Working with special needs schools delivering specialist coaching in table and kwik cricket for young people with learning and physical disabilities to develop their skills and confidence.
Delivered in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the Lord’s Taverners, the project also gives schools the opportunity to attend a Cricket & Countryside Education Day on the Belvoir Estate for their pupils to take part in cricket and countryside activities delivered by our volunteers including the huntsman, fishing experts and the birds of prey keepers.
Imagine our joy and all those at Asfordby Captains Close Primary School, when our blind pupil scored her first basket! Such a special moment for us all.
2023 Outcomes
- 722 children took part in the project
- 81 children in 5 schools received 5 weeks of kwik cricket coaching
- 617 children from 14 schools received 5 weeks of table cricket & Kwik Cricket coaching
- 105 children from 8 schools visited the Belvoir Estate on a Cricket & Countryside Education Day
- 90 hours of curriculum coaching delivered and CPD opportunities provided to school staff
“Allowing our children, most of whom have varying degrees of profound learning or psychological difficulties, to access external expert coaching of the game has as you would expect been a great success on multiple levels. It has allowed our children to learn new sports related skills, work as part of a team, participate in competitions and learn to win and lose and most importantly develop their social skills and reduce social anxiety when travelling to competitions and meeting other competitors and adults.”
– Will Appleton: Redgate Primary School
Beech Academy Wins National Final at Lord’s
The Beech Academy in Mansfield, one of the Special Needs schools we visit to coach Table Cricket, had an amazing season which saw them go all the way to Lord’s, the Home of Cricket.
They won through the county and regional rounds of the Lord’s Taverners Table Cricket competition to reach the national finals at Lord’s where they proudly flew the flag for the East Midlands.
They had made the final stages once before, in 2017, but this time lifted the trophy at the end of a thrilling and memorable day.
Trust chief executive Darren Bicknell said: “It was truly magical. It was great to be there and amazing to see the joy on the children’s faces.
“I suspect they do not know how big an achievement it was, winning at the Home of Cricket. We were enormously proud of them. Well done to the team, teachers and coaches.”
The Trust has recently taken on a new part-time assistant coach, Max Everett, and in 2023 will be expanding its work with Special Needs schools in partnership with Leicestershire CCC and Lincolnshire CCC as well as Nottinghamshire CCC.
