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 Dubai, Cape Town, Perth, Sri Lanka and Barbados.  The U15 side have had considerable success in the Lord’s Taverners Colts Trophy in recent years. The culmination of the 1st XI season is the Silk Trophy, which will be played at Shrewsbury in 2012.  This highly-coveted trophy is competed for by Shrewsbury, Eton, Oundle and an overseas touring side at the end of each summer term.

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.  The most prominent Old Salopian and current professional cricketer is James Taylor (R 2003-2008), who now plays for Leicestershire and is now captain of the England Lions team.  James was a prolific batsman in his time at Shrewsbury and started receiving awards almost as soon as he entered the professional world; he 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).

The Saracens - Old Salopian Cricket Club

The Old Salopian Cricket Club - The Saracens - has a long and noble history including days when Old Salopians informed their counties that they were not available for County fixtures because they were representing the Saracens in the Cricketer Cup.
 
Annual activities include those Cricketer Cup fixtures, the matches against the School on Speech Day,  the Cricket Week at Shrewsbury and the Devon Tour.

Please see the Saracens page for further details.

Any forthcoming cricket fixtures for the current term will be displayed below.