TOP 100 SCHOOLS
CLIFTON COLLEGE The Avenue Bristol BS8 3HE Established 1862 Notable fixtures Sherborne, Marlborough, King’s Taunton, Bromsgrove, Cheltenham College, Malvern, MCC Cricket professionals Jim Williams (Glamorgan), James Averis (Gloucestershire) Teams 1st XI, 2nd XI, 3rd XI, U15AB, U14AB, U13ABCD, U12ABCD Girls’ cricket U15AB, U13AB Facilities Ten-lane outdoor cricket school (including two bowling machine lanes), seven cricket squares, including two artificial wickets, and six indoor nets Club/county affiliation Gloucestershire, although the schools has pupils in the Somerset and Glamorgan academies Brief history “There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night. Ten to make and
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the match to win. A bumping pitch and a blinding light. An hour to play, and the last man in. And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat. Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame, But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote. ‘Play up! Play up! And play the game!’” – Vitaï Lampada by Henry Newbolt, 1892. Newbolt wrote these lines about cricket on Clifton’s Close, and the sense of duty that could be taken to war, making The Close famous throughout the cricketing world. Seven years after Newbolt wrote the poem, 13-year-old AEJ Collins scored 628 not out in a match for Clarke’s House against North Town House, at a pitch on Guthrie Road, now named Collins Piece. Collins pursued a career in the army and, sadly, was to die in the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. Until Pranav
Dhanawade scored 1,009 not out for KC Gandhi High School in Mumbai in January 2016, Collins’ score was the highest for an individual in all cricket. There is a plaque at the College in memory of his achievement Cricketers of note Matt Windows (Gloucestershire), Jim Williams (Glamorgan), James Kirtley (Sussex & England) Finest moment on the field A sevenwicket victory over Tonbridge School on the Nursery Ground at Lord’s in 2014. The fixture was to commemorate 100 years of the Clifton v Tonbridge fixture and to remember those who played in the fixture and later died in the Great War Cultural cricketers John Cleese, actor and co-founder of the Monty Python series, played for the 1st XI