Brit Insurance, the official club and ground sponsor of Surrey CCC hosted a sucessful Disability Day at the Brit Insurance Oval yesterday.

This is the third consecutive year Brit Insurance has hosted such a day. This year’s Disability Day saw children from various schools in and around Surrey and London* participate in coaching sessions, a mini cricket tournament on the hallowed turf at the Brit Insurance Oval and receive a private tour of the ground.

Commenting on this community initiative, Carne Curgenven, Group Communications Director for Brit Insurance said “Brit Insurance is extremely proud of the support it provides for the local community. Days such as this Disability Day, now an annual day at the Brit Insurance Oval, gives all children the opportunity to experience cricket. We hope that our contribution, combined with the excellent work done by the Surrey coaching staff will make a difference to the lives of children in and around Surrey and London.”

Brit’s involvement in such community sponsorships dates back to the beginning of their partnership with Surrey CCC. In 2004 Brit Insurance announced that in addition to their Club and Ground sponsorship they would “work closely with the Club to further develop and strengthen their community projects throughout Surrey and South London, working with children and grass roots cricket”.

In 2005 Brit agreed to sponsor two new initiatives within Surrey Cricket – The Disability Programme and the Playground Markings Programme.

The Disability Programme is intended to help Surrey Cricket develop a full County side representing Surrey within four categories: Visually Impaired, Learning Disability, Mixed Physical and Hearing Impaired. The programme covered school coaching, festivals for selection, county training and matches during the summer.

The Playground markings programme is aimed at ensuring a minimum of one Primary school in each of the five Surrey Cricket districts receive new playground cricket markings.

Community cricket programmes for children with learning and physical disabilities have also been established in seven London boroughs [Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Merton, Southwork, Sutton and Wandsworth]

In total each year 47 groups of children from 21 special needs schools received blocks of coaching (primarily in curriculum time) and also participated in cricket festivals at LCCA Cricket Centre, Chessington Cricket Club & Dulwich.

Two new clubs have been established, one in Wandsworth and the other in Sutton. The Wandsworth club runs term time only as it is school based. The Sutton club is year round and is based at the LCCA Cricket Centre during the summer for matches and training and at a local sports centre during the winter for training.

The sponsorship provided by Brit Insurance, as part of their community agreement has had a massive impact on cricket development across the whole of Surrey. Over the two years of the agreement, not only has it enabled Brit to deliver their disabilities programme and install ten sets of playground markings to strategically selected primary schools, but as a result of attracting funding partners it has been able to secure the employment of five full-time Community Cricket Coaches delivering across all elements of Surrey Cricket.

The Brit Insurance Oval also offers descriptive audio to blind spectators. Radio earpieces which broadcast BBC London’s live ball-by-ball commentary (available online for all Surrey CCC games) are available from the Brit Oval Retail Outlet for £5 to all spectators, but are offered to all blind spectators free of charge at the main reception.

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