It was the turn of Colchester Royal Grammar School to host the 1st XI cricket teams from the Royal Grammar Schools of Guildford, Lancaster, Newcastle, Worcester and High Wycombe for a week-long celebration of cricket for the Royal Grammar Schools’ Cricket Festival from 3-7 July. The Senior 1st Xl finished the season on a high by winning the Royal Grammar School Cricket Festival in Colchester, their best finish for 10 years.

The Festival was an epic from start to finish. It had the lot: skill, derring-do, a new set of player heroes, unprecedented sportsmanship, it was one to remember.  A hard fought 31 run victory against RGS Guildford on the fifth day meant that three teams each won four out of five games and will share the trophy. 

RGS Festival Records & Highlights

Festival records broken:

• The highest team score - 423 vs Colchester  
• 3 scores of 300+
• 1048 runs scored across the week.
   

Individual highlights:

• Attish Anthathi was named Player of the Festival (359 runs, 2x100s, 1x50, averaging 72 with strike rate of 133). He follows in the footsteps of Teddie Casterton in 2017, Saif Zaib in 2014 and George Walker in 2008.
• Chris Goede (208 runs, 2 x 50s, averaging 42 with a strike rate of 96).
• Alex Lloyd-Taylor (193 runs. 2 x 50s, averaging 39 with a strike rate of 98).

Mr Fletcher Head of Cricket said: "This squad couldn't have given any more to the school or each other. We’re incredibly proud of their achievements this week. This was the last game of school cricket for some of them, not a bad way to finish!"

Is is also Andrew Fletcher's last season here at RGS who will be joining Leicester Grammar School in December, they will be gaining a considerable talent and no doubt he will continue to win more trophies and accolades for his new school. Please do join him and our players for the annual Cricket Awards Evening on Monday 17th July which will no doubt be celebratory and poignant.

The series of twists and turns gave the dramatic ending the Festival deserved

Essentially one or two people sitting watching cricket describing it to the outside world on a rolling report over-by-over should not work, but for some reason it does. This summer the Ashes over-by-over coverage will no doubt reach extraordinary heights.

The series of twists and turns gave the dramatic ending the Festival deserved and will no doubt go down in history. Sometimes the written word can deliver more than a commentary on television or radio. Even though many had no idea what was going on at the Festival, as the drama mushroomed over-by-over, we followed the adhoc 280 character chat by our Head of Cricket @RGSHWSport. His pride in our 1st X1 evident.

In his own words ... @RGSHWSport

First Day

Preamble: Our squad arrived in Colchester yesterday evening and tucked into a team dinner. Today they play their first game against this year’s hosts of the festival RGS Colchester.

An excellent performance being built by our batters against Colchester. Halfway through our innings and we’ve reached 166/3. Aatish & Monty with 101 opening partnership.

An absolute outstanding innings from our Festival squad as they score 423/8!

Second Day

Preamble: Today we play RGS Lancaster ……

An excellent 50 for Chris & second 50 in two days for Alex. We finished 184/all out.

Third Day

Preamble: A tough loss yesterday to RGS Lancaster, but on to Day 3 and we’re playing RGS Worcester. Having won the toss, we are 72/1 after 13 overs and Aatish has scored his second #50 of the Festival!

Aatish goes to his second #100 of the Festival!

Currently 192/3.

Superb all-round performances took us to win 351/all out.

Really proud of this Festival squad and their behaviour on and off the pitch.

Fourth Day

Preamble: We play RGS Newcastle.

Another strong batting performance, including Captain Aazam’s first Festival #50, sees us reach 3223/8. Although there are runs on the board we still need to bowl well.

We win by 109 runs

Fifth Day

Preamble: With a win against RGS Newcastle yesterday we go into Day 5 in a strong position with 3 wins out of 4 playing RGS Guildford.

We have won the toss and will bat first, Aatish and Monty to open the batting.

We cap off an outstanding win with a hard fought 31 run victory against RGS Guildford. The result means that three teams each won four out of five games and will share the trophy.

Congratulations to all!

Season Summary

Wow! What a season we’ve had!  Starting way back in September 2022, we’ve delivered a year-round training and fixture programme that met our aim of promoting participation at all ages and levels so that players can fulfil their potential whilst developing as both cricketers and young men.

We have over 250 boys select cricket as their Games choice in the Summer Term, and very pleasing to be able to provide the opportunity for over 200 to represent the school within an external fixture. Personally, the most pleasing evenings were when we were able to take A-D teams on road trips to schools including Berkhamsted and Stowe. This not only demonstrates the huge demand for cricket at the RGS, but the quality of the boys throughout each age-group.

Staff and players have fully embraced our culture of respect, integrity, and a commitment to personal and team growth. Boys are developing into game-ready, independent, and confident players who are able to perform at their best, play the game fairly, play within the true spirit of the game, and are capable of winning matches for the RGS and beyond. This was demonstrated numerous times through the season, but especially by our U15D team who received huge praise from the staff, parents and players of Bedford Modern School for the way they went out of their way to encourage and celebrate the success of a number of female players making their hard-ball debuts.

I hope that you are able to join the Friends of Cricket and myself on Monday 17 July as we host the End of Season Cricket Awards Evening. This will be especially poignant for me as this is my last season as the Head of Cricket at the School. As I move to pastures new at Leicester Grammar School in December 2023, I hope I will leave behind a Cricket Programme which players, staff, coaches, and parents are proud to be part of. I have no doubt it will continue to grow and achieve great things in future with the new Head of Cricket.

Andrew Fletcher
Head of Cricket