Breakfast at the Hotel was eggs with Bacon or sausages – not both!! The team are obviously working closely together as all turned up in blue CWB shirts with no prior arrangement which was crucial for the dust we were due to experience! At this time steve adshead appeared having carried out a series of shuttle runs!
Drive to Mathare was at 9:15 via the supermarket. This was a really poor area and described as being a ‘slum’. No grass, on a hill, overlooking ‘living accommodation’. However, we had 32 kids in high spirits pleased to see us and the equipment, accompanied by about 50 spectators. They were already playing a game with some old equipment, competing with a football game. They were 8 – 15 years old, boys and girls.
Stephen started with an intro explaining what CWB is all about and then we got stuck into the coaching. Steve Adshead carried out a warm up with lots of smiling faces. We then split into 3 groups batting, fielding and bowling. All groups rotated every 15 mins. Ed got an honourable mention from Ghazi on his great coaching of the batting.
We then had 3 individual Kwik Cricket games one of which was a girls game. Girls did not enjoy chasing the ball when fielding, but boys were very keen and some were great athletes. In one game we also had a Goat fielding!! Stephen and Phils game seemed to have lots of excellent fielders and so there were lots of high fives. The highlight was hearing Phil calling a young lad ‘Newcastle’ (he had a Newcastle shirt on) and every time he scored a run we had Phil calling out ‘Shearer, Shearer’.
We finished with handing out shirts, mini bat, pens, etc and we then had to leave having wished we could spend more hours with them. We were thanked and applauded. We left and found that a flat battery meant we had to push start – excellent fun after a great morning.
Back for lunch at the Hotel and then again out for more coaching in the afternoon.
Ben and Stephen
