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Staff<br />

Managing director Andy Afford<br />

Editor-at-large Simon Hughes<br />

Head of editorial planning<br />

and production Alec Swann<br />

Deputy editor Huw Turbervill<br />

Art director James Bunce<br />

Art editor Jess Hutchinson<br />

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Account and operations<br />

manager Jess Davidson<br />

Digital media manager Will Simpson<br />

Accounts co-ordinator Chris Smith<br />

Business development<br />

executive George Fitzmaurice<br />

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ISSN 2049-3363<br />

Member of the Audit<br />

Bureau of Circulations<br />

WHY AN A–Z GUIDE?<br />

WHY SCHOOLS<br />

CRICKET? WHY NOW?<br />

Andy Afford<br />

Managing<br />

director,<br />

The Cricketer<br />

DEAR READER,<br />

Since reintroducing<br />

schools<br />

cricket more<br />

formally to<br />

The Cricketer<br />

in 2013, we<br />

have had a consistently strong<br />

response to the coverage from<br />

you.<br />

Typically, people like the idea of<br />

an early look at potential future<br />

stars. Lots of you comment on the<br />

evocative photography. More still<br />

have an opinion on the relative<br />

quality of the cricket played. Safe<br />

to say, it has inspired healthy<br />

debate.<br />

As I am guessing most of you<br />

would expect, our list constitutes<br />

a high percentage of public<br />

schools. It is not exclusively so,<br />

but it has ended up that way. And<br />

not by design, I might add. And<br />

that the last Test of the summer<br />

saw England field six players who<br />

were privately educated goes a<br />

long way to establishing a further<br />

reason why.<br />

Ultimately, this is where<br />

considerable investment is<br />

being made in the game in this<br />

country. By parents. By young<br />

cricketers. And by the schools<br />

themselves. Investment in<br />

coaching. Investment in facilities.<br />

Investment in time dedicated to<br />

the pursuit of excellence. Like<br />

it or not, this now constitutes<br />

the game’s modern-day nursery<br />

slopes. Especially with<br />

weekend club cricket under<br />

the ever-increasing pressures<br />

of modern life.<br />

That is the context, but what<br />

have we actually done to put this<br />

all together? Well, the process<br />

itself was simple, if not all that<br />

straightforward. The first thing<br />

was to draw down a longlist of<br />

around 450 likely names and,<br />

from there, derive a shortlist of<br />

what we believed constituted the<br />

very best 150 cricketing schools<br />

in the country. From this we<br />

settled on the final 100 and put<br />

them in alphabetical order for no<br />

other reason than they all have<br />

something equally positive and<br />

unique to offer.<br />

One final comment on that<br />

final list: we fully understand<br />

that the number 100 is in itself<br />

a pretty arbitrary figure. But as<br />

in all these things, it offered a<br />

starting point and, indeed, an<br />

end. It could have been 111, 121<br />

or even 127. Easily. But the reason<br />

we decided it couldn’t made us<br />

work that little bit harder for you.<br />

This, we believe, constitutes the<br />

establishments that offer in their<br />

own way – or in a few cases every<br />

way – cricketing excellence. From<br />

programme design to building<br />

design; exclusive setting to<br />

inclusive selection; historic past<br />

to glorious future.<br />

With this list came the<br />

opportunity to agree a few<br />

additional awards. These are for<br />

places we believe are outstanding<br />

in their way. They will reveal<br />

themselves as you work your way<br />

through the supplement.<br />

Geographically, the list runs the<br />

length and breadth of this great<br />

land (see page 65). We are very<br />

proud of the ambition shown by<br />

the project. We hope you find the<br />

results equally fascinating.<br />

thecricketer.com / 3

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