Lord's hero Chris Woakes is one of a number of England players who has played in the Bunbury Festival, which started on Monday.
If you haven’t heard of the Bunbury Festival – aka the English Schools Cricket Association Bunbury Cricket Festival – you probably should have.
The festival brings together the best 60 players from around the country at under-15 level to compete over five days in 50 over and T20 matches.
Four squads of 15 from the South & West, Midlands, London & East and North regions make up the player base for this year’s edition, which is taking place at Radley College in Oxfordshire.
For most of these players, it’s their first real taste of high-level competitive cricket but the performance element is matched wholly by enjoyment for the young cricketers.
In its 30-year history, it has been a key development milestone for many top-class cricketers.
The England Test squad that faced Pakistan at Lord’s last week included eight Bunbury alumni: captain Alastair Cook, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.
Lord’s hero Woakes, who took 11 wickets at the home of cricket against Pakistan, fondly remembers his 2004 appearance: “I remember it really well. It was in Nottingham and the final was at Trent Bridge. It was the first time I played at Trent Bridge or any big, professional cricket ground, so it was an amazing experience.
“The whole week was great fun, playing cricket with a smile on their face.
“There were some great players that have gone on to do really well in the game.”
One of those players was Steven Finn, who now features alongside Woakes for England.
“You come up against some really strong cricketers during that week and it’s a great way to test or to see how good you are at that moment in time,” he said.
“It was a great week. I had a lot of fun but there was also some really tough cricket played and it does make you see where you are compared to the best in the country.
“It’s credit to the festival really, and to that regional competition that so many of those players go on and represent England.”
Follow the action from the Bunbury Festival, including full scorecards, on Play-Cricket.com.
Bunbury Festival 2016 regional squads
South and South West
Matthew Brewer (wk)
Ben Charlesworth
Joe Dryell
Lewis Goldsworthy
Dominic Goodman
Miles Kantolinna (c)
Fletcha Middleton
Will Neal
Zac Organ
George Pardoe
Will Smeed
Tom Walsh
Sam Wyatt
Sam Young
Midlands
Jacques Banton
Richard Bell (wk)
Louis Bhabra
Xavier Clarke
Matthew Davis
Joseph Evison
Ben Griffin (wk)
Zain Ul-Hassan
Jack Haynes (c)
Nicholas Kimber
Joshua Lacey
Daniel Mousley
Hamidullah Qadri
James Taylor
North
George Balderson
Louis Botes
Sam Dorsey (c)
Harry Harding
George Hill
Dominic Leech
Jack Morley
Harry Newton
Jonathan Pears (wk)
Vikram Sharma
Will Turner
James Wharton (c)
Jack Wynn
London and East
Julian Cox (wk)
Tom Davis
Flynn Drinkell
Joe Gordon
Tom Gordon
Max John
Alun Jones (wk)
Eshan Kalley
Marcus O'Riordan
Alex Rennie
Billy Sewell
Rahul Sheemar (c)
Sahil Shukla (c)
Sean Sullivan
