Lancashire cricketer Matt Parkinson, who left Bolton School in 2013 having attended the Junior and Senior Schools of the Boys' Division, has been called up to the England squad for their forthcoming tour to South Africa. The 23 year-old leg spinner made his international debut last month when he played two T20 internationals 'down under' against New Zealand. He will be alongside Jack Leach as one of the spinning options with Moeen Ali currently taking a break from Test cricket. Matt made his first class debut on 20 June 2016 for Lancashire against Warwickshire in the County Championship, taking 5 for 49 in the first innings.
Matt and his twin Callum, who also attended Bolton School and plays for Leicestershire at cricket, returned to school at the start of October to deliver a question and answer session<https://www.boltonschool.org/i-am-looking-for/school-information/sports-news-and-results/the-parkinson-cricketing-twins-return-to-bolton-school/> with the current crop of elite athletes. The twins reminisced on how their year group had been blessed with sporting talent, including Haseeb Hameed who went on to become England's youngest cricketing opener in 2016 and has now signed for Nottinghamshire.
Both were impressed with the School's new elite athlete support programme and recalled how important it was to develop a relationship with teachers around work and exams.
The cricketing twins and Haseeb are joined by a number of recent leavers who are also involved in high level sport including footballers Nat Phillips (Liverpool, on loan at Stuttgart), Will Jaaskelainen (Crewe Alexandra), Rhys Bennet (Peterborough United), Sam Hart (Blackburn Rovers), Sean McAllister (Chester), James Ball (Solihull) and football coach Julian Darby (Bolton Wanderers), rugby league player Alex Davidson (Salford, Oldham, North Wales Crusaders and Gloucester Golds) and rugby union semi-professionals Matthew Lamprey (Preston Grasshoppers) and Andy Hughes (Sale Sharks) as well as a slew of international water polo players.