Birmingham Sports & Cultural Day

The annual Birmingham Sports & Cultural Day is a community driven event that uses sports as a vehicle to promote the importance of cultural diversity & cohesion, widen access to sports and to increase participation.  It is also intended to be a family occasion where people of all nationalities and all age groups are able to attend and enjoy a wide variety sports, performing arts and cultural activities.  Naturally, this would be the perfect venue for the Bobcats to raise awareness about Softball. 

Newly elected committee member, Chris Williams, jumped upon this opportunity and was able to obtain a free space for the Bobcats to erect a stall and four VIP passes.  He also had a banner made and set up a table with props (gloves bats and balls) and leaflets to hand out about softball in general, the West Midlands Softball League, and of course the Bobcats in particular.  On the day he was assisted by Debbie, Tad, Saps (& Lorna) and Reinout. 

Here’s his account of the event:

If we had seen the official programme we might have taken into account the laid back nature of the people of Handsworth.  The organisers had planned the ‘lunchtime Entertainment’ to start at 16.35!

However, we set up bright and early for 10am.  By 12.30 we had only seen five people and two of them were Bobcats!

  Chris and the stall (Photos: Debbie) 

A lot of effort had gone into preparing our stall and the end result was convincingly professional.  Despite the odd heavy rain shower, the park became livelier as the afternoon slipped by, but it didn’t quite provide the teeming hoards which we had imagined.

Yet the ‘Softball for Beginners’ leaflet was very popular and we hope the enthusiasm and naturally-fun approach of the Bobcats will result in more than a few newcomers in the next few weeks.

Debbie with the 'Softball for Beginners’ leaflet

The highlights of the day included free Jamaican patties, almost speaking to the Lady Mayor, yummy cakes -  “happiness in every bite” – which provided an unexpected tea time treat with samples of six cakes (Kate: clearly a Bobcat’s heart is through their stomach!) and a customer feedback questionnaire – it was hard work but somebody had to do it.  Many of us also found out about Kabaddi (national team game of Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh) for the first time too. 

Chris, Tad and Reinout  

Many thanks go out to Debbie, Tad, Saps (& Lorna), and Reinout for flying the Bobcat flag. 

Chris Williams