RISING Bashley (Rydal) star Brad Currie will concentrate on getting good A-level results – before embarking on the next step of his cricket career with Surrey.

The former Poole Grammar School pupil has been snapped up by the county on an Academy contract after impressing in a match against them, writes Mike Vimpany.

Left-arm pace bowler Currie, who also plays for Dorset, starred for Millfield School in a friendly against the Surrey young guns last season.

Currie made eight Minor Counties appearances last year and earned a 12-month Oval deal after helping Surrey Young Cricketers to a unique ECB Under-17 County Championship and 50-over cup double.

He also won a sports scholarship to Millfield and is studying A-levels in french, accountancy and economics at the Somerset public school.

Currie staked a claim for potential England under-19 recognition when he gave selectors food for thought with a six-wicket haul in the ECB Under-17 Super 4s regional tournament at Loughborough.

He explained: “I wasn’t selected for the current Lions tour to India but am hoping that was a blessing in disguise so I can concentrate on my studies.

“I just need to focus on getting good A-levels while still playing cricket and then I can solely focus on my sport.

“Hopefully, I can make the England squad for next year’s Under-19 ICC World Cup in New Zealand.”

Currie will soon have the difficulty of trying to balance his cricket with his studies as he starts his Surrey regime with a training session at The Oval in a fortnight when he will bowl at the county's full-time professionals.

“I have never been to The Oval,” he revealed. “At Easter, we are off to Sri Lanka with the Surrey Academy so it is all very exciting me for.”

Asked how the contract offer had come about, Currie said: "I had been doing some training with Somerset and played a few games for their 2nd XI, under-19s and academy teams, but nothing was concrete.

“The Surrey connection all started when Millfield played against their academy. I managed to take five for 33 and things kicked off from there.

“Their academy director spoke to me after the game and laid some cards on the table.

“I had an academy offer from both Surrey and Hampshire and a development place with Somerset and, after weighing it all up, I chose Surrey.”

Currie, who shone through the Dorset junior age groups, is currently enjoying a break from cricket following a strenuous 2016 season playing for Millfield and Surrey YCs, alongside turning out for Dorset and Bashley in the ECB Southern Premier League.

“It was a pretty demanding summer one way and another, but hugely satisfying to have progressed as far as I have. I stayed fit and learned a huge amount,” he added.

Before Christmas, Currie went to India with Millfield and finished the tour as joint leading wicket-taker and with a batting average of 37.

He added: "It was an amazing experience for us all, a real eye opener, both culturally and from a cricketing aspect.

“It was great to play at different grounds, play against some really good players and in conditions alien to ourselves.

“Overall, we only won two out of five games. On reflection, we felt we should have won four, but I think we learned more from the defeats and, ultimately, that was what the tour was about – learning.”

Currie will head off to his Surrey training camp with a glowing reference from his Millfield coach Mark Garaway, the former Hampshire 2nd XI cricketer and England Analyst, who described him as “a role model.”

Garaway said: “Brad is a fantastic thinker about the game and his skill set is as good as I have seen in all my time coaching emerging elite players.

“He has supreme control of his armoury of deliveries being able to swing the ball in and out, adjusting his pace, has developed a number of slower balls and is now able to deliver all of his options from both over and around the wicket.

“He is so strategic. Brad never bowls a ball without having absolute clarity about his intentions and the field that he will have to support the upcoming delivery. He plays the ball through in his minds eye and then delivers it.

“Brad's pace is on the up, which is great to see. This has been achieved through tireless bowling action drills and his fantastic attitude in the gym and cricket bubble.”