The school boasts a win-rate across all year groups of more than 70 per cent in competitive cricket this summer
"I get badgered all the time about 'when can we play cricket' and 'can we have a net?'"
Having produced an engaging and exciting cricket programme at Mayfield School, Emily Starr is now having to deal with a tidal wave of interest.
A member of two England Under-19 indoor World Cup squads, alongside Amy Jones, a stress fracture in her spine turned Starr onto a life of setting the next generation onto a path she was unable to fully tread.
Four summers into cricket replacing rounders as the premier summer sport at Mayfield – an all-girls independent based in Sussex - there is little doubt her enthusiasm has caught fire. All girls in years seven and eight played a competitive match this summer. And half of those in years 10 to 13 choose to play cricket, with tennis and athletics also among the options.
Mayfield Girls talking tactics [supplied]
"The love and desire to play is there and they know they can have fun with their friends, which I think cricket is all about," she told The Cricketer. "It can be a lonely place when batting, but you know you've always got your friend at the other end. They want to play all the time."
Starr needs no invitation to boast about a win rate across the school of more than 70 per cent in competitive cricket this summer. That includes the Under-15s reaching the second round of the School Sports Magazine T20 Cup, after beating Roedean School.
But the results are only half of the story. This was the first full cricketing summer for three years, meaning that with year-group bubbles removed and the first XI were back together. Initiatives such as invite-only coaching sessions focusing on bowling plans, manipulating the field and rotating the strike, and a inter-house hard-ball competition could finally be delivered.
Mayfield taking on MCC [supplied]
"I'm very competitive but I think I've found the balance as a coach is that it is not always about the outcome - you've got to look at the process and what you're trying to achieve," she reflects.
"When you see where some of the girls are now and how they're playing and look back on that journey that is more of an achievement of what I did while playing.
"I love coaching and teaching and seeing the process of young girls playing now and what they can go on and do.
"It is such an amazing experience, and I am very proud of what I and my department have been able to create. They get annoyed at me for pushing cricket all the time, but I am lucky to have such a committed department at the school.
"It is about not forgetting that while pushing those who want to pursue cricket, or want to play at the highest level, but ensuring that all girls have the opportunity to play and push them to play a more hard-ball cricket."
Mayfield Girls 1st XI [supplied]
Starr, who represented Leicestershire and Northamptonshire women and also played in the MCCU Academy at Loughborough University alongside Anya Shrubsole and Tammy Beaumont - "I'm glad some of the kids don't see me play" - is refusing to stand still.
She's in talks with headteacher Antonia Beary over installing a grass wicket on site. Overseas tours will kick back into gear in the form of a trip to Dubai in March 2023. And the MCC return next summer for what is now an annual fixture against the first XI. And the girls want a cricket programme that traditionally begins in February, to kick in from September.
"We found as a school in general that we had to press the restart button," she said of the 2022 summer.
"Every colleague I've spoken to from other schools, we didn't realise the impact that lockdowns had had on the kids.
"Our main focus is getting girls back into the sport again. We had a summer last year, but it wasn't our normal summer. We were very limited in what we could do so it was our first full year back as normal. We found it to be one of our most successful seasons."
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