MY TIME AT KING'S BRUTON - SOMERSET

I arrived at King’s Bruton in Somerset on Monday April 15^th and while the weather won out with the three pre-season games cancelled that day it did not dampen my enthusiasm to get a training session in that afternoon in the outstanding indoor facilities. The next morning, I was straight into school life with breakfast at 7.45am followed by classes until 1pm. With school finishing early each day, except for Wednesdays, there is plenty of time for cricket training.

For the cricket season, there are seventeen games scheduled across a wide variety of formats; T20, 35 overs, and ‘time’ matches. Every Saturday I have a long format game with the T20s on Thursdays. Most of my matches have been home fixtures and the away matches have given me a chance to see the different schools in the south of England. This weekend there is an end-of-term cricket festival hosted by the school where I will play different formats over four days including two declaration games.

The coaching support at King’s includes individual and team coaching with Mr Crump and Mr Godfrey. Right from the start, Mr. Crump and Mr. Godfrey have been very welcoming and made me feel part of the XI team. The coaches have a huge passion and dedication to developing players’ talent. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are team training days and I have an individual training session with Mr Crump each week. There is huge interest in cricket among the school staff and many are real cricket enthusiasts, playing for the staff cricket team and/or coaching one of the other eight school cricket teams.

The cricket facilities at King’s are outstanding. The indoor training complex and extensive grounds are first class facilities. The standard of the grass wickets is superb with the main pitch, Hyde (where the XI team plays all their home matches), used on occasion to host fixtures by professional teams including Somerset County.

I would like to thank Cricket Leinster for arranging this opportunity to spend a term at King’s Bruton. The opportunity to experience a new school as a boarder, with a different curriculum and structure has been very positive. I am most grateful for the support received at King’s since I arrived. Thank you to Mr Wilmshurst, the Headmaster, to Mr Bunday, the Housemaster at my boarding house, and to Mr Crump for the opportunity to spend the summer term here.

Ethan Marshall

Clontarf CC, CUS school & Leinster u17s