Newington cricket players are set to escape the Sydney chill as they embark on their northern summer tour of the UK this week.

Every second year, cricketers from the College have the opportunity to travel overseas during the July school holidays, touring other cricket-loving schools as they play and learn about the origins of the game.  

This year, 16 dedicated students from Years 9 to 11 will spend 15 days traversing and playing on cricket pitches throughout the UK’s Home Counties. 

Their itinerary includes a spot of cricketing tourism at Lord’s MCC Cricket Museum in London, Leicestershire County Cricket Club and The Kia Oval (where students will watch the women’s Vitality T20 Blast match between Surrey and Essex), as well as six student fixtures hosted by Leicester Grammar School, Bedford School, Bryanston School, Thomas Hardye School, Cranbrook School and The Judd School.  

Our tourists will also spend three nights at the Felsted School Boarding House, playing three days of games at its Cricket Festival. Felsted School has a rich and fascinating history, having been founded during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign in 1564, and cricket has been played there as a sport since 1805. 

‘Our College tour is focused on teaching the origins of the game, where it came from, and so playing at these historic schools on the outskirts of the city is a lovely way for students to broaden their knowledge about cricket’s traditions,’ says Mr Ross Turner, Director of Cricket at Newington, who will accompany the tour. 

‘It is very much about learning, enrichment and the experience itself, rather than simply winning cricket matches.’ 

Although not imbued with quite as much history as English schools like Felsted or Bedford (which was similarly founded in 1552 during the reign of Edward VI), Newington College nevertheless has its own deeply interesting historical relationship with cricket. In 1864 our first match was recorded against Tasmania’s Horton College Cricket Club, where The Empire newspaper noted on 1 March that ‘the batting of the Newington Club was excellent but owing to the superior fielding of the Horton Club, very few runs were made.’ 

Cricket at Newington flourished under the stewardship of former Headmaster Joseph Coates (1872–77), who came to the College in 1864 to teach History and Classics. Hailing from Yorkshire, Coates was a first-rate cricketer who regularly represented NSW in inter-colonial matches. A fast bowler, he was also captain of the NSW 1st XI and played 32 matches against England and the other Australian colonies between 1867 and 1880. 

The cricketing term ‘yorker’ was named in Coates’s honour as a nod to his heritage, given that he bowled this type of delivery with devastating skill. He also reportedly improvised the prototype for today’s cricketing thigh pad by strapping two pads, one above the other, on his front leg when batting. 

While teaching at Newington, Coates had two future test cricketers among his pupils: Edwin ‘Ted’ Evans (ON 1867) and Tom Garrett (ON 1871), great grandfather of Midnight Oil’s lead singer Peter Garrett. Evans was selected for the NSW team in 1874 and came to be rated as ‘the best all-rounder in Australia.’ Meanwhile, Garrett’s record as the youngest Australian test player (aged just 18 years and 232 days) to debut against England in 1877, still currently stands. 

Then there was John Morris Taylor (ON 1915), after whom Taylor Sports Centre is named, who arrived at Newington Prep school in 1906. Widely known as Don Bradman’s boyhood hero, at age 14 Taylor joined our 1st XI cricketing team and went on to a dual international sporting career in both rugby and cricket. 

Today, Newington has approximately 350 students across our Prep and Senior campuses involved in cricket. We currently field eight teams in the GPS competition, which consists of 14 matches, home and away, throughout the season.  

‘We certainly have a solid presence in the GPS competition,’ says Mr Turner.  

‘Our 2nd XI won a premiership in 2023/24, and our 1st XI won in 2021/22. We perform well overall and have a really passionate team, so it’s a fantastic social experience where we enjoy the contemporary game whilst also keeping important cricketing traditions alive. 

‘We look forward to our upcoming tour and seeing what next season has in store for cricket at Newington!’ 

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For more information about international tours available at Newington, click here: https://www.newington.nsw.edu.au/co-curricular/academic/. 

To learn more about our sports program, visit https://www.newington.nsw.edu.au/co-curricular/sport/. Current members of our community can also find out more about the cricket program on New Spaces.