Fun, Safe, Future‑Ready

All bookings through our online portal (ClassForKids). Monthly subscription from £42.50 (1 child / 1 class) or £67.50 (Academy). No hidden fees, no joining charges beyond the one-off £30 registration which includes a CT polo shirt. Cancel with one term’s notice.

No. The developmental science is clear: before five, most children haven’t developed the coordination, attention, or fine motor control to process cricket-specific instruction. We’d rather you came back at five and had a brilliant experience than started at three and had a frustrating one.

Initial sign-up is age-banded (Group 1: 5–6, Group 2: 5–7, Groups 3 & 4: 7–10). From there, progression is based on coaching observations — readiness, consistency, and developmental stage. Not birthdays, not parental requests.

Invitation-only. Every invitation backed by documented observations across six criteria: physical capability, cognitive readiness, emotional maturity, coachability, safety, and potential. If your child isn’t offered a place, we explain exactly why and what they’re working towards. It’s not a rejection — it’s a timing decision.

Yes. Academy is an addition to your child’s game-based learning sessions, not a replacement. The invitation is offered on the basis that both programmes run concurrently — typically for a minimum of one term, and in most cases the best developmental outcomes come when they run alongside each other for 12–18 months or longer.

The game-based learning sessions build and maintain the broad foundations — batting, bowling, fielding, game awareness, captaincy — and crucially, the biomechanical development that makes hardball training safe and effective. Dropping game-based learning too early risks losing the very breadth that earned the Academy invitation.

If scheduling becomes difficult, our recommendation is to pause Academy and maintain the Tikes sessions — the foundation work is always the priority. When your child is physically and technically ready for Academy-only, we’ll tell you. The Academy door stays open.

Where there’s a genuine reason, we do our best to offer a catch-up in another class where space allows. We’re a family business and we treat families as we’d want to be treated.

It depends on where we are. When sessions are indoors — the Sports Hall or indoor nets — parents aren’t permitted to watch or enter. That’s a strict Merchant Taylors’ School venue policy, and it exists for good reason: over the years we’ve had parents hit by stray balls, children tripping over bags, and safeguarding concerns around unauthorised photos and videos. More fundamentally, children develop independence and focus faster when they’re not glancing at the boundary every few minutes.

When we’re outdoors on the Astro pitches or grass outfields (weather permitting), parents are welcome to watch from behind the boundary. We love hearing applause and encouragement — parents clapping and setting the right example is a wonderful thing. What we ask is that you don’t offer instructions or coaching from the sidelines, avoid photos or video without prior consent, and let the coaches do the coaching. The MCC Spirit of Cricket captures the ethos beautifully.

There’s comfortable waiting in the car park or Club House area — venue maps are included in your booking confirmation.

All Stars and Dynamos are excellent introductions to cricket — 8-week summer programmes delivered by trained volunteers. Cricket Tikes is a year-round professional development programme with ECB Level 3 coaching, individual player tracking, merit-based progression, and a genuine pathway through to county cricket. Both have value — they’re fundamentally different propositions.

No — and we’d actively encourage them not to. Children who play multiple sports develop better coordination, fewer overuse injuries, and broader athletic foundations. The ECB’s Long Term Athletic Development framework supports this. A week of football, swimming, or athletics isn’t time away from cricket — it’s building the athlete who’ll be a better cricketer. We never ask families to choose us over other activities.

Absolutely. We have a library of progressive coaching videos on our YouTube channel — organised by level from complete beginners through to Academy-standard technique work. A tennis ball and a wall is all you need to start.

Comprehensively. We carry dual-layer insurance: Sportscover (underwritten by Liberty Specialty Markets) for the business, plus ECB Coaches Association cover through Allianz with a Zurich excess layer. That gives us £10M public liability, £10M employers liability, and £1M professional indemnity. All policies brokered through Kerry London. All coaches hold current DBS, safeguarding, and first aid with AED certification. Copies of our insurance documentation are available on request.

Tikes sessions run approximately 40 minutes. Academy sessions run approximately 55 minutes. Those times are deliberate.

The developmental science is clear: a child’s sustained attention span broadly tracks their age in minutes. A five-year-old can concentrate meaningfully for about five minutes at a stretch; a seven-year-old, seven. Our sessions are structured around short, intensive rotations — no standing around, no queuing, and no wasted time. Every child gets two carousel stations and a match every single week.

We genuinely believe we get more quality coaching into 40 minutes than most programmes deliver in 90. Jason has seen first-hand what 90-minute junior sessions look like elsewhere — children standing around, losing focus, drifting off to play with the dog behind the boundary. That’s not coaching. That’s childcare with a cricket bat.

Every session follows the same professional structure.

Children arrive and have a health check. Register and briefing — including what we’re working on this week and a recap of last week. Warm-up. They’re then split into four teams, each named after a cricketing nation from whichever tournament is current. We appoint captains — every child takes a turn across the term.

Two teams go to carousel stations (batting, bowling, or fielding rotations), two go to a game-based practice directly linked to the carousel skills. At half-time, teams line up and shake hands with the opposition — we teach them to do it properly, with respect and eye contact. Teams swap so everyone gets carousels and a match every week.

We close with a debrief. Captains deliver their team scores to the board. Winning team and outstanding individual performances are recognised. Gentle stretches, then coaches line the children up and bring them out to parents. No downtime. Every minute is coached.

Comfortable sportswear and trainers (indoor or outdoor depending on the session). That’s it.

Tikes sessions (Groups 1–4): We provide everything — bats, balls, stumps, cones, and all protective equipment. Your child just needs to turn up.

Academy sessions (Midweek & Saturday): Players must have and provide their own full safety kit — helmet with rear guard, batting pads, batting gloves, and a box. We supply all training aids: bats, balls, stumps, and bowling machine. We’re happy to advise on what to buy and our Gray-Nicolls partnership means Academy families get 25% off.

Please bring a water bottle. No food, fruit, or snacks are permitted at any venue during sessions — it’s a strict venue policy and helps us keep the session focused.