An introduction to cricket coaching
At an early age, our two sons, Robert and Edward, just loved going to the cricket, either at the cricket ground in North Street or visiting many of the local cricket grounds where we were playing.
They were particularly pleased when Axminster were batting as they knew there would be plenty of time for Dad to throw a few tennis balls at them – not least that I never spent too long batting out in the middle! This was when the boys were very young and bursting with energy – probably more than their father!
One of our players, or it may even have been one of our supporters, said: 'You seem to enjoy helping your boys with their cricket - why don't you do the job properly and go on a cricket coaching course?"
Coaching Award
The cricket coaching scheme at that time was co-ordinated through the National Cricket Association and locally through the Devon Cricket Association. The first level was the Coaching Award and, in the latter part of 1982, together with other Axminster players (I believe it was Phil Spong and Andy Cross), I attended a Coaching Award course which was delivered by Tony Greaves – an Exeter University lecturer on foreign languages by day and a Devon Cricket Association Staff Coach in his leisure time.
We thoroughly enjoyed the course and received our Coaching Award Certificates (equivalent to the current Level 1). We were soon keen to put our newly acquired coaching skills into practice.
Cricket Coaching with Axminster Town Cricket Club
It was fortunate that the emergence of new cricket coaches at Axminster Cricket Club coincided with the excellent initiative pioneered by umpires Les Haynes and George Mills, who created a new colts section at the cricket club, which was proving to be a popular addition to the club's activities.
Therefore, the club was able to enter into colts' cricket matches against neighbouring clubs and became an extremely competitive and well-drilled team.
The new coaches were able to run coaching evenings at the cricket club during the summer and promote coaching sessions at Axminster School Sports Hall in the winter.
Senior Award
In 1984, following a couple of seasons of coaching with Axminster Cricket Club, it seemed that I ought to move on to the next level, which was the Senior Award.
The nearest course was taking place at Dorchester and was tutored by Bob Cottam. Bob was working at Allhallows School at the time and was also one of the team of National Coaches, headed by former England wicket-keeper, Keith Andrew.
The course at Dorchester was excellent and started to become far more technical than the basic Coaching Award.
The candidates on the Senior Award course were encouraged to give high quality demonstrations for young cricketers to emulate. My "demos" in batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping were good enough for me to pass the course and I was fortunate that I had confidence in being able to communicate the information to young students.
Having achieved my Senior Award, I was able to work with local young cricketers to improve their skills. At Axminster Cricket Club, we had my son Robert and Maurice Hill's son Gregory having the ability to be selected for representative cricket.
Bob Cottam also encouraged me to work with other local cricketers and Bob's son Andrew and Ross Newton from Seaton CC had also reached the standard necessary to play for Devon. All four were selected to play for Devon Under 12s at the County Ground, Taunton, against Somerset.
Robert opened the batting in that match against Somerset, whose opening bowlers were the Parsons brothers, Keith and Kevin, who were well known in junior cricketing circles. Keith went on to represent Somerset for 16 seasons and played in over 450 matches in different formats.
However, Robert had been coached to defend his wicket at all costs, especially against such formidable opponents as the Parsons boys. After half an hour, Robert was still there when Keith and Kevin Parsons came out of the attack, to be replaced by two spin bowlers – one of whom was a young leg-spinner, Martin Betsworth, who turned the ball nearly as much as the late Shane Warne. Maybe my coaching hadn't reached the required standard, as Robert tried to sweep young Betsworth - against the spin - and was caught!
Off to Lilleshall for the Advanced Course
Following the summer of 1984, Bob Cottam was keen for me to move on to the Advanced Coaching Award, which was a week's course, held annually at the National Coaching Centre at Lilleshall in Shropshire. What a great experience. There were 19 of us on the course, which included two high quality cricketers from Sri Lanka.
From the West Country, there were two other candidates on the course, who became great friends. Colin Johnson from Minehead, who eventually became Chief Executive for the "Somerset Activity & Sports Partnership" worked with me when I was with the Somerset Cricket Board for 15 years.
The other west-countryman was Richard Mockridge from Christchurch, who was Cricket Development Officer for Dorset. We also worked regularly together as respective Cricket Development Officers for more than a decade.
The Advanced Course was run by an intimidating array of tutors: Keith Andrew (Northants and England); Bob Carter (Worcs); Les Lenham (Sussex); Graham Saville (Essex); Doug Ferguson (Lancs) and, of course Bob Cottam (Hants, Northants and England). I was "buzzing" with all the instruction we were given. The course was hard work and as a 38 year-old, it was physically tiring – not least that we stayed up late every evening in the Lilleshall bar!
Again, it appeared that I had done enough to pass the course, and returned to Devon with a wealth of cricketing knowledge to pass on to my students.
National Cricket Association Staff Coach for Devon
Armed with my new coaching skills, I was really keen to put my knowledge into practice and was able to assist more experienced coaches with courses for talented young cricketers from Devon.
Those I remember coaching, who reached various levels in the cricketing world were Richard Baggs, David Court, Matthew Evans (who is currently Chief Executive of Active Devon), David Lye, Haydn Morgan, Chris Read (Notts and England wicketkeeper), Mark Woodman (who was profoundly deaf and played for Devon and the England Deaf XI) and Tim Western.
Bob Cottam still retained his involvement in Devon Cricket before he embarked on a management role at Warwickshire, followed by the position of Director of Cricket with Somerset.
Whilst heading-up the cricket coaching structure in Devon, Bob recommended me to become a Staff Coach in 1987, which involved me in assisting and delivering coach education courses for aspiring coaches in Devon.
I really enjoyed this work and perhaps wonder whether I should have continued with my Staff Coach role for a longer duration, but having been elected as a District Councillor in 1987, I found that my work/life balance needed to be adjusted – something had to go!
I was bringing up a family, running my business, employing up to 40 people, I was now a district councillor and the weekend work of a Staff Coach and the preparation required, was stretching me too far!
However, I was still able to continue my pleasurable coaching with Axminster Town Cricket Club up until 2010, when my joints were beginning to seize up and I retired from my coaching activities with Axminster.
Thankfully, the development of Dan Murnane and latterly with Mark Burrough, has enabled the club to maintain a vibrant youth section within the club.
I had great satisfaction in assisting with the development of young players from Axminster Town Cricket Club, including Mark Richards, Peter Hayball, Paul Miller, Matthew Hewer and many more. Although I was never a great cricketer, I found my vocation and tremendous satisfaction from cricket coaching.
Change of career – Change of fortunes
In a previous edition of Moulding's Memories, I described the demise of my building firm, when in 1994 following four years of struggling through the recession, I pulled the plug on my family building construction business. In order to tie up the legal documentation relating to the business, I needed to obtain a witness signature from a local solicitor.
This had to be carried out by an independent person, rather than my own solicitors who were Scott Rowe. I decided to visit my friend Nigel Cole, who was then the senior partner at Beviss & Beckinsale.
I remember to this day the words that Nigel proclaimed to me, when he realised that I was closing the firm – and I was in a state of considerable gloom.
"Do you know," said Nigel, "I envy you – through no fault of yours, you can look at the future and take on something new, which you couldn't otherwise consider whilst running your business. I'm locked in" continued Nigel.
"I'm senior partner and will inevitably remain here until I retire. You can look at doing something totally different with your life."
It was an interesting situation that I faced, but Nigel was right! Why should I be downcast? I was only 48 years old – I could look around and discover a new career.
Double Glazing!
I considered venturing into local government – as I was a district councillor and knew what the work of local councils involved – but there was nothing around which suited me.
Then one day, walking through Axminster, I bumped into Max Williams, the proprietor of Climax Windows, who sell and install double glazed windows, doors, conservatories and the like. Max asked if I had found a job and at that time I hadn't.
"I'm looking for someone to sell my products," said Max. "You'd be good – you know the construction business and you must know hundreds of your old customers who would need new doors and windows".
Max was quite correct – I certainly knew the business and I was keen to start earning some money.
"So, what's the salary?" I asked Max.
"No salary," replied Max, "all commission – you get a percentage of all that you sell."
"Me – a double glazing salesman – perish the thought."
Anyway, I decided to give it a go – and I'll be honest, I loved it! It was the first time I had been involved in direct sales and it certainly gave me a buzz!
In many ways it put me back on my feet – but I had told Max that I had applied for one or two jobs and if they materialised, I may not stay with Climax Windows.
The Somerset Cricket Project – Cricket Development Officer
I had been working for Climax Windows for about three months when, out of the blue I received a phone call from Peter Anderson, who I knew through his connections with Seaton Cricket Club and my Devon coaching role.
Peter Anderson was Chief Executive at Somerset Cricket Club and he knew that I had closed down my firm and may be looking for a new opportunity.
He mentioned that the club had just built a new Indoor Cricket School, The Centre of Cricketing Excellence, and that in conjunction with the Somerset Cricket Association, Somerset County Cricket Club were seeking to employ a Cricket Development Officer to promote the game at all levels.
This would involve the introduction of the game to young people, working with schools and local authorities, developing coach education, supporting cricket clubs and promoting the Indoor Cricket School.
I was obviously interested and from more than 100 applications, they whittled it down to an interview process, involving a dozen or so candidates. They decided to hold the interviews over two days and it transpired that I was the last to be interviewed on the second day.
The interview panel at the County Ground included Chief Executive, Peter Anderson; the vice-chairman of the Somerset Cricket Association, Tony Davies, and the Head of Leisure and Recreation at Taunton Deane Borough Council, Alan Itter.
I felt that my interview went well as fortunately my involvement with coaching in Devon, chairmanship of Axminster Cricket Club, District Council role and my work as a school governor, fitted well with the ethos of the proposed position.
Interviewees were told that we would hear the result of the selection process before the end of the day. No sooner had I arrived home from Taunton, than the phone rang. It was Peter Anderson inviting me to travel over to his home in Beer, where he would be making me an offer.
I had a decision to make - should I remain as a double glazing salesman or should I accept this wonderful challenge in a new cricketing role with Somerset?
My answer to Peter Anderson was gratefully given within a matter of seconds and the job would be commencing in a fortnight's time. This gave me the chance to finalise the deal on a few Climax Windows contracts and to thank Max Williams profusely for giving me the opportunity to get back into the world of work.
My new role at the County Ground
On my first day, Peter Anderson introduced me to the development team at the County Ground, where I had an office in the Centre of Excellence.
At that time there were just four of us in the offices, which formed part of the brand new Indoor Cricket School. I shared an office with the Youth Cricket Development Officer, Julian Wyatt, whilst in the adjacent office were the Indoor School Manager, Matthew Evans and the Director of Youth Cricket, Peter Robinson.
Julian Wyatt had played for Somerset in over 100 First Class and List A matches – and was also still playing Minor County cricket for Devon. I already knew Matt Evans as I had coached him in Devon, where he played in the same County youth teams as my son Robert.
I also vaguely knew Peter Robinson as Axminster Cricket Club had held a match for Peter's benefit at North Street, where Ian Botham and Viv Richards both played for the Somerset team. Peter had an excellent career for Worcestershire and Somerset as an allrounder – with many excellent performances, particularly in limited-overs matches.
On my arrival in 1995 at the County Ground as Cricket Development Officer, I was introduced to the members of Somerset recreational cricket.
Sadly, the Chairman of the Somerset Cricket Association, Tony Corner was very unwell and died before I had even met him, although I became good friends with his widow, Jackie, who took a very keen interest in youth cricket.
Tony Davies took over the role and remained as chairman until he stood down in 2008. Tony Davies and I had an excellent working relationship and my wife, Mary, and myself would often meet socially with Tony and his wife Liz.
There were other great stalwarts of the Somerset Cricket Association, who assisted me in so many ways, whilst I settled into my new post – secretary Roger Snelling, treasurer John Davey, secretary of the Schools' Cricket Association, Chris Twort and Youth Chairman, Paul Wickham.
The Somerset Cricket Project
When I arrived at the County Ground, the Somerset Cricket Project had already commenced. This was put in place by another good friend, Ed Leverton, who held a part-time role, developing this initiative, in conjunction with coaches, Dan Hodges and Bob Brunt.
This involved coaching in schools, attracting grant aid for our various initiatives and importantly getting increasingly more boys and girls interested in cricket.
My new role at Taunton was challenging and exciting - and all the staff and volunteers involved in our cricket initiatives had made my new life in cricket thoroughly enjoyable. I will be eternally grateful to them.
The next edition of 'Moulding's Memories' will be Part Ten of a Lifetime in Cricket and will include the myriad of new ideas which evolved in cricket at the end of the century.
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