Charity day in memory of disabled coach Dan Hodges (From This is The West Country)
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Charity day in memory of disabled coach Dan Hodges
6:00pm Friday 31st August 2012 in Sport
SOMERSET cricketer Jack Leach and former England bowling star Andy Caddick will be involved with the Twenty20 Charity Cricket Day on Sunday.
It will be held at Taunton Deane CC in memory of the Somerset Disabled CC former coach Dan Hodges.
Somerset boy Leach is one of thousands of young cricketers who were inspired by Dan Hodges, who coached the Somerset Under-11s for many years but who sadly passed away earlier this year.
The 21-year-old left arm spinner, who attended Trinity Primary School before moving onto Bishop Foxes and Richard Huish College while he was part of the Somerset Academy, said: "Dan coached me when I was playing for Somerset Under-11s and was a great help to me at that stage in my life, so I am only too happy to support his special day on Sunday."
During the day, which is sponsored by Somerset County Sports, there will be two matches — the first of which is between Somerset Dragons and Huish and Langport Youth XI at 11am and that will be followed by a game between Somerset Disabled CC and Somerset All Stars, for who Leach will be playing.
Entry to this event is free and throughout the day there will be a barbeque, and bar in addition to which there will be a raffle, with all funds raised going to the Somerset Disabled CC.
TauntonSocialistParty says...
9:53pm Fri 31 Aug 12
Paralympics, Atos scandal, Remploy closures... Con-Dems win gold for hypocrisy!
Millions are watching the 2012 Paralympics. The Games aim to inspire young disabled people to take up sport, compete at the highest level and illustrate to the world that having a disability doesn't mean that a full, active and challenging life cannot be lived.
The ethos that despite being disabled, a person should be able to fulfil their own potential, through holding down a job and being a productive member of society, was also the ethos that eventually led to the setting up of the first Remploy factory in 1946.
The forerunner of the Paralympics started in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville Hospital as a way of using sporting competition as a form of healing and therapy for disabled ex-service personnel, many of whom were recovering from injuries suffered in World War Two.
2012 will be a memorable year for disabled people who will be part of the Paralympics, either as spectators or participants. It will also be a memorable year for the disabled workers of Remploy, but the memories will be poles apart.
The disabled athletes, their families and fans, will have joy and excitement. They will look back on 2012 as the year they came to the Games, and left with souvenirs and full photograph albums to record every joyous second.
The disabled Remploy workers and their able-bodied comrades, however, will have bad memories. Their factories, which have provided good quality employment for the best part of 70 years, will shut their gates for the last time. They will head, not for gold but for the dole and a life of poverty and deprivation as they get dumped on the scrapheap.
This will be then vastly exacerbated by the Con-Dems' cold cruelty: with benefits slashed and denied financial and other support to live independently, disabled people are also being demonised as "scroungers", and abuse towards them is rocketing.
In the Con-Dems' arrogance, brought about by the 'Born to Rule' attitude that they have all grown up with, they have ignored the big questions that will be on every working class disabled person's lips, especially if they are ex-Remploy workers or victims of Atos, sickeningly one of the prime sponsors of the Olympics and Paralympics.
Why is it that disabled people are encouraged to compete on the field of sport, partake as competitors in activities from which able bodied athletes are segregated, while being employed in a workplace alongside other disabled people in a supported environment is not acceptable? The government, some charities and, to their shame, some trade unions seem to find having fun together acceptable, but not working together.
Why should disabled people have to suffer the stress of the 'work capability' assessment administered by Atos? The sole aim of this cruel process seems to be to push as many people as possible off sickness benefits, as part of the £18 billion welfare cuts.
No Remploy closures. The factories should be run for disabled people, by disabled people, where people with all forms of disability can fulfil their employment potential in the short, medium and long term.
Fight all welfare cuts. Kick Atos out of the system. End the work capability assessment. A living wage and fulfilling work opportunities for all without compulsion.
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