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Award for 22-year-old with ‘miraculous talent’ 150 150 mhamer

Award for 22-year-old with ‘miraculous talent’
Jimmy Cricket awards the Golden Wellington to Martin Finn, whose dad John watches on

Jimmy gives the Golden Wellington award to Martin as dad John watches

A young man described as having “remarkable ability” by famous entertainer Jimmy Cricket is the May winner of the Golden Wellington award.

Martin Finn,  from Atherton near Wigan in Greater Manchester, is  22 years old and suffers from autism, a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people.

Jimmy said: “Martin’s condition is so significant that it prevents him from speaking in sentences.

“However, he has a miraculous talent of not only being able to remember song lyrics after listening to them, but a tremendous vocal gift of being able to sing these songs with great prowess.”

When Jimmy heard about Martin, he invited him to one of his jam nights at St Vincent’s RC parish centre in Norden, Rochdale.

Martin not only wowed everyone present during the evening with his great singing talent, but Jimmy used the opportunity to present him with the Golden Wellington monthly award.

Jimmy added: “There has been much recent interest in Martin. As his parents originally hail from the Ireland, he is about to appear on RTE – Ireland’s national TV channel – and in particular on their flagship chat show called The Late Late Show [the longest-running programme of its kind in the world].

“There is also a fundraising quest currently active to raise enough money for Martin to record his own CD.”

Return to panto debut venue – 33 years later 150 150 mhamer

Return to panto debut venue – 33 years later

Jimmy Cricket first appeared in panto at the Charter Theatre in preston in Robinson Crusoe in Outer SpaceJimmy Cricket will be appearing in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Preston's Charter Theatre

Jimmy Cricket will be performing in pantomime later this year at the Charter Theatre in Preston – where he made his panto debut in 1981.

The famous entertainer will be appearing in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (poster below) at the Lancashire venue.

It will be 33 years after the Northern Irish funnyman figured in a version of a contemporary pantomime called Robinson Crusoe in Outer Space (left) when he was described as “Britain’s fastest rising TV comedian”.

Since his first foray into the land of fairytales, Jimmy has featured in 26

 

different pantomime productions over the years, taking in theatres across the UK located in:

Belfast, Glasgow, Nottingham, Bradford, Oxford, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Darlington, Billingham, Wolverhampton, Truro, Doncaster, Lichfield, Swindon, Torquay, Southport, Ashton-under-Lyme and Weston-Super-Mare.

On his arrival in Preston, he will be reunited with the creative team who produced last Christmas’s record -breaking version of Snow White at the Forum Theatre in Billingham.

Some of the cast have been retained for the Preston version, which has delighted Jimmy who is looking forward to a happy return to the Charter Theatre.

Fans give Jimmy egg as a present! 150 150 mhamer

Fans give Jimmy egg as a present!

Jimmy Cricket with the volunteers of the West Cliff Theatre’s Friends group

Jimmy Cricket got more than he bargained for when he appeared at one of his favourite venues over Easter.

Jimmy Cricket with Norman Jacobs at the West Cliff Theatre

The well-known entertainer did a show at the West Cliff Theatre – where he is also a patron – in Clacton-in-Sea on Easter Sunday.

He has appeared at the theatre many times over the years and on this occasion brought his ‘Audience with’ show, which gives his fans a chance to ask him questions during the interactive part of the performance.

The host of this question-and-answer session was none other than Norman Jacobs – chair of the trust which runs the theatre and a joint winner of Jimmy’s Golden Wellington award for April.

Norman Jacobs, Jimmy Cricket and West Cliff Theatre manager Paul GeorgeJimmy said: “I was really thrilled with the questions that were flung at  me and thanks to Norman for expertly handling this part of the show on my behalf!”

And a seasonal bonus for Jimmy was when two fans presented him with an Easter egg!

 Images with this story are:

Top – Jimmy with the volunteers of the theatre’s Friends groups.

Above right – Jimmy and Norman in action on stage.

Above – Norman, Jimmy and theatre manager Paul George.

Below – A  couple of Jimmy’s fans who came along to present him with an Easter egg.

A couple of Jimmy Cricket’s fans came along to present him with an Easter egg

Theatre campaigners are latest Wellie winners 150 150 mhamer

Theatre campaigners are latest Wellie winners
Jimmy Cricket presents the April Golden Wellie award to Norman Jacobs and Joan Beatton

Jimmy presents the award to Norman Jacobs andJoan Beatton

Jimmy Cricket has announced that two theatre volunteers from Essex are the Golden Wellie winners for April.

Norman Jacobs is the chairman of the Tendering Trust which runs the West Cliff Theatre in the seaside resort of Clacton-on-Sea, while Joan Beatton is the principal co-ordinator of the volunteers who support the venue as a friends group.

Jimmy said: “Norman has been the chair of the trust for a number of years and is unwaveringly devoted to the theatre’s survival.

“He is quite a character and appeared on a TV game show lately where he pocketed  £10,000 in prize money and used it to fund an adventure to south America.

“Joan is a tireless campaigner for the West Cliff Theatre. She leads the volunteers group from the front, putting in so much time and energy to help keep the theatre alive, vibrant and, most importantly, open.”

The West Cliff Theatre is one of Jimmy’s favourite venues – he has appeared there on several occasions in the past, including headlining the 2006 summer season – and he wanted to recognise the efforts of Joan and Norman in trying to keep it going – hence the Golden Wellington award to both of them.

He made the presentation during his last visit to the theatre on Easter Sunday. Jimmy was appearing in the evening, but earlier in the day he was invited to a lunch with the friends group as a special guest and he used the opportunity to present Norman and Joan with the Golden Wellington.

Jimmy Cricket with Norman Jacobs and his wife Linda

Jimmy with Norman and his wife Linda

Building communities from nothing… 150 150 mhamer

Building communities from nothing…

The charity Cameo-Aid delivers education to poor and deprived children in East Africa

Jimmy Cricket says he recently received “a very heartening report ” from a gentleman called Tom Power regarding a charity for underprivileged children.

Tom has arranged events over the past year featuring well-known entertainer Jimmy in order to raise money for CAMEO-Aid which delivers education to poor and deprived children in East Africa.The charity Cameo-Aid delivers education to poor and deprived children in East Africa

The events were held in Whitefield, North Manchester and in Haslingden, East Lancashire.

In his role as chairperson of the trustees of the charity, Tom over the month of March has been visiting the education projects CAMEO-Aid has been supporting.

These schemes are at schools in Mbirizi, Uganda and at Mupoi in South Sudan, and Tom – who also provided the photographs on this page – has given some detailed information to Jimmy about each of the projects.

The charity Cameo-Aid delivers education to poor and deprived children in East Africa

He said: “Mbirizi is a bush school.  It is 9km off the road through the bush and is 16km from the nearest school.  This distance is too great a burden for children to travel on a daily basis, hence the building of the school in Mbirizi.

“This school is now proving to be well-managed and is achieving the grades which makes them very competitive with national schools.

The charity Cameo-Aid delivers education to poor and deprived children in East Africa

“One of the side effects of putting the school in Mbirizi is that small shops have now been built to service the school and the community.  From nothing, this community now has a school which employs 10 teachers and has created employment for builders and for the shops.

“In Mupoi, South Sudan, the school is newer and currently has 75 students, three teachers,  a cook and a helper.  This school was won back from the forest and refurbished to its present standard.

“A new toilet and shower block were added and there are plans to add two store rooms and a small room to cope with children who become sick.  They then want to add a kitchen and a dining room in the future.

“As the children move up, they will build more classrooms and be refurbishing another building on this site which will be wrested from the forest.”

For more information on the charity, visit the website here.

The charity Cameo-Aid delivers education to poor and deprived children in East Africa

Fitting tribute to a former chairman 150 150 mhamer

Fitting tribute to a former chairman

Irish Post feature about Jimmy Cricket was at the Leeds Mayo Association’s annual dinner dance at the Leeds Irish Centre

Jimmy Cricket was the host and master of ceremonies at an emotional dinner dance in West Yorkshire earlier this year.

The well-known entertainer was invited, along with his wife May, to host the Leeds Mayo Association’s annual event at the Leeds Irish Centre.

The dance, which took place at the beginning of February, was an emotional occasion as the former chair of the association – Frank Ansboro – had only passed away late last year. 

Jimmy said: “Members from other Mayo Associations had travelled up to Leeds to be present at what turned out to be a fitting tribute to Frank.”

An article featuring lots of pictures of the event appeared in the 15 March edition of the Irish Post, which is popular within the Irish community of the UK.

It included not only a great animated photo of Jimmy in action (above), but another one towards the end of the article which featured his wife, May (on the right of the picture bottom middle below).

Irish Post feature about Jimmy Cricket was at the Leeds Mayo Association’s annual dinner dance at the Leeds Irish Centre

Priest with ‘show business in his blood’ 150 150 mhamer

Priest with ‘show business in his blood’

Irish World article is about Jimmy Cricket's second son, Fr Frankie Mulgrew

The Irish World newspaper has featured a special article about Jimmy Cricket’s second son, newly ordained priest Fr Frankie Mulgrew.

It appeared in the 8 March edition of the Irish World, which is one of the main newspapers serving the Irish community in the UK.

The Irish World newspaper has featured a special article about Jimmy Cricket's second son, newly ordained priest Fr Frankie Mulgrew

Fr Frankie, who was ordained to the Roman Catholic Church last summer, and his famous entertainer-dad can be seen on page 3 of the newspaper.

The article was written by Jimmy’s friend Gerry Molumby who lives in Nottingham and reports on how Jimmy is incredibly proud of his son, Frankie, becoming a priest.

Fr Frankie  – a regular entertainer before he was ordained – is described as having “more than a little show business in his blood”.

It also provides some details about where he is currently undertaking his ministry – at the Parish of Our Lady of the Valley in East Lancashire.

The ordination service took place at Salford Cathedral on the afternoon of Saturday 13 July 2013 and was presided over by the Rt Rev Bishop Terence Brain – Bishop of Salford – and in the presence of the Rt Rev Mark Davis, Bishop of Shrewsbury.

It was a joint ordination as Frankie’s friend, Nathan Horne, was also ordained to the priesthood and so the cathedral was packed with nearly 800 people in attendance.

Fr Frankie’s first Mass was at St Vincent’s RC Church in Norden, Rochdale, the following day.