We are delighted to announce that King Edward’s School, Birmingham has been named one of the UK’s top 100 senior schools for cricket by the world’s best-selling cricket magazine The Cricketer. This fantastic achievement recognises the exceptional coaching programme and outstanding facilities on offer at KES.
King Edward’s inclusion in the prestigious 2023 Schools Guide was finalised after an exhaustive selection process that saw a huge number of schools vying for a place in the top 100 senior schools. All entries were judged against an extensive set of criteria, which included a compelling commitment to cricket in the curriculum, facilities, fixture programmes and coaching.
Lawson Roll, KES Head of Cricket, said: “To be one of the top 100 schools in the country for cricket is a brilliant achievement. We aim to give our students the very best platform to help reach their full potential and to be given this recognition is a special moment for the school and our wider community.
“The KES community has really come together to ensure a strong and successful cricket programme. This includes support from management, catering, ground staff, finance, porters, transport, the primary schools participation team and more. Only then is it possible to run 116 school matches in a term, play in Regional Championships, win two age group Country Championships, plus promote cricket to hundreds of children in inner city Birmingham.”
Cricket is the major summer sport at King Edward’s, with 11 teams from the 1st XI down to U12C level. The school’s facilities include an excellent 1st XI cricket ground at Eastern Road, three junior pitches on the school playing field, a four-lane all-weather net complex, top quality grass nets alongside the 1st XI pitch, plus a three-lane astroturf set of nets. The sports hall also provides four lanes of nets and these nets are much used throughout the winter, during the school’s extensive winter coaching programme. KES has a full-time cricket coach who works with the boys throughout the year and also makes use of county players for additional coaching. Oversea tours feature in the calendar every year.
A large number of KES boys represent their counties at age-group level, and the school’s facilities are used by Warwickshire County Cricket Club for age-group matches and we have also staged an England Blind Team Test Match.
Notable cricketers to have attended KES include Bryan Lobb (Somerset), Ossie Wheatley (Warwickshire and Glamorgan), Alan Smith (Warwickshire and England), John Claughton (Warwickshire) who was Chief Master of King Edward’s from 2006-2016, Anurag Singh (Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire), Mark Wagh (Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire) and Vikram Banerjee (Gloucestershire).
Nathan Round, KES Cricket Coach who also co-ordinates KES’s primary school cricket participation programme, said: “As well as supporting our own pupils and teams to achieve their potential on and off the field, it is hugely fulfilling to work with primary school children from across Birmingham, welcoming them to use our facilities and to try cricket, often for the first time.”
The 2023 Schools Guide is included alongside the December issue of The Cricketer (available on the newsstand from Friday 18 November). The guide will also be made available digitally on thecricketer.com from Friday 9 December.
