Brighton Hill head wants to make sports accessible to all

I’ve always been obsessed with sport and was very fortunate, as a youngster, to have lots of opportunities to play competitive football and cricket. Sadly, nowadays, this is not a privilege extended to all young people and this is something which we need to do all we can to address.

At Brighton Hill, we have a strong history of sporting achievement and have one ex-student, Dominic Solanke playing in the Premier League for Spurs and representing England, as well as another ex-student, Travis Clayton, who was recently drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the NFL.

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Chris Edwards (Image: Brighton Hill Community School) These success stories are wonderful and our current students are inspired by their achievements, but they need support to be able to reach an elite level in any sport.

As part of a relationship we have built with Hampshire Cricket, we are committed to ensuring that the young people of Basingstoke have access to a pathway to elite sport. For too long, cricket and other sports have been reserved for children in the private school sector. We want to reverse that trend and ensure that young people in the state schools in our town have just as much chance to play professional cricket as any other child in the country.

We were delighted when Hampshire selected our school as their regional centre of excellence and we have fantastic new facilities which are open to all children across the town, not just students at our school.

I have been heartened to see people sharing the Hampshire Hawks flyers, encouraging boys and girls in the local area to take up the opportunities on offer, so please do have a look on the Hampshire Hawks website and come on down to Brighton Hill if you or your child are keen to play some cricket.

All abilities are welcome and I’d love to see England’s next big cricket star come from a Basingstoke school.

More information on the Hampshire Hawks Street Cricket scheme can be found here utilitabowl.com/cricket-board/community-cricket/street-cricket/.