SCHOOLS CRICKET, 2011 Review by Douglas Henderson During The
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SCHOOLS CRICKET, 2011 Review by Douglas Henderson During the winter of 2010-11 a major survey of schools cricket was undertaken on behalf of the ECB and MCC. The report highlighted the advances made by Chance to Shine – the programme that aims to bring competitive cricket to state school pupils. The scheme is administered by the Cricket Foundation who, in 2010, claim that 345,000 children enjoyed over 70,000 hours of coaching. State schools, though, are still hampered by a period in their past when cricket development meant building on playing fields rather than nurturing young cricket talent. And in those schools that do still have some turf, groundkeeping skills do not always stretch beyond football or athletics. Despite the strides taken by Chance to Shine, schools cricket is still dominated by the independent sector. While about 6.5% of schoolchildren in the UK are educated in the private sector, the proportion of county cricketers coming from this background is approaching 40%, so there is clearly work to do. Nevertheless, a valiant battalion of teachers in state education succeed against the odds. In July 2011, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, one of the country’s few state boarding establishments, reached the final of the Sir Garfield Sobers International Tournament in Barbados, now in its 25th year. They are only the fourth UK school to do so, after Dulwich, Canford and Repton. Heading Wisden’s table of outstanding seasons is another state grammar, Dr Challoner’s, in Amersham, who won 88% of their matches. They were unbeaten, as were Rossall and The Glasgow Academy. The ECB/MCC survey revealed that around 75–80% of first-team inter-school matches are now limited-overs fixtures; those against MCC and the like tend to survive as declaration games. Among younger age-groups, overs cricket is almost universal. Sir Garfield once said you can’t call yourself a cricketer until you’ve eaten half a ton of lettuce. Similarly, how can you call yourself a cricketer if you’ve not learnt the real game, with all its subtleties? The disparity in the number of fixtures played by schools remains puzzling, especially given that the figures that follow in the Schools A–Z do not include overseas tours or knockout competitions. “A combination of a late Easter, terrible weather and exams made 2011 the shortest season in recent memory,” said one master, trying to explain his team’s lack of cricket. Some parts of the country, meanwhile, experienced a drought, though weather alone – the summer was generally poor after another good April and May – cannot account for some schools playing 26 matches and others five. Inevitably, those who scored prolifically tended to come from teams benefiting from a season long on fixtures and short on interruptions. No fewer than ten boys scored over 1,000 runs. Anthony Alleyne of Dulwich hit 1,231 from only 14 innings at an average of 153.87; he has another year at school. Others to reach the milestone were: Stowe openers Ali Birkby and Ben Duckett (a Year 11 who stockpiled 1,320 runs); Dominic Harding from Solihull; Jack Mynott of Dauntsey’s (also Year 11); and Jake Kings, who scored 215 for Rugby in the traditional “colours” match against Marlborough. Two with illustrious cricketing pedigrees – Tonbridge’s Fabian Cowdrey (son of Chris) and Andrew Curtis (son of Tim) from the Royal Grammar School, Worcester – also passed 1,000, as did Tom Kohler-Cadmore from Malvern and Bromsgrove’s Brett Huxley, a Year 11 who hit a double-hundred against the XL Club. There were two players who enjoyed remarkable seasons – but unluckily didn’t qualify for the table of leading batting averages because they were so difficult to dismiss: Craig Overton of West Buckland (four not outs from five starts) and Framlingham’s Ben Wright (two from four) pushed their averages up to 297 and 177. Five others – Alleyne, Daniel Bell-Drummond of Millfield, Alex Thomson of Denstone, Cranleigh’s Ollie Davies and Henry Edwards from Fettes – also averaged over 100. Twenty-one players took their wickets at less than ten each. Left-arm spinner Tom Woods of Merchant Taylors’, Northwood, topped the list with an average of 5.58. Two schools could boast a pair of bowlers in the top ten: Oliver Goodwin and Hamesh Thaker from Emanuel, and William Lock and Peter Turnbull from Simon Langton. Others to enjoy significant returns were Taunton’s George Cook, with 28 at 9.35, and Mohammed Ahmed of Stewart’s Melville, with 22 at 9.09. Ben Calder (Mill Hill) and Joe Maguire (Rydal) prospered in relatively modest seasons for their teams. Restrictions on how much young cricketers can bowl make it difficult to take a huge number of wickets, but Stuart Whittingham for Christ’s Hospital and William Wright of Malvern both took 42, while Jake Kings grabbed 41 for Rugby to go with his 1,044 runs. The first three Young Wisden Schoolboy Cricketers of the Year, Jonathan Bairstow, James Taylor and Jos Buttler all represented England during 2011. Reece Topley, son of former Essex player Don, created a stir by taking 14 wickets for his father’s old county in three Championship matches, including two five-fors, enough to spur him to leave Royal Hospital a year early in pursuit a cricket career. He also played for England Under-19, as did Bell-Drummond and Mill Hill’s Adam Rossington. Aneesh Kapil, an outstanding all-rounder at Denstone, played for Worcestershire and England Under-19. TAKE IN PIC OF BELL-DRUMMOND A young player to catch the eye was 15-year-old Dominic Sibley, in Year 10 at Whitgift. Though his figures for the school were modest, he scored over 2,500 in all forms of the game during 2011. This included 11 centuries and two double-centuries. One came in the ECB Under-17 semi-final for Surrey, the other in the Surrey Premier League – only the fourth time this has ever been achieved in the league’s 44-year history. He also made four appearances for Surrey Seconds. Others to make a strong claim to be named Young Wisden Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year were Harry Ramsden of Oundle, Uzair Qureshi from Marlborough and Sam Mount of King Edward’s in Bath. But in a very competitive year, the award for 2011 goes to Daniel Bell-Drummond. Richard Ellison, Bell-Drummond’s coach at Millfield, is convinced he has all the attributes necessary to be a top-class player. “He has fast hands, an ability to pick the length of a ball very quickly, and is happiest dominating the bowling. Most impressively, though, he has a great affinity for scoring big runs.” Ellison adds that Bell-Drummond has already scored 50 centuries in all forms if the game, and believes, if he can increase his fitness, his medium-fast bowling can make him a fine all-rounder. .