[Cricket] Depressing list - best schools for cricket

[Gwylan]

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.

 

[Badger]

I don't think that's entirely true. We should be encouraging kids to join local cricket clubs.

Having said that, I didn't have the best experience at my cricket club. For most of the league matches during May and June we'd only have state school kids because all the private school kids had their own matches. As soon as the private school kids were available, our manager (who I think was privately educated) would put them in the team at the expense of players who'd played the whole season. A terrible lesson to teach the rest of us, especially as we were a good team without the private kids. It eventually reached a point (U15 I think) where one of the dads formed a second team for our festival week so we'd all get a game. I think the second team did better than first team too. Our manager quit and joined another cricket club and things changed after that.

 

[ManOfSussex]

The list is here - https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/news/the_cricketer_good_schools_guide_2019.html

 

[Badger]

The list is here - https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/news/the_cricketer_good_schools_guide_2019.html

Hurstpierpoint College. Yep, that's where the kids in my team came from!

 

[vegster]

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.

I think that things are pretty much the same as when I was at West Tarring in the 70's. Virtually no pads, gloves were the linen ones with little rubber spikes on the backs of the fingers and thumbs. The balls were plastic moulded ones and we had those sprung wickets which were three stumps which would lean open like a lady's fan as we never had bails to hold them together. Add to this we " batted " on a 10 yd strip of concrete that had been painted with a layer of bitumen paint/tar.... sometimes we put a mat along it but not often,, oh, and EVERYONE apart from a couple of Indian pupils wanted to be Dennis Lillee so due to the vagaries of the bounce and the hostility of the bowler you ended up having cracked shins and ankles or dodging throat balls. Marvellous fun, but only if you were a bowler.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Yes, it’s a great shame that cricket is low down on school sports priority list. 60 years ago we played at junior school (Goldstone) and most of the secondary schools not only had teams, but their own pitches. With the loss of playing fields, cuts in budgets and fewer teachers looking to promote the game in our state schools, it’s disappointing that more kids don’t even get a taste of it. It’s a great participative sport/pastime that the whole family could be involved in and enjoy during a lifetime.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Money Talks. Maybe this would be a way of getting Cricket fans to support the abolition of independent schools.

 

[erkan]

The list is here - https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/news/the_cricketer_good_schools_guide_2019.html

Amazing that, of the 50 Prep schools included nationwide, two should be in Eastbourne within a few hundred yards of each other...

 

[Pevenseagull]

I wasn't allowed to bowl at school because I was too fast...but I had to play rugby against people who were allowed to smash into me. 1980s. Willingdon.

 

[Pevenseagull]

...there were a lot of byes..... But very few wides

Stupid fast for a comprehensive.

 

[bhafc99]

Well I went to two of those schools for the best part of a decade, and I was shit at cricket, so I therefore declare this list worthless.


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[LANGDON SEAGULL]

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.

Shenfield High is not independent- I used to live near it


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[Kalimantan Gull]

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.

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

 

[Arkwright]

Interesting list, our local public school Caterham isn't on the list and yet has former Surrey player Jonathan Batty coaching and before that Surrey coach Chris Bullen coupled with amazing facilities should be turning out good young players.
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.

 

[DJ NOBO]

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.

We can all aspire to be as good at cricket as Joe Gatting

 

[redoubtable seagull]

We can all aspire to be as good at cricket as Joe Gatting

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!

 

[redoubtable seagull]

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.

I wonder if a criterion for inclusion in the Guide / on the list might involve payment. Coupled with meeting certain conditions, one of which would obviously be to be good at cricket.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

The general attitude is wrong, we played anywhere with a tennis ball and piece of wood. Then progressed to real cricket

 

[Guinness Boy]

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.

I don't think that's entirely true. We should be encouraging kids to join local cricket clubs.

Having said that, I didn't have the best experience at my cricket club. For most of the league matches during May and June we'd only have state school kids because all the private school kids had their own matches. As soon as the private school kids were available, our manager (who I think was privately educated) would put them in the team at the expense of players who'd played the whole season. A terrible lesson to teach the rest of us, especially as we were a good team without the private kids. It eventually reached a point (U15 I think) where one of the dads formed a second team for our festival week so we'd all get a game. I think the second team did better than first team too. Our manager quit and joined another cricket club and things changed after that.

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.

 

[essbee1]

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.

But if the Govt. cuts mean that local councils have been selling off playing fields to build on - then this is inevitable isn't it?