[Cricket] Depressing list - best schools for cricket

Gwylan · Nov 24, 2018

LANGDON SEAGULL said:
Shenfield High is not independent- I used to live near it

I'm sure there are a couple of state schools there but more than 90% will be private

Arkwright said:
Local clubs are ECB accredited and normally part of Chance To Shine and encouraged to coach in all local schools. I know from various local clubs it is hard encouraging the juniors to play adult cricket and most clubs are dwindling in numbers and several clubs are either merging or folding.
It's a great shame that grassroots cricket is struggling, you could argue that it's not only cricket.

Our own club doesn't participate in Chance to Shine as we don't see as beneficial to club cricket (there was a heated debate on this at our AGM a few months ago). But clubs are struggling - we're not doing too badly but do hear of clubs folding all the time. Clubs can't do it all on their own, they need some help from schools, but state schools just don't seem to have the resources. It's such a shame.

chimneys · Nov 24, 2018

Oops wrong post

chimneys · Nov 24, 2018

Gwylan said:
The Cricketer is publishing a special edition with a feature on the 100 best schools for cricket in England (including six in Sussex).

I've had a look and I'm pretty sure that every school on it is an independent. The hidden message is that most future England cricketers are going to come from those schools - it's really depressing that we're limiting our selection to the 7% of pupils who are educated privately, but that seems to be the way that we're going.

Tough luck for any future Gooch, Willis, Botham, Gough or Gatting out there.

Wrong- The Judd is a state funded Grammar School in Tonbridge.

DJ NOBO · Nov 24, 2018

redoubtable seagull said:
Who, according to Wiki, was educated at independent school, Brighton College.

He obviously didn’t hit dizzying heights of success but a 6 year career as a first class cricketer is pretty good. More successful than my 30 plus years of medium paced trundling in league cricket anyway!

Fair enough , I was Only kidding. He was a model professional for Albion and Sussex, and all round good guy. Shame he didn’t quite push through

Husty · Nov 24, 2018

Gwylan said:
The Cricketer is publishing a special edition with a feature on the 100 best schools for cricket in England (including six in Sussex).

I've had a look and I'm pretty sure that every school on it is an independent. The hidden message is that most future England cricketers are going to come from those schools - it's really depressing that we're limiting our selection to the 7% of pupils who are educated privately, but that seems to be the way that we're going.

Tough luck for any future Gooch, Willis, Botham, Gough or Gatting out there.

SGS College isn't private, I'm sure there's a few others. They obviously weren't going to just list 100 private schools.

Taybha · Nov 24, 2018

Guinness Boy said:
Hasn't it always been this way? I went to a local state comprehensive and we didn't play at all so I joined a local club. My mum was impressed by a posh accent playing at Wish Park when looking for a club and I joined a team full of public school boys, mainly Hurst Colllege.

In those days I bowled more than batted, dibbly dobbly seam up wobblers that were just too tricky for tail end sloggers. Normally the bowling trophy was given to the boy with the best bowling average. That was me in my third season when I took a hat trick in one game and three in an over in another. The fast bowler from Hurst got the trophy that season. I didn't get picked for any of the festivals.

I gave up after that and only got back in to playing after meeting [MENTION=29192]Brighton Lines[/MENTION] at away games. I spent all my 20s playing village cricket with working class blokes from Woodingdean, Queens Park and Burgess Hill, meeting [MENTION=1663]Scoffers[/MENTION] and [MENTION=12422]Taybha[/MENTION] among others. Truly the greatest days of my life. However, I still wish I'd never bothered with colts' cricket.

Screw the stats , I can honestly say that you provided me with the funniest ever moment in any game of cricket iv'e ever played in , seen , or even heard of . :lolol:

jabba · Nov 24, 2018

One of the criteria was that the school should apply to be on the list. Unsure how this skews the result, but maybe a lot of schools didn't bother/know about it?

Shropshire Seagull · Nov 24, 2018

Key is facilities, coaches & contact time and like it or not, it's the boarders at the independent schools that are best at providing this.

In my county [Shropshire], Paul Pridgeon [Ex Worcs] and Adam Shantry [Ex Glamorgan] regularly produce first-class cricketers from Shrewsbury School [on the list].
But it is still possible to play first-class having not gone to one of those on the list. Here's an example.

In my u15 county squad of 2014 was Dillon Pennington - pupil at Wrekin College at the time - went on to the Worcester Academy and is now a contracted Worcs player. He also played for England u19 in the world-cup in New Zealand last winter - proof it can be done. I'm just chuffed that I played a part in helping to create the player he has now become.

At that level having cricket ability is a given, the factors that make the difference is coach-ability - the player's propensity to keep improving [open mindset with self-confidence not arrogance] - this often aligns to their academic life and it's the style of the independent schools that foster that required mindset as the school's ethos to excel [at whatever the student chooses to focus on].

cloud · Nov 24, 2018

Sport needs to be much higher up the agenda at all state schools. Everything is too STEM-centric at the moment.

Where we are, the council in in the process of merging schools to create 'super' schools, and what you then get is a school where it's impossible to get into the team unless you are very good. Whereas in private schools there could well be an A team, B team, C and D team or more, so everyone gets a chance.

Guinness Boy · Nov 24, 2018

Taybha said:
Screw the stats , I can honestly say that you provided me with the funniest ever moment in any game of cricket iv'e ever played in , seen , or even heard of .

View attachment 102316

#chairgate

:lolol:

Leighgull · Nov 24, 2018

LANGDON SEAGULL said:
Shenfield High is not independent- I used to live near it

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes.But Shenfield High is in Brentwood...or near as dammit, so is stuffed with the kids of rich stockbrokers and, oddly, Black Cab drivers.

The amount of Black cabs sitting outside massive houses in Brentwood makes me think they are protesting too much about Uber.

LANGDON SEAGULL · Nov 24, 2018

Agree - it’s a very posh area. Philip Hammond went to the school for example

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rippleman · Nov 26, 2018

Preston Nomads CC has organised coaching for, I think, 6 years and upwards and has age group teams for boys and girls..

(can't get the link to work so google "Preston Nomads + colts)

The opportunities and facilities are out there for kids who don't go to independent schools.

Gwylan · Nov 26, 2018

rippleman said:
Preston Nomads CC has organised coaching for, I think, 6 years and upwards and has age group teams for boys and girls..

(can't get the link to work so google "Preston Nomads + colts)

The opportunities and facilities are out there for kids who don't go to independent schools.

There are many clubs around but it's not that simple. First of all, games/training are often in the evening when parents aren't always available to ferry their kids around. I manage a team of 20 kids but we had to scratch a game the season before last as we couldn't raise a team.

Then there's the cost; club membership is around £100 a year (plus the gear to buy - about another £100 to £200). That's beyond the reach of many parents - maybe not around well-heeled Sussex but in plenty of other places.

Finally, there's the issue of how to kids know about cricket? It's not on terrestrial TV and it's not played (often) in state schools, introducing them to the sport can be difficult.

And, yes, I'm sure there are two or three state schools in the list but the vast bulk of them are private - it's doesn't exactly give the impression that cricket's a sport for all.

Trufflehound · Nov 26, 2018

Gwylan said:
I've had a look and I'm pretty sure that every school on it is an independent. .

Not quite all. The state-funded grammar school I went to is on that list...

But then I was, am, and always will be rubbish at cricket, so maybe it's there by mistake...

Fignon's Ponytail · Nov 26, 2018

Kalimantan Gull said:
Private schools are an excellent place to nurture young cricket talent, no doubt. Other schools are much better for football or athletics.

But school isn't the only place you learn and play cricket, most cricketers will come through clubs

Agree with this. My son started cricket 4 years ago at Rottingdean purely as something to do over the summer instead of football. He had never picked up a bat (he had to be told how to hold it the right way round), didn't know the rules at all, & had never watched a game of cricket in his life - but took to it like a duck to water and is just starting his 3rd season within the County set up. He learnt everything he knows from club cricket & weekly individual lessons with private coaches. Costs a lot, but its definitely worth it. He barely does any cricket at school (Seahaven Academy), so we have to rely on doing as much as we can outside of that environment. All his team mates at Ditchling go to private schools and get 10+ hours of cricket a week, and then all the club training etc too - so it was heartening to see that they voted him as Players Player of the Year this summer, which shows that with hard work and an inkling of talent, you can do it without school input.

Shropshire Seagull · Nov 26, 2018

The ECB have recognised through "All Stars" that it's important to catch kids young [AS is targeted at 5-8 year old]

Chance to Shine has been going since 2005 and I coached full time on this scheme every summer for the first 6 years - the C2S strap-line then was: "Bringing cricket back to state schools" and they did this by using ECB level 2 coaches to coach cricket in the PE curriculum lessons for primary and secondary schools. Scheme was all coordinated through the county cricket boards. The idea was that it could be an introduction route to get those interested to join in at a local clubs but my view is that this did not happen very often.

The biggest upward blip to junior numbers was England winning the Ashes back in 2005 - colts numbers have [sadly] been on the decline ever since ....

amexer · Nov 26, 2018

My nephew attends colts cricket with Brighton cricket club at Nevill Avenue and loves it. They have over 100 colts attending every week. Think there is a club in Preston Park that does the same. Preston Nomads have fantastic facilities. It is out of the way and mostly attracts public school children.

sagaman · Nov 26, 2018

Firstly all public schools have excellent sports facilities for many sports and its about funding and resources

However in Sussex as already mentioned the Chance to Shine Programme is the biggest coaching scheme for any sport in state primary schools. The idea is then to link children with local clubs and there are over 200 clubs in Sussex, like St Peters in Preston Park, Portslade Cricket Club near Sainsbury’s and Brighton & Hove at the Nevill.

Some state schools like Warden Park at Cuckfield are good at cricket

However the outstanding state secondary is at BACA near the Amex. They have the best indoor school in the country and regularly beat public schools in matches. They should be featured in this guide. In the last couple of years Tara Norris has emerged on the path of the England Academy and Will Sheffield, a left arm seamer, is in the Sussex Academy

Think that Sussex are trying to establish more links and funding between more state secondary schools and local clubs so much to be positive

Badger · Nov 26, 2018

sagaman said:
Some state schools like Warden Park at Cuckfield are good at cricket

They were crap when we played them in about 1998. I think we bowled them out for about 25.

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