CRICKET SEASON After a very busy winter, we had another successful season across all teams. We finished with a boys win percentage across all teams of 61% and a girls win percentage across all teams of 64% which highlights the healthy balance of competition. We often play adult teams to stretch the older teams and to make sure we don’t just stick to our regular circuit. From the bottom teams to the top, the U12A XI lost in the U12 Kent Plate Final this year so was close to retaining the County title after last year’s U12s won the competition. This group lost only two fixtures and played some excellent cricket throughout the season. Afraz Malik was certainly a dominating figure within the team with both the bat and ball, but he was very well supported by most within
This year’s Cricket Academy proved to be a success in many ways and continues to grow year on year. The Academy is for Year 5 through to Year 9 pupils who are split into two tiers to make sure we cater for all ages and abilities. It is designed to push the players both physically and mentally but also provide them with an enjoyable environment that will prepare them as thoroughly as possible for the approaching season. The Cricket Academy is a stepping stone to the Sports Excellence Cricket Programme which starts at year 9 and is by invitation only. As part of our Cricket Academy Programme we often have current or past professional cricketers run a session or two. This year we welcomed Tawanda Muyeye (Kent CCC) to coach both our tier 1 & tier 2 cricketers. During our training sessions, Tawanda’s coaching focus was on bowling and all of our pupils learnt a great deal. Throughout the Academy sessions we worked on all aspects of cricket from batting, bowling, fielding and wicketkeeping where lots of improvements were made. Bearing in mind the ages of those involved in the Cricket Academy, three Academy players scored centuries this year which highlights the talent we have coming up through the school. What is also fantastic is that with the expansion of girls cricket, we now have lots of talented girls within the Academy sessions which has done nothing but helped push the standard higher. Mr Simmons led the sessions along with fellow coaches Mr Guinan and Mr Kidd who I am delighted will be back with us next year to continue coaching our youngsters.
both of these competitions. Our girls played exceptionally well throughout the day and despite not qualifying for the Kent Finals
Day had six weeks of winter training and several matches to help prepare them for the summer which when you read on proved so very important. We continued to host our annual Junior Cricket Development event. Current and visiting families were invited to join the Head of Cricket for an informative talk with refreshments in the morning, followed by a training session in the Sports Centre with Mr Simmons and Mr Jones. It was fantastic to be able to share with parents the many various cricket programmes that we run at St Lawrence College. It is important for parents to understand where their child is on our cricket pathway, where they want to get to and what it looks like to get there. We are very proud of our inclusion into the Top 100 Cricket Schools and this achievement is testament to the hard work of Mr Simmons, the Games Department, the dedication and encouragement of parents, and, lastly the effort and skill of every one of our talented cricketers. All school entries were judged against an extensive set of criteria, which included a ‘compelling commitment to cricket in the curriculum, fixture programmes and coaching‘. Judges also took into account how schools kept the game alive after the pandemic, and how they work to ensure cricket remains a key part of school life. As part of our ever developing sports programme, we also introduced an exchange programme with a South African school called St Benedict’s College in cricket. In January, our 1st XI captain Duncan Moore scored several half centuries whilst in Johannesburg and gained his Bennies cap for representing the St Benedict’s 1st XI on ten occasions. We will send over more cricket players in January 2024 and will look to maintain this strong link as it offers additional competitive cricket throughout our winter in preparation for our summer.
the squad with other fine individual performances from Jude Squires, Max O’Callaghan, Rufus Tassell and Patrick Flynn. Our U13A XI won seven out of ten matches and reached the Quarter Finals of the Kent Cup. Five matches were won by six or more wickets and the other two wins were by over hundred runs so it is fair to say
Our Kirby 2nd XI & Kirby 3rd XI both had good seasons with both teams combined having only lost one match. The focus for these two sides are to make sure they all contribute to every match and improve their skills sets so they can compete in one of the A teams in the following season. The U14A XI had a good season with excellent wins against Sutton Valence School, Sir Joseph Williams and Eltham College to name a few. They narrowly lost in the Kent Cup Semi Final and next year will look to go one further in the competition and battle it out for the trophy. Jenson Cutts and Harry Ledger both scored centuries which was achieved by both of them working hard throughout their relevant winter training programmes. The U14B XI had a tougher season winning only one fixture, however they improved a lot throughout the term and had some narrow losses. They should be very proud with the performances they put in, it was just unfortunate that they were on the wrong end of results on a few occasions. Next year I am sure they will turn some of those results around and get over the line on a few return fixtures. The U15A XI had a challenging yet progressive year with some excellent results against some good schools. Ed Smith scored an excellent century against St Edmund’s School and also bowled very well throughout the season with good pace and precision. Jonathan Stanford also contributed with a couple of half centuries throughout the season. Our U15B XI had an outstanding season and finished undefeated. They beat The King’s School, Canterbury by 44 runs, Sutton Valence
that they are a strong batting squad. However, bowling is their areas of focus going forward as sometimes we chased more runs than needed and although often did score the runs, we put ourselves in a position where we were chasing more that we should have.
Throughout the winter the U13 and U15 girls trained and competed in the Indoor Eights competition which was previously named ‘The Lady Taverners’. This competition offers 8-a-side indoor cricket to secondary school girls with over 1,800 teams taking part in
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