ETO readers with long memories may recall the hullabaloo that erupted back in 2006 when UK retailer Nice ‘n’ Naughty was asked to sponsor a local cricket team, which the business was happy to do. Sadly, it was not to be. The team was threatened with expulsion unless it pulled out of the deal, and the fallout from the row went around the world*.
Fast-forward 18 years and the Nice ‘n’ Naughty name can finally be seen on sports kit. Sunday league football team Pines FC from Formby are a Sunday League football club have been playing in the same kit for over four seasons, due to a lack of sponsorship. But thanks to Nice ‘n’ Naughty and SG Schoolwear and Sportswear, Pines FC kicked off the New Year in brand-new kit.
“The team are a group of men, ranging in age from 18-35, and for them, Pine FC offers them a weekly outlet from day-to-day life,” said Nice ‘n’ Naughty. “It is also a safe space that gives each member an opportunity to talk and build friendships as well as fitness whilst having fun and supporting each other with life’s struggles. This is all about the mental, as well as the physical wellbeing of these men.”
One of the players agreed: “To us, this Sunday football is more than just a game on the park, it’s our outlet from everyday stresses, a break from the working week, a time we can go somewhere together chat and have fun and build friendships. As men we often don’t talk and build up our problems until boiling point. When we are together on a Sunday we don’t stop talking. Any issues, we attempt to support each other and work through them.”
Nice ‘n’ Naughty director Trish Murray recalled the first time the company agreed to sponsor a local club: “It really is quite surreal supporting a team again after all these years,” she said. “I still remember all the uproar that occurred when we tried to support Southport Trinity Cricket Club back in 2006, but to be able to support the guys at Pine FC is incredible. They do so much for their community and each other. Grassroots football really does change lives, and to be able to help in some small way means a lot to us all at Nice ‘n Naughty.”
Pines FC play in the Championship Division of the Southport and District Amateur Football League and the team started a GoFundMe page in 2023, with all donations going towards covering the cost of pitch fees, insurance, and supplies.
* The tale began with a simple local request for sponsorship: in this case it was Southport Cricket Trinity Cricket Club, which asked Nice ‘n’ Naughty (NNN) if it would sponsor its shirts for the coming season.
At the higher echelons of sport, sponsorship is a marriage of convenience where both parties benefit from the union. The sponsor gets its name associated with events or teams its target demographic cares about while the sport gets to balance its books and reward its participants – no matter how incongruous the marriage may be, such as when McDonald’s or Budweiser sponsors a football tournament. At a local level however, sport sponsorship is more about putting something back into the community where the business is based. If a few extra customers get to hear about the business as well, that’s a bonus. Usually.
As NNN had already taken a paid-for advertisement in the (deep breath) Littlewoods Gaming Liverpool & District Cricket Competition League Handbook, and NNN director Simon Prescott was a cricket supporter, the sponsorship deal was agreed. For a payment of around £1,000 NNN would have its name and logo on the club’s shirts for the coming season.
If that had been it, the story may have picked up a few column inches in the sports section of the local paper. But a representative of the Littlewoods Gaming Liverpool & District Cricket Competition, sent out a blanket email to all club secretaries in the league in which every word was capitalised and bold, emphasising that this was a message to be taken seriously.
The email read, in full: “Following full consideration by the management committee of the Littlewoods Gaming Liverpool & District Cricket Competition, it has been decided that Southport Trinity Cricket Club must withdraw from their current sponsorship arrangements which are judged to be not in the interests of cricket and to be setting unacceptable standards particularly in relation to junior cricket. The club is considered to have made serious misjudgements with regard to this sponsorship. The management committee of the Littlewoods Gaming Liverpool & District Cricket Competition make clear that Southport Trinity Cricket Club will forfeit all points in any match if clothing bearing the logo of their current sponsor is worn at any time by any team.”
This was despite the fact that the league had previously approved the deal, as well as taking NNN’s paid-for advert in its handbook. Faced with losing its league status, just a week before the start of the season, Southport Trinity advised NNN that it would have to cancel the deal and repay the £1,000.
The story appeared in the Liverpool Echo and on the BBC’s website and then went viral. I reckon part of the story’s appeal was the opportunity it gave headline writers to show off their punning skills: it’s just not cricket; club being run out of competition; league officials bowled over; league chairman stumped why club with junior sides would team up with sex shop; Southport Trinity to bail out of deal; adult shop hit for six etc. No, I didn’t see them all, but I just know they existed.
Simon Prescott and Trish Murray of NNN appeared on Victoria Derbyshire’s Radio 5 Live mid-morning programme on 13th April, when the story was discussed on air. At the end of it, even Victoria sympathised with the retailer. Her initial Maud Flanders-style ‘Won’t somebody think of the children?’ reaction was negated by the discovery that the league itself was sponsored by a gambling operator, and other teams in the league had breweries as sponsors, and she was completely disarmed by the attitude of Simon and Trish. Instead of coming out fighting, complaining about injustice, double standards, hypocrisy etc, my main recollection of the interview was them saying how disappointed they were that the deal had been cancelled and that they hoped that one day they would be allowed to sponsor the club, like any other respectable business.
A representative of the English Cricket Board, which had ultimately been behind the decision, came across as a bit out of touch, however. Further radio interviews followed, plus a slot on that day’s BBC TV News at six o’clock, and Simon put together a press release with his comments on the matter, emphasising that NNN had eight shops, employed 30 staff, had gained Investor in People certification, also sponsored other local sports teams in areas where it had shops, and that it had been voted ‘ETO Adult Retailer of the Year’ the previous year.
The story went on to appear on the websites of the BBC, BBC Sport, The Telegraph, The Sun, The Mirror, and being cricket-related, it was also picked up by websites in countries which play the sport, including CNN of India, Pakistan’s Daily Times, South Africa’s Mercury, and New Zealand’s Newswire. As a footnote, Simon Prescott informed the club that despite the sponsorship deal being cancelled, it could still keep the £1,000.
Extract from ‘From Sex Shops To Supermarkets: How Adult Toys Became A Multi-Billion-Pound Industry’ by Dale Bradford. Available on Amazon platforms worldwide.
