England Star And Local Kids Ramp It Up For Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week

Schoolchildren from 10 local schools had the chance to meet one of their cricketing heroes during the all-day cricketing tournament run by the Lancashire Cricket Board for Chance to Shine.

Talking about the day Jos Buttler said, “It was a great day. The kids have got a lot of out of it and have had a lot of fun. They’ve been introduced to cricket and hopefully they can continue to enjoy the game for a lot longer.”

Chance to Shine is massive for kids, introducing the game to them in schools and giving them the opportunity to play. I’m sure through Chance to Shine we’ll find some England cricketers.
The budding cricketers were very keen to dismiss the England keeper and Jos admitted: There seemed to be quite a lot of fielders when I was batting and I kept getting caught!

One of the players, Mark, 11, said, “I enjoyed getting people out and hitting a few sixes and fours.”
Matthew, 11, said, “It has been good, I enjoyed bowling and batting. It was exciting to meet him (Jos) and get his autograph. It was pretty cool.”
Richard Gleeson, Fylde Cricket Development Coach at Lancashire Cricket Board, commented, It’s been a fantastic day and the children have all played in the right spirit. The kids have loved having Jos down. They were saying that they were going to ramp him if he bowls at them!

All the schools involved have children at local clubs, especially here at Kirkham CC, so it shows that the programme is working.
Talking about Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week Richard added, The week allows us to get schools involved in more areas of the game and get them using cricket in Geography, Maths and English. It’s also great to see so many parents here today and they have all been after the tea!
Jason Oldfield, Cub Secretary at Kirkham and Wesham Cricket Club, added, “We’ve had a fantastic day and we were privileged to be asked to host the day by Chance to Shine. We’ve got a great relationship with Richard Gleeson, our community coach, and we build strong boundaries with the local schools.”

The weather held off and it’s been fantastic to Jos here off the back of his amazing hundred and we are very grateful that the day has been such a success.

Talking about the club, Jason said, “About six years ago we didn’t even have a colts section and now we have over one hundred kids signed on. In the last few years that has been thanks to Richard Gleeson and Chance to Shine. We now hold a thriving junior colts night on Fridays that brings income into the club. Our youth section is the future of our club. It has put us on the map, made us sustainable and makes me very proud.”

Mr Bridge, a year six tutor at Newton Bluecoat School, said, “The children have had a great time. They were completely unteachable this morning through excitement! They’ve really enjoyed having such a famous person around and it’s a great encouragement.”

He also had a confession to make around the Yorkshire Tea given out as part of the day saying, “If you look in my pockets you’ll see that they are full of tea!

The event was the fourth of six flagship media events taking place across the country to celebrate Chance to Shine’s national celebration of cricket in schools. Thousands of schools have registered for Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week, through their local County Board, and are planning cricket-themed lessons in class, coaching in the playground, competitions at local cricket clubs and beach cricket festivals.