Monday 23rd June 2025 will stay with me forever. To celebrate Chance to Shine’s 20th birthday, we wanted to do something extra special. Setting a new world record, with 943 kids having fun and playing cricket together at Lord’s, seemed like a great way to go. But none of us could have imagined just how good it was going to be.
Back in 2017, Chance to Shine had actually held the world record for the largest cricket lesson at a single venue when we’d gathered together 580 pupils. Then, over time, Warwickshire Cricket Foundation had stepped forward and set a new record of 645 children.
We wanted to go bigger and better this year, and blow the world record out of the water. Targeting almost 1,000 primary school children seemed like a daunting challenge. But it was also incredibly fulfilling to see it all come together.
The first kids started to arrive at Lord’s at about 10.15am. You could feel the excitement already, especially once they saw the Lord’s pitch. At 11am, Lord Mervyn King, one of Chance to Shine’s co-founders, and Kate Stephens, our chief executive, officially welcomed everyone. We were also joined by Jodie Ounsley, otherwise known as Fury from Gladiators. The kids’ excitement went off the charts when they saw her!
Then, just like on a Test match, Jodie rang the Lord’s bell to start the day’s play. In total, we were on the pitch for just over an hour, with all the children spaced out in grids.
One of the stipulations of the event was that there had to be a single instructor, with all the participants taking part in the same lesson. Thankfully, Lord’s gave us access to its full audio-visual set-up, including the big screens. It was such a privilege to be the person mic’d up and broadcast on the big screen. There were some nerves, of course, but it was also a huge amount of fun.
As we all know, Lord’s is the home of cricket. So seeing such a diverse group from the next generation getting a chance to play there was something that will stick with me forever. I’m sure every child involved will remember the day for the rest of their lives.
We had 20 schools from the Chance to Shine programme and 15 from the MCC. They weren’t all local, either. We had Windsor Community Primary School, from Toxteth in Liverpool, travel down for the day. Another school from Yorkshire also made the trip. Then there was a mix of schools from Hampshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Staffordshire.
Windsor Community Primary School was the winner of our Community Cricket Award last year. What they’ve done with cricket, in an area where football is often seen as the only sport, is a wonderful achievement. And there were plenty of other schools and pupils with incredible stories to tell.
At Chance to Shine, we reach approximately 5,000 schools and 600,000 children every year. We know cricket has so many incredible, unique elements. It gives children life skills like teamwork, resilience, collaboration, and connection. And we know that great coaches leave kids feeling and thinking that cricket is a game for them, their wellbeing, and their future friendships.
Our tagline is ‘Inspiring young people through cricket’. I hope this day did exactly that.