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Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup

Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup

A new national T20 hardball competition for state schools in the UK 

The Final of the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup will take place at Lord's today.

After nearly four months of competition between 1,100 school teams, we are delighted to confirm the four schools who will compete for the inaugural Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup title:

11.00
Boys' Final: 
Altrincham Grammar School (Cheshire) v.  John Hampden Grammar School (Bucks)
15.00
Girls' Final: 
Penistone Grammar School (Yorkshire) v. Chelmsford County High School (Essex)

Enter the 2027 competition now

Entries for the 2027 competition are open now until Monday 30 November 2026. 

Please complete this form to enter your state secondary school in this competition in Summer 2027. This form should be completed by a school employee (i.e. teacher/administrator). Your responses to this form will be shared with your local cricket organisation. 

We welcome entries from all state secondary schools, irrespective of whether your school has an established cricket programme or if it is new to delivering hardball cricket for boys and/or girls.

Enter the 2027 Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup now

Key Competition Details
  • Separate hardball competitions for boys and girls at Under 15's (school year 10 and below in England/Wales and equivalent in Scotland/Northern Ireland.
  • Schools participate in local county competitions initially, progressing to regional and national knockout rounds before the final at Lord's. 
  • The rules and structure of the competition will be finalised once entries are confirmed.

For more information, please review the Frequently Asked Questions below before entering. 

The winners will lift the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup, designed and made by Thomas Lyte. A Royal Warrant holder as silversmiths and goldsmiths to His Majesty the King, Thomas Lyte are world-renowned custom trophy designers and makers. The champions will also have their names etched in history as we unveil a new Honours Board for winners of the competition which will be installed in the Writing Room in the Lord's Pavilion. 

Named after two of England's greatest state-educated cricketers, the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup will be run by MCC and the MCC Foundation. The competition aims to inspire young people to take up cricket and to increase opportunities to play the game with friends at school.


Frequently Asked Questions 
All non-fee-paying State Secondary Schools and Grammar Schools in the UK and the Republic of Ireland are eligible to enter the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup. A State Secondary School or Grammar School is defined as a “Government-funded school.
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.
The 2027 competitions will commence in April 2027, with the first finals staged at Lord’s later that summer.
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 county representatives for the next stage of the competition by the end of June each year. Each county representative 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.
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, and this competition seeks to reduce and remove these barriers. The MCC Foundation will work with local delivery partners to facilitate access to cricket grounds, including independent schools and cricket clubs that have come forward to support the initiative. The MCC Foundation also intends to facilitate relationships with local and national cricket kit recycling schemes and other organisations to help schools overcome barriers relating to access to appropriate cricket equipment. 
There will be no entry cost for schools to enter the Knight-Stokes Cup. Schools may, however, be required to pay an entry fee for their local county competition. A small fund will be available to support schools for whom the cost of entering a local county competition would be a barrier to participation in the Knight-Stokes Cup.

For any further questions on the competition, please contact Andy Turnbull, MCCF’s Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup Competitions Officer, via andy.turnbull@mccfoundation.org.uk.