On Wednesday last week, Chance to Shine unveiled their 2025 Impact Report at the House of Lords, highlighting the good work that they do across the country in state schools through cricket.
Schools Manager, Ally Darlow, was invited as a representative of Berkshire Cricket, and it was a proud day for us as the special guests for the event in Westminster were James Elliman Academy’s PE Teacher, Rob Ellington, and Year 4 pupil Jacob.
Jacob’s story features heavily in the CTS 2025 Impact Report, and for good reason. Back in late 2023, Chris Baker and Connor Wardlaw delivered a Chance to Shine whole school programme at James Elliman, giving Jacob his first taste of playing cricket. Jacob was not a child who regularly engaged in PE lessons and hadn’t found a sport that he enjoyed, however, after six lessons of cricket with Chris and Connor, the only thing on his Christmas Wishlist was a cricket bat and ball.
Since then, we have worked closely with James Elliman, they were invited to Chance to Shine’s Spirit of Cricket event at Lords in the summer; in September 2024 we returned to the school for another whole school programme for six weeks and then in December we ran a leadership morning at the school with a number of pupils from Year 5 & 6, along with Jacob, were taught how to run cricket sessions to younger year groups.
Jacob is a perfect example of what Chance to Shine and Berkshire Cricket stand for, finding a child in a state school who has been able to use cricket to boost his confidence and help grow his self-esteem.
We’re always on the lookout for the next Jacob across the work we do in schools and having one of our Berkshire schools featured in Chance to Shine’s Nationwide Impact Report is certainly something we can be proud of.
You can read Jacob’s Story in full in CTS’s Impact Report 2025 here: