Over 1,600 Children attend Schools’ Day Out at The Spitfire Ground

Monday 24th June saw the return of the Countrystyle Recycling Schools’ Day Out to The Spitfire Ground St Lawrence. After a number of years of success, it was good to see that this year was no different; lots of fun was had by all that attended. 

Kent Cricket welcomed over 1600 school children and 200 teachers from schools across the county on day 2 of the Vitality County Championship match vs Lancashire, with the help of Community Cricket partner Countrystyle Recycling. Australian cricketing legend Nathan Lyon was playing for Lancashire so it was great that the children could see him play. He very kindly signed a few autographs for the children along with several of our Kent players during the day. 

Glorious sunshine and 25-degree heat was on the menu for the day. The high attendance of children and staff in the ground made a difference to the team on the pitch; the players mentioned how much it helped spur them on. Although wickets were initially hard to come by the children and staff were treated to a late flurry of wickets later in the day, so they had something to cheer about. The Kent players and Kent regular members commented on how amazing the atmosphere was during the day and how it helped lift the team throughout their innings.  

As well as the exciting cricket, schools were able to take part in various activities throughout the day, including our Countrystyle Assault Course, games of Countdown Cricket, testing their batting and throwing strength on our speed guns, and some inclusive games in our sports hall. This year the inflatables on offer were cricket darts and a cricket reaction game. These went down really well and we even had a 180 scored on the dart-board. 

Activities were run by the young Sports Leaders from Simons Langton Girls Grammar School who, despite the extreme heat, were fantastic throughout the day, guiding, supporting and encouraging pupils, overseen by the Kent Cricket Community Team. 

Countrystyle Recycling also ran a litter-picking contest. All schools attending were supplied with litter-picking kits for the day and received goody boxes to take back to their schools, helping to raise awareness of the importance of showing respect for our environment and recycling as much of our rubbish as possible. All litter picked was weighed by their Garbage Truck- congratulations to Kennington Primary School who collected the most litter during the day.

During the afternoon some of the Kent players came out in force to meet, greet and sign autographs for the eagerly awaiting students. The event was a huge success and everyone had a great day out. 

Countrystyle Recycling wish to acknowledge all the schools for their commitment and dedication to learn and educate themselves around the importance of recycling.  

See below for some lovely comments from schools and partners: 

Martin Heathecote Country Styles CEO said: “Countrystyle is delighted to have sponsored Kent Cricket’s Big Schools’ Day Out again. The Countrystyle and Kent Community Cricket Teams worked really hard to make this year’s event a huge success with lots of activities, sporting and educational, allowing us to show the pupils attending the importance of a clean environment and sustainable recycling as 2 key ways to tackle Climate Change. The Litter Picking Competition was particularly popular and was much appreciated by the Kent Cricket Ground staff, who said the St Lawrence Ground had never looked so tidy after a game! We look forward to visiting the winning schools, before the end of the Summer Term”. 

Year 6s at a school said: “It was a great day with lots of fun cricket activities. We had loads of fun in the blazing hot sun. It was so very nice having year 10 Langton girls to help us out throughout the course of the day. We liked the blind-fold cricket which helped us with our senses. The speed monitor was extremely fun which told us the speed of our bowling and throwing. A good all-round day!

Community Cricket Officer Jamie Harris: “It was great to be able to deliver another successful event this season, it was good to see that so much fun was had by all the schools that attended. We were able to provide a number of exciting cricketing activities that the children could compete in but it was great to be able to combine these with important messages about the environment and recycling. Having the young sports leaders again this year really enhanced the activities that we could offer as well as giving everyone a better experience of cricket which we hope has helped to inspire many children to carry on playing cricket in the future.” 

Kent Cricket would like to thank everyone involved in the event: 

• Countrystyle Recycling for their partnership, presence on the day and their continued involvement with Community Cricket in Kent. 

• Simon Langton Girls Grammar school for the use of their field for games and their amazing team of Sports Leaders – they were a real credit to the School. 

• Our Community Team for all their hard work organising and running the day. 

• The Commercial, Marketing and Match Day teams for their support which enabled the event to go ahead. 

And most importantly we would like to thank all the Schools that attended- we hope you had a fantastic day and we look forward to seeing you again in 2025! 

Source: kentcricket.co.uk