County's former captain Michael Powell has nurtured England talents Jacob Bethell and Maia Bouchier at the school
The strapline "Rugby School: Birthplace of the Game, 1823" harks back to William Webb Ellis picking up the ball on The Close more than 200 years ago. But the cricket offering at Rugby is staggering too, with eight squares available, all within 15 minutes' walk of the school, many of them now installed with hybrid strips to aid durability both in matches and training.
It is all overseen by Michael Powell, the former Warwickshire captain. And after the core summer fixture schedule for school teams, the hard work continues into the school holidays for administrators, groundstaff and coaches. In 2024 Rugby hosted three of Warwickshire’s One-Day Cup matches, as well as boys' and girls' county age-group festivals.
"I spent years badgering Warwickshire, saying, 'Please bring a game to us'," said Powell.
"It's been fantastic to see festival cricket played here in August, so many people sat around the boundary rope."
Powell would also love to see Birmingham Bears play some Tier 1 women’s games on the ground in the new county era.
Even around those 2024 One-Day Cup commitments on the New Bigside pitch, Rugby put on two six-day age-group festivals in August.
"The festivals are run by Paul Greetham [Warwickshire high performance manager] and we support them, making full use of our boarding accommodation.
"We've hosted the boys' festival for seven years now, barring 2020. It’s just great to see talented young players – like Rocky Flintoff a few years ago – play on our grounds.
"We're excited now to do the same for girls, with girls' cricket at the school in a fantastic place."
Rugby's own track record of nurturing cricketers is clear from seeing Jacob Bethell and Maia Bouchier in England colours this summer.
"Jacob was a real talent when he joined, straight from the Caribbean. We looked after him here for five years, but he put a lot of work in.
"There's so many factors that can come in to a young person’s life after first seeing a 12-year-old walk across the field with his family. We're starting to see what he’s capable of."
Rugby continue to play Marlborough College in a two-day game stretching back in heritage to 1865 – now a fixture contested by the girls too.
Powell ensures that the core skills of the game are not lost on young cricketers: "Fundamentally, you look at any player, the foundation of their game is what allows them to go out and play T20 or 100-ball, the razzmatazz shots, all the change-ups. Jacob was a case in point. His foundations were superb.
"Those fundamentals allow bowlers to come back and bowl a third spell, for batters to learn to score hundreds and 200s."
Posted by Chris Hill on 24/02/2025 at 12:47
No matter how you embellish the fixtures, calling it a festival or whatever. It is 3 days cricket “lost” at Edgbaston. I am a member at Edgbaston, that’s where I expect to watch Warwickshire games. 38 miles - 1 hr drive - is this what I pay my membership for ? Anyway I will be there at Edgbaston, on April 4th, probably in the Cold and Wet. Why so early ? - oh the hundred has to have August. It will expand and July will go next. Some say but look at all the money it is generating ! Give it 5 years and county cricket and most of the county players will be looking for alternative employment. I will be suffering from pneumonia due to watching what’s left of non franchise cricket in January and December. This feedback is not new - last season comments were similar but ignored.
Posted by David Baxter on 03/02/2025 at 09:48
Warwickshire play their home games in Birmingham and therefore draw support from North of Birmingham too. The movement of all of the list A games down to Rugby last year was enormously frustrating - a single match north of Birmingham would have been quite nice!
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