THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND?

 

As one member of the Somerset Visually Impaired Cricket Club said to me during their match against the Rotary Club of Ilminster this weekend ‘It was a bit like the blind leading the blind!’ 

The Visually Impaired Cricket Club was officially formed in 2011 and has since gone on to achieve a number of successes in the past eight seasons. They play their home games at Wombats CC (Bishops Lydeard) and matches are played with a larger ball (size of a handball) that makes a sound, and the wickets are larger. Each player much be registered blind or partially sighted. Each player is placed into one of four sight categories and the team is then made up of different sight categories, with no more than two players from the high partial category. 

The Rotary Club of Ilminster first became involved with the club several years ago when they certainly met their match and this year, as part of the club’s focus on community engagement, with Rotarian Tony Walker at the helm, his committee colleague Brenda Lake organised a return match. 

Hosted by Ilminster Cricket Club, and with the weather being kind to us, a healthy crowd of onlookers and supporters was there to cheer on team Captain, Rotary President Kirsty Hughes, as she and her fellow players donned the special glasses that ensured that they did not have a visual advantage over their competitors. This was shown to be very effective, as the Visually Impaired team trounced their Rotarian opponents by 80 runs, during a game of 20 overs for each side. 

After a proper cricket tea, of course, President Kirsty said, ‘It really does make you think how lucky we are to have our sight, but also really heartening to see everyone enjoying the game. I hope we can continue this as an annual event.’