Surrey County Cricket Club are again partnering with the ACE Programme ahead of Black History Month to deliver a month of engaging content and activity to celebrate the contribution of the black community to our game and The Kia Oval specifically.
Black History Month, in October each year, recognises the contribution and achievements of the Black community around the world and offers the chance to challenge racism in sport and beyond.
In 2022, in association with the ACE Programme, Chance to Shine and the Surrey Cricket Foundation, Surrey showed their commitment to Raising The Game with a special Black History Month tour of The Kia Oval, led by ACE Director Chevy Green.
The tour specifically spoke to the contribution of Black players to the history of The Oval, and educated young people attending the Chance to Shine Street half-term cricket competition from all backgrounds about the many great Black athletes who have made their mark in south London.
This year, the tours will be expanded and offered to the general public. There will be four of these unique opportunities across the month of October, and details about dates, time and cost will be announced in due course. All money raised will go to the ACE Programme charity.
To register your interest, click here.
ACE Programme Director, Chevy Green said: “I am excited that the tours are coming back this year. I really enjoyed hosting them last year.
“After we put the photos and videos of the tours out on social media, we got a lot of requests to offer these tours to more people so I am happy that we can deliver that this year.”
In addition to the newly expanded tours programme, KiaOval.com will also in the coming weeks publish the transcript of a seminar held in 2020 entitled “The Significance of Cricket to the Windrush Generation and the Legacy of the West Indies Tours of the UK (1950’s to Present)”
The seminar was funded by Surrey County Cricket Club through a partnership with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (part of the University of London’s School of Advanced Study), which was led by Professor Philip Murphy.
The event was originally intended to be held in person, but due to COVID was held online.
The seminar featured fascinating contributions from people such as John Holder, Colin Babb, and the late Derek Gift-Simms, and gives authentic retellings of the legacy of the West Indian crowds.
The transcript will be serialised on Surrey channels throughout the month of October.
To read more about the work of Professor Philip Murphy, and his team working on Windrush history at the Institute of Historical Research, click here
Today (22 June 2023) marks the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the passengers of the Empire Windrush to the UK. The day celebrates the contribution and achievements of the Windrush generation and their descendants.
Former Surrey player Alex Tudor has been speaking to the PCA about the legacy of Windrush and his desire to see more conversation around the matter. Read here.
