 22nd January, 2019  saw CRBF host the second T20 Birthday Bash at Trumper Park Oval, Paddington.  This event was incepted in 2018, by Coop’s friend and representative team mate, Will Todd.  Will, together with his family, mum Robin, dad James, and brother Tommy, worked so hard once again this year, to ensure the outstanding success of the event.  We are indebted to the Todd family for their ongoing commitment to this event, together with their love and support.

The oval was prepared to perfection for the event, and we would like to thank the Trumper Park Groundsman, Guy, who painstakingly prepared the wicket.  We were privileged to be the first hirers of the newly refurbished canteen, which withstood its first big test, with flying colours.  Our thanks are extended to Kim from Woollahra Council, for assisting us with the entire ground hire process, and the Council for waiving the ground hire fee.

A sell-out crowd once again witnessed a quality game where the CRBF All Stars were very unlucky not to take the bat home this year, going down narrowly to the CRBF 1st X1.

Man of the match was Will Simpson, with runners up, Cameron McLean, and Will Mallett.  We thank each of the thirty amazing young men for giving up their day, to participate in this very special event.

Below are the match reports from Mitch Rice-Brading and Will Todd.

-Mitchell Rice-Brading-

 The second annual CRBF T20 Bash, saw the CRBF 1st XI  looking to defend their title against the CRBF All Stars. After winning the toss and electing to bowl, the CRBF XI got off to flyer, especially Robin Evans, who was literally flying as he plucked a one handed screamer at square leg. Reeling at six for not many, after Will Mallett had run through the top order, Will Simpson entered the crease, and was kindly greeted by his whipping boy Steve Salakas. Simpson went about quickly rebuilding the innings, dispatching Salakas to all parts on his way to a finely constructed 80. As the tail rallied, the All Stars were able to put 172 on the board, a very competitive total considering their start.

The CRBF XI got off to a shaky start, losing Evans in the first over, but before long Isaac Crawford and Cameron Mclean were moving along beautifully at the crease. Quick singles and twos were few and far to come by, however this was masked by the destructive boundary hitting of both boys. After Crawford fell, Baxter Holt came to the crease and maintained the rage, including one remarkable switch hit which cleared the boundary by 30 metres. The contributions of these 3 boys saw the CRBF XI cruise to victory in the 17th over, and holding on to the bat for another year.

We know Coops is smiling down on us proudly as we honour his legacy in the most appropriate manner possible.

-Will Todd-

Winning the toss, the CRBF All Stars set out to score a big total. It was all the CRBF XI early with Will Mallett and Alec Sheldon tearing up the All Stars top order. Will Lawrence and Tom Miller looked eager to get the all stars back on track before they were both dismissed just shy of 20. Will Simpson proved to be the remedy for the All Stars, and simply too good for the CRBF XI, blasting an important 80 runs. Simpson cleared the rope all around the ground and with both hands! An extremely valuable 30 from Harry Crawford led the All Stars to a final total just shy of 180.

With a big total on the board Charlie Hooke wound back the clock with a fantastic opening spell, dismissing the dangerous Robin Evans in the first over. However, a huge first wicket partnership put the CRBF XI in the box seat. The All Stars fought back with two quick wickets providing some hope. However, a fiery 40 from Baxter Holt sealed the CRBF XI’s second victory in consecutive years.

The CRBF XI again proved to be too good for the All Stars.

As with the year prior, the day was another overwhelming success, and our family are truly touched by the generosity of all those who attended.  The  atmosphere in the stands was electric, and made for a fantastic vibe both on and off the ground.  On a day every year, that is an extremely difficult one for our  family, we are so humbled by the willingness of those attending, to make it a special day.

We could not conduct an event like this without our magnificent volunteers.  I could literally write all day and I would still be unable to adequately thank these remarkable individuals:

Kate Longden, Libby Patterson, Keith Cox, Tim, Gloria & Josh Gapes, Michael Furlong, Mitchell Rice-Brading, Emma Duncan and photographer Sorabh Arya who was also responsible for erecting marquees and everything in between,  all deserve a special mention for their staying power on a very hot day.  All starting between 11am and 12 midday and there until the end of the day.  Thank you really does not seem to cover our gratitude to each of you.

Joining these remarkable individuals were brothers Oscar and Hugo Patterson with a group of young friends who I am sure would have better things to do on a very hot day, but who worked so hard to prepare the exterior.  We thank them all so very much, together with our Chairman Robert Beech Jones, who put on an apron and worked for hours on the barbecue, producing some fine cooking in the process, Luke Bennett for set up, Chris Nicol, Michael Comino, Ani Joshi, and Toby Debelak in the bar, our umpires Martin Rossleigh and James Todd,  George Foley and Alexander Magiros who kept an close eye on everything around the ground, Josh & Alison Craig together with Gillian Sloane, who greeted our guests and stamped our over 18s, and Graham Nicol on barbecue.

We also extend our thanks to Kirsten Martenssen and Nikki Yeaman for their outstanding work in selling our raffle tickets, Lilah Critchley-Isherwood and Fiona Beith for their help with food prep, and Peter Salakas and Mitch Rice-Brading for a highly entertaining four-hour stint at the microphone.

An event such as this would not be possible without our commercial partners and sponsors.  We thank the following individuals and businesses for their generosity:

Mr Graham McDonald  & Cooper’s Brewery

Mr Mark Swadling – Pontoon, Darling Harbour

Ms Nikki Yeaman – Costume Box

Mr and Mrs D Mallett

Ms Kate Longden and the Roche family

The Royal Hotels  Group

Ms Louise Lorkin – Director, Albion Sports

Kim Solman – Woollahra Council

Woollahra Council

Easts Bulldogs Junior AFL

Easts Cricket Club

Brendan Hilferty – The Winepoint

Nguyen Bakery – Bondi Road

Clovelly Village Butchery

Ben Ralph & Dell Yates – All Size Miracles

Steph Hanna – Ties and Cuffs

Coles Supermarkets

Our final thanks goes to each of our supporters.  You purchased raffle tickets, tickets to the game, food and beverage, and proved to once again be the perfect group of spectators on the day.

More significantly to our family,  you once again wrapped your arms around our family on a day when we needed it most.

CRBF 1ST X1                                                 CRBF All Stars

Jack Gibson – CaptainWill Todd – Captain
Cam McLean- Vice CaptainFionn Geraghty  – Vice Captain
Robin EvansTom Chichester
Baxter HoltHarry Crawford
Sam IsherwoodJoe Bonic
Joe MackieMax Bonic
Will MallettCharlie Hooke
David RobinsonWill Lawrance
Stephen SalakasGus McGrath
Alec SheldonTom Miller
Marcus ShownirukXavier Roche
Will YeamanMax Patterson
 Tommy Scribner
 Will Simpson

2018 – It’s a wrap…. (Review)


Hi everyone

We hope each of you had a lovely Festive Season, and the coming New Year is a healthy, happy and safe one for you and for your family.

With 22 January fast approaching, we want to remind you tickets are selling fast to the CRBF T20 Birthday Bash, with gates opening at 2 pm.  The tickets have remained at $20 per person which includes barbecue and entry.  Food and beverages will be on sale throughout in strict accordance with RSA guidelines.  All persons purchasing alcohol must be 18 years or over, and provide identification if required.

Entry is by pre purchased tickets.  Go to TryBooking

https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=458934

Funds raised in 2018

CRBF directors and our Medical Advisory Board unanimously voted to reinvest the funds raised by our hosted events, together with the extreme generosity of our major individual donors. At present we are in a consultative phase with research specialists, and leaders in the field of sarcoma, to establish where this significant amount of funding should be directed.  As was Cooper’s vision, all funding will be directed to where it will have the most impetus – to positively change survival outcomes for sarcoma patients.

Farewell to our Chairman

When Jeremy Sutcliffe joined us as Chairman in 2018, we were aware his tenure would come to an end in 2019, due to his planned relocation to Europe for the year with his family.

Jeremy has provided a very strong start to our aims to positively change survival outcomes and treatment options for sarcoma patients.  Through his wealth of expertise in the boardroom, as both an ASX 100 company chairman and as a seasoned company director.  His strong passion for cause and personal experience with this cancer, has contributed to the

We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to Jeremy for his belief in the work we are undertaking, and for the personal and professional qualities he brought to the role of Chairman.

We wish Jeremy and Catherine a safe, happy and healthy time overseas, making wonderful memories with their family.

Welcome to our new Chairman

CRBF would like to extend a very warm welcome to Justice Robert Beech-Jones, who will succeed Jeremy Sutcliffe, as our Chairman, effective immediately.

Robert brings a wealth of diverse experience to the role with proven leadership ability, experience at Board level and more significantly, in the not for profit sector,  together with his very strong personal passion for cause, which is driven by his long association with Cooper through junior AFL.

To read more about Robert’s distinguished career, please visit our Board page at www.crbf.org.au.

Below an overview of CRBF’s first eleven months as a registered Australian charity, to provide you with a summary of what we have achieved to date, and our direction heading into 2019: 

ACNC Registration

On Cooper’s birthday, January 22, 2018, our application for ACNC registration, and DGR status was approved, and the Cooper Rice-Brading Foundation became a registered Australian charity.  This was bittersweet, as it was Cooper’s long-held aim to gain independence as a charitable entity, and was therefore tinged with immense sadness when he was unable to see it come into fruition.

 Inaugural T20 Birthday Bash

Cooper’s long-time friend, and representative team mate, Will Todd, incepted the idea to host a cricket match on Cooper’s birthday, 2018, to pay homage to Cooper’s passion for cricket, and enabling the players, all from his days of school and representative cricket, commemorate the day while reliving memories from the past decade.

While the event was not designed as a fundraiser, sarcoma research benefitted from the  $5000 it generated on the day, with special thanks to the Todd family, the players and volunteers who gave up their day,  to Australian cricketer Nathan Lyon for his time and effort together with his manager, Peter Lovitt from the Drive Avenue Group, and to our partners, Costume Box, Coopers, Ties and Cuffs and Easts Cricket Club. The match was a huge success with the CRBF 1st X1 narrowly taking victory over the CRBF All Stars.   22 January, 2019 will see the second match played at Trumper Park.Oval, starting at 3 pm. A strictly limited number of tickets available at TryBooking – or by pressing the link below:

Mother’s Day Breakfast  

Hosted by the dynamic Mia Freedman, this event was held on Friday 11 May, 2018, at Zest Waterside Venues, RMYC Point Piper.  The breakfast was an outstanding success, raising in excess of $30,000 for clinical research for sarcoma.    Due to its popularity, the event will be conducted once again in 2019.  Our sincere thanks to major partners Glasshouse Fragrances, Dior, Zest Waterside Venues and Taylors Wines.

Robert Hao Piano Recital

Rob Hao very kindly dedicated his farewell performance to the Cooper Rice-Brading Foundation, prior to leaving to study an undergraduate Bachelor of Music, at the Royal College of Music in London.  Rob kept the audience spellbound with works from Chopin, Bach and Alban Berg, finishing with an early Beethoven sonata.  His immense talent and passion for music raised over $2000 to provide hope for young sarcoma patients, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to Rob for his kindness and generosity.

City To Surf

The Foundation’s first City to Surf proved to be highly successful both from an awareness and fundraising perspective.  Thanks to the efforts of radio hosts Fitzy and Wippa together with NOVA 96.9, our campaign reached a national audience, and the CRBF team raised $20,000 as a result.  The event also saw the release of our Stamp out Sarcoma merchandise, and caps, socks together with the “Run for Coops” t-shirts saw our team stand out for all the right reasons during the race.  Our thanks go to Fitzy and Wippa, Nova FM, and Upcycle studio for their part in ensuring the campaign was an enormous success, together with the generosity of our sponsors.

Autore Pearls – “The Cooper”

Autore Pearls are synonymous with quality, and exquisite design, with their designs worn by Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Selena Gomez, to name but a few.

The Cooper has been designed by AUTORE Design Director, Jane Autore, to embody the spirit, and the life of our precious son, whilst generating funding for critical clinical research by donating 10% of each sale directly to CRBF.

This is a unisex piece, with a magnificent Italian leather plaited band, an exquisite South Sea pearl, customised clasp with the CRBF logo, and a small garnet detail to signify Coops love of cricket.  The bracelet is available in a double and single strand.

Our heartfelt gratitude to the Autore family, for creating this spectacular piece, and for their support of the work of CRBF.

SGS Trivia Evening

2017 saw the inaugural Sydney Grammar School trivia evening, with proceeds directed to CRBF.  This was incepted by Senior Housemaster Mr Jason Slater, and supported by the form v1 boys.   Sadly, Cooper was too unwell to attend, however was so very touched by the sentiment, as he would have been this year when the second trivia event was held, returning $1600 to clinical research into sarcoma.

Our sincere thanks to Mr Slater, together with Headmaster, Dr Richard Malpass, Masters and students for contributing to the success of this event.

Legends of League Chairman’s Dinner

The 11th September saw CRBF chairman, Jeremy Sutcliffe, host the Legends of League dinner, NRL Museum, NRL HQ.  The league legends including Braith Anasta, Brad Fittler, Steve Blocker Roach, Wayne Pearce, Daly Cherry-Evans, Anthony Minichiello, Steve Edge and Michael Ennis dined with invited guests and share highly entertaining stories of their illustrious playing careers.

The evening was a resounding success returning $37,000 for clinical research into sarcoma, and our heartfelt thanks goes to the NRL commission, Todd Greenberg, Peter Beattie, Rachel Kramer and the NRL staff, together with host Anthony Maroon, and partners for the event, Serena Sanderson Catering and Dianna Jaber, director of Take Me, designer tableware.

The Griffith region NSW community fundraiser – Tayla Zandona

Tayla Zandona is a remarkable young woman who knows the heartache of sarcoma first hand, losing her big brother Kyle to this cancer on Christmas Day, 2016.

Despite the grief that never subsides, Tayla staged simultaneous events in the Griffith/Yenda region, to raise in excess of $4000 in an effort to ensure no other family ever go through the heartache she and her family live with daily.  We will be working closely with Tayla this year in support of a very large event in this region.  Having lost five members of the local community to sarcoma, this region is very committed to assisting the funding of sarcoma research, and we look very forward to working with this extremely generous group of individuals over the coming months.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Tayla for her generosity of spirit.  No-one can truly begin to understand the devastation of this cancer until you have witnessed a loved one fight so hard to conquer it – making her efforts truly inspiring.

Thank you

We would like to thank each of you, our donors, supporters, volunteers, directors and our executive committee members for the tireless work and support we have received throughout our first year as a registered charity.

Special thanks to the following donors for their outstanding support.