Spotlight on Cricket
Bespoke Performance Programme and Experienced Coaches
Offering some of the very best pitches in Suffolk, fully equipped with sightscreens and covers giving the best possible playing experiences, Cricket at Woodbridge School is the main sport played by both boys and girls in a variety of formats ranging from T20 to timed matches, throughout the Trinity Term.
Alongside matches played during games afternoons, after School and some Saturday mornings, our bespoke year-round performance programme gives students the opportunity to develop their game, participate in one to one small group sessions which provide technical development, while reactive focus is designed to support students’ game play.
Our cricket programme runs throughout the School term. We begin indoors during the winter months, offering early morning cricket practice to all year groups throughout the week. Our one to one programme starts in September too, whereby students come along for individual or paired sessions in our sports dome, with our County-level coaches. We then move our programme outside in Spring, where sessions continue.
Undoubtedly, we are now seeing the benefits of that programme, with large numbers of our students selected to play for their County. The 2024 season saw more than 20 of our boys and girls represent Suffolk at U11 to U15, we also celebrated winning the County Championships with our Year 7 boys this season; these successes will undoubtedly continue to build in the coming years.
A record number of students from School are now playing cricket for various clubs around the county; these clubs include Copdock, Easton, Melton and many more. Playing for clubs enables students to enjoy developing their cricket and further their ability, and certainly complements their play in School.
Within our team of experienced coaches, each committed to working with students to develop their skills and passion for cricket, Josh Cantrell our Head of Cricket is a current minor Counties Cricketer for Suffolk and white-ball captain, playing all three formats, NCCA Championship, NCCA Trophy and NCCA T20. Josh plays in the East Anglian Premier League, currently the 1XI Captain for Bury St Edmunds Cricket Club. He has also played three first class matches while representing Cambridge Marylebone Cricket Club Universities (MCCU). Josh has also played three first class matches, one of them in Abu Dhabi, and has even bowled at Sir Alistair Cook!
Josh Cantrell, Head of Cricket
“I discovered Cricket as a young chap, aged just five or six years old, whilst playing in the back garden with my father. In all honesty I loved and was keen to play all sports when I was younger, but when I tried Cricket I quickly found a love for the game which continues today.
My father played a big part in helping me get started. I was in the county set up from a young age, so it was there that a numerous amount of coaches influenced and helped grow my love for the game. I’ve worked with dozens of different coaches, and they have all played their part in helping mould me into the cricketer I am today. I was keen and enthusiastic, and wanted to become the best I could be; I spent hundreds of hours bowling balls on dark, cold school nights at a set of stumps in the garden!
Cricket is a game that incorporates team work and individualism. Learning to play sport in an environment which encourages you to support each other, aiming to achieve your best in each game, with the overarching goal being to achieve victory, encourages and helps build children’s skillset.
At Woodbridge School students are offered the opportunity to improve individual skills through one-to-one sessions, while also learning the cohesive nature of the game through match play and team sessions. The aim is to achieve greater all-round cricketing success through finding the balance of individual improvement and team building.
Recognising that students can begin playing Cricket in School at very different starting points and levels to one another, we provide appropriate challenges for all with hardball and softball options. We also provide matches for all abilities, with teams playing a range of fixtures against some excellent schools. We enter into the county competitions at all age groups, boys and girls, which gives us a wide range of fixtures, most being friendly matches, against different schools each year, but we also aim to win the county competitions – recognising that although we strive to win, the most important aspect to Cricket is enjoying the game.
Learning and playing Cricket at School is a brilliant way to learn the game, giving you the opportunity to develop and learn as well as compete alongside peers. Not only do students have the opportunity to play against differing opposition each year, very often they’ll come up against friends from outside of school in fixtures.”
You can read more about Cricket at Woodbridge School at woodbridgeschool.org.uk/sport/cricket/
