Field of Dreams
What else are Dreams for, if not to come true
Hi everyone !
Matt Rudd’s review in The Times well-captured the series:
As with all
great television, Field of Dreams was a simple idea.
In the first series, Freddie Flintoff decided to set up a cricket club in Preston, the city where he grew up but where the sound of willow on leather is not commonly heard.
Cricket transformed his life.
Could it do the same for a group of what the
BBC at first called “disadvantaged” and then quickly changed to “reluctant”
young men and boys in his home city?
In the latest series, Flintoff took the team to India to play some cricket and
to see how the other 99 % live.
The result was much more than just life-affirming.
The BBC is
yet to confirm a third series …
But
Flintoff has already floated plans to expand his Field of
Dreams concept to other cricket-free towns and cities.
Leaving his beloved Deckchair up at the Cromwell Road end …
Come for a short stroll with Ol’ Ric out to the Old Shoreham Road as he sets out to answer the Exam Question:
In the search for Top Performers, where in Sussex would you find a Field of Dreams?
As the third & final programme of Series 2 of Field of Dreams ends, there is just time to update viewers on What Happened Next ?
Finn says: “Knowing the lads before and knowing them after, the change is
remarkable. We are all totally different people. I think the show downplayed
how much of an effect it had on us.”
He is now waiting to find out if his application to
join the Army has been successful.
Eli reminds us that after being teased for playing
cricket in his early teens, he’d fallen in with the wrong crowd and left his
school in Blackpool without any GCSEs.
“Things are different now. In India, I realised there was more to life than being a muppet. Our lives were all changed over there. We all came back with our eyes wide open.”
Josh, who has autism, struggled in the overwhelming
maelstrom of downtown Kolkata but now describes the experience as
“eye-opening”.
Since returning to the UK, he’s started his own business and rejoined his rugby club.
---
As I sat in my Deckchair during this week’s Sussex v Glamorgan game (“regulation” Day 3 win by an innings for the Mighty Sussex !) I was thinking about where I might find a Field of Dreams - one with Top Performers - in Sussex.
By the type of Amazing Co-Incidence regular readers so often find in a Lord Ric blog … the book to commemorate the first 150 years of cricket at the County Ground in Hove Actually was titled:
A well-researched and thoroughly enjoyable book, it combines formal history and personal reminiscences from a wide number of people.
But looking at recent graduates from the Sussex Pathway into the Sussex 1st XI I struggle to find many who ended their schooldays in State schools.
You may remember my blog in Season 2023 which set out the Alma Maters:
https://lord-ric.blogspot.com/2023/04/plus-ca-change-rodney.html
What - if anything - has changed in the last 18 months ?
Of the 7 players above in the Sussex v
Yorkshire back in April 2023
5 were playing in the game v Glamorgan in September 2024.
Of the 2 who were not:
Ali Orr now plays for Hampshire
Oli Carter was not selected
Of new regular players in the Sussex
Squad in Season 2024, Captain John Simpson (formerly of Middlesex) & Danny
Lamb (formerly of Lancashire and currently out injured) were both educated in
Freddie Flintoff’s home county of Lancashire in State schools.
John Simpson at St Gabriel's Roman Catholic High
School Holy Cross College, both in Bury;
and
Danny Lamb at St Michael's Church of England High School, Chorley
And what of the Sussex Pathway ?
With 93% of children educated in State schools, what are the demographics of the 23 intakes?
Source: https://sussexcricket.co.uk/news/sussex-cricket-releases-2024-pathway-data
My View:
Some progress, but still a long way to go to achieve the England and Wales Cricket Board’s:
“ambition for cricket to become the most inclusive team
sport in England and Wales
and to say we really are a game for all”
---
Of course, it is all too easy to spend one’s summers Dozing up in the Deckchairs, admonishing others to Do Better !!
I don’t doubt that the Head Honchos in the Sussex Boardroom have their hearts firmly in the right place.
I commend them on the Club's Equality, Diversion and Inclusion (EDI) policy:
We want our communities to say, “I feel part of Sussex Cricket.”
The current Sussex President Founder and Chair of the Aldridge Foundation (of which the Sussex-sponsored Brighton Aldridge Cricket Academy “BACA” is part) is Sir Rod Aldridge.
Sir Rod, who went to
a secondary modern school in Portslade and started work at 16 as a post boy in
the Treasurer’s Office at East Sussex Council, wrote an excellent article on
Levelling Up:
It is not where you come from that matters, it is where you want to get
to that counts.
All young people irrespective of their backgrounds, should experience
both a skills-based and knowledge-based education and enriching experiences
that equip and enable them to raise their expectations, improve their academic
outcomes and create the rewarding and productive lives they choose.
Every young person deserves an equal chance at life.
The context of achieving the
ambition of a game for all is very challenging.
The latest data from Sport England shows that only 5% per cent of children at State schools now play cricket in school hours, compared to 14% of those at Private schools.
But I’m right with Freddie:
I’ve
learned not to fear failure; there’s nothing wrong with it — it’s not trying
that’s criminal.
What’s
the worst that can happen? I’ll go home and the kids will still be there, the
sun will still rise in the morning.
Let’s try
something new.
Right, Said Fred, by Freddie Flintoff
As I sat in my Deckchair, by chance
a Couple of news items this week caught my attention.
Both giving grounds for Hope.
Firstly, the Social Mobility Commission published its report on Conditions of Childhood.
The Report has data on the conditions of childhood in 203 UK local authorities –
measured by childhood poverty, and the qualifications and occupation levels of
parents.
The index captures whether the conditions children grow up in are good for promoting Social Mobility.
East & West Sussex both perform averagely in the Middle Group.
But … Brighton & Hove is an
area ranked in the highest Most Favourable category
And what of the Second new item ?
Well, before the Start of Play on Day 3 I took a 15 minutes’ stroll from the County Ground out to the Old Shoreham Road to take a look at the nearest State secondary school: Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College – BHASVIC.
From the outside, one might - perhaps
generously - describe the classrooms as “utilitarian”.
Certainly, compared with its near neighbour in Montpelier
Road, Brighton Girls, a member of the Girls’ Day School Trust.
6th Form Fees of £6,000 per term
And though Sports are mentioned on the BHASVIC website, I could see no mention of Cricket:
As I glanced through The Spectator’s supplement this week on Schools, The Oxbridge files ranked Oxbridge offers given to pupils from schools in the 2023 UCAS application cycle.
I searched in vain for Ardingly, Bede’s and Hurstpierpoint – where, as noted above, 5 of the 11 in the game v Glamorgan were educated.
I did find Brighton College (the alma mater of Sussex Legends Matt Prior & Sarah Taylor … and the current Sussex Chair !) at No. 43.
There are about 3,400 State Secondary schools, including some 150 in East and West Sussex.
To even get into the Top 80 (including 29 Private schools) listed by The Spectator is a really strong performance.
But to get into the Top 50 or 25 or 10 or 5 … WOW !!
At No.3 is BHASVIC … STELLAR !!!
Editor:
For Readers who – well over half a
century ago - played Cricket with Young Ric in the 1960s …
Take a look at No.68.
A school whose Academic Standards have really, really improved since Ric’s Schooldays !!!
Of course, you may be thinking that progress from where you start is necessarily frustrating slow.
In Season 2023 Sussex - with 84% - had the 2nd
highest % of Privately educated appearances in the county championship from
England qualified players:
Source: FH Stephen
But take a look at Oxbridge Admission stats.
In the late 1930s just over 20%
were State educated.
As The Spectator reports, by 2000 this had risen to 52% and by 2023 to 72%.
Where might Sussex aspire to be in 15 Seasons time - by
2039, the 200th anniversary of its founding ?
This [Levelling Up] lies at the heart of any conversation on diversity
and talent.
How can anyone claim to be building the best team possible, picking from
across the entire talent pool, when that talent pool is formed only from
certain parts of our communities?
Sussex Treasurer and Chair of the Cricket Committee, Fiona Richards
Indeed, talent does come from many parts of our communities.7 out of 10 self-made millionaires went to State school.
Might Sussex like to consider adopting the 10% Target proposed in Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite …
The authors, Aaron Reeves, a policy scholar at the University of Oxford, and Sam Friedman, professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, propose:
Restricting the proportion of privately educated students accepted to study at Oxbridge (and the Russell Group universities more broadly) to 10%.
And what might the Club learn from the Stellar Performance of BHASVIC?
Perhaps the first step to take a step or two up Palmeira Avenue towards to bus stop right outside the school …
Samuel Johnson
---
We are well into Season 2024, just a couple of weeks of Fixtures left.
But this is the Business End of the Season.
In the County Championship, with 2 games to go Sussex are top of Division 2
It’s looking like the Long Winter that began with relegation from Division 1 way back in 2015 will finally be over.
When I send round the Fixtures in early January … Do
get out your diary & have a look at the fixtures for the remaining weeks of
Season 2025.
After all ….
Why read a Lord Ric Cricket
Blog, when you can star in your own.
See you soon!!
Lord Ric of
Beckley Furnace
Dozing up in
the Deckchairs
PS
You may be thinking how best might the Club
approach BHASVIC?
If only there were a Sussex Legend who had been to
the school & gone on to Oxbridge.
If there were such a person, could Lord Ric (Editor:
helped by AI & Microsoft Copilot) find him ?
In a Lord Ric blog … #NeverInDoubt !!!
Take a look at the photo of the Sussex Squad half a century ago in
1970.
There were two Cambridge Men.
In the middle of the Front row, on Young Jim’s
left, is:
Mike Griffiths: Marlborough & Magdalene College
And the Other …
Well, over the years School Names do
change.
In the 1960s when he was walked up
the Old Shoreham Road to the corner of Dyke Road BHASVIC was called Brighton
& Hove Grammar School.
How to identify him ?
Does it help if I tell you … he was at Queen’s College ?
I thought
it would !!
Might I suggest asking the
Immediate Past President of Sussex and Captain back in the 1980s, John Barclay.
Old Etonian John is a former Director of
Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation and led the charity for over thirty years.
The Foundation "delivers projects that engage young people in sports, learning and social experiences, enabling them to overcome barriers, discover new possibilities and realise their aspirations." More than 300,000 young people have benefited from the work of the Foundation.
#FieldOfDreams
John wrote Team Mates …
And on page 102 he says his Best
Friend in Cricket is the second Cambridge Man we are looking for.
I bet if the two of them offered to
give a talk on Sport & Social Mobility … BHASVIC would be delighted for them
to come along !!
No comments:
Post a Comment