Royal visit boosts Bedfordshire

Prince Charles demonstrates his cricket ability during his visit to Bedford

Bedfordshire cricket completed a weekend of great successes at both ends of the scale with the visit of His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales to an Inter Faith project at Queens Park in Bedford.

Hot on the heels of the England Test debuts of Bedford schoolboy Alastair Cook and Bedfordshire Young Cricketer Monty Panesar, Prince Charles visited Bedford to see a grassroots scheme bringing together different faiths with cricket as one of the major uniting factors.

Prince Charles met local coaches at a coaching session to demonstrate that the uniting works. After congratulating the scheme organisers and cricket development manager on both the success of the scheme and local heroes Cook and Panesar, the Prince struck a few straight drives to please the local crowds and media.

The scheme started following the tsunami, July 7 bombings and recent earthquakes which have affected all faiths and beliefs and pulled together the local community.

The project has been put together by cricket-mad American the Reverend Jay MacLeod, the local priest at the All Saints and the Interfaith Adviser to the Bishop and Diocese of St Albans.

In conjunction with cricket development manager David Mercer and volunteer co-ordinator Karamat Hussain, cricket has become the major uniting factor with 140 children attending regular cricket coaching schemes since the turn of the year.

Hussain has pulled together a willing team of helpers, four of which have attended the UKCC 2 Cricket Coaches Award with a further nine to follow on a UKCC1 Coaches Assistant course.

Help is now forthcoming from the local partnership development manager Cathy Tribble and the inclusion of a new joint rugby and cricket Community Sports Coach will further boost the scheme that has seen a new club formed - Queens Park Youth Cricket and three teams entered into the local Bedfordshire Youth League.

The visit of Prince Charles proved to be a magnificent celebration of the project to date with 36 lower school children aged 7-9, who regularly attend weekend sessions, demonstrating their skills.

Helped by equipment manufacturer Factory Eleven the children took part in six drill stations covering all aspects of the game, batting, bowling and fielding as well as the FUNdamentals elements of the Long Term Athlete Development Programme.

The four UKCC 2 Coaches will now complete their 10 hours supported practice running the scheme and a UKCC1 course started to bring along a raft of volunteers to back them up.

The Community Sports Coach will further enhance local interest by working in local schools and assisting in the regular coaching programmes.

The Prince has pledged to try to support ground-breaking work to improve community relations in Bedfordshire through the Prince's Trust.

It is hoped that, like another product of the work in Bedfordshire, a number of these boys and girls can follow local hero Monty Panesar through the Bedfordshire county age group coaching schemes to the top of the game.

Panesar achieved the distinction of becoming the first Sikh to represent England during the first Test against India in Nagpur and produced a magnificent bowling performance.

Fellow debutant Cook, who attended Bedford School, also completed the rare feat of a century in his first Test appearance.

Their performances and the royal approval given by Prince Charles has put Bedfordshire firmly on the cricketing map.