December 2011, saw a group of 12 players from different clubs across Leinster take part in the second annual trip to ‘La Manga’ Resort in Murcia, Southern Spain. The trip was organised by Leinster coaches Brian O’Rourke and Andrew Leonard and the players involved came from the current Leinster U15 and U17 squads. Of the 12 players involved only Callum Donnelly and James Smith participated in last year’s trip meaning the majority of us didn’t know what to expect when we arrived at Dublin airport on the 17th of December.
The main focus of the trip was of course to develop the cricket skills of everyone involved both mentally and tactically and with an average of 5-6 hours of cricket each day it would have been difficult to arrive home in Dublin on the 24th an unchanged player. We were extremely lucky with the weather as there was not a single drop of rain for the entire week so there were no disruptions to the schedule and everything ran as originally planned. The weather along with La Manga’s excellent facilities (two cricket ovals, nets and a bowling machine) and two Leinster coaches provided a perfect platform for the players to develop all aspects of their game.
We arrived in Spain on the evening of Saturday 17th December and spent a couple of ours settling into our apartments before lights out at 11pm. There were 2 apartments between the 12 players, 3 rooms in each apartment – 2 players per room. The apartments were impressive and very large. To add some competition to the trip the apartments competed against each other in an arranged activity after each days training. ‘Teach’ O’Rourke consisted of Padraic Flanagan, Adam Craig, Brian Smyth, Lorcan Tucker,Nathan Rooney and David Murphy, while ‘Teach’ Leonard had Callum Donnelly, Niall McGovern, Sonny Cott, James Smith, Jack Tector and Adam Chester in their ranks. The first round was a soccer match that Teach Leonard narrowly won. Each day there was a different round including golf, pool, tip rugby, and a single wicket cricket match. In the end ‘Teach’ Leonard ran out 4 -1 winners and the ‘prize’ for ‘Teach’ O’Rourke was a 7.30am run followed by a 60 second dip in the freezing outdoor pool, yes that included the coach!
The first 4 days training followed a set pattern. We arrived at the ground at 10am and did 30 minutes of throw downs while the fielding drills were being set up. We would then go into a warm up routine of stretches before focusing on some technical work and then end the morning session with an hours fielding circuit. Lunch was at 12.30 for 40 minutes before beginning the afternoon session that consisted of net practice where each player batted for 40 minutes. There were 4 nets, one for the bowling machine and the other three for the bowlers. Net practice finished at 4pm and after our warm down we would move onto our house competition. On two of the days we headed to the Mediterranean Sea for a swim to cool down from the days activities. The weather was fantastic every day and the temperature got as high as 23 degrees!
Dinner each evening was at 8pm in a different restaurant around the complex and we had food from different countries including Asian, Italian, Spanish and American. Most days we were free to use the indoor swimming pool after training and before dinner. The swimming pool was excellent and most of us used it as much as possible as it also contained a sauna, steam room and a gym.
The training routine changed for last few days and in the morning session we did different types of fielding drills and a bleep test on the last day. In the afternoon sessions we did middle practice and created a match scenario for the batters to play against the bowlers. During this time on the final day our single and double wicket competitions took place. Sonny Cott won the single and Callum Donnelly and Brian Smyth the double. On the morning of our departure we went to the gym to participate in the ‘King of the Gym’ competition which is a gym circuit designed for cricketers and the winner is the person that gets the best overall score.
We arrived back in Dublin at 4pm on Christmas Eve with good weather ensuring there were no delays and that we all got home in time for Christmas. It was an amazing trip and the cricket skills of everyone involved improved hugely and everyone got to know each other really well by the end of the week. It’s a trip I would definitely do again if the opportunity came up and would recommend it to anyone in the Leinster U15 and U17 age groups.