The working relationship between Fingal County Council and Cricket Leinster is expanding all the time. Reinhardt Strydom (Fingal Cricket Development Officer) with the assistance of Kenny Carroll and Fintan McAllister recently presented ‘Welcome to Cricket’ coaching courses in the Fingal area. The courses were delivered at Corduff Sports Centre (Dublin 15) on Wednesday, April 2nd and North County Cricket Club on Wednesday, April 9th. The courses were attended by 14 participants who were represented by different organisations from all over the Fingal and Leinster.
The course ran for three hours explaining the basic laws of cricket, how the game works and to show different small sided games that can be played in the schoolyard. The session started with a demonstration on how the game of cricket works along with the basic rules with a layout of a cricket field. Following that, batting was demonstrated with the 'grip and stance' shown along with the execution of the forward drive. The bowling element concentrated initially on the basic action before progressing to run ups and follow throughs. To finish, the teachers were shown hand/eye co-ordination skills and games and also three different cricket games to play with their students. These games included ‘Lords’ game & ‘Continuous’ cricket.
Participants arriving with little or no knowledge of cricket learned a lot over the three hours. They left understanding the game better, had fun, learned to bat and bowl and were all looking forward to trying out these games with their relevant classes. This will hugely help the growth of cricket in Fingal and special thanks have to go to all the schools and teachers who attended. A very successful course with many positive outcomes resulted from the day’s activities.
"The council are committed to developing sport in Fingal and cricket is a major part of that plan. This programme gives teachers the basic skills of the game and enables them to pass on what they have learned to their students through fun and active games" - Niall Mc Guirk Senior Sports Development Officer, Fingal County Council
Reinhardt Strydom
Fingal Cricket Development Officer