TOP 50 JUNIOR/PREP SCHOOLS
LAMBROOK SCHOOL Winkfield Row, Bracknell, Berkshire RG42 6LU Established 1860 Number of pupils 560 Master in charge Will McKegney Teams Boys: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th XIs; U11ABC; U10ABCD; U9ABCD; U8ABCD; Girls: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th XIs; U11ABC; U10ABC; U9ABC; U8ABC Girls’ cricket Since 2018. Winter nets well attended and the school playing an increasing number of fixtures. Lambrook has hosted festivals for U13, U9 and U8 year groups – the last of which was attended by Lydia
LUDGROVE SCHOOL Ludgrove, Wokingham, Berkshire RG40 3AB Established 1892 Number of pupils 190, all boys Master in charge Gabriel French 1st XI coach Simon Loup Teams 1st XI, 2nd XI, 3rd XI, U12ABC, U11ABC, U10ABC, U9ABC – 15 teams regularly fielded, but every boy in the school is given game time Lockdown initiatives Weekly challenges, masterclass videos. Trial games in autumn plus six-player pods How will cricket bounce back? Cricket is embedded in the culture of the school. It is the No.1 game and cricket colours are the most difficult award to get at Ludgrove, combining both achievement and personal qualities like sportsmanship Number of, and notable, fixtures More than 130 regularly a term, plus a biannual tour to South Africa, which features an additional six games. Derby games against Summer Fields, Cothill and Caldicott 134 | thecricketer.com
Greenway. It participates in the U11 IAPS tournament and the U13 Indoor Lady Taverners: the girls went through the county round unbeaten Lockdown initiatives Full coaching remotely. Coaches provided exercise drills or technical videos, distributed to pupils twice weekly. Every pupil received specialised input from every coach. Winter nets scheduled to begin in January for Years 5 to 8 How will cricket bounce back? Despite having to cancel their 2020 autumn tour to South Africa, this has been rescheduled to take place in the Caribbean in Easter 2021. The same touring party will be taken to ensure that the players begin the UK summer Facilities Eight grass nets, four astro nets, four indoor nets, one movable batting cage, two Bola bowling machines, seven matchday pitches, additional 10 practice wickets Club/county affiliation Yearly fixtures are played against Spencer CC and Primrose Hill CC. Over the past three years Ludgrove has raised funds for the Sports4Kids charity in South Africa and donated kit to a number of disadvantaged school children living in townships Best prospect Alexander Burford is a left-handed opener and slow left-armer. His passion for the game is astounding. He is in the Middlesex set-up and was set to open the batting for the senior team this year Cricketers of note Colin InglebyMackenzie (Hampshire), Mike Griffith (Sussex), Richard Jefferson (Surrey), former headmaster AT Barber (Oxford Uni, Yorkshire) Cultural cricketers Bear Grylls played in the XI and returned last year to represent the fathers’ side. John Major played a game
LAMBROOK SCHOOL // LUDGROVE SCHOOL
as prepared as possible. Winter nets will be provided as per normal and the added focus of an Easter tour should allow the whole school to get behind the club for what will be a busy 2021 Number of, and notable, fixtures Close to 200 for boys and more than 100 for the girls. Most notable boys’ fixtures include games against Caldicott, Ludgrove and Cranleigh. For the girls, these include fixtures with Dragon, Cheam and Farleigh Facilities Two turf nets, four indoor, three artificial; nine pitches ranging from small junior grounds (25m boundaries for U8 and U9) to an excellent 1st XI ‘Edrich Oval’. Three of the grounds have good turf wickets Club/county affiliation Pupils play at local clubs including Royal Ascot, Maidenhead and Bray, Windsor and Binfield. Many boys represent Berkshire and a few are involved with Surrey. Three girls are with Berkshire and one is at Middlesex Best prospect Jacob Phillips, U11 captain in 2019, might have captained the 1st XI a year early in 2020. A Berkshire allrounder Cultural cricketers Giles Clarke; Max & Thom Evans (Scotland Rugby)
Brief history Cricket has been played since the early days. The first competitive matches against local schools were played in the 1880s when Queen Victoria watched grandsons, Prince Christian Victor and Albert What sets the school apart? Raising the standard of girls’ cricket, while keeping all participants engaged and active. The hope is to see girls winning more sports scholarships Finest moment on the field The school has a proud record at the U11 10-over tournament at Stowe; four tours to South Africa, centred around a visit to an underprivileged farm school in KwaZulu-Natal, for whom more than £40,000 has been raised. A fundraising project for the Caribbean Recent progress Leavers have enjoyed success at senior schools: George Barlow (2013) – Charterhouse 1st XI for four years, and Surrey 2nd XI. Henry Chapman (2014) – Radley 1st XI for four years and Middlesex 2nd XI. Kamran Khanna (2016) – Bradfield College 1st XI then Millfield Future plans A plan to developerbuild the 1st XI pavilion Tours Biennial tour to South Africa. Caribbean at Easter
at the school while he was Prime Minister, enjoying the opportunity to be outside the public eye Brief history Cricket has always been central to Ludgrove School. The school is especially proud of its own quad game, derived from cricket, called ‘stump’. It is played with a thin ‘eye-in’ bat and tennis ball. It is not unusual to have 80 boys across all year-groups playing the game every morning after breakfast and in every type of weather. There is even an official position given to ‘the Keeper of Stump,’ a senior boy whose job it is to actively include as many people in every game as possible. Barber, one of the school’s earliest headmasters, captained Oxford and Yorkshire and both his son and grandson have
coached the school team before going on to be headmaster What sets the school apart? Being one of a handful of full-time boarding prep schools left, the game carries a special significance for the boys who spend an inordinate amount of time playing in their free time. Cricket is a wonderful lifestyle and harks back to a time before iPhones. The Boys’ Book of Cricket by Frank Henley, first published in 1924 which was specifically aimed at prep school boys so that they were well equipped to move on to the public school age group, features Ludgrove boys in all the illustrations. The present 1st XI colours cap is exactly as it was in those times and the book cements Ludgrove’s place in cricket history Finest moment on the field The 2019 team statistically the best side Ludgrove has produced, winning every game, many by large margins. They won an interprep-school T20 Future plans Looking to introduce a junior tour at the end of the summer Tours Last year Ludgrove travelled to Cape Town and are scheduled to tour Transvaal and the Eastern Cape next year