Minister for Sport Hit The Top with Cricket for Change

Jan 12, 2010

The Minister for Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, is enjoying a visit to Carew Manor School in Wallington Sutton on Tuesday 12th January 2010 to see how many of their pupils are ‘Hitting The Top’ with the help of Wallington based charity, Cricket for Change.

The ‘Hit The Top’ programme, now 2 years old, has been incredibly successful helping more than 2,300 young people with a disability in London access cricketing opportunities. As well as greatly increasing participation the project is changing lives.

The project which is funded through support from Sport England and The Lord’s Taverners creates comparable cricketing opportunities for disabled young performers to their able-bodied peers.  Since its introduction in 2008 14 young players have gone on to trial with their respective England Disability teams.  ‘Hit the Top’ has also enabled 28 young people with a disability to become professionally qualified cricket coaches. An aspiration that they would not have had the chance to achieve until ‘Hit the Top’ arrived.

Carew Manor School has embraced the ‘Hit The Top’ programme knowing the benefits that cricket can bring to its pupils.  Jamie Green, currently at Carew Manor, has recently been training with the England Learning Disability Development Squad.   Kathryn Briddock, former pupil, has a learning disability but was still invited to train with the Surrey Under 17s mainstream girls team this year.  Maggie Drummond, Carew Manor’s Head of Upper School supports the ‘Hit The Top’ programme tirelessly.  She supports the young people within the school and then when the holidays arrive she volunteers to drive the Surrey teams to their Inter-County fixtures.  

Sport England’s 3 year funding for the project will conclude in 2011 when Cricket for Change will be celebrating its 30th anniversary. 

The successes of the ‘Hit The Top’ project in London over the last two years has led to Cricket for Change and The Lord’s Taverners looking at taking ‘Hit The Top’ UK wide and enhancing the opportunities for thousands more young people with a disability to improve their lives.

Minister for Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe said, “Hit the Top is a fantastic initiative, giving young people with a disability the chance to get involved in cricket, move up in the sport or become qualified coaches. I applaud the work of Cricket for Change and the backing that Sport England and the Lord’s Taverners have given the charity. I am looking forward to my visit to Carew Manor School to learn more about the project and meet some of the young people who are benefiting.”  

Andy Dalby-Welsh C4C Director of Programmes said, “’Hit The Top’ has been a wonderful success so far.  It is great to have the Minister for Sport coming to enjoy the programme and see how much the young people can achieve.  Our dream is to now take ‘Hit The Top’ nationwide and change even more lives for the better.”

Matthew Patten, Chief Executive of The Lord’s Taverners, said, “We envisage a future where all young people, irrespective of background and ability, have the everyday opportunity to play cricket and other competitive sports and enjoy physical activities to the benefit of their self-esteem, health, education and future socio-economic potential.  Hit the Top brilliantly provides young people with new opportunities to participate in cricket and enhance their social development.”

Martin Midgley, Head teacher of Carew Manor said, “We have a really close relationship with Cricket for Change and their input as part of the ‘Hit the Top’ programme has benefited all our pupils. We see cricket as a fantastic way of giving our pupils opportunities that they might not otherwise have had and the school is always buzzing about cricket. We are delighted to host Mr Sutcliffe and support Cricket for Change in any way that we can.”           

Contact for further information:

Andy Dalby-Welsh, Cricket For Change Director of Programmes
Tel No: 07786 238168
E-mail: andydw@cricketforchange.org.uk

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