Over 150 school children from East London swapped their classrooms for the historic grounds of the Brit Insurance Oval in London, by taking part in the Lloyd’s Cricket Cup and Coaching Day on 25 April 2008.
The annual sports event was run by Lloyd’s Community Programme with volunteers from the programme and support from Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership. Pupils, aged 10 to 11 years, from six schools in Tower Hamlets took part in coaching sessions and then the cricket tournament.
This year, the pupils had the advantage of being coached prior to the tournament by the Lloyd’s Community Programme volunteers from the Lloyd’s market companies. Volunteers from Atrium, Beazley, Brit Insurance Holdings, Clyde & Co, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, Lloyd’s and Teceris Claims Management ran weekly coaching sessions at the schools to prepare the pupils for the event. Volunteers from Denis M Clayton & Co also joined them as umpires at the event.
James Wright, Head of IT Operations from Beazley was involved in the coaching sessions at Christ Church School and commented, “It has been really inspirational to see the school children develop and improve their cricket skills over the coaching sessions. Even if only one or two from Christ Church take up cricket after this event that will be a real achievement.”
Carol Rider, teacher at Christ Church School said: “This year the experience of taking part in the tournament has been enhanced due to the support of the volunteers from Beazley coming into our school for the coaching sessions. As Christ Church is in Brick Lane in Tower Hamlets, our pupils have no experience of playing on a grass pitch and to be able to play at the Brit Insurance Oval is a marvellous experience for them.”
This is third time Lloyd’s Community Programme member company, Brit Insurance Holdings has provided the 150 year old Brit Oval for the sporting event and arranged for members of Surrey Country Cricket Club to support the day.
Carne Curgenven, Group Communications Director of Brit Insurance Holdings said: “Once again we were thrilled to see so many young people enjoying this rare opportunity to play on this famous cricket ground. We are so pleased to have been able to be part of something that the children so clearly enjoyed and that helped create some very special memories for them.”
Surrey County Cricketer, Laurie Evans presented medals to the individual players. Nick Furlonge, Chairman of Lloyd’s Community Programme and Director of Beazley presented the Lloyd’s Cup and cheques for £200 towards sports equipment to the winning teams, St Matthias School in the morning tournament and Christ Church in the afternoon tournament. The Fair Play Awards were won by St Paul’s School and Stewart Headlam.
Nick Furlonge commented: "For the first time we have had volunteers going into the schools involved in the cricket cup before the event coaching the children. This has been a great success thanks to the hard work of the volunteers and a step forward for this successful event. Many of these children have never had the opportunity to play on grass before, so I am sure that coming here to the Brit Insurance Oval will leave a lasting impression on them."
