Meet Lord's Taverners 2025 Super 1s award winners

Three Super 1s participants and a Super 1s coach were presented with awards by Sam Curran and Josh Price at the Lord's Taverners Super 1s Awards Evening hosted at The Kia Oval

CHARITY FEATURE

Designed for young people aged 12–25 living with a disability, and now delivered in every English county, Scotland and Wales, Super 1s provides regular coaching and competition - building confidence, friendships and life skills through cricket.

The event, delivered alongside long-term Super 1s programme partner the Berkeley Foundation, recognises young people with a disability for their achievements and personal development in Super 1s.

Participants who were recognised on the night received awards that were representative of the charity’s values. Ravi, Sebbie and Matthew were presented with Include, Empower and Inspire awards respectively to illustrate the impact they have had as role models in their Super 1s settings. 

Each of the award winners had films specially made to showcase the journeys they’d been on since engaging with the programme. Read on to find out more about their stories.

Matthew Clark

Matthew lives with sturge weber syndrome, a rare, congenital neurological disorder affecting blood vessels in the skin, brain, and eyes, causing a facial birthmark (port-wine stain), seizures, developmental delays, and glaucoma. 

He has overcome countless challenges, with every barrier and obstacle fuelling his passion. The resilience he’s shown in the face of adversity is truly inspiring and he loves being involved in all sport, with cricket being one he is taking so much from.

He is a fantastic role model, not just for the young people who are part of the Super 1s programme and attend his hub in Hertfordshire, but for everyone.  

Lucy Tillotson

Two and a half years ago, Lucy took on the role of managing and coaching an all-female disability cricket group, the ‘Adders’, for the Hampshire Cricket Board – a team created for every young girl attending a Super 1s hub across Hampshire. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to provide a safe, welcoming and fun environment, growing the group considerably. Under her leadership, the Adders now benefit from regular training sessions and fixtures against women’s softball (W10) teams, giving them their first experience of match play - an initiative met with enthusiasm and excitement.

Lucy’s dedication to inclusive cricket as a Super 1s coach, and now with the Adders, has made a significant impact across Hampshire, making her an incredibly worthy Inspire award winner.

^{Lucy Tillotson}

Ravi Chahal

Northumberland Super 1s participant Ravi lives with a rare inherited form of blindness called Lebers Congenital Amarousis, affecting around 1 in 80,000 newborns. 

His dad was watching an England v New Zealand Test match with eight year-old Ravi in the living room. Whilst Ravi couldn’t see the TV, he started asking what the rules were and what the score was. Before they knew it, he had become an avid Test Match Special listener and a cricket fanatic. 

Just over three years ago, Ravi’s dad discovered Super 1s and Ravi immediately took to it. Ravi (now 12) loves Super 1s and Thursday night sessions with his peers and development officer, Paul Roberts, give him so much enjoyment. It’s a club where he feels he belongs. 

As Ravi’s story has become known in the cricket community this year, he has attracted media attention and his love for TMS led to him having not one, but two experiences with the TMS team during the England v India men’s Test series this summer. He was surprised, and then interviewed live, during the tea interval of day two of the first Test at Headingley by Jonathan Agnew and Phil Tufnell before being invited back during the Edgbaston Test to conduct a few interviews of his own with Joe Root, Jofra Archer, Jamie Smith and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Thanks to Super 1s he now knows that disability is no barrier, and his dream of playing for India is still alive (although he’d take an England cap if it was on offer!), and his Test Match Special appearances suggest a career in the media could well be in the offing as well.

^{Ravi Chahal}

Sebbie Hall

Having experienced the impact of being part of the Super 1s programme, Sebbie discovered his own superpower – kindness. Covid-19 was the catalyst for the Staffordshire Super 1s participant to deliver acts of kindness everywhere he went in his community to help transform the lives of others. 

Sebbie says his acts of kindness are a way of acknowledging the help he was given to help him deal with a rare chromosome anomaly which means he lives with physical and communication difficulties. His work has seen him recognised on BBC News and resulted in the founding of the Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation.

^{Sebbie Hall}

Click here to find out more and watch the Super 1s Award winners’ stories