Latest news with #Coppack
BBC News
03-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Coppack swaps law for full-time Essex cricket deal
According to the Marylebone Cricket Club website, there are 42 different laws of cricket, external, most of them divided into multiple sub-sections, plus an player who would feel right at home immersed in such fine legal details is seam bowler Kate Coppack, who will be part of the Essex women's squad this who helped Sunrisers win last summer's Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy under the old regional format, is an employment lawyer by at the age of 30, she is temporarily turning away from the world of litigation and affidavits, having signed a professional contract at Chelmsford as the women's county game enters a new era."When I was growing up, it [turning pro] wasn't an option at all," Coppack told BBC Look East."Even when I was at uni, it wouldn't have been an option for me to be a professional cricketer - law was always the career path and cricket was playing on the weekends, seeing how high I could go amateurly."But when the game became professional, there were added incentives, the standard got better and I really enjoyed working hard at my game and seeing where it could go. It was kind of a natural progression to try to get a fully professional contract while I still can." Essex are among eight women's county sides granted fully-professional tier one status by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - although Nottinghamshire will continue to use their old regional name, The Blaze - and will take part in their own T20 Blast and 50-over One-Day Cup competitions this played for Sunrisers on a 'paid-by-game' basis and took 4-27 as they beat South East Stars in a rain-affected RHFT final last September, for which she was named player of the she now has the chance to concentrate fully on cricket this summer, as her legal career takes a back seat."In terms of how much studying I did, and training, in total it was seven years - five years of studying, then two years in practice," she said. "It's a long road to become a lawyer and I didn't stop it lightly. I did think about it for a while."I will miss it, I love the firm I was working with, the team I was working with, but it's good I can now focus on cricket."I will miss that intellectual stimulation and I am going to try and do a bit of work while playing cricket. In the winter, there'll obviously be a lot more opportunity for that, there's quite a bit of downtime when I can do some legal work still so that's the best of both worlds really." Apart from last summer's final, Coppack has a couple of other more notable achievements on her cricketing she was 13, she became the first girl to play for the first XI at King's School in Chester and also made six appearances as a guest for Peru at the 2018 South American Women's Cricket now, following a training camp in Abu Dhabi, everything is geared towards Essex's One-Day Cup opener away to Durham on Wednesday, 23 April."We always had a few full-time professionals (for Sunrisers), but now some of those girls who were juggling careers with playing part-time are now full-time which is great for them," said Essex team director Andy Tennant."It gives them the chance to fulfil their potential and I know they'll be even more excited than the full-time pros. We're just looking forward to having a whole collective that we've got every day of the week to train."Eventually, the women's game will have to stand on its own two feet. This is the next step for the domestic game for us to start getting more bums on seats here at Chelmsford and earning our corn, if you like, on top of the ECB investment that's already come into the game."Tennant hopes the Sunrisers' improvement in 2024, which brought their first major trophy, can be continued by Essex, who have signed several other members of their squad, apart from Coppack."We just want to be competitive in all formats - we'll focus on doing what we do well and hopefully at some point, somebody will give us some silverware," he Eva Gray believes the fact that members of the squad have taken "different routes" to reach this point is a strength."We have people that weren't full-time until about a week ago but also people that have been full-time for five or six years," she said."The whole way through the Sunrisers era, we were all pretty understanding of different scenarios and people's commitments. Now, for us to pull together as one big full-time squad is really key. We're looking forward to seeing the progress we can make."For Coppack, as one of the oldest members of the squad, it remains to be seen how many years she wishes to commit to the professional she added: "There's plenty of time to be a lawyer, we'll enjoy cricket for now."
BBC News
22-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Rotherham hosts international parkour event at NovaCity
More than 100 parkour athletes from across the world have gathered in South Yorkshire to take part in an international as young as 11 will compete at indoor venue, NovaCity in Rotherham, as part of Project Underground which began in managing director Liam Norbury said the three-day event ranked competitors on skill, speed and said: "Ten years ago you would say parkour and no one would have a clue what you were on about apart from athletes and on James Bond, but now even if people don't know the term parkour they know free running." The event brings athletes together from the United States, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Vietnam and the coach Samuel Coppack said the gym was part of a thriving South Yorkshire parkour said: "There's plenty of spots around Sheffield that have become iconic in the UK scene that people travel to."The heart of parkour is exploring the environment that you're in." Mr Coppack, 31, has been involved in the sport for 17 years and began coaching in 2012. "It's my passion. I love doing it and I've seen many amazing things through the sport and now I'm really focussed on bringing up the next generation – bringing up more people into it."Hugo, 11, from Reading is competing in the style event with his team Menaces. He has been practising the sport for six said: "I like the feeling when you land something and it's a good exercise."I started off doing gymnastics and then I moved into parkour. It was a gradual change. I started watching stunt videos and films where they do flips and I thought it was pretty cool and I decided to start parkour."The sport has taken him across Europe, and he said his ambition was to continue to compete across the world. Mr Coppack said the sport offered a sense of community as well as a creative way to stay fit and strong."There's a phrase in parkour – people say parkour for life – and it's tongue in cheek because as we get older our bodies change and things become more difficult and we accept that but it's a lifestyle sport ."It's not just being young and doing crazy stuff, it's a measured approach of how you can use your body over time, being strong and being capable."I want to be doing this for a very long time. Because it's a broad sport with so many different avenues – it's not just throwing yourself across rooftops – there's plenty of lower impact things you can do." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
