Huddersfield New College has revealed that for the third year running the College’s Cricket Academy has been listed in The Cricketer’s Schools Guide, which features the top 100 institutions in the UK for cricketing in the UK.
HNC’s Cricket Academy is one of the College’s Sports Academies. These allow students to combine an outstanding education with their chosen sport. As part of an Academy, students receive professional coaching as part of their wider experience, and compete at the highest levels. Currently students can choose to trial for the College's Football (Men's and Women's), Cricket, Netball, Rugby or Netball Academies.
The success of our Cricket Academy is reflected through the feature in the Cricketer’s Schools Guide. To feature in this, HNC was judged against an extensive set of criteria including cricket in the curriculum, facilities, fixture programmes and coaching. This year institutions were also judged on how they had kept the game alive during the pandemic.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Cricket Academy has continued to go from strength to strength. Recently HNC celebrated the news that recent Alumnus and Cricket Academy student Ben Cliff has been selected for the England Men’s Young Lions (U19) squad that will tour Sri Lanka later this month in a five-match series. The tour is part of England’s preparation ahead of the ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean starting in January. You can read more about this story here.
Jamie Marsden, Director of Sports Academies comments: “Our Sports Academies enable our students to be at the top of the game in their studies and their sport, offering the opportunity to combine professional coaching with their normal College timetable. Our Cricket Academy has gone from strength to strength, and we recently celebrated our first Cricket Academy student reaching the England Men’s Young Lions squad. We are very proud to have been listed for third year running in the Cricketer’s Top 100 Schools Guide. The successes of our Academy reflects why we have been named as one of the best institutions in the UK, and we look forward to speaking to our 2022 applicants to share more in the near future!”
The Cricketer magazine editor Huw Turbervill said: “It has been incredibly heartening to see schools cricket making such a comeback after a different 2020. Of course, not all schools' programmes have been the same due to varying restrictions, facilities, and many other understandable reasons but what has been consistent across the spectrum is that the dedication to the game in schools has, not only remained unaffected, but increased. "
“As a parent myself, I would like to place on record my thanks to all the teachers, coaches and volunteers who have worked so hard, in the most difficult of circumstances, to ensure the next generation are given opportunities to grow within, and love the game, that we cherish so deeply. Congratulations to all of the schools included and we look forward to hearing about all of your future successes."
