The Central Coast All Stars have triumphed at the second Community Blind Cricket match held at Gosford’s Adcock Park on Wednesday, December 6.
The region’s community leaders and media personalities donned whites for a game of blind cricket to mark International Day of People with Disability and raise awareness of disability sports.
The All Stars played a team from Social Futures, the not-for-profit organisation, NDIS partner in the community and organiser of the match.
The All Stars were led by captain of the NSW Blind Cricket side Shaun Fitzpatrick and their line-up included Police District Inspector Ben Campbell and Chief Inspector Helen Dean, along with the Australian Guide Dogs senior puppy trainer Mark Jackman.
Former NSW Blind Cricket Captain Scott Jones, who is employed by Social Futures, captained the Social Futures team, which was victorious last year.
“The cricket was very competitive,” he said.
“The All Stars Team were very good this year; they learnt a lot of lessons from last year so they just came out of the box strong and they were great.”
The final score was 82 to 69 runs.
“Social Futures went down but not without trying,” Jones said.
“Overall, they were so appreciative of being invited and it was a super day.”
Other disability sports were also on display including AFL, soccer, cycling, golf, pickle ball and judo.
“There were a lot of disability sports on display with marquees and their gear set up,” Jones said.
“This is the first expo we’ve done at the cricket.
“One of the highlights was the Central Coast Bicycle User Group – CCBUG.
“They had a lot of tandem bikes and electric bikes for people with disability and they were giving rides to people with a disability and encouraging vision-impaired participants to join that club so that was really encouraging.”
Seeing Eye Dog puppies were also at Adcock Park to welcome the community.