Schools match of the week: Clifton College v Millfield

Due to bad weather the match was abandoned, but The Cricketer caught up with Clifton College director of cricket, John Bobby, to hear about the Bristol school’s preparation for the summer and ambitious plans for the future

Our hotly anticipated match of the week was due to feature two of the south-west’s best cricketing schools with Clifton College taking on Millfield. Unfortunately Storm Hannah took centre stage instead and the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

The miserable weather did provide the opportunity for The Cricketer to catch up with Clifton College director of cricket, John Bobby, to hear about the Bristol school’s preparation for the summer and ambitious plans for the future.

"18 months ago we conducted a complete review of sport at the school," Bobby explained. "And at the end of that process we decided to target two sports, rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer.

"A lot of our scholarship programme is directed to looking at those two sports. It was in its infancy last year so perhaps we didn’t grasp the changes as much as we could have done but this year we certainly have."

Bobby is building a long-term future for the Clifton College cricket programme. He tells a remarkable statistic that there are nine boys in Year 9 who are currently affiliated with county squads and it will only be a matter of time before many of these boys start to break into the school 1st XI, playing with and against players several years older.

When these boys are at the top of the school, they will be part of a formidable 1st XI.

"Because of our geography we can naturally access a range of counties. We’ve got Somerset and Gloucestershire – which is perhaps our strongest link with the County Ground only a couple of miles away – but we also get quite a few players from Glamorgan, this year we have had three join Year 9 having been part of Wales Cricket."

Clifton are making the most of their county access, with Gloucestershire’s Gareth Roderick joining the coaching team after his younger sister had joined the school as a pupil.

Roderick has been a central part in the extensive winter training for the top cricketers at the school.

"The winter is all about your development as a player. All the players had targets to hit for their winter programmes so they could hit the ground running at the start of the summer term." Bobby said.

"You have to prepare the boys to play the same way the professionals do. So this Saturday, against Malvern, the 1st XI are going to play in coloured clothing, with a white ball at each end and black sightscreens.

"But it is important for them to play all forms of the game, so we play timed cricket, a two-day game against Rugby School, and 50 over games in addition to T20. They need to learn to cope with all the different elements of the game."

It is an exciting time for Clifton cricket. Players such as Joe Millard and 1st XI captain Dom Goodman are catching the eye of county and MCCU selectors while Clifton will welcome two very promising young cricketers to the school next September.

Both Hamdi Salim and Will Naish played at the Bunbury Festival last summer and are rated very highly by the Gloucestershire academy.

They will join what is already a strong 1st XI squad, who have begun the season productively with wins over Cheltenham College and Colston’s School.

The Cheltenham victory came courtesy of Jack Lloyd, who scored a vital 39 off 22 balls to ensure Clifton won by four wickets. One of the younger members of the side, Lloyd came in with Clifton 67-3 chasing 135 with 10 overs left.

28 runs were taken off the next two overs which provided a vital swing in momentum. "Jack completely changed the game" said a delighted Bobby.

Clifton have got off to a flying start this summer, and while this will please Bobby, he and his long-term plans are looking much further ahead.

The Cricketer would like to thank Durant Cricket for their ongoing support of our schools cricket coverage. For more on Durant Cricket, including booking a site visit, please click here