Budding stars also enjoy trophy success.

Solihull School has capped an outstanding county championship winning cricket season by introducing new state-of-the-art training facilities. The independent coeducational school is one of the first in the country to have its own spin bowling machine along with all-weather nets to help develop the stars of the future.

Their arrival has coincided with the school’s First XI, Under 15 and Under 13 teams’ all celebrating success as Warwickshire Cup winners, and the Under 12s reaching the county cup final, in a season in which seven players represented their county or region.

They included First XI captain Oliver Haley, who scored a century against Warwickshire Imps, took five wickets in an innings in a two-day match against Monmouth School, and was selected for the senior Warwickshire 2nd XI – and Fahd Janjua, who took five wickets against Bromsgrove at Under 15 level and also played for the First XI.

The new ‘Merlyn’ spin bowling machine, used by professional clubs, will enable pupils of all ages to test their technique consistently against Test match quality spin bowling. The easy to operate machine, designed and built by Bola to give England cricketers greater experience of spin bowling, can deliver spinning balls of every imaginable variety with the coach having complete control over line, speed and flight.

Darren Maddy, the former Warwickshire and England Test all-rounder who is now Master in charge of Cricket at Solihull, said: “The machine has opened the eyes of our cricketers to the thrill of what it is really like to face a top quality spinner. It will come into its own midway through the winter term when we start training sessions for next summer.”

Darren has also been instrumental in designing a new six-lane artificial net system to replace three grass- and three artificial nets: “These will complement our indoor nets in enabling pupils to develop their skills outdoors all year round.” He added: “I am delighted by our success, with a first team that was among the best in the country with eight successive wins and strong age groups coming up below them. The enthusiasm for cricket was such that we fielded three teams at Under 12 level.”