School is set to become the official player sponsor of Somerset County Cricket team’s captain, Tom Abell, for the 2023 season.
Tom was a student at Taunton School between 1996 and 2012. He has been the captain of his home-county team since 2017, and was recently selected for England’s white-ball squad for their tour of Bangladesh.
During his time at Taunton School, Tom had a prolific scoring record. He made his debut for the school’s 1st XI side at the age of 14 and became the youngest cricketer at the school to reach the 1000-run landmark by the age of just 16.
“It’s wonderful that Tom’s relationship with his alma mater continues in this way and that we are able to support him as his career goes from strength to strength,” said Dan Pettifer, Taunton School’s Director of Sport.
“We are immensely proud of Tom’s cricketing achievements and the legacy he has left here at his old school. He is a wonderful inspiration to the many budding cricketers we have here at Taunton today.”
Born in Taunton, Tom is primarily a right-handed batter but also bowls right-arm medium pace. He finished his school days with a total of 3,630 runs for Taunton School first XI, scoring an impressive 17 centuries. During his last season at the school he amassed 1,156 runs in 11 innings.
He was given the 2013 Young Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year Award and also the Cricket Society’s Wetherell Award, which is presented to the leading all-rounder in Schools Cricket.
Tom’s school achievements were not just limited to the cricket pitch. He also captained the hockey team and represented the school at rugby, rugby sevens and indoor hockey. He was nominated for Male Pupil of the Year at the Aviva/Telegraph School Sport Matters Awards in 2012, finishing runner-up to British Olympic diver Tom Daley.
Taunton School was recently named as one of the top cricketing schools in the UK by The Cricketer Schools Guide 2023, as well as having four students selected for the Somerset and Western Storm cricket training programmes.