The British Blind Sport Primary Club BBS Final Heading for Kent

The British Blind Sport Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup Final will take place in Kent for the first time in the competition’s 36-year history whenit is staged at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in Canterbury on Saturday 9th August 2014.

The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, is one of the oldest first class grounds in world cricket having been the home ground of Kent County Cricket Club since 1847. Four one-day internationals have been held on the ground with the last being as recently as 2005.

In recent years the blind cricket cup final has taken place at Edgbaston, The Rose Bowl and The County Ground’s in Bristol and Northampton, so The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, joins an impressive list of recent hosts.

In 2013 Warwickshire Bears defeated Sussex Sharks in a high quality final. Both sides face strong competition if they wish to contend for the trophy again with 11 teams from 10 different counties taking part in the tournament this year.

British Blind Sport Board Member and cricket committee member Dave Gavrilovic said: “As I grew up in Kent and am a life long Kent County Cricket fan, I’m personally delighted that this year’s BBS Cup Final will take place at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence.

“It’s an excellent venue and follows in our recent tradition of taking the final to the highest quality venues England has to offer. It’s extremely appropriate that this year the final of the world’s longest running annual blind cricket competition will take place at one of the oldest first class venues in the world.

“I would like to wish all of our teams the best of luck in this season’s cup competition and I’m sure which ever clubs reach the final, their players will appreciate playing on such an excellent ground.”

Kent Cricket Chief Executive Jamie Clifford commented: “Kent are extremely pleased to welcome the British Blind Sport Cup Final to The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence this year on Saturday 9th August and look forward to welcoming the counties who reach the final.

“Our very own Kent VI Spitfires County team are competing in the National Development League for the very first season this year, and as a county we are very committed to providing opportunities to visually impaired members of our communities to play, watch and follow cricket.

“We look forward to playing a role in the rich history of this prestigious competition and will encourage our Kent communities to watch and enjoy the game.”

Children and adults with visual impairments can get involved and try cricket in Kent, for more information about the programme please contact Alex Farmer in the Kent Cricket team (alex.farmer.kent@ecb.co.uk). The Kent VI squad play county cricket in ECB competitions and train all year round across the county. The team are also searching for a sponsor to support the year round programme.