On Friday 5th June, the annual David Setters Trophy tournament was held at Blackheath Cricket Club and I was delighted to go along to lend my support.
Six City of London based organisations entered teams of six players in the annual event inaugurated in 2017 to raise funds and awareness for the research to find a cure for Motor Neurone Disease.
David Setters is a Derivatives expert who I first met through work in the mid 2000s. I was introduced to him by my line manager Nick Spencer-Skeen and it was Nick, and another industry expert Keith Todd, who came up with the idea of a cricket day in Dave’s name after their friend was diagnosed with MND in 2012.
Dave has remained positive, establishing City Against MND and working closely with the MND Association. His tireless endeavours to raise awareness for the charities that fund the research take him up and down the country. Earlier in the week he, and his wife Helen, had been in North West England to participate in some of the legs of March of the Day III, which was a multi-day walk between football and rugby league.
Two of the teams who played in the event at Blackheath in 2017 have played every year since and they contested the 2026 final. In a hard fought game London Metal Exchange defeated StoneX (previously known as INTL FC Stone). The other teams involved were 2025 winners Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), KRM22, Trading Technologies and new entrants, Lunaro. Sponsorship was also provided by Broadbridge Financial Services and OSTTRA. On top of winning the trophy, LME’s Max Craddock was named as men’s player of the tournament, and Jessica Chater from ICE was awarded best lady player of the day.
Players ranged from talented and experienced club league players to those who have never played before, or who only play once a year in this tournament. In order to ensure that everyone got an opportunity, anyone who scored twenty-five had to retire and nobody could bowl more than one over per match. My participation was in the form of umpiring and I officiated in nine out of the ten matches played through the day.
Midway through the event, Dave addressed those present. “I’d like to tell you a little about what we’re raising money for today.” he said.
“Motor Neurone Disease takes away the ability to use your arms, your hands, your legs, your ability to eat and drink, and ultimately to breathe. There are different presentations. You might find people that can walk around, perhaps they play tennis but they can’t speak.”
“It comes in many different groups. It’s mainly rapid progression. A third of people are gone within one year of diagnosis, and fifty percent within two and a half years. Eighty percent are gone within five. I’m fortunate to be an outlier. I was diagnosed in 2012 so I really do feel that I’m fortunate. I’ve used my time to get stuck in which helps with your feeling of self worth and to be involved.
“MND is not rare. It will affect one in three hundred people, that’s the life time risk of getting it. That is similar to another awful disease, Multiple Sclerosis, but the truth is that more people are still around with Multiple Sclerosis after those three, four, five years. There’s a bias towards older people, like me. I was diagnosed at fifty-five but earlier this week I met Stephen Darby, the ex Liverpool footballer, who’s aged thirty-seven, the same age as our twins. There was a really sad story last year of young Kyle in Wales, who was diagnosed at thirteen.”
On top of the sponsorship, there was an auction, a raffle and a bucket collection raising twenty-eight thousand pounds to supplement the two hundred thousand pounds plus that has been collected since the inception.
Dan Carter, who played for KRM22, is the event organiser and gives up many hours of his time to making the arrangements, attracting sponsors etc. He couldn’t do it alone and his assistants include another former colleague of mine, Billy Murray, and Jamie Massett.
What was particularly poignant to me was that the event took place at Blackheath as someone who I used to know through the two of us dropping off our daughters at school and chatting at the gate, Phil Ubee, lost his life to this condition last year. He played Rugby Union for Blackheath, then coached there after his playing days ended until he was no longer able.
There was also exciting news for next year’s event. Former Surrey President, David Pateman lost his daughter to MND last April. He said “(She was) A very fit forty-five, sports woman and business woman. Extraordinary. Since that moment I’m doing my very best to support MND both here and she died in the United States and I’m quite involved with fundraising there. It’s really so good to hear the words of people who know that there will be an answer. What you’re doing here is inspiring for me and I thank you for that invitation.
“In 2027, we want to take this day with all its character, with all its philosophies, with all its meanings, down to the Oval. That would multiply the number of companies that could come in. The facilities there are absolutely outstanding and we’d put the team behind you to make it even better.”
“The experience, if you’ve ever been to the Oval, of when you walk onto the park, it’s quite extraordinary. Whether the building’s empty, or whether it’s full, it is marvellous. You just feel the history that runs through it. We’d love you all to experience it and, obviously, behind it rests a very good opportunity financially to grow this episode and to repeat it year-on-year. I’m sure, looking at your faces and the enjoyment that you’ve given me out there playing, you’d love to be there.”