SchoolS Guide 2019
LEARNING TO ADAPT EXAMS AND CLUB CRICKET HAVE FORCED MANY SCHOOLS TO HAVE A RETHINK, WRITES PAUL EDWARDS
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ummer Saturdays stretching deep into golden evenings; printed fixture lists as venerable as The Book of Common Prayer; pitches of firstclass standard and players whose names are put down for MCC membership on their 16th birthdays; spacious pavilions, their walls crammed with boards listing the XIs from innocent eras; fathers watching their sons take the field and thinking this game stands for so much more than itself. Well, yes. Look carefully and you will still observe such scenes in the English season. Independent schools face a range of challenges but many hold fast to their traditions. The great boarding schools, in particular, take advantage of their pupils’ availability to offer coaching throughout a week that may already be packed with academic commitments. Matches against familiar rivals are great occasions. Eton still play Harrow at Lord’s. But you would be mistaken to imagine that nothing has changed in the private sector. The pressure on pupils to get good grades in GCSEs and A Levels and the desire of the most talented cricketers to play for their clubs on Saturdays have led to changes in the way some masters in charge of cricket run their particular ships. The adjustments have been most noticeable in Headmasters’ Conference (HMC) schools that do not accommodate boarders yet not all the changes have been detrimental to the cricket played in those places. “The biggest change has been the way in which exams have affected the availability of boys,” reflected Simon Sutcliffe, who has been the master in charge of cricket at Merchant Taylors’, Crosby since 2011. “Increasingly we have public exams before half-term but that’s improved now that most boys in the lower sixth don’t sit any of those. The other change has been the way in which club
8 | thecricketer.com
