Burton de Wett - Cricket Professional
Queen's College is a school of approximately 550 boys and has a long and illustrious cricketing history. Queen's College is certainly one of South Africa's top traditional cricketing schools. Cricket at Queen's started over 138 years ago when the school played its first cricket match in 1871. The period between the two World Wars, by which time Queen's had become a large boarding school, saw cricket really begin to flourish. Today cricket at Queen's is as popular, strong and keenly contested as ever, with the school doing well against all traditional rivals both locally and nationally. Queen's continues to produce many provincial cricketers throughout the age group divisions.
Queen's College boasts no less than four full-sized cricket fields, all with turf wickets (the Parry Davies, the MK Mager, the TW Higgs and the Wilkinson fields). We are certainly very fortunate to have these cricket facilities because very few schools, if any, can boast the facilities we have out here in the country. Queen's College has arguably the best turf net facility of any cricket-playing school in the country, with no less than 8 turf net practice facilities, all with full length strips and bowling run-ups. Many schools (even traditional cricket-playing schools) have none. Queenians also enjoy access to two under cover concrete nets and two bowling machines to help develop their games.
Cricket has always been a very popular sport at Queen's College. It is played in U14, U15 and open divisions and today it is (along with athletics) our major summer sport. Queen's usually has eight teams playing matches against rival schools over summer weekends in the first and fourth terms. Our first XI competes in most major national festivals hosted around the country, including the annual Cape Schools Cricket Week. Queen's College had the honour of hosting the Cape Schools Cricket Week during our Sesquicentennial celebrations. We participate regularly against Selborne, Dale, Grey High and St Andrew's as our traditional local rivals.
Queen's College has, over the years, produced countless players for the Border age group teams. Queen's has also been one of the most prolific producers of SA Schools players since the 1950s with four SA Schools captains produced in this time, namely Peter Muzzell, Kenny McEwan, Kevin Tessendorf and Daryll Cullinan.
Queen's College is very proud to have produced no less than five international players. The Greig brothers (Tony and Ian) played for England. Kenny McEwan, Darryl Cullinan and more recently Justin Kemp all represented South Africa with distinction.
CRITERIA FOR AWARDS IN CRICKET
First Team Blazer
A player must have played a minimum of 7 of the games for the First XI during the year. (T20 matches do not count)
Colours
Average provincial standard.
Honours
Must be of an average national standard and an application for Honours will be at the discretion of the Colours Committee.
