Cricket 1st XI 

Back Row: Mena Malik, Ben Laughton, Luke Ryan 

Middle Row: Mr Newton, Thomas Rush, Fraser Austin, Cameron Knowles, Mr O'Connell

Front Row: Jonathan Lester, Karl Belcher, Thomas Agnew, Thomas Scott, Lewis Allen

Cricket at St Thomas of Canterbury College

Cricket is the largest sport at our College and we have a wide range of age groups involved on a Saturday during the summer season. We currently have eight teams that represent the College on a Saturday and we have boys of Year 7 age (11 years old) through to Year 13 students (18 years old). 

This is large number of boy's involved considering the size of our school is only 500 students. We cater for many different abilities and needs from beginner grades on a Saturday morning to our 'elite' team in the school, the First XI.  We are now building for the future with a 'Development XI' which is a collection of younger players whose talents we have identified as being suitable in the future for our elite team.

The game is ever so popular amongst our enthusiastic students and as a school we have to be very meticulous in our planning to make sure that every student that wants to play this great game has the access and ability to do so. We measure success not just on winning but through participation and involvement from a wide number of boys regardless of their backgrounds and abilities.

The First XI is our 'flag ship' team who play in a series of one day and two day matches versus other schools in the Christchurch Schools competition as well as College games against St Kevin's (Oamaru) and Kavanagh Colleges (Dunedin) and an annual fixture against the Willows XI which is played at the Willows Cricket Club in Loburn, North Canterbury. The First XI also travel to Brisbane, Australia every second year in January to play in the Christian Brothers Schools Cricket Week which is a tournament contested by about 30 schools around Australia and New Zealand. We have won the tournament only once in 1993.

The First XI are entered in the Gillette Cup which is a National Secondary School competition which is contested in different regions around the country before getting to the National stage when it comes to finals.

Cricket is promoted at the College to the boys as not only, a recreational past time which gives you physical benefits, but as a game that can teach you so much socially and mentally through interaction with adults, fellow players and opponents.  We fully promote that the older boys do coaching of the younger boys; that they umpire their own games and assume other responsibilities such as leading a warm up session and doing other duties such as scoring and putting covers on the pitch. Leadership opportunities are fully offered and encouraged and players benefit personally from their experiences.

We rely on outside volunteers which are normally parents to assist us with delivery of our cricket programme. Parents are wonderful supporters and contributors in cricket and they get involved in their son's cricket by assisting us with coaching, managing, transporting, helping with catering, supporting on the sideline and the all important task of packing the sandwiches and washing those whites! We are very grateful for parental support as they are an integral part of the sport at the College and we would be struggling without their involvement.

Cricket is a sport which we value immensely here at St Thomas'. It is a game which teaches individuals so much about themselves and life in general. This sport gives students who are not academically gifted a chance to succeed and gives them confidence and self esteem when they are part of a team that does well or plays in a significant fixture such as an inter school exchange.

Many students have been through the cricket programme and experienced personal success and self worth and had the feeling of belonging to a team, and learning the self discipline that goes hand in hand with this.

Chris O'Connell  Head of Sport