www.disabledsouthwest.co.uk
GLOUCESTERSHIRE - WILTSHIRE - DORSET - SOMERSET - DEVON - CORNWALL

         
 
HOME

NEWS

TRAVEL

LIFESTYLE

HEALTH

ARTS

CAMPAIGNS

LINKS

 

::

 

     

DISABLED SPORT CALENDAR 2009-2010

farm3.static.flickr.com/2799/4368230340_000c0f702f.jpg

London 2012 organisers have signed up supermarket Sainsbury's as the first Paralympics-only sponsor.



London 2012 organisers say the undisclosed sum is the largest ever sponsorship of a Paralympic Games.

And International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Sir Philip Craven described the deal as "historic".

The top-tier sponsorship deal means Sainsbury's will be one of two sponsors to take advantage of the limited branding allowed during the games.

'Importance'

Sir Philip said: "I think what we have got here is a highly competitive and enthusiastic organising committee [London 2012] which has taken the product we have discussed with them and got interest.

"They [Sainsbury's] will go out to the whole of the UK through its 850 stores and its colleagues and get out to Britain the importance of the Paralympic Games in 2012."

Sainsbury's will sell merchandise for the Paralympic Games and for the British Paralympic team across its UK stores.

It will also feature on space on athletes' bibs, on swimming blocks and and in other key spots during the Paralympics.

"We felt that would be unique and different and much better suited to what Sainsbury's could add to the equation," said Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King.

"I am pleased that the Paralympic movement felt the same as well."

 

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson nominated as 'people's peer'

Paralympic gold medallist Tanni Grey-Thompson is set to become a "people's peer" after a recommendation from the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson receiving her honour in 2005Dame Tanni is Britain's most successful Paralympian, with 11 Olympic golds for wheelchair racing, as well as seven golds in World Championships.

The Cardiff-born wheelchair racer has set 30 world records in her career.

She will be one of four new non-party-political peers recommended to the Prime Minister by the commission.

The others are Design Council chair, executive director of the Institute for Government and former Whitehall mandarin Sir Michael Bichard, Royal Opera House chief executive and former BBC journalist Tony Hall, and eminent surgeon Professor Ajay Kakkar.

Grey-Thompson was appointed a Dame of Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005. She was appointed an MBE in 1993 and an OBE in 1999.
 

Playing Cricket With a Disability

Memories of England’s triumphant retention of the Ashes last summer have been made all the more distant by the severe chill of the winter  months.  However, the first optimistic rays of sunshine are breaking  through the clouds. Once you hear the distant buzz of the lawnmower, you  know that the  cricket season is once again upon us.

This year promises another exciting season, not least with the visits to Britain of the national sides of Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. That  same excitement can be found among those speculating upon how the  domestic campaign will unfold, too.

Satellite television contracts have made superstars of today’s  generation of international stars, who have inspired young and old to  both play and spectate. Cricket lovers with a disability are no  different in terms of their passion for the game, and never has there been more opportunities for them to become involved, either as player,  official or support  personnel such as ground staff or scorer.

Grassroots of the GameInitiatives to increase participation include  professional clubs such as  Surrey and Lancashire. Surrey, for example,  compete at schools, club  and county level. In the north-west, Lancashire are keen to ensure that  from the grassroots of the game up to and  including the elite level,  players with a disability have every chance to  fulfil their potential.  And elite means just that, with both England blind  and deaf squads, for  example, competing at international level.

Players with a disability follow many of the regulations enshrined in  the  Laws of Cricket laid out by the guardian of the world game, the  Marylebone  Cricket Club (MCC). However, due to the restrictions placed on them by  their individual disabilities in terms of game play, modifications have  had to be made.

So, for example, blind players are categorised depending upon how severe their impairment is – from little or no sight, up to an acuity of 6-60 (they are able to see at six metres what a fully sighted person can see  at  60m) with teams required to field a requisite number of players from  each of the three designated categories.

International LevelSimilarly, deaf players must have a loss of hearing of 55 decibels or  less in their better ear in order to be eligible to play,  while those  with a learning disability must be judged to have an IQ of 75 or less.

As yet, there is no code that would allow players competing in  physical  disability cricket to play at international level. UK-based players  compete using the profiling system for athletes with physical   
impairments as laid down by Disability Sports Events, a division of the umbrella body of disability sport in England.

In terms of specialised  equipment, blind players use high visibility  stumps, and a plastic ball 
filled with ball bearings that must be  delivered under-arm by the bowler.

Deaf cricketers, on the other hand,  must remove what many of them would  categorise as their most prized  piece of specialised equipment – their  hearing aid – in order to ensure a  level playing field whatever the degree of individual disability.

At all levels of the game this coming season, there are some very tasty  duels awaiting both players and spectators of disability cricket. There  may not be the intense spotlight of satellite television following every move out there in the middle, but that will not lessen the excitement  and 
cheers that will accompany what will, hopefully, be a glorious  summer that will live long in the memory.

Safe Sport
 

File:2010 FIFA World Cup logo.svgGary Benham's World Cup Blog

Gary is the Head of Communications at the British High Commission in Pretoria. To keep up to date on what is happening in the run
up to the World Cup 2010 please go to
http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/benham/entry/230_days_to_go_the

We also want to hear from disabled England fans hoping to go out to South Africa for the World Cup and if your not going, then why
not. Please drop us a line with your plans or not as the
case may be to the usual address - info@nads.org.uk.