My name is James Desigar and I did my work experience with Cricket Leinster for a week during May. I thought it would be a new experience for me that would help improve my coaching skills. I worked alongside many different Leinster coaches throughout the week primarily visiting primary schools to coach, helping to umpire matches and assisting at a Leinster Under 15 provincial training session.
Monday
On Monday, I began the week by going to Kill O’ The Grange School and helping there. When I arrived, I met Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown development officer Robert Forrest and I helped him set out the equipment. We played a simple game that gave everybody a chance to bat, bowl and field. There were three classes that I helped coach at Kill O’ the Grange. In the afternoon, I went to my old school Rathmichael National School in Shankill. The coach I was helping at Rathmichael was current Ireland international Kim Garth. We facilitated two games there for 5th and 6th classes. One game was helping them improve their catching and throwing skills and the other enabled everyone to bat and field. After that, I went to the 4th class final over at Blackrock where Willow Park were playing against St Mary's. I helped Leinster Development Manager Brian O'Rourke to score and update the scoreboard. It was a very good game. Both teams played extremely well and St Mary's won the match.
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning, I headed down to St Brigid's Girls School on Haddington Road with Dublin City Council development officer Fintan McAllister. We set up mini cricket games with 7 groups of 4-5 children. I went around to all of them making sure they knew what to do, where to stand and things like that. We coached about three classes there and then I walked down to Merrion Cricket Club where the Senior Schools Final was being played. St Andrews were playing CUS and it was a game of very high standard with some high class batting, bowling and fielding from both sides that CUS managed to win in the end.
Wednesday
The first thing I did on Wednesday morning was head down to Pembroke Cricket Club to help umpire at the ‘Blue Insurance’ Leprechaun Cup game between Synge Street and Howth Road. Howth Road had a couple of strong players that helped them to go on to beat Synge Street. After the match, the St Michael’s 6th class team visited Pembroke to practise some bowling and fielding before their big Super League game against St Mary's in the final at Kenilworth Square.
Thursday
Thursday was a shorter day as there was not much on and not a lot I could have done. I went to St Ronan's National School in Clondalkin and met South Dublin cricket development officer Naomi Scott-Hayward. We coached four classes during the visit. The drills we did for the kids were a throwing and catching exercise and the other was a mini-game where the children all got to bat, bowl and field.
Friday
Friday was a busy day for me as I had a Leprechaun Cup match in the morning and a Leinster under 15's training at YMCA cricket club later on in the day. The match in the morning was a very tight game between Taney and Rathfarnham NS. Rathfarnham NS batted first with a couple of batters retiring at 30 runs and hit 99 runs from their 20 overs. When it was Taney's turn to bat they started well, then lost a couple wickets around the middle and were left in a sticky situation with 15 needed from two overs, with 9 wickets gone. They had a new batter come on at the start of the 18th over and you could see how he wanted to try to hit runs but also needed to be careful to not get himself out. The batsmen hit 9 runs between them in the 18th over and gave themselves only 6 to hit off the final 6 balls. They had two dot bowls, then ran one. The newer batsman then stepped up and hit a four and they ran a single and won the game for their school.
Then in the evening, I helped with the Leinster U15 squad training by making some drinks, helping collect the cricket balls and joining in with the fielding sessions. They are a strong and hardworking squad this year’s Leinster U15’s.
Conclusion
Overall, I feel it was a great week and I learned a lot of different coaching drills and methods with many different coaches. I also went to many matches and helped out, whether it was just setting out the flags, umpiring or updating the scoreboard. I feel that it was my favourite work experience of Transition year by far, as I was actively involved in tasks every day and I was given an element of responsibility, which I really enjoyed. I hope to further up-skill in the area of coaching by attending some courses this winter and then be in a position to coach further at my club and school in the future. Many thanks to Cricket Leinster Youth for having me for the week.
James Desigar
Wesley College – TY student.