Cricket
Please see our Fixtures list below.
Shrewsbury sets out to be one of the best cricket schools in the country. In the summer, our cricketers have the privilege of playing on the fields described by the cricket-writer Sir Neville Cardus as the 'The most beautiful playing fields in the world, spreading and imperceptibly mingling with the pasture land of Shropshire'. And in the winter, cricket training has been transformed by our truly world class indoor cricket centre, which opened in September 2006. Coaching is provided by teaching staff, the full time cricket professional, visiting English coaches, and a visiting Australian coach who spends his winter based at Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury regularly fields twelve teams across all age groups and also has a flourishing House programme to enable boys of all abilities to play. Every two years the U15’s and 1st XI tour abroad and recent destinations have included Cape Town, Perth, Sri Lanka and Barbados. The planned trip for December 2010 is to Dubai and Western Australia. The U15 side have had considerable success in the Lord’s Taverners Colts Trophy in recent years, winning the cup in 2005 and reaching the final again in 2006. The culmination of the 1st XI season is the Silk Trophy, which we won in 2009. This highly-coveted trophy is competed for by Shrewsbury, Eton, Oundle and an overseas touring side at the end of each summer term.
Please also see our full Cricket Report on the 2009 Season (Word document).
Old Salopians who have played county cricket include N.E.J. Pocock (Hampshire), The Hon. T.M. Lamb (Middlesex & Northamptonshire), I.J.F. Hutchinson (Middlesex) and S.W.K. Ellis (Worcestershire). Tim Lamb has also been Chief Executive of the ECB and Richard Bevan, former Chairman of the PCA, is also an Old Salopian. Current professional cricketers: James Taylor (Leicestershire) has made a good start in his first full season as a professional scoring his maiden first class century against Middlesex at the start of May. James was a prolific batsman in his time at Shrewsbury and was named as Wisden’s Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year for 2008. There is a good crop of promising players currently in the school who work on their game throughout the year in the Cricket Centre with Shrewsbury’s Cricket Professional – Paul Pridgeon (former Worcestershire seamer).
Cricket fixtures
