22/07/2005

TEST MATCH SPECIAL BROADCASTS JUBILEE TRIBUTE TO THE PRIMARY CLUB

Peter Baxter introduces a special programme looking back at 50 years of the Club

Test Match Special, a British broadcasting institution, presented a half-hour history of the Primary Club, with whom they have been so closely linked. The programme went out in the lunch interval of the second day of the first Test. It had been recorded at the jubilee cricket match at Beckenham earlier in the week.

For the programme Peter Baxter interviewed Keith Patterson, one of the founding members of the Primary Club, Robert Fleming, the Club's Chairman, Jude Thompson, head teacher at Dorton House and Mike Brace, one of the Club's trustees and chairman of the British Paralympic Association.

The Primary Club has a long-standing relationship with Test Match Special. This dates back to the time Brian Johnston started talking about the Club during his commentaries 30 years ago. That relationship has continued through the years and the Primary Club is lucky to count the Test Match Special team amongst its closest friends.

"The Primary Club is an institution very dear to Test Match Special," said Peter Baxter, producer of Test Match Special. "It's amazing how the Club has developed over the years."

"Test Match Special have done so much for the Primary Club," commented Robert Fleming. "we couldn't have dreamed of becoming as well known as we have without their support."

To download the programme, right click the following link and select 'save' or 'save as', then play the file from where you saved it. www.primaryclub.org/media/TMSspecial.mp3

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About The Primary Club (www.primaryclub.org)

Founded in 1955, The Primary Club’s mission is to raise money to fund sporting and recreational activities for blind and partially sighted children. Now in its fifty-fifth year the Club has almost 8,600 members having raised a total of well over £2 million. In 2009 the Club donated £187,000 to a number of UK-based charities including Joseph Clarke School, The Royal London Society for the Blind and British Blind Sport.

About Test Match Special (www.bbc.co.uk/tms)

The Test Match Special team have been providing ball-by-ball coverage of cricket on BBC radio since 1957.