WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS WEEK & TABLE CRICKET

This week marks World Autism Awareness Week 2023. Last week in The Lighthouse, which is part of St Mary’s NS, Saggart, Cricket Leinster hosted a Table Cricket blitz as a part of the initiative. By growing the awareness of these types of initiative, CL hope that this might inspire the wider cricket community to continue to be inclusive and perhaps consider starting up a Cricket4All programme in your club or link in with your local cricket development officers and schools to get a primary schools table cricket competition going in your area.

Autism can affect the way a person thinks, communicates, interacts, and experiences the world around them. Autism is referred to as a spectrum, and it affects different people in different ways.

The image below displays some of the ways in which autism can affect people.

Approximately 11% of the population in Ireland aged 0-17 years are identified as having a disability, with around 1.5% of school going children diagnosed with Autism.

When working with children with additional needs it is important to always have think about what the participants can do, not what they can’t do. Cricket is a sport that is very inclusive and children with learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities, and psychological and emotional conditions have participated with great success in table cricket sessions across Leinster. This is an area in which Naomi Scott-Hayward (SDCC CDO) and her team have been developing teams for Table Cricket Blitz competitions in South Dublin County Council. This has worked particularly well with ASD and outreach classes - children on the autism spectrum, children with learning difficulties and physical disabilities.

On Tuesday March 21st, Cricket Leinster hosted their fourth primary school table cricket blitz. The Lighthouse, part of St. Mary’s NS, Saggart, hosted the event. In total 17 children took part in a very successful event.

CL’s table cricket blitz in The Lighthouse began with the children split into two official teams of 6, with some additional players taking part in practice sessions on the second table. Table cricket helps the children to develop a range of skills, such as, motor skills and literacy skills as well as teamwork and turn taking.

The competition format ensured that each player batted and bowled for 1 over, rotating after every 6 balls, this meant that the game saw everyone have a turn at both skills. The layout for the morning meant 2 tables being set up ready to play. Whilst one of the tables was used as the official match table, the team which was fielding were all fully involved in the match, whereas their opposition had one player batting at a time, this meant that the rest of their team were able to practice and have fun playing on the second pitch. This helped to keep the players' active throughout the duration of the match.

The children in The Lighthouse had been practicing table cricket so they all had experience playing and knew the rules. The top batter was Lucy, top bowler was Araav, and the winning team scored a total of 257, winning by a margin of 21 runs.

All participants were given a sticker to mark a Table Cricket Challenger award as well as a Cricket Leinster and Lord Taverners Ireland (LTI) branded t-shirt on the day. This week, as part of World Autism Awareness Week they were presented with their Cricket Leinster & LTI medals for all those who took part and the perpetual cup was awarded to the winning team.

What is Table Cricket?

Table Cricket is an adapted version of cricket and it is best played on a table-tennis table, or a table of similar size. Table Cricket is made so that children with a disability can have the opportunity to play cricket. The game has different scoring zones around the border, fixed to the table. Fielders are placed around the border to slide side to side and prevent the batter from scoring ‘runs’. The bowler bowls a ball by rolling one down a ramp, the batter then scores runs by hitting the ball into the scoring zones and trying to hit in the gaps between the fielders. Each team has 6 players and they take it in turns to bat and bowl.

A big thanks to Lucy Barry (Clontarf CC) who was on work experience with Cricket Leinster for the week, for her assistance in delivering the successful competition on the day. To Anne O’Meara and Killian Molloy for coaching in the Table Cricket programme around SDCC. Finally, a big thanks must go to South Dublin County Council and Lord’s Taverners Ireland for their continued support of these disability programmes in SDCC.