Owzat for a surprise? (From Wiltshire Times)

Owzat for a surprise?

in Trowbridge By Mike Wilkinson, Senior Reporter

Cricket coach Alistair Goddard was bowled over when he left the register office on his wedding day to a surprise guard of honour made up of the players he coaches.

Mr Goddard, who coaches the girls squads at Trowbridge Cricket Club, was landed with the surprise on Saturday after his wife-to-be Louise Mullis plotted for weeks with one of their mothers.

Jan Tilsley, whose daughter Daniella is in the under 11s team, organised the surprise gathering at the Trowbridge Register Office. She said: “The girls were very excited to be involved because he is a brilliant coach to them all. We got ourselves organised at the doors of the registry office but then we were told they were going to come out of the other entrance so we all made a mad dash to get to that one. But actually we were right in the first place and had to run back to our original positions.

“I think he suspected something as they started to walk out but the guests were very good because they tried to crowd around to hide them from his sight.”

Mr Goddard has enjoyed a successful stint at the club over the past two years, after his under 11s side won the Wiltshire League last year.

The 40-year-old coach and the new Mrs Goddard, a 41-year-old qualified scorer at the club, have jetted off on honeymoon to the Maldives.

Mrs Goddard’s mother Yvonne Savin said: “It was such a lovely day. To see them married was wonderful. The guard of honour put a smile on Alistair’s face. It was a lovely idea Louise came up with and the girls all agreed that they would like to do it.”

The players who made up the guard of honour were: Daniella Tilsley, Charlotte Allen, Charlotte Fortune, Katherine Mills, Keeley Pritchard, Tiana Tallentine, Georgia Gerrish, Merryn Phillips, Bethany Stephens, Megan McGregor, Olivia Clarke and Ellie Almond.