Lord's for a day

12 June 2008

Four thousands youngsters visited Lord's to watch Middlesex take on Essex

Four thousand state school pupils descended on Lord's last Friday to watch the LV County Championship match between Middlesex and Essex.

The children were from more than 100 schools involved in the Chance to shine campaign and most, if not all, had never visited a cricket ground before, let alone the Home of Cricket.

Two lucky pupils from Fair Field Junior School in Hertfordshire - Mackenzie Lemon and Sahil Shah - had the unique opportunity to be present as mascots at the official coin toss by home skipper Ed Smith and his Essex counterpart Mark Pettini.

Aaron Lowe and Nicole Canwell, from Colbayne School in Clacton on Sea, also had a day to remember as the pair rung the five minute bell in the famous pavilion to signal the start of play.

Aside from watching the match, children had the opportunity to visit MCC’s Museum and Spirit of Cricket Factory, as well as taking part in a quiz competition organised by Middlesex County Cricket Club.

They went left Lord's hopefully more inspired to get involved in cricket in the future.

Chance to shine is the single biggest grassroots sports development programme ever undertaken in Britain.
The campaign aims to establish regular coaching and competitive cricket opportunities in a third of state schools - 5,200 primary and 1,500 secondary schools - by 2015. To achieve this, £25million needs to be raised through private donors, which the Government has pledged to match.