Desire to aid Sussex scene drives Brighton College Prep ethos

School wants to contribute to county's cricket ecosystem

Stepping up from junior level to senior school can be daunting for any young cricketer.

At Brighton College Prep though, integration with its parent school is key to helping smooth that transition and enabling players to develop more quickly. 

"Being able to use senior school facilities is intergral to what we can offer as a prep school," says director of sport Edward Hopkins. "Getting that expertise in front of the children as often as possible key to what we have, but we're also really trying to harness that sense of fun and ignite that passion for the game.

"We encourage them to engage with their local clubs and we also use those clubs' facilities too.

"For us, we're just part of the children's lives in cricket – we want to help them to realise it's a lifelong love.

"It doesn't matter what level they're playing at – there's always extra cricket for them here."

There's integration with several local clubs too, who pupils are encouraged to represent and whose facilities the school hire to keep up with their own demand for cricket – a 350-strong fixture card across 50 different teams in 2024.

In a region with a strong schools cricket scene, this gives Brighton College Prep the sense of contributing to the ecosystem of the wider game in Sussex, benefitting pupils in return.

Both boys and girls represented county age group teams in the summer and, in a move which further highlights its commitment to all pupils, two girls also forming part of the school's boys Under-13 side that reached the semi-finals of the Sussex Cup.

However, the overarching emphasis remains on keeping cricket a fun and enjoyable pastime for all pupils, whatever level of the game they play at.

“The overall feeling they get is a love of cricket,” adds Joe Barnett, the school’s head of cricket. “It just breathes a love of the sport into them and keeping it exciting for them is what we do.”