Sunny side up for village fundraising breakfast
Villagers came out in force to support a fundraising event for BVC student and Olympic hopeful Ben Cutmore.
Over 200 people attended the Big Breakfast event in Abington Pigotts which was organised by villagers to support the young diving champ.
15 year old Ben Cutmore, of Abington Pigotts, is a year 10 student at Bassingbourn Village College and has his sights firmly set on being selected for the Olympic diving squad in the future.
He travels to Stratford Olympic Park in East London for seven training sessions each week where he is coached alongside Olympic and World Champion Tom Daley.
Ben’s passion for diving started when he was just seven and was discovered by a youth sports talent spotter whilst on holiday in Turkey. The Turkish coach encouraged Ben’s parents Karen and Paul to enrol Ben in a diving club when they returned to England … by the age of 11 he had qualified for the British Junior Elite team.
Last year Ben continued his busy schedule competing for England in Canada, winning gold and silver medals. He also competed for Great Britain in the 7 Nations in France and received a gold medal and 4th place as well as entering the Mediterranean Cup in Italy where he won 2 golds and a silver. At the end of the year he was in Ireland competing against junior and senior divers and he is currently the senior/junior Irish Open Champion
So far this year Ben has competed in Norway, winning silver and bronze and earlier this month attended the worldwide junior international meet in Dresden where he came away with 2 silver medals.
Although British Diving subsidises international competitions, Ben’s parents are expected to contribute as much as £400 per competition
Ben has three more years as a junior competing at international level and will then, hopefully, be selected for the senior team moving on to even greater achievements for his country.
Fay Benning, one of the organisers of the Big Breakfast, said: “We had a brilliant morning with over 200 people sitting down for a traditional English breakfast prepared and served by family, friends and villagers. We were overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity, support and time given to make the morning a great success. We had donations of supplies from Hill View Farm and The Pig&Abbot.”
Mum Karen Cutmore added: ”We are extremely overwhelmed by how many people supported and helped on the day to make it all possible. Ben spent half term up in Aberdeen on a pre-camp as his performances have earned him selection for this year’s Junior European Diving Championships in Helsinki later this month so he has a pretty full schedule coming up.”
Ben was also presented with a cheque for £1000 by Andrew Hitch, David Sharp and David Crow, members of the UK committee of 355th Fighter Group Memorial Fund which maintains the memorial on the old Steeple Morden airfield and gives charitable donations to good causes within Abington Pigotts, Litlington and Steeple Morden – the villages in which USAAF personnel were based in WW11.