Bristol business 'bowled-over' after surprise visit from cricket legend Stuart Broad
Watch Ross Arnott's report here.
A Bristol business got a surprise when England cricket legend Stuart Broad arrived to learn about its new technology that will help visually impaired people enjoy sport.
Broad, who officially retired from all forms of cricket earlier this summer at the conclusion of the Ashes tests against Australia, was in the city visiting Ed Rogers the founder of Bristol Braille Technology.
The company had entered into a competition to win £60k worth of funding from Sage and The Hundred in a bid to further the development of their devices to aid people who are living with visual impairments.
Managed by both blind and sighted people, Bristol Braille manufactures a range of revolutionary new Braille reading devices called Canute.
On Thursday 25 August, its staff were able to show cricket legend Broad exactly how the device works.
For Stuart it was also an opportunity to return to Bristol, a place where he spent a large amount of his youth due to his father Chris playing for Gloucestershire.
"I love Bristol, my dad's side of the family are all around here and it is great to be back here and be seeing an exciting project," he said.
"What this will do is try to make sure sport is for everyone and speaking to him about it has been great today."
The surprise was nearly ruined though, as while he was waiting outside of the building to meet Ed some cyclists rode past and nearly blew the special moment.
"A couple of people rode past and did a double-take and when they saw me they looked like they were about shout 'Broady' so I had to gesture at them to be quiet, nearly ruined the surprise but it was great to finally meet Ed."
Speaking of meeting Stuart and receiving the funding founder of the not-for-profit company Ed Rogers said: "Everyone on our team is incredibly excited and honoured to be selected as the winner of the Sage Small Business XI competition with The Hundred and what a surprise to get an unscheduled visit from Stuart Broad to our workshop.
“This is an opportunity to promote cricket, including visually impaired cricket, anddemonstrate the flexibility of our Braille display technology for blind people in all fields oflife.
“Sport should be accessible to all and we’re grateful to Stuart, the ECB and Sage forrecognising the work that we and our community of Braillists are doing.”