Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup

All state secondary schools in the UK and the Republic of Ireland can enter the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup. A state secondary school is defined as “a publicly funded school, often referred to as a comprehensive school, that provides education to students in secondary school years (typically ages 11-16 or 18). These schools are free to attend”.

All children who attend a state secondary school across the UK and the Republic of Ireland within the below age groups are eligible to take part in the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup. There will be flexibility on age with specific competition rules to be confirmed following consultation with County Cricket Boards (CCBs) and Foundations and other stakeholders. The initial target audience is U15 (school year 10 in England/Wales or equivalent in Scotland/Ireland).

State school hardball cricket has not had the platform of a national competition ever before. The Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup is a brand-new and exciting opportunity for state secondary school hardball cricket to be championed on a national stage, showcasing the immense cricketing talent of state-educated boys and girls. The boys’ and girls’ finals are to take place on the Main Ground at the Lord’s, the iconic Home of Cricket.

Applications to enter the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup opened on Thursday 26 June and will close in February 2026. The competitions will commence in Spring 2026, with the first finals staged at Lord’s in September 2026.

It is the aim of the competition to engage with all counties to run a county competition at U15 age groups for boys and girls to produce a county winner by the end of June 2026. Each county winner will then progress to national knockout rounds (including regional finals, quarter finals and semi-finals) before the school holidays commence in late July. The finals day date is to be confirmed but will likely be held in September 2026.

There will be a national marketing campaign for the Knight-Stokes Cup. There will be a QR code available to every school in the UK and Ireland, who can express their interest in joining the competition for the inaugural season in 2026. You can do this by selecting the correct link above.

The deadline for schools to enter the 2026 competition is Friday 13 February 2026.

The initial funding for the competition came through The Black Heart Foundation. The competition is named after the principal sponsor, Barclays, who seek to champion grassroots cricket and support making cricket a game for all.

There can be many barriers to accessing hardball cricket for state schools, this competition seeks to reduce and remove barriers. The MCC Foundation seeks to work with local delivery partners to facilitate arrangements for access to cricket grounds, including independent schools and cricket clubs which have come forward to support the initiative.

The MCC Foundation intends to facilitate relationships with local and national cricket kit recycling schemes and other organisations to support schools in overcoming this barrier. As part of longer-term development plans, we will be creating a teacher CPD programme to upskill teachers to deliver hardball cricket.

There will be no entry cost for schools into this competition. Schools may be required to pay an entry fee into their local county competition. There will be a small fund available to support schools to apply to if entering local county competitions as part of the Knight-Stokes Cup would be a barrier.