How much cricket do boys actually play at full boarding school?

[HampsteadAcademic]

We’re getting our eldest son ready to start at a traditional full boarding school (Year 9), and as a family, we have no prior experience of boarding. Now that the summer term has started, I’d be really interested to hear how others have found the cricket balance in practice at these types of schools—particularly where boys don’t have regular access to club cricket.

I hadn’t focused on it too much before, but looking at the fixture list, it seems there are relatively few formal matches in the first year (~8–10, depending on the team), with some inter-house cricket alongside that.

As a reference point, last year in Year 7, my son played 8 school matches plus another 19 for his club—and he wasn’t by any means the most active club cricketer.

For those with experience of boarding school sport:

• Does it end up feeling like enough match play across the term?
• Do boys tend to create extra opportunities themselves (nets, informal games, etc.)?
• And is it realistic to keep some level of club cricket or external coaching going alongside school?

Just trying to get a feel for how it works day to day—would really appreciate any experiences.

8 to 10 sounds about right given the length of the term. That is roughly one mach per week. I would expect that schools with bigger cricket programmes will have many more matches than this for their top teams once cup matches are factored in.

There should be lots of other opportunities to have nets, or play cricket informally around the school.

Also, playing at exeats, half term and in July and August for local clubs would boost the number of matches significantly. Depending on how strict the school is about signing kids out, they could play during the school term too.

In short, there should be plenty of cricket matchplay for a pupil that wants it.

Generally two matches a week plus coaching during midweek games sessions and lots of informal practice during free time, bowling at one another in the House gardens. DS1 is in the 1sr XI so also has pre-season training, individual early morning coaching and access to nets through the winter. He plays club cricket through summer holidays. He doesn't play for County as home and school are some distance apart- some schoolmates do, though. DS was never higher than Bs at prep and was C team in Y9. He is an academic rather than sports scholar and we aren't team- sporty parents. He has been developerd as a specialist bowler through a combination of coaching and self-motivated practice.
So I'd say there aren't many limitations on cricket opportunities, except that there are lots of other calls on their time that might engage elsewhere. DS2 enjoyed the team elements less and took up a minor sport to play competitively instead. But he still mucks around playing cricket in his spare time and with his brother at home. Both are fine.

The challenge is the length of the summer term.

My DS is still in Year 7 but is a full boarder at his prep school and has been since Year 4. He gets to play two matches every week with school, but the second of those matches falls away almost 50% of weeks when you discount the two exeats, the two weekends taken up by half term, and the last weekend which is speech day. That said, he has cricket training four days a week, and has signed up for three nets sessions each week.

However, we share your underlying concern, which is why DS and most of the other keen cricketers who are boarders also play for a local club which means me driving through every Friday evening to drive a bunch of them to training, but this does give them the chance to play up to two additional matches per week (U12 and U13) in addition to school matches, if we can find someone to drive them. DS is also a member of a second CC close to home that he switches to once the summer holiday begins.

I don't envisage this changing when he gets to senior school. Why so many people imagine that parents of boarders drop them off and don't see them again until the holidays I can't imagine. Come September I will switch to driving across the country and back every week to get them all to extra training at the local hockey club. 🙄

Generally unless in first team the school standard sports kit is all that’s required. In terms of actual cricket gear in terms of bats etc the kids that are cricket scholars have all the gear. Kids that are in lower teams the school provides but they just wear the standard school kit. It is best to check with the school shop, if you have one - they were brilliant when we had to kit out our dc - what they really needed and how many etc. for example my DC is a scholar for a specific sport and doesn’t do any other sport other than representing their house etc. and then it’s standard kit with house T-shirt. Also cricket won’t start until the summer for them unless a cricket scholar / first team / a team thus you could hold off until Easter to get what they need. This is the same for all sports is what I would say. Hope this helps.

• Does it end up feeling like enough match play across the term?

Yes, they play the other major schools and the highest teams also play clubs. The lowest teams have at least 1 external match a week. There are house matches and internal matches too.

• Do boys tend to create extra opportunities themselves (nets, informal games, etc.)?

Winter nets and training opportunities every day on top of the 4 formal training sessions offered by the school which hires professional external coaches ( some of the best names in the business) for their 20 cricket teams. Specfic training for bowlers and wicket keeping seesions on a fifth day of training. Nets and grounds are opened every day of the week so the boys make the most of this. Exchange students from the Caribbean or South Africa visit every summer to play cricket too.

• And is it realistic to keep some level of club cricket or external coaching going alongside school?

Yes, some boys train all year round, especially the ones aiming to play for England. House Masters are flexible on this. Boys also go on cricket tours to India, South Africa, Sri Lanka etc during the winter. All club and county players still play for their clubs. It is expected and understood. This school is one of the big cricketing schools.

It will depend on the school you’ve chosen. Every school set up is different.
At my dc school the first team have more than 20 scheduled matches against other schools and county /adult teams. They train twice a week. There are weekly one to ones for the best players. There are additional sessions for keen players. Those on the county set up are facilitated by the school to carry on training year round (approx 8 hours a week county training). These county players also play Sunday county matches on top of the schedule 20+ school matches.
there is absolutely no shortage of cricket to those who want to play and can cut it at higher levels.
the year 9 A team have 13 scheduled matches in this term’s sports calendar. This is for Oundle school which is full boarding in the midlands . The school also takes county players to county training year round as it’s too far for parents usually. Parents have to transport to county matches on the weekend.
other schools will have different provisions so you’d need to investigate what’s on offer for your chosen school.

Pupils won’t be able to do club matches as they take place on Saturday and that’s when schools have their own weekly fixtures.
but speaking to those involved, the question is not whether they get enough matches, but seeing which ones they have to turn down because they are doing so many! There are exams to manage too (sadly!).
which school have you chosen?

Not all club matches are on Saturday- they can split the age group leagues across Saturday or Sunday and sometimes week day nights (though that’s more often the lower tier leagues in my limited experience). Depends on the club.

Club age group cricket is a low standard and I can’t see a full boarding school releasing pupils to take part in poxy age group club cricket. County age group or men’s Saturday club matches if no school match, yes - but a random Thursday night u15 game for a local club, then I’d say no. You want to choose a day school if you want to carry on age group club stuff.
at a full boarding school, there should already be plenty of that sort of standard cricket on offer within the school set up.

Little bit rude to describe all club age group cricket as a low standard and “poxy” - I rather think this depends on the club. The OP’s son already plays a lot of club cricket and, since he's currently in y7, probably not all for the men’s team.

And the fact that there doesn’t seem to be “plenty” of cricket at the school they’re looking at is why she posted.

Sorry. Poxy is a strong word. Obviously at year 7 then age group club cricket is brilliant fun and worthwhile - but a full boarding senior school won’t view it through the same prism and it will be , if not poxy, then somewhat trivial and I can’t see pupils at a full boarding school being allowed special exception to leave school and attend. That’s what day schools are for - to top up what you cannot get at school.
mens club cricket is allowed when aged 13 or 12 if playing county. But as those games are a Saturday it’s a moot point due to Saturday block school fixtures.
I think a natural path will become clear anyway - for a child not at county (or higher) standard then the school provision in a bonafide full boarding school will suffice. There is plenty to be had!
for a child playing county or academy (when older) it is likely the school will facilitate access to that training. Most schools don’t provide transport to and from however - Oundle is the exception to that as far as I’m aware.
a true cricket aficionado will have done their research proper to selecting a senior school.
to the OP, look on the SOCS website to see how many matches there are at your chosen school . I think you’ll find there are plenty in all rounder full boarding schools - it’s usually too many matches rather than too few.

We have this dilemma. School term is so short that DS plays for his local club age group too so he can keep going into July and August. That was fine for U11 because they played Sunday mornings and most decent heads will let you out to do that. But U13 and U15 train and play after school on weekday nights and heads/HMs don’t like that because it clashes with prep etc. Plus you really have to live close to the school to make it work.

What I am hoping is that the club will let him play as a super sub once school term ends, when other kids are away on family holidays or whatever. It’s not quite the same thing and won’t make him popular, but better than nothing.

Its definitely different but really is school dependent. We have children at Rugby and Eton and have been impressed by both cricket wise. Rugby's cricket programme is well known, has a specific scholars programme and strong links with Warwickshire so if cricket was all our son was passionate about that might have been a better fit but at Eton he still gets 14 (30 over) matches in the U14 1sts, and even the 6ths get 9 matches. He got weekly 1:1s from the Director of Cricket and weekly group training over most of the winter and is now doing three days a week in the summer term and some house cricket plus can go to the nets with his mates if he has time.

It's less than he was getting at prep school when he was doing both club and school so we had the same concerns before he started but he seems to be very happy with it as the standard is really high compared to a fairly mixed bag of prep school fixtures.
His teammates all do county and boys seem to join back in with their club/counties over the hols but for most its too far to do weekly and the school was only mildly supportive when we asked about external winter training as they want the boys to get involved with everything else the school offers so we didn't do it. In hindsight, seeing how busy he's been, this is entirely fair!

Does all this focus on sport interfere with the academic side of things?

Doesn't seem to - they aren't missing lessons or prep time for sport - so hopefully its a matter of work hard play hard!