Cricket

Fixtures (SOCS)

The school offers extensive cricket facilities including brand new cricket nets at Redmayne Playing Field to complement our indoor cricket gallery which gets daily, evening and weekend use throughout the Michaelmas and Lent Terms to maintain and develop skills throughout the winter period. In the Trinity Term we also have additional two sets of practice nets – a small astro with cricket nets and further grass nets. Redmayne Playing Fields provides for up to 7 cricket pitches and the Lower Close is our main first team cricket venue under the glorious shadow of the Cathedral. From 2025 onwards we will also be partnering with local cricket clubs to give our pupils the experience of playing at local club facilities. Cricket is open as a choice for boys and girls in all Senior School year groups of all abilities.

In the 2023/24 season we played a total of 261 Senior School fixtures, with 144 boys matches and 117 girls matches, with a win rate of 64.1% and a win/draw rate of 65%. At local level we played Norwich High School, Wymondham College, Gresham’s School, Framlingham College, Long Stratton High School, Beeston Hall and Langley School. Regionally and nationally we competed against Bedford Grammar School, Ipswich School, Stamford School, The Leys School, Royal Hospital School, Culford School, Oakham School, Bedford School, Rugby School, Worksop College, St Joseph’s College, Solihull School, Marylebone Cricket Club, Bromsgrove School, The Perse School, Harrow School, Hurstpierpont College and Bloxham School. Players also enjoyed a tour to South Africa.

Many of our pupils are proud to play for local clubs including Norfolk Cricket Club, Swardeston Cricket Club, Brooke and District Cricket Club, Fakenham Cricket Club, Horsford Cricket Club, Norwich Cricket Club, Great Melton Cricket Club and Sunrises Cricket Club. Notable successes from our 2023/24 season include our 12A Boys and our 15A Girls who were runners up in the County Cup and our 14A Boys and 15A Boys who were County Cup winners. Our 17A Boys also made the last 8 in the Cricket Papers U17 Cup and our 1st XI Girls enjoyed victory against the MCC. One of our Senior Girls, India Fox, also plays for Sunrises Cricket Club.

Sports News

11 NORWICH SCHOOL HOCKEY PLAYERS SELECTED FOR TALENT ACADEMY FESTIVAL!

By Eleanor Lewis • 24 Jul, 2024

During the academic year, our Talent Academy hockey players have worked hard to get selected for this year's Talent Academy Cup 2024. This competition will be taking place at Nottingham Hockey Centre between 28 - 31 July. This event is the culmination of the Talent Academy's hard work throughout the 23/24 season. There will be 48 Teams with a total of 960 players competing across the four-day tournament. This event brings together all the Talent Academies across England and Wales to play against each other in the bid to win the Cup. Congratulations to 11 Norwich School pupils who have been selected to represent East TA squads; this is an excellent achievement and we look forward to tracking your progress in the coming days. Uma Patel, Chole Holmes, Perdie Finch, Poppy Francis, Lawrence Williams, Fraser Evans, George Rivett, Ben Griffiths, Tom Irvine, Charlie Hutchinson and Freddie Jupe.

CRICKET CATCH-UP ON THE END OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR

By Eleanor Lewis • 08 Jul, 2024

June proved to be a very busy month for all our cricketers as many teams played catch up with their respective Cup rounds after weather delay’s early in the term. It has been a very successful term with the 1st XI Boys leading the way, maintaining their unbeaten league season after a last ball thriller against the Perse, and reaching the 4th round of the National KO before losing to a very strong Repton squad. They have recently returned from the Woodard festival hosted by Worksop College where they picked up two excellent victories over Bloxham and Worksop. Captain Lewis Reeder has represented the Northants academy and will play in their 3-day competition this month. The U15 A boys have had a remarkable term as they progressed through to the last 8 of the national KO with wins against Stamford, Rugby school and Worksop College. They also got through to the last 16 of the National T20 before a strong Harrow team ended their run. Lower 5 pupil Ollie Longdon scored over 900 runs during the season that included a 1st XI 100 against RHS. Highlights for the term. 15A Girls -Runners up in the County Cup 12A Boys- Runners up in the County cup 14A Boys – County Cup Winners 15A Boys- County cup winners and last 8 of the National KO and last 16 in The National T20 17A Boys -Last 8 of the Cricket papers U17 cup. 1st XI girls’ victory against the MCC. The school has hosted various Norfolk Cricket schools’ festivals and State school competitions and has many pupils involved in the County Age group squads that will have a summer full of fixtures. Many thanks to our committed ground staff and coaching staff that give up many hours to ensure that our pupils can compete and develop their game!

TALKING TENNIS - LOOKING BACK OVER A SUCCESSFUL YEAR

By Eleanor Lewis • 08 Jul, 2024

Things started well for the Senior Boys strong win over a young Hethersett side just before Easter, with George Snelling stepping up to join the usual squad. In the next round we faced a strong Hills Road and were a bit rusty however, we still managed to give a good account of ourselves with Luie Valentine winning both his singles and doubles when playing with Harry Philpott. Jofie Philpott battled hard which was all the more impressive considering his serious wrist injury and Luca Pantazis had a real ding dong with his opponent. That said we came up short and the final score was a 4-8 loss. This should not take away from what Luie, Luca and Jofie have achieved whilst playing tennis for the school and pinnacle of which was their 12th place finish in the Glanville Cup in 2022. Thank you to Luie for his great captaincy over the years and we all wish Luca well as he embarks on his tennis scholarship in Alabama, I have no doubt that tennis will continue to play a huge part as they move on from Norwich School. The U15 team made up of: Rufus Snelling, Himash Amarawickrama, Lewis Hankinson, Belek McQuillin and Veron Hung, had an exceptional win over Wymondham College by 4-2. The result was in the balance until Lewis and Belek came through a thrilling tiebreak to secure the win. Hethersett were far too strong for us and have a good chance of progressing in the competition when it continues in September, although Belek did record our only victory of the evening. Next came Gresham’s and despite an unflattering scoreline of a 0-6 loss Rufus battled very hard at 1 in the singles saving numerous match points before being defeated 7-9 in the tiebreak. Belek did the same at 4 but was eventually edged out 5-7. The U13 team consisting of: Lucas Berney, Josh Bond, Herbie Andrews, Ben Lowe and Toby Hankinson, were our most successful team retaining the county cup. There was a straightforward 6-0 win over Wymondham College. Then followed the match of the season against Hethersett. The match was all square after the singles with wins for Herbie and Toby, and then again after the doubles with Herbie being joined by Ben to win 6-2. Now followed a shoot-out tiebreak to decide the match and Lucas was joined by Herbie. The boys started strongly winning the first 3 points but then Hethersett took over and at 6-9 had 3 match points which came and went, as did another 10 or so! With a gathering crowd to cheer on the boys they eventually won the tiebreak 24-22! What a thrilling climax to a fantastic game of tennis. The team needed to rise to the challenge one more time against Gresham’s Prep which they duly recording a 6-0 victory and thereby winning the county cup for the second year in succession. They will now go on to represent the county in the National stages of the competition in the next academic year so watch this space!