As this is written on April Fool’s Day, a glance out of the window indicates that cricket is still a long way off for many of us. Reports from around the country all seem to convey the message that groundsmen are struggling to prepare their squares for the start of the school season in two weeks’ time, or even this week and next for a few. A lucky few have ventured further afield to the Caribbean, Sri Lanka and Spain for preseason tours and their progress can be followed on our X page @schools_cricket.
This season has been eagerly awaited by many schools as the season will reach its climax at Lord’s on Friday 28th June, when the final of the Boys Under 18 T20 and the Cricket Paper Girls Under 18 100-ball competition will take place on the main ground at Lord’s for the first time with the kind permission of the MCC. The boy’s competition has 216 entrants, of which 58 schools and colleges are from the state sector, beating the previous highest by 18 schools. The girl’s competition numbers 78 schools, 6 of which are from the state sector reflecting the developing nature of the girl’s game at senior level in state schools.
Regular updates on both competitions will be posted on this website throughout the season along with a weekly report with scores, complied by the author. Once again, we welcome schools to contribute their scores and would be pleased to hear of outstanding individual performances such as centuries and 5-wicket hauls. Please send these to [email protected]
A number of schools have supplied their prospects for the season, and they are included below and are arranged by region and alphabetically. Schools are welcome to send in their preview up to the 10th April for inclusion on this page.
North
Birkenhead have a young XI, with a good crop of Year 10 players coming through the school. North player, James Coghlan, will be looking to help out the younger boys and build on his strong season last year. The school continue to be assisted by Birkenhead Park CC, who has given them year-round access to their indoor facility. In July, a tour Sri Lanka will take place for three teams in their first tour in some time.
Jack Hendy, a former student of Huddersfield New College, has taken over as Head of Cricket from the long serving Petrus Lombard. New skipper Joe Pyrah, Finlay Hill and Yorkshire EPP player Bradley Sylvester will be testing themselves when not playing for the college, in arguably the best level in Yorkshire, the Bradford League. All-rounder Jonah Thackeray will be an exciting player to watch.
Later this summer work will commence on a new sixth form and cricket pavilion at Manchester Grammar School, this will keep the tradition of the existing pavilion as well as significantly improving their facilities. Corey Flintoff has taken over the captaincy of the 1st XI who, along with his brother Rocky, will be looking forward to a big season and are both members of the Lancashire academy. Whilst winning is important, there is a focus on participation, creating opportunities for as many cricketers as possible.
Myerscough College, Manchester, eagerly anticipates the 2024 cricket season with an unprecedented Year 12 intake, expanding our senior squad to 57 and introducing a 4th XI. This year is marked by exciting talent, including James Dunn, a fast bowler with 2nd XI experience with Lancashire in 2023, and Amelia Sammons, a promising all-rounder from the Thunder Academy aiming for the 1st XI. The enthusiasm extends beyond the pitch, as all 42 first-year students have committed to their first South Africa tour since Covid, in 2025, underscoring our thriving cricket programmes appeal.
Newcastle School for Boys’ cricket season is shaping up to be an exciting one with a strong 1stXI hopeful of a good run in the National Under 18 T20. They are still to lose to the MCC and keen to maintain that tradition. A four-day tour to Cambridge to play The Perse, Durham School and Park View Academy in an annual festival will be a great way to finish the summer. If they have England U19 keeper/batsman, Haydon Mustard available for most of their games they have a chance of beating anyone on their day as his explosive and creative stroke play makes him one to watch! Home games are played at South Northumberland CC and is always a delight as it has to be one the best venues for school cricket in the country.
Park View Academy are based at The Riverside, the home of Durham Cricket and are excited to be entering national competitions for the first time, looking forward to testing themselves against some of the country’s best schools. Owen Harwood, Brett Hutchison, and Laura Trotter are all names to note. A trip to Spain including a week in Barcelona and a tournament based at Desert Springs is keenly anticipated.
The 1st XI at Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate are looking forward to participating in the Bradfield College Pre-Season Cricket Festival. They are also relishing the challenge of playing Derbyshire, Northumberland, and Lincolnshire over the course of the season. Their U15 Girls have entered the inaugural Cricket Paper Girls U15 100 Ball Cup as hardball cricket continues to grow in popularity. The Wilson brothers (Leo , Y13 and Louie, Y10) and Leona Robinson (Y11) are players to keep an eye on. Their new pavilion is due for completion in early April, which will provide a welcome base for all future home fixtures.
London and South East
Bede’s School are gearing up for another season as it continues its remarkable successes in recent tournaments. Bede’s Boys U14 and U15 teams enter the season as reigning County Champions. The U15 team, in particular, were victorious last year and are looking forward to embarking on the national rounds of the National Cup Competition. Jake Vosloo, plays for the Sussex D40 team and recently won the D40 Bowling Award in the County Disability Cricket Awards. Meanwhile, the Girls team is gearing up to defend their U15 County Cup title and have their sights set on reclaiming the U18 100 Ball and T20 National Cup titles. With a history of multiple national titles, the Girls’ team is primed for yet another triumphant season.
Brentwood start the season by taking 3 boys’ teams and a girls’ team in Years 8 and 9 to Dubai for a preseason tour. Upon return we look forward to the U13 and U15 boys’ teams competing in the first round of the National cup and other girls and boy’s teams start their League and Essex cup fixtures. The 1st XI boys will compete in the League and go on a run in their National competitions, whilst our U17 Girls team should be strong enough to progress through to the later rounds of their National cup. Players to watch in the Senior teams; Tom Arnold is an opening bowler in his last year at school who will look to take lots of wickets with the new and old ball, whereas Cara Castleman and Sophia Mitchell are two of the Senior girls to watch out for. Cara bowls slow left arm spin, whereas Sophia opens the bowling like Tom, bowling left arm over. Both girls bat and we look forward to their contributions with bat and ball this season. From a grounds perspective they have two new non-turf wickets installed at the school. This will allow them to host more matches at home at the same time. This coincides with a new grass square being installed at their Prep School.
The Canterbury Academy will return from an another exciting chapter in their cricketing journey after taking 27 players to Sri Lanka for a pre-season tour. This development follows on from the news that one of their pupils, Jaydn Denly, has been offered a professional contract with Kent Cricket Club. The school are working hard to develop a junior programme for boys and girls and have recently begun specialist coaching session for a group of primary school girls in the Canterbury district. A key aim for the next year or so is to develop some form of indoor training facility to support hard ball training.
Sarah Taylor, former England wicketkeeper, has joined Dulwich College; a huge boost with her unrivalled keeping and batting expertise providing further coaching quality to our coaching staff. In February, 30 pupils had a pre-season cricket trip to Cape Town playing eight games of cricket against local schools. Dulwich College are looking forward to the 2024 season with entries into various competitions from Year 5 to Year 13 with Max Count, George Gooderham, and Roan Kennedy, members of the Kent and Surrey pathway, are players to watch.
Epsom College enter the 2024 season with high hopes of adding to its ESCA national title at U15 level last year. With boys and girl’s sides packed with representative players hopes are high for a cup run in the HMC Boys T20 and U17, U17 Girls, and Schools Sports magazine U18 cup. On the girl’s side Keira Johnson and Lucy Harris are both involved in the South East Stars set up whilst Surrey’s Alex Chambers, Nathan Farmer, Alfie Haxton, and Ralphie Albert have all taken part in the Bunbury festival and ECB Young Lions programmes in recent seasons.
Haberdashers’ Aske’s 1st XI will play over 25 games of cricket alongside another 22 teams, involving over 350 pupils, across all senior age groups. We will again look to integrate as many students as possible from our Girl’s School as interest grows rapidly. Atharv Sharma is already in our 1st team squad, plays for Middlesex U14 and has spent the winter training with the Middlesex Academy. Jamie Hewitt (ex-Middlesex & Kent) has taken over as our Director of Cricket and Ben Howgego (ex Northants) will continue as coach. In 2025, school teams will be touring to Sri Lanka, UAE and Jersey.
Haileybury U15 Boys embarked on a tough preseason tour of Cape Town and played some of the top schools in South Africa. The highlight was beating Bishops under floodlights which confirmed this group as a team to keep an eye out for. The XI also have two players currently on exchange in Cape Town schools who are also gaining a further cricketing education. Leo Davis is a bright prospect in the XI as keeper batsman who excelled at Bunbury last year and Darcey Dalwood is looking for future international honours with Ireland.
The 2024 season arrives with the senior squads fresh out of a fantastic tour to the UAE to compete in the ARCH trophy. Cricket continues to be a popular sport at KCS Wimbledon and they are fortunate to have large playing squads across all age groups, with a particularly strong cohort of L6th pupils hoping to lead the way in both the U18 National T20 and the National U17 Cup.Through our King’s Cricket Academy this winter, we have been able to support our most talented players with tailored training programmes that best suit their development needs and we hope to see these individuals play a prominent role in their respective teams. Two of our most promising prospects have just returned from respective tours of Sri Lanka and Dubai with their counties, with Adam Fox (Surrey U18) and Kian Suri (Middlesex U12) both looking to have a big impact for their school teams.
King Edward’s Witley have come off the back of an extensive winter nets programme which also saw a tour to South Africa in October, ready for the 2024 season. Head of Cricket Rikki Clarke has arranged fixtures against the MCC, XL Club and The ACE programme to name a few. All pupils are very much looking forward to getting started with over 140 fixtures organised for the season. Players to watch out for are Isaac Hedge, Archie Gilmour, Will Cook, Tom Harrison and Lillie Abbott.
St Albans School have a tough season ahead with a tough draw in the National T20 and the potential of a very young side. Captain, James Wood, will hope to capitalise on his good season with bat and ball last year and Northants prospect, Sam Calladine, will look to improve on already strong School cricket statistics with his developing slow left arm. There could be up to six debutants in the 1st XI this year with current Year 10’s Jake Oliver and Thomas Yerbury players to look out for, if not this year, then certainly in the future.
The season is likely to be a test of scoring enough runs for Reed’s School 1st XI as we have lost our main run scorer, Stuart van der Merwe, who left last Summer. We will be looking to Sebastian Dunn (Captain), Yusuf Afzal, Max Towers and Charlie Balls amongst others, to develop consistency so that they score more runs than in previous seasons. We have a few Year 12 players, such as Archie Jenkins and Ben Cooper, who will hopefully start to develop into substantial run getters. The bowling will be led by Sebastian Dunn, who will have a new opening partner. This is likely to be George Hennessy. Our spin options are very healthy with Yusuf Afzal heading up the attack with his accomplished off spin. Ben Choy is a very promising orthodox left armer whilst Gryffyn Stuckey bowls leg-spin. Sides in younger age groups are blessed with some amazing talent so Reed’s are hopeful that the school will have another strong season at all levels, whether that be at A team or D team!
After a busy winter of both before school and after school practices, the summer of 2024 will be full of activity at St John’s, Leatherhead. The U14 and 13 boys toured Dubai in March, a trip that also included a girls’ match as part of their netball tour. The U15 boys, having won the Surrey Cup in 2023, have entered the national cup. The U15 girls also won the county cup last year and with many of those players still U15 they will now compete in the national competition. They have a number of players involved in county programmes including Lois Woolrych, Felix Kaza, Josh Ramsbottom, Ollie Sangster, Emily Ramsbottom, Lucy Jarvis, Alex Geddes, Ellis Woolrych and Mia Zipeure. This season will see the first ever girls’ 1st Xl take to the field while the boys 1st team finish the year with the traditional summer festival, this year being hosted by Abingdon.
As the 2024 season approaches, cricket at Trinity School, Croydon is in a good place and will be competitive on a strong London based circuit. We are delighted to welcome Dave Beckett who will coach the Years 10s. The Year 7s will be led by cricket professional Ali Brown, looking to kick on from their national successes last season. Whilst the senior teams are shaping up well, for the first time in a number of years they hope to field 4th XI and Tommy Wright (Surrey u16’s) and Archie Holman (Kent U18’s) are players to look out for in the 1st XI.
Following a very successful senior cricket tour to South Africa with 26 pupils and a junior cricket tour to Barbados (70 students) over Easter, Whitgift School’s cricketers are looking forward to a fun, sunny and enjoyable 2024 season. With close to 250 fixtures (before they have played a cup game) scheduled into the summer across 24 teams, and 55 coaching sessions a week squeezed into the 10-week Trinity term, their cricketers are going to be kept very busy.
Midlands
An exciting summer of cricket lies ahead for Denstone College, particularly following the pre-season senior tour to Barbados. The1st and 2nd XI enjoyed the challenge and experience of touring and performing in different conditions and arrive back in the UK ready to embrace the season ahead. Denstone continues to offer performance alongside participation, with over 20 teams representing the college. We look forward to further strengthening and developing the girls programme, with a notable addition of hosting a first MCC fixture.
It will be exciting year for cricket at The Leys. The Girls 1ST XI completed a successful tour to Dubai in February half term. This allowed coach Carla Rudd, ex-Southern Brave wicket keeper, to have an excellent pre-season, working with that group. Reuben Thain, younger brother of Essex and England Under 19’s Noah, is one to watch this season. He scored two centuries for the Boys 1st XI in 2023.
Andrew Fletcher is the newly appointed Head of Cricket at Leicester Grammar School replacing Laurie Potter after over 30 years in the role. He will oversee a 1st XI spearheaded by Arnav Rai, Ronak Rajashekar, and Anish Das who have been selected within Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s Academy and Emerging Player Programmes. Girl’s cricket continues to grow under Nikki Laybourne, with more fixtures than ever before due to the creation of further hard ball and soft ball teams to cater for demand. An exciting year lies ahead for the school as they look to continue to build and progress on last year’s successes in their respective County and National Cup competitions.
Loughborough Grammar School are looking to build on their successes from 2023 into 2024. Having received funding to set up a Player Pathway from alumni, they aim to provide pupils with additional opportunities such as extra training sessions, Strength and Conditioning and recovery sessions. The players to watch out for this year are batting allrounder and Nottinghamshire Academy cricketer Josh Beer, and Leicestershire U16 fast bowler, Quinn Dunkley. They have appointed Jack Nightingale to our coaching staff, who currently represents Kent 2nd XI. Jack will be working with all age groups whilst focusing on developing boys in our first XI, while Harry Gurney mentors the 1st XI.
Monmouth School approach the season with much excitement. Their winter cricket programme has been running since November, with 1:1 sessions, specialist skills training, and squad practices. The busy fixture list includes games against the MCC, County Age group sides and some fantastic cup competitions entered. Their Year 9 and 10 age groups are touring Sri Lanka over Easter, while their Year 8s will be on a tour to West Wales, with the 1st XI participating in the Castle Festival, being hosted this year by Victoria College, Jersey while players to look out for in their 1st XI are Zac Williams and Jacob Blades.
There is much excitement as the new season approaches as Norwich School’s boys 1stXI look to build on the superb momentum gained during their recent South African tour, where they played some of the top cricketing schools. A team led by the promising all-rounder Lewis Reeder, has a good balance with both bat and ball. The girls had a wonderful year last year and will look to give their young squad another good cup experience with Livi Hill and India Fox, the key performers to watch.
Oundle go into the 2024 season full of hope, with a good balance of Year 13 experience and young potential. Joe Hancock takes the gloves and the captaincy for the Boys’ 1st XI. Ralph Hayward, Bertie Case and Alfie Wilson are all in the Northants’ EPP and are showing real potential, with the latter still only a Year 10 and an exciting left arm seamer. The Girls’ 1st XI, captained by Fenella Jewers, returning from a long ACL injury, will be eager to make an impression on an ever-improving circuit of fixtures, supported by a core group of year 11 and 12s to build up to an exciting couple of years ahead.
2024 will be an exciting year for cricket at Stamford School, as 61 boys & girls from Year 9 & 10 will be jetting off to India for preseason! The 1st XI boys will be playing Lincolnshire CCC in a preseason friendly and the 1st XI Girls will be playing Leicestershire CCC on the same day. Stamford School have many pupils in county pathways including Alex Green, Raiffe Headley, Devarsh Shah and Ollie Hull with Leicestershire. Faith Teekasingh, Annabel Anslow, Ellie Rowley and Annabelle Woodward are all in The Blaze pathway.
The 2024 season brings with it a new look at Uppingham School. The iconic Upper Pavilion has had its refurbishment completed and Rob Taylor (ex-Leicester and Scotland) has joined as Director of Cricket. The official reopening of the pavilion will be in May as Uppingham host their old boys in their traditional fixture. It is set to be a busy summer for the school with both boys and girls cricket entering national and regional competitions. Amongst the players to look out for are Arush Buchake, Liam Tew and Ollie Dring who are all in their final year, along with Charlotte Hull (Year 12), Verity Lilley and Katie Gray (both Year ) all of whom joined the school this year.
An exciting season lies ahead for Wisbech Grammar’s 1st XI, with exciting young talent stepping up after losing a few senior players last year, who have moved onto university. Skipper Oliver Taylor will lead the team with his calm demeaner and solid batting. Opening bowling talent from Year 12 Adam Gardner and Year 11 George Milton spearheading the attack with aggressive right arm swing bowling, followed by an ever-improving Jack Woollard, tall swing bowler and compact number 3 to push on from last year’s successes. New Head of Cricket, Paul Edgeller, is excited by the team’s spirit through the winter, looking forward to a successful season.
Wrekin have had an excellent winter programme and are gearing up for another exciting season. William Jones, a current Sixth Former, plays for the Shropshire CCC Under 18 team and has been taking part in the Worcestershire CCC sub-Academy winter training programme. We are delighted to have Tom Ettridge back as cricket professional after spending the winter in New Zealand and making his First-Class debut there. The fixture list has increased in size once again, with more girl’s cricket on offer. A cricket tour for Easter 2025 in Dubai is planned.
South Central and South West
Dauntsey’s are looking forward to an exciting season, with an experienced side, many of whom return from last year. Tom Morton captains the side, having made a century as a 5th former, and taking five wickets against MCC in 2023. Players throughout the school are benefitting from the expert coaching of Ralph Hardwick, and the 1st XI will be led by the energy of Jack Mynott. A development tour at Easter 2025 to Dubai and Sri Lanka is planned.
Cricket at King Edward VI School, Southampton is flourishing with 28 teams across both the boys’ and girls’ programmes, County or National cup games for every age group as well as challenging and competitive fixtures. There are several pupils in County pathways and one member of the school in Hampshire’s academy. With the main school site is hosting more County women’s and girls’ fixtures this summer, they have taken delivery of a new set of covers ready for the 2024 season, which allows us to now have 4 pitches covered each week.
King’s School Bruton started their preparation in October 2023 with winter training programme commenced. The Summer term programme sees regular and traditional block fixture take place for both senior and junior teams, mixed with National T20 competitions of the 1st XI Boys’, 1st XI Girls’, U15 Boys’, and U15 Girls’. Matt Tomes-Smith joined the school as Performance Cricket Coach in January to support the delivery of Cricket alongside the Head of Cricket and Cricket Professional. Players to watch out for include Oliver Gooding (Barbados Cricket U16), Ethan Marshall (Cricket Ireland U17) and Lucy Weir (Dorset Cricket EPP). A tour to the ARCH Festival in Holland is planned for April 2025.
Magdalen College School are looking forward to another busy and successful season in 2024. The 1st XI retains a large number of last year’s squad, with the addition of some talented U16’s coming into the senior squads. Players to keep an eye on include Julian Laird, Thomas Cunningham, Rayaan Dogar and Arthur Hanson. The U14’s & U15’s appears well placed for the upcoming season and look forward to following the progress of Teddy Purushothaman and Patrick Smith and hosting the annual U15 Festival.
Fielding 21 teams across the college and a new covered hub training facility under construction, an exciting season beckons for Marlborough College. Pre-season sees a Boys tour to Barbados and a joint UK-based U15 Boys & Girls trip. Gloucestershire Academy player Max Dunne captains the Boys 1st XI, while Olivia Miller leads the Girls 1st XI for the second year in succession. Mark Alleyne has departed for Gloucestershire after 8 years as head coach He will remain in a consultancy capacity with Uzi Qureshi taking over the reins for this summer. The school will look to appoint a long-term successor for 2025.
The Millfield Meyers XI are the most experienced cohort in recent years. Many of the players have 2 or 3 years of Meyer’s XI appearances under their belts. Archie Vaughan is captain again in 2024. Archie has had his 1st Somerset Pro Staff pre-season, while Hampshire CCC’s Dominic Kelly has just returned from the ICC U19 World Cup, Caleb Falconer (Middlesex) adds batting and bowling quality to the team and Alfie Smethurst has developed rapidly as a left arm spinner. The Girls 1st XI are headed up by the Western Storm duo of Lilly Hawkins and Laila Moledina. The young squad reached the final of the National 100-ball cup in 2023 and are looking forward to the competition once more. Somerset Age Group Coaches Sam Braid & Henry Hunt joined the coaching staff in in September and also welcomed the Steffan Jones as a Pace Bowling Consultant and former Sussex CCC Opening Bowler Lewis Hatchett as Mindset Coach.
Mount Kelly are very much looking forward to another successful season of cricket. They have a young squad with lots of promising talent. Year 10 wicket keeper/batsmen Harry Witcher is someone to look out for as well as year 11 batting all-rounder George Rickard. Both players had success last year and expect them to push on again this year and long into their school lives at Mount Kelly. A tour to Dubai at Easter 2025 is planned and something for this young team to look forward to.
Portsmouth High School’s cricketers look forward to a busy summer term. Senior school fixtures have increased by 40% compared with 2023 and the prep school will see Year 3 – 6 pupils taking part in weekly fixtures. The Year 8s will compete in a hardball league for the first time, and Year 6s will play in the Hampshire Cricket Tournament and the Girls’ Day School Trust National Rally. Senior cricketers Darcey Clarke and Maya Devenish remain the school’s finest prospects with lots of Year 7 and 8 pupils inspired by them. The school are planning a long-haul multi-sports tour for 2025 that will include cricket fixtures.
Reading Blue Coat School have former England test player Aftab Habib as 1st XI coach, along with Berkshire coach Hammad Ali. Middlesex academy batter James Isbell is hoping to play more senior 2nd XI cricket for the County and continue his representation at national level. They host a popular T20 cricket festival every year in cricket week, always welcome new schools.
St Edward’s, Oxford’s 1st XIs are looking to continue their success at the top of the school. All pupils have been heavily involved in our extensive winter programme run by their Cricket Professional, Dave Simpkins. The girls, led by Southern Vipers EPP All-Rounder Aimee Diab, will have a good mix of experience and youth, with exciting players to look out for. The boys, have all aspects of the game covered, filled with dynamic top-order batters and all varieties with the ball. The highlight of the summer will be hosting our Annual Cricket Day on Upper 1 for the first time. Following the season, The school are travelling to Sri Lanka in 2025 for their first ever mixed tour.
Under the leadership of new Director of Cricket Coaching, Ryan Buckley (formerly of Durham CCC), Sherborne are gearing up for another busy season with its thirteen teams scheduled to play over 100 matches in total. Last year’s young 1st XI is a little older and more experienced, and the side will be looking to build on 2023’s tally of six wins, starting at the Bradfield Festival in mid-April. An expanded Ruth Strauss Foundation Cricket Week will end the term, with 25 matches in six days, culminating with the traditional season-ending 1st XI match against MCC on Thursday 27th June.