A Great Day Out with Countrystyle Recycling and Kent Cricket

Monday 13^th June saw the return of the Country Style Recycling Schools Day Out to the Spitfire Ground St Lawrence, and what a fantastic day was had by all that attended.

Kent Cricket welcomed nearly 1000 school children and 200 teachers from schools across the county to attend day 2 of the LV County Championship match against Gloucestershire, with the help of principle Community Cricket sponsors, Country Style Recycling.

Glorious sunshine greeted our guests as they arrived and took their seats ready to watch Gloucestershire resume on 338-7, with students hoping to see some early wickets then watch their Kent heroes have a bat and they were not disappointed. Just after midday Kent had wrapped up the last 3 Gloucester batters and began their innings.

As well as the enthralling cricket, schools were able to take part in various activities throughout the day, including our Country Style Assault Course, games of Countdown Cricket and Rapid Fire Cricket, testing their batting and throwing strength on our speed guns, and some inclusive games in our sports hall.

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

Country Style Recycling also ran a litter picking contest, supplying all schools attending with litter picking kits and 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 newest Garbage Truck- congratulations to Bysing Wood Primary School who collected a whooping 13kgs during the day.

Litter Pick Winners-

Primary School Winner- Bysing Wood School collected- 13kg of rubbish

Secondary School Winner- St Anselms Catholic School collected- 5kg rubbish

Country Style would also like to make special mentions for:

• The Beacon School Folkestone for being the most enthusiastic participants on the Maxwind Street Cleaner and Dustcart
• Eythorne Elvington Community Primary School who were runners up in litter picking competition collecting 7Kg of rubbish
• Simon Langton Girls Grammar School for being fantastic stewards and helping with all the activities

The Max Wind road sweeper was another popular attraction that children were able to have a go on, clearing the Area behind the Les Ames stand which has never been cleaner!

Stuart Butler-Gallie Country Styles Compliance Director 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”.

During the afternoon 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.

Kent Cricket CEO Simon Storey said; “It was thoroughly uplifting to see so many local school children inside the ground in the sunshine; they brought a welcome buzz and energy and it was another timely reminder of the power of cricket to put a smile on everyone’s face.
At a time when cricket continues to be under the spotlight and we are being challenged to make the game more accessible, this was a great example of the good work that is going on and proves that we have some strong foundations on which we can build.”

Community Cricket Manager- Matthew Fagg- “We are delighted that we can return to delivering large scale events like this and help to inspire the next generation of cricketers and cricket fans, whilst including vital messages about the environment and importance of recycling through our partnerships. The addition of Sports leaders this year has enabled us to provide even more activity and inspiration for coaches of the future.” 

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

• Country Style Recycling for their sponsorship, presence on the day and their continued involvement with Community Cricket throughout 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 and allowing 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 2023.