RISING STAR AT CLONTARF SIGNS UP FOR KING’S COLLEGE PLACEMENT

Clontarf CC’s Ethan Marshall will be swapping CUS in Leeson Street, Dublin for Taunton, Somerset having been granted a full scholarship by King’s School Bruton (King’s) to represent its expanding partnership with Cricket Leinster in 2024.

King’s is a co-educational boarding and day school for 370 pupils aged 13 to 18 years.  It is situated in the historic town of Bruton about an hour from Bath, Bristol, Salisbury, and Taunton, extending to the Ethan a programme of a free education, board, food, and a sporting package for the Trinity Term starting in April.

The College benefits from outstanding cricket facilities, with four pitches, a brand new pavilion, and a two-lane indoor centre, with participation throughout the school being very strong across both boys and girls.  This summer, the school will run eight cricket teams, including a team in the U18 Boys National T20 competition, along with 21 fixtures for the 1st XI over the 90-day placement, with Ethan starting extremely well scoring 83* in his opening game for the school’s 1st XI against Monkton Combe school and following this up with 43 against Exeter School last Saturday.

Such placements continue Cricket Leinster’s commitment to providing a wide variety of opportunities for its young players to grow as people and players while in the council-backed programmes.  It is well documented the impact the South African Transition Year programme has had on now international star players like Andrew Balbirnie, George Dockrell, Harry Tector, Barry McCarthy, Fionn Hand, and Lorcan Tucker and it is hoped that this partnership with King’s, will over time, come to match the SA TY programme in terms of impact on young Leinster cricketers.

The King’s partnership has once again been spearheaded by the CL Development Manager (North Leinster & Fingal), Brian O’Rourke, who is pleased to see the continued growth in 2024:

“This is another excellent opportunity for young Leinster players to spend time in an intensive academic and sporting educational setting.  My thanks go to Mr Ben Crump and the team at King’s for their generosity in time, spirit, and finance to make this full scholarship a possibility.  I know that Ethan will represent us well, his performances, as shown in the first fixture, will show the quality of our youth programmes in Leinster, and he will look back on being part of something very special for growing our game in Leinster”.

Ben Crump, Head of Cricket at King’s, was pleased to be expanding the partnership with Leinster Youth and having Ethan with the school this term.

“King’s School Bruton is excited to develop links with young cricket talent in Leinster which we believe to be a great opportunity for both the pupil and the school.  Ben Thompson was an excellent scholar in 2023, we look forward to Ethan continuing to show his talents, but most importantly, becoming part of our King’s family, looking back as we hope all our students do, on an unforgettable life-changing experience with friends made for life”.

Ethan, who plays his Leinster cricket for Clontarf CC, was honoured to be selected for such a prestigious scholarship adding:

“Thank you to my parents for allowing me to take up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to Cricket Leinster for trusting me to represent our Youth Programmes, and of course, to Mr. Crump, for selecting me to represent his scholarship programme at the school.  The facilities at King’s are incredible, and I hope to continue to use them to shine on, as well as off the field to showcase the very best of the values Clontarf CC, CUS, King’s, and Cricket Leinster share, making this partnership possible”.

Ethan, like all cricketers on TY placement with Cricket Leinster, will be submitting updates, and we encourage all readers to send their best wishes to him for his time at King’s on social media.

To learn more about King’s School Bruton, visit www.kingsbruton.com

For more information on our TY placement schemes, please contact Brian O’Rourke at brian.orourke@cricketleinster.ie