A Fundraising Dinner was held at Felsted School on Saturday 7th March to launch all three tours, with some very exciting high profile sporting personalities, Mike Gatting OBE, Paul Grayson MBE, Melissa Hyndman and Ronnie Irani.
Felsted School have three sports tours flying the flag for Felsted this year: a Rugby Tour to South Africa, a Netball Tour to New Zealand and a Cricket Tour to Australia.
Charlie Knightley, Director of Sport, comments; “touring creates a fantastic opportunity for pupils to face the challenges from teams around the world and this will certainly be demonstrated this year. The value of touring cannot be under-estimated, as both players and coaches learn and develop as a squad and individuals”. Lucy Barrett, Head of Netball, is very excited that this is the first ever long haul tour for Felsted Netball and to a country where netball is the most popular women’s sport in terms of player participation and public interest. Felsted cricketers tour Australia every two years and Jason Gallian, Head of Cricket, is looking forward to developing the future first X1 squad whilst giving the boys an experience that they will savour all their lives.
The touring squads received good luck messages from England rugby legend Jason Leonard OBE, England’s netball star Tamsin Greenway and former England cricketer and Old Felstedian, Derek Pringle.
250 pupils, parents and staff enjoyed a formal dinner in the Lord Riche Hall followed by a question and answer session with the sporting guests. A silent auction took place during the evening which included Rugby World Cup Final Tickets, FA Cup Final Tickets and donations from Grays & Gilbert.