Somerset Visually Impaired Cricket Club compete in the BCEW National League against eight counties. Somerset VICC play their home games at Wombats CC in Bishops Lydeard.
Matches are played with a larger ball (size of a handball) that makes a sound and the wickets are larger. Each player much be registered blind or partially sighted. Each player is then placed into one of four sight categories. The team is then made up of different sight categories, with no more than two players from the high partial category.
Somerset’s Kathryn Jelfs-White, who not only played a key role in the creation of Somerset VICC but has also captained her country, explained how Somerset VICC came into existence.
“Along with a group of friends, I was invited to attend a training session at Taunton Vale by a local sight loss charity and Blind Cricket England & Wales, which is the organisation that governs the domestic game. This was in February 2010. It was the first time that I’d ever heard of this version of cricket. I didn’t know that VI cricket existed. I was 28 by the time I got involved, so I wish I’d heard about it earlier because I missed out on a big chunk of playing time. That’s why I urge youngsters to get involved as soon as they can.
“It came about because there weren’t really any teams in the South West. They were predominantly London-based or in the Midlands. The BCEW felt that it was time that the South West got involved so they came down to Taunton. There were about a dozen of us there, and although I’d never ached so much as I did the day after, I loved it because I hadn’t done any competitive sport for at least 12 years. After the session we decided to form a committee, start a club and get into a league.
“Within a couple of months, we’d got the ball rolling, were having more regular training sessions and we joined the development league the year after.”
How supportive have Somerset County Cricket Club and Somerset Cricket Foundation been?
“From the very start, the Somerset Cricket Foundation, or Cricket Board as it was called back then, got on board and offered to help with providing coaches and venues for both training and matches. They also helped to spread the word and get more publicity out there so that we could get more people involved. We had about 12 players to start with and knew that we needed to engage with local schools and youth groups to help find more VI players to join us.
What does cricket mean to Kathryn?
“As I mentioned previously, I came into the game late because I didn’t even know that it was an option. I just didn’t know that I could play an adapted version. What started off as something to fill part of the weekend has become something that has enabled me to visit countries that I never thought I would get to go to and has opened up access to a whole new group of friends. I’ve even been able to play at Lord’s, and it’s things like that that I didn’t think would be possible.
“The England VI team was always supposed to be a mixed team, but no woman had ever actually played for the team and about five years after Somerset was formed it was decided that there should be a UK-wide women’s development team. I was involved in that from the start and eventually we got to go on tour to Barbados in 2018. That was another amazing opportunity that a lot of us would never have thought would be possible.
“Last year, the World Blind Games was staged on home soil and cricket was involved for the first time. The ECB helped to put together an England Women’s team for the tournament, which was great.”
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