Ex-cricketer walking 523 miles to raise money for charity
A former cricketer is lacing up for a journey that goes far beyond the pitch.
Olivia Robinson, a 36-year-old ex-Worcestershire County cricketer, is walking from Land's End to John O'Groats.
She is on a mission to raise £20,000 for the cricket charity Chance to Shine by visiting and playing at cricket clubs along the route.
Advertisement
Ms Robinson will hit the halfway point on her journey while stopping to play cricket in Lancashire.
Ms Robinson began her walk on June 5 (Image: Supplied)
Ms Robinson, from Perth, Australia, said: "I've walked through six counties and stayed at 36 clubs, Ramsbottom will be number 37... that's my favourite number.
"And I've walked 523 miles so far."
As she travels, she is stopping at clubs to promote the sport to young people.
Her Lancashire stops this week include Springhead, Ramsbottom, and Burnley cricket clubs.
The walk is personal for Ms Robinson, who spent 10 years battling severe anorexia and mental health struggles.
Advertisement
She credits the cricketing community and her love of art with helping her recover.
During her journey, she plans to reflect on her experiences and hopes to use what she learns to inspire others — while also painting scenes along the route.
Ms Robinson said: "All I have to worry about is putting one foot in front of the other, fuelling myself, staying safe and not getting lost.
"I'm looking forward to the simplicity of it all."
READ MORE:
She began her walk on June 5 and expects to arrive in John O'Groats at the end of August.
A spokesperson for Chance to Shine, said: "We're so grateful to Olivia for taking on a challenge to support the work of Chance to Shine, who deliver cricket to children and young people across the country, particularly in under-served areas.
Advertisement
"The funds Liv raises will support the continued delivery of cricket for young people in schools and at our Street clubs.
"We help support the personal development of the approximately 600,000 young people we work with each year – promoting their mental, physical, and social wellbeing.
"Thanks to Liv's incredible challenge, more young people will benefit from the opportunities that playing cricket offers."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Post-Wimbeldon, A New Generation of Tennis Stars Are Driving the Sport's TV Demand
While familiar legends have long dominated tennis fandom, recent demand data suggests the sport's fan base is increasingly rallying behind younger stars Following this year's Wimbledon Championships, a shift is becoming clear not only on the court, but in the hearts of global audiences. While legends like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have long dominated the tennis world, recent demand data for these players suggests that the sport's fan base is increasingly rallying behind a new generation. The final round of the Men's Singles tournament saw Carlos Alcaraz facing off against Jannik Sinner in a rematch of the French Open earlier this year, which Alcaraz won. Alcaraz was the defending Wimbledon champ, having bested Djokovic the past two years, so it was something of an upset when Sinner emerged victorious. The budding rivalry between these two players can serve as a compelling narrative that will draw attention to events like Wimbledon and the sport of tennis in general. More from TheWrap Post-Wimbeldon, A New Generation of Tennis Stars Are Driving the Sport's TV Demand 'Love Island USA' Season 7 Ends as Peacock's Most-Watched Original Ever With 18.4 Billion Minutes 'Live With Kelly and Mark' Sees Ratings Growth for 2nd Week in a Row With 2.1 Million Viewers | Exclusive As Skydance-Paramount Merger Closes, the 'South Park' Trump Takedown Shows the Fight Is On | Analysis While established tennis champs have historically captured the lion's share of attention from global tennis fans, the global demand for Alcaraz and Sinner has surged since their recent high-profile matchups. As of July 14, Sinner was the most in-demand athlete in the world, with Alcaraz a close second. This isn't to say Djokovic, Nadal or Federer have faded into irrelevance. All three continue to spark meaningful demand spikes around key moments. For example, Djokovic during the Australian Open and Federer during anniversary tributes and sponsorship appearances. However, the overall trend points toward a generational handoff. Today's fans are turning their attention to the athletes shaping the next era. This changing of the guard also appears to be shifting national interest in the sport. Parrot Analytics' Sports Demand shows that in Serbia, Djokovic's home country, tennis accounts for a sizable 21% of all demand for sports competitions. A national sports hero like Djokovic has the ability to drive interest in a sport like tennis in his home country. The share of demand for tennis in Italy so far this year (19.7%) is not far behind Serbia. As national pride fuels fan engagement, it is likely we're seeing the Sinner effect in real time, illustrating how the success of a local star can drive broader interest and growth for a sport in their home market. In Spain, France and Australia, traditional tennis strongholds, tennis still commands a healthy share of overall sports interest. In the U.S., tennis captures 8.6% of the country's sports demand, which is just above the global average of 8.1%. It serves as a reminder that even in a crowded sports ecosystem, elite talent and iconic tournaments like Wimbledon still break through. For marketers, rights holders and broadcasters, these audience signals matter. They suggest that while nostalgia for tennis legends remains potent, the business of tennis must increasingly be forward-looking. Rising stars like Alcaraz and Sinner aren't just winning matches, they are winning over fans, sponsors and entire countries. To fully capitalize on this momentum, platforms and advertisers may want to double down on storytelling around this generational shift. If demand is any indicator, the future of tennis is already here and audiences are tuning in. The post Post-Wimbeldon, A New Generation of Tennis Stars Are Driving the Sport's TV Demand appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'We want to play for England just like Jess Park'
The next generation of aspiring Lionesses say the current England team is inspiring them to become professional footballers. Defending champions England will take on Spain in the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 final on Sunday, hoping to go one better than two years ago when they lost to the same opponents in the World Cup final. Young girls at Elloughton Blackburn Football Club in Brough, the former club of current England international Jess Park, said they hoped to follow in her footsteps. Eight-year-old Scarlett said: "I feel like I could be like her [Jess Park] and I could play for Elloughton but then go into England, too." She added: "I think they [the Lionesses] are going to win. I think she [Jess Park] has been really good. I've been proud of her." Thea, seven, said her role models included Park and Ella Toone. She said: "I like them because they're just really kind. I really look up to them and I want to be the next one of them. "They represent our country and they're just really good at playing football. "I think they're going to do really well and score lots of goals." Thea's mother, Becca, said her daughter "lives and breathes" football. She said watching the Lionesses showed girls what could be achieved in the sport and that it was not just for boys. She added: "Representation is important in all areas and the fact that they can see someone special like Jess, who has started here and see what she's gone on to do, I think that's amazing." Scarlett, seven, said she joined the team because she wants to be a professional football player. "I feel inspired that Jess has gone from Elloughton Blackburn to the national team," she said. "If they win, girls will want to play the game more." Elloughton Blackburn's president, Conleth Campbell, has been at the club for 20 years and saw Park's progress. He said she played for the club from the age of seven for four years and it was an "absolutely phenomenal achievement" what she had done. He said: "We did see the talent back then at such a young age and we're all extremely proud of her. "The success of Jess and the success of the Lionesses has promoted girls football in this country. "We are approaching capacity [at the club]." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices More on this story Football exhibition tells story of Hull Lionesses England women's team pioneer honoured Ex-England captain's 'confidence' in Lionesses Related internet links England Football
New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Joe Root can become Test cricket's greatest runscorer. And that record would never be beaten
He stood, a little self-consciously, as Old Trafford rose to him before eventually raising a thumb to his captain and a hand in acknowledgment of the warm and prolonged ovation. Joe Root had just played one of his trademark shots, a push through backward point off the hapless Indian debutant Anshul Kamboj, for the run that took his score to 120 and a very special piece of cricket history. Advertisement It was the single that lifted this modest son of Sheffield to the grand total of 13,379 runs in 157 Test matches for England over 13 years of high achievement since he made his debut as a fresh faced and cheeky young batter against India in Nagpur. And, as everyone in this famous old ground knew, it was the single that took Root past Ricky Ponting and into second place in the list of Test cricket's all-time leading runscorers. How apt that the great former Australian captain should be here to see Root go past him after hot footing it from the slightly less illustrious stage of Major League Cricket in the United States to commentate for UK broadcaster Sky Sports on the last two Tests of this series. And how fitting, too, that Root's latest and greatest achievement should come in the newly named Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as it is only India's little master Sachin Tendulkar who stands above him now. Ponting was on commentary for the big moment and was quick to congratulate Root on going past him. He also offered a perfect appraisal of the qualities that have made this most unassuming of characters one of the greatest batters of all time. "He's just a classical Test match batsman," Ponting told Sky. "He's calm, he eliminates mistakes, he hits the ball where it's supposed to go. "Joe stands upright, which is the modern way, but his back foot punch, his cover drives, the way he hits the ball down the ground, are all textbook and, like all the great players, he finds a way through experience to not make mistakes. "He puts a high price on his wicket, as all great players do, but to see him over the last five or six years, when he's really learnt his Test game, has been a pleasure to watch." It was not only Ponting who Root surpassed on a day when England made big strides towards the fourth Test victory that would clinch the series for them with a game to play. Advertisement He started the third day in fifth place on that list of the greatest Test batters but was soon to pass, when he reached 31, both India's Rahul Dravid and South Africa's Jacques Kallis, barely reacting to the applause that greeted his accession. Root knew there was still considerable work to do and it was only when he reached what was his 38th Test hundred and, remarkably, his 12th against India that he displayed his emotions and raised both his bat and arms high towards the Manchester sky. Passing Ponting, the scourge of many an England team past, when he added 20 more to his latest three-figure score was merely a sidenote to him as Root joined with his captain Ben Stokes in trying to bat India completely out of this game and series. It seemed as though he would go on and on but, after losing Stokes temporarily with cramp, Root was forced into his first mistake by Ravindra Jadeja with a delivery that turned sharply and saw him stumped for 150 and now 13,409 Test runs. He left, limping slightly – and with a hint of cramp himself – after treading on the ball that had dismissed him, to another huge ovation but crucially with his job done. England closed on 544 for seven, 186 ahead of an India side who selected badly for this match and have bowled even worse. For Root it is all about the team, always has been, which is why he has returned to the ranks so successfully since relinquishing the England captaincy three years ago at one of the few low points of his magnificent career. There was no sulking after the gloomy last vestiges of a leadership reign that ended with only one win in his last 17 Tests in charge and England in desperate need of the inspiration and new approach that Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum brought. It says everything about Root that he immediately bought into 'Bazball' as an ex-captain and senior professional, even trying to adapt the batting that had brought him so much success by adding ramps and scoops to his favoured punched drives and sweeps. Advertisement Only when he attracted rare criticism for an injudicious ramp that led to his dismissal at a crucial time of the third Test and the series against India in Rajkot last year did he decide to park 'Bazball' and go back to the busy and still positive style that had served him so well. It was the right decision for Root and England. He was certainly quick scoring and entertaining enough without the funkiness and has climbed to an even higher level under Stokes, making hundred after hundred when once he would struggle to convert 50s. So understated a character is Root that it is easy to under-estimate the scale of his achievements, but they truly are remarkable. That 38th ton takes him level with Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, with only Tendulkar, Kallis and Ponting having scored more. Only Don Bradman (19 v England) and Sunil Gavaskar (13 v West Indies) have scored more Test centuries against a single opponent than Root's 12 against India, a testament to his particular ability against spin bowling and the unique demands of the sub-continent. Root shows no signs of slowing down or any hint of decline. He has struggled at times with a long standing back condition but is it not bad enough to seriously affect his batting nor his more than useful off-spin bowling and fielding that has seen him in this series become Test cricket's most prolific catcher without gloves. He still looks fresh faced at 34 and still has the same insatiable hunger for runs and boyish enthusiasm for batting that England identified long before they gave him that Test debut at the end of the triumphant 2012 tour of India. Ollie Pope, who made 71, cited Root's "hunger and his drive" when asked what qualities marked him out as special. "You look at all the batters here and everyone's picked up something from Joe, not necessarily cricket but with how he goes about himself and his training," he told Sky. |His hunger for it is awesome and he's an annoyingly good bloke." There is little Root has not achieved but Ponting will know Root has never scored a Test century in Australia, something he has every chance of putting right this winter. And there really is no reason why this Peter Pan like figure should not go on and surpass Tendulkar, even though he is still 2,512 runs adrift of him. Advertisement Yes, Root will need to maintain his standards, and stay injury-free, but England have another 22 Tests scheduled between now and the end of the 2027 Ashes. If Root, who would then be 36, is still scoring runs as consistently as he is now he could go past Tendulkar in 2028. And if he does, with the Test calendar shrinking, it is almost certain no-one would ever eclipse him. Joe Root of Sheffield Collegiate, Yorkshire and England, would be the leading runscorer in Test cricket for as long as the great old game survives — and that really would be worth acknowledging. Click here to read more cricket stories on The Athletic.
