Cricket Ball Swing

Cambridge University cricketer Sam Grimshaw, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Senior Research Fellow in  Engineering at Girton College, has been working on the behaviour of cricket balls.  As described in the Girton College annual review, https://issuu.com/girtoncollege/docs/gc_the_year_issuu_full 2023/24, Sam and Engineering Department colleagues, in collaboration with England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), have reviewed and reassessed the the phenomenon of cricket ball swing and a classic summary can be found here https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/flow/article/review-and-reassessment-of-the-aerodynamics-of-cricket-ball-swing/389B2E66A420FF51FAB3EC2186AFE0AE.

The work has been published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics; beautifully presented, it is an essential read for any cricket follower with fond memories of O Level Physics.

Sam, is a product of Solihull School and after his first degree was an Analyst at Arthur D. Little, before returning to college for a hockey Blue and a Ph.D. where continued to be a regular University of Cambridge cricketer for Jesus College Cambridge and Cambridge University Cricket Club.  Sam and his research team combine significant amounts of empirical ball data with simple fluid mechanics to shine a light on this phenomenon.  Sam, a member of the Hawks’ Club, was a member of the Cambridge University Cricket Club committee and is currently Cambridge University Hockey Club (CUHC) Deputy Senior Treasurer and coach for the CUHC Wanderers.