'Planet Kwik Cricket' design wins ASDA leaflet competition

18 December 2007

Hugh Erritt's winning 'Planet Kwik Cricket' design

Ten year-old Hugh Erritt of Harlands Primary School in Sussex has won the inaugural ASDA Kwik Cricket leaflet competition after his ‘Planet Kwik Cricket’ design was selected by members of the England team.

Back in July, Harlands School were crowned 2007 ASDA Kwik Cricket National Champions so the leaflet competition was thrown open to all the pupils. Around 70 took part and while the standards were highly rated by the England judges who viewed the designs on their computers in Sri Lanka prior to the secpnd Test in Colombo, Hugh emerged as the clear winner.

Dave Simmonds, the master in charge of sport at Harlands, said: “After the school team's success at the National finals in July, the profile of cricket at Harlands has been higher than ever this year. As a result, the opportunity to share our school's enthusiasm for cricket with others couldn't have come at a better time!

“In the knowledge that their work would be viewed by 'real England players' as several children put it, children throughout the school were able to use the persuasive writing skills they developed in their Literacy work, for a real purpose.

“It was not only the keen cricketers, who joined in. Those with a passion for art and ICT were keen to put their skills to good use too.

“The opportunity to participate in such a unique competition was well-received by teachers and children alike. It has further raised the profile of Kwik Cricket in the school, opening up the sport to a whole new audience.”

Oliver Mott, competitions executive at the ECB, was also delighted with the result: “This was the first time we’ve interacted with children outside of the cricket environment and we couldn’t be more pleased with the result.

“So many of the designs were brilliant, one even managed to fit in a shark into the design! All in all this competition was fun for everyone and I think that the children who took part found it very rewarding so we’ll definitely do this again next year. Many thanks go to Harlands and all the children for their hard work.”

As part of the its strategy for the future of the game the ECB is seeking to engage with children in a number of different initiatives to ensure that competitions and other activities that are age-group specific reflect their interests and needs.

Engaging children in this way also empowers them to use prior skills in a new arena, as highlighted by the experiences of the pupils at Harlands PS.

The ECB sought the advice and guidance from the NSPCC Participation Team regarding best practice on working with children and all competition entries received a certificate of achievement, as well as additional prizes for the final selected designs.