Cricket

Cricket is the major sport in the Summer Term at Gresham’s. We were delighted to be selected as one of the top 100 Senior schools and top 50 Prep schools in the UK by The Cricketer magazine. With grounds covering 200 acres, excellent facilities and experienced coaches, Gresham’s is an outstanding school for cricket.

The School fields up to 11 sides on a Saturday ranging from the 1st XI to U14C and 3 girls teams. The School teams play a wide variety of fixtures against other local schools such as Royal Hospital School, The Leys, Norwich School and as well as invitational sides such as The Forty Club and West Norfolk CC. The 1st XI also plays an annual fixture with the MCC. The First XI will play up to 20 fixtures a season with a mixture of all day, 50 over and T20 style matches. We have a record of producing high quality players and in the last few years. In 2023 the 1st XI had their most successful season ever playing 23 matches and winning 19. This included Arthur Wilcox scoring 1036 runs for the School with one innings of 201* and breaking the School record for highest number of runs in a season and highest individual score. The U15 Girls have reached the National Cup Finals Day at Rugby School in September 2023.

Gresham’s has four squares at the Senior School, the 1st XI pitch being in a particularly picturesque spot in the middle of the School. We have a large set of both artificial and grass nets to help with team practice, as well. Wickets are always extremely well prepared by the ground staff and the school is often complimented on the standard of the pitches we provide. We run a busy winter programme with the top teams training once to twice a week and then the Juniors training in GAP times. Our Director of Cricket Chris Brown undertakes one-one and group sessions weekly with pupils.

Chris Brown is our Director of Cricket and he has responsibility for leading the cricket programme throughout the school. Chris is a former first-class cricketer who started his career with Lancashire County Cricket Club and is the current Norfolk Cricket Board’s High Performance Manager, ECB Spin consultant, England & England Lions Spin Scout & England Young Lions Spin Coach. Chris has played First Class and List A cricket both in the UK and overseas and has International experience as a coach at the last ICC T20 World Cups with Cricket Scotland and has also worked with ICC full member Nation Zimbabwe. Chris also works with Nottinghamshire CCC as a spin consultant.

Chris has responsibility along with our Master in Charge of Cricket, Mr Atkinson, for leading the cricket programme throughout the school.

“Cricket is a passion in the school and the major sport in the summer.”

THE CRICKETER MAGAZINE

Gresham’s has a long and proud tradition of touring. In 2019 we toured Sri Lanka which was a terrific experience for 14 pupils and 3 staff. We played in some terrific locations; Kandy, Colombo and Galle. The team played 4 matches, winning 3 and losing 1. In previous years we have toured the Caribbean, including Barbados on two different occasions; we have taken part in the Sir Garfield Sobers Tournament many times and have played against a young Brian Lara and other future Test stars.

If you have any questions about the cricket programme at Gresham’s please contact Master in charge of Cricket, Dominic Atkinson [email protected].