Sporting Round-up 2nd February: A month in the Julian Hill Cricket Centre

On Saturday 27^th January, MTS had a successful hockey block vs St Albans. The 9:30am matches unfortunately missed out due to the frost, but we were able to play all the other matches. The 1^st XI bounced back to record an impressive victory and there were also wins for the 2^nd XI, U16A and B and U14A sides to record a clean sweep of victories! We had senior football fixtures on Wednesday, as well as junior rugby fixtures vs Durston House. Our cross-country runners competed in the King Henry VIII relay race in Coventry. The boys did really well, with Tommy Embleton and Toby Whittaker impressing! The JHCC has now been open for a month and Mr McGowan has put together a very interesting article that looks specifically at participation rates compared to this time last year. It is really clear to see how many more boys are benefiting from the centre, which can only be good news as we approach the summer!

This weekend, we play The Perse School in Hockey and host Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet for some junior rugby fixtures.

Just like that, a month has passed since we had our first official session in the new cricket centre on the 5^th January 2024. Satisfyingly there have been no reports of the ‘January blues’ in this part of the School, instead lots of energy and excitement as the snagging process comes to a close. In January alone, I am able to report that we have recorded over 600 attendances across the menu of sessions available. These attendances have been made up of 130 different students; some have even trained in the centre over 10 times already!

An overview of the average session attendance of last January 2023 compared with this January 2024 can be seen below.

That so many boys are able to enjoy this world-class facility is down to the generosity of the Merchant Taylors’ community who have got behind our campaign. Thank you so much to those who have already supported. If you are interested in playing your part in completing the campaign and helping to finish kitting out the building, it’s not too late to have your name associated with the project and recognised within the Centre by making a gift. More information can be found at https://development.mtsn.org.uk/cricket-centre.

I am also delighted to say that we have been able to increase the number of hours that we invest in our professional coaching team, who work with our players. The graph below shows the level of this investment compared to January 2023. 

This week we were able to welcome Toby Radford to the School, an international batting coach who has worked with the very brightest and best in the game including the West Indies for the last eight years. Toby, the former Head of the Academy at Middlesex CCC before becoming the Head Coach at the County, has recently taken on the role as Batting Coach at Kent. Over the course of Wednesday afternoon, Toby spent time with our Sport Scholars in small group and individual sessions alongside providing our full-time staff some invaluable CPD.