Lloyd's bats for Tower Hamlets

On Thursday 22 April, over 180 children from six Tower Hamlets schools competed in Lloyd’s Community Programme’s annual cricket cup at the Brit Insurance Oval.

Brit Insurance, a member of Lloyd’s Community Programme and sponsor of the Brit Insurance Oval, donated the ground for a day.

With perfect weather for competitive cricket, the East London schools - Blue Gate Fields, Christ church, Harry Gosling, Old Palace, St Paul’s and Virginia - battled it out with the help of Lloyd’s Community Programme volunteers and the Surrey cricket club.

30 volunteers from Lloyd’s and the market have spent the past six weeks going to the schools once a week for an hour at lunchtime to coach them for the event.

Kelly Gallagher, an underwriter at Atrium, returned to Old Palace for a second year and said: “I really enjoy working with the kids. This is the second year I’ve gone to Old Palace and it’s been good to build up a relationship with the school. Seeing the children’s reactions when they arrive at the Oval is fantastic and it’s been great fun.”

The schools competed throughout the day with lots of cheering and shouts of encouragement from the sidelines. Christ church emerged as the winners for the morning, and Virginia for the afternoon, earning both teams a place in the final for the deciding match.

Christ church triumphed as the champions and won £200 of sports equipment for their school as well as the silver Lloyd’s cup and gold medals for each player. Prizes of kwik cricket sets were also awarded to Blue Gate Fields and Old Palace for ‘fairplay’.

Nick Furlonge, Chairman of Lloyd’s Community Programme, said of the event: “It’s been another wonderful day. The coaching makes such a difference and the standard gets better every year. The children have a great time and are learning to love cricket.”

Carol Rider, a teacher at Christ church Primary School said: “Being invited here five years ago got the school into cricket and since then we’ve really taken the sport on board. Support from Lloyd’s has given us a passion for cricket and the children feel like they really achieve something on the playing field.”