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. Cancel with one term’s notice.

The registration fee includes your child’s embroidered Cricket Tikes polo shirt — made by Gray-Nicolls to our specification, in proper children’s sizes from 5–6 through to 11–12. We ask that children wear it to every session; being part of a team matters, and looking like a team is where that starts. Shirts are usually issued at the start of term — if yours hasn’t arrived yet, just come in comfortable sportswear.

We don’t offer one-off trials, and the reason is straightforward: a single session isn’t a fair reflection of what we do.

Our sessions are cumulative — each week builds on the last, and children rotate through batting, bowling, fielding, and game play across the term. A child dropping into week six might land on a bowling rotation when they’ve never bowled before, surrounded by children who’ve been building technique for weeks. That’s not a sufficient sample of the programme, and it’s not fair on the child.

It also takes most children two or three sessions to settle into the environment, find the rhythm, and relax enough to actually learn. We’d rather families gave it a proper term and judged us on that.

For Academy, the first term is effectively a trial period — enough time for us and the player to assess whether the fit is right.

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.

Not as part of the Tikes programme, no — and for good reason. At these ages, children develop faster in small-group, game-based environments where they make decisions, compete, and learn from each other. Our 1:4 coaching ratios already mean every child gets individual attention within that structure.

For older, more advanced players — typically those already on county or regional pathways — Jason does offer individual coaching by arrangement, working in coordination with their existing development programmes. If that applies to your child, get in touch and we can discuss.

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.

Plenty. 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. Longer sessions often mean more standing around, more queuing, more drifting off — not more learning. Every minute of a Cricket Tikes session is coached.

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. No wasted time.

We’re based at Merchant Taylors’ School in Northwood, and families travel from across the region. Our regular catchment includes Northwood, Northwood Hills, Pinner, Hatch End, Harrow, Ruislip, Rickmansworth, Watford, Stanmore, and Uxbridge — as well as families from Chorleywood, Beaconsfield, Gerrards Cross, Amersham, the Chalfonts, and villages across the Chilterns and South Buckinghamshire. If you’re unsure whether the journey works for you, get in touch — most families find it’s closer than they think.

Their Cricket Tikes polo shirt, 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.