It was both an honour and a pleasure to take students to participate in an inclusive cricket event held at the John Charles Centre, featuring entries from across the city,
Despite the students never having played a competitive match or game outside of school, all students engaged in the tournament with the highest level of commitment, sportsmanship and effort.
In 13 years of taking teams, I haven’t witnessed such enthusiasm and dedication to hitting a small ball across a sports hall.
They all worked as a fantastic team and were also very quick to celebrate the success of their opposition, which was a remarkable example of their sportsmanship. Antonio Davies, personally delivered the bats to the opposition and shook their hands prior to playing.
The day began with a 30-minute ‘learn the rules quickly’ session in the dance studio at Swallow Hill. Lyndsey Hazlewood, our SEND teacher, noticed that the students seemed to grasp the rules in no time.
“Wow” she commented, “we might do well here!”
We then travelled down to the John Charles Centre in multiple groups due to the non availability of the mini bus – special thanks to our chauffeur, Assistant Achievement Leader, Gary Jenkins.
Met by seven other teams and the Yorkshire Cricket Board, the games began, and we participated in Leeds’ first ever inclusive indoor cricket event.
In the group stages, SHCC won all three matches. The format of the match meant that every player had to bowl and bat so there was no room for any weak links … amazingly, we didn’t have any! S
wallow Hill won all three group games and progressed to the final, facing Bruntcliffe. With points available for catches, Bruntcliffe pulled off four quite outstanding catches to clinch the title.
Swallow Hill came runners up and along with Bruntcliffe will now represent Leeds in the West Yorkshire Inclusive Cricket Finals!
It was an awe inspiring achievement by all the students. Miss Hazlewood and I were so proud to represent Swallow Hill.
The following pupils stood out for their sportsmanship: Shamas Aslam, Jack Schofield, Antonio Davies, Drew Collins, Kyle Pittendreigh, Leonardo Carvalho, and Adam Hawkins.