A new national disability cricket programme – Super 1s – is now being delivered across Somerset for disabled young people aged 12 to 25.
Funding from Lord’s Taverners – the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity – enabled the Somerset Cricket Board to start delivering the programme across the county in January, and the programme has gone from strength to strength with nearly 60 young people with disabilities now playing cricket every week through Super 1s.
There are free sessions running every week at hubs based in Taunton, Bath, Sedgemoor and Yeovil, with the Taunton hub seeing a record 18 participants taking part last week.
By creating community cricket hubs, delivered weekly by county cricket boards, Super 1s gives disabled young people the chance to compete against their peers, enjoy the benefits of sport and live a more active life.
For many young people with disabilities throughout the UK, opportunities to take part in regular competitive sport can be extremely limited. But the Super 1s programme has created a new pathway for disabled young people to play the game.
Super 1s provides young people with a chance to realise their potential, both on and off the pitch. It enables them to discover what they can do, not what they can’t, and become role models for their peers.
The delivery of the Bath hub for the next three years has been made possible thanks to support from the St Johns Foundation, which awards funding support to charitable organisations in Bath to help build resilient communities by supporting people to overcome challenges, improve their lives and live as independently as possible.
Somerset Growth and Participation Officer Steve Gass said: “Super 1s has been a real asset in the county. It has not only raised the profile of our disability cricket offering in the county but is beginning to have an impact on those individuals taking part.
“Super 1s offers the opportunity to learn something new and mix with other young people in a safe, stimulating and well supervised environment. In addition to the social benefits of the programme, we have also managed to start a county disability second team with lots of new players recruited from our Super 1s hubs.”
To find out more about Super 1s in Somerset, contact Steve Gass on Steve.Gass@somersetcricketboard.org or visit lordstaverners.org/super1s for further information.
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