Canterbury Academy in Kent is your typical state comprehensive school. It is non-fee-paying, has an attached Sixth Form and has many students enrolled that are eligible for free school meals; nothing out of the ordinary for state schools up and down the country. What makes it stand out, however, is its sporting prowess.
Overseen by Director of Sport Phil Relf, previously in charge of the Kent CCC Academy, the school has a Sport Academy programme that allows Sixth Form students to fit training into their academic timetable and continue their studies while still pursuing their sporting goals.
One of the flagship sports at the school is cricket, with recent graduates of their programme including Kent all-rounder Jaydn Denly, South East Stars and England A seamer Alexa Stonehouse, and Scotland Women international Darcey Carter.
Cricketers at Canterbury Academy have been benefitting from the coaching of David Fulton, ex-Kent skipper turned Sky Sports pundit, whose two sons have both played cricket at the school.
On becoming involved with the programme Fulton told The Cricket Paper: “I really believed in what Phil [Relf] was trying to do.
“There was a sort of ‘against the odds’ team spirit that served them really well. They haven’t got practice facilities, they haven’t got a home ground. But what they do have is someone in Phil Relf who really believed in giving them cricketing opportunities.”
With nowhere to play or train at the school, in the winter the players train at Kent CCC’s indoor facilities and in the summer they train at Polo Farm Sports Club in Canterbury, the players bussed to and from training so they don’t have to worry about transport.
“I go on Mondays and Fridays,” Fulton said. “I’m one of the coaches. There are quite a few coaches on the programme, but I’ve been there for five or six years coaching at different levels, mostly the Sixth Form.”
Players at Canterbury Academy have the opportunity to benefit from expert coaching from not only Fulton and the other coaches on the staff, but visiting ex-pros such as former England off-spinner James Tredwell, who comes in to work with the spinners, and Kent legend Darren Stevens.
“It’s not something the students have to pay for, it comes out of the school’s budget. They get it for free. They might not get the kit and the facilities [of a private school], but what they do get is a dedicated programme with good people working on it and they use that ‘against the odds’ spirit when we play against the private schools like we did a few years ago in the national knockout when we got to the final.”
In 2022, Canterbury Academy made the final of The Cricket Paper National Boys Under 17 Final, losing to renowned cricketing private school Shrewsbury School at Loughborough University having gone unbeaten all season up to that point.
That year they also enjoyed pre-season success at Desert Springs in Almeria, Spain, winning The Cricketer Schools 1st XI Hundred competition, defeating private schools Winchester College and Radley College, finishing top above another private school, Scarborough College, on net run rate.
To further the standard and the appeal of the programme, Canterbury Academy recently partnered with Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys to create the East Kent Cricket Academy, where the best players from each Sixth Form train together during the winter and are supported by Kent CCC.
As a result, coming to Canterbury Academy is a very attractive prospect for aspiring young cricketers in Canterbury and the surrounding areas, with players now also joining the school for Sixth Form after completing their GCSEs elsewhere. It gives the players the opportunity to take part in a dedicated and high-quality cricket programme that they otherwise may not have been able to afford while still continuing their education.
“The first-eleven were getting a reputation for playing a good fixture list and beating some top private schools and we’d get people joining in the Sixth Form. They might be elsewhere in the county where the cricket isn’t as strong and think ‘I can go there and do my A-Levels or my BTECs and I can do cricket as well.’
“Our Sixth Formers will get two hours a day of cricket. It’s not just hitting balls, sometimes it’s strength and conditioning, sometimes it’s sports psychology - both Phil Relf and I did a Master’s in Sports and Exercise Psychology a couple of years ago.
“There’s different ways we’ll approach it, but they’ll get a lot of contact time on the cricket front. It’s in curriculum time. We had a lad a couple of years ago doing four A-Levels and he was still part of the cricket academy as it was all time tabled.”
With aspirations of setting up a standalone girls’ programme as well as one day having their own on-site facilities, the future at Canterbury Academy looks bright, with the school being a shining example of how cricket can exist at a state institution and make high-level cricket more accessible.
This article appeared in this week's edition of The Cricket Paper.