In April 2018 I departed from Dublin Airport and arrived in Manchester. I had accommodation sorted with a member of a local cricket club and I was prepared to do a term of Cricket Studies at Myerscough College, located in Lancashire County Cricket Club.

The course I was partaking in is Cricket Studies which is a course designed to prepare students for careers in the cricket and sports industry. It involves both academic and practical aspects of sports.

I joined the first years for their summer term; a couple months filled with lessons, training and fixtures. The subjects we did were Sports Coaching, PE and the Care of Young People and Psychology of Sports Performance. Each subject is sports orientated and full of interesting content. In Sports Coaching we learnt different coaching techniques, the skills and roles of a coach, How to lead our own session and more. In PE and the Care of Young People we learned about the system of physical education in schools in the UK, health and safety and how to teach a PE class; linking in with Sports Coaching. Psychology of Sports Performance was my favourite of the three, here we learned about personalities and how they affect sports performance, motivation, stress and anxiety.

We had training twice a week and there was at least one fixture every week. Our training sessions were a combination of fielding practice and nets. I got plenty of work experience hours from scoring at matches and I even got to play one in Shrewsbury College where I received my College cap. The standard of play in all the matches was high and it was a good experience to watch and be a part of.

I played for a local cricket club called Ashton-On-Mersey Cricket Club. I was immediately accepted and involved in everything, I was training there once a week, scoring, volunteering at events and playing for the ladies or men’s team at weekends. I played against impressive opposition and was definitely challenged. By playing these strong oppositions my skills improved and my confidence on the field grew. I also played a match for East Cheshire where I opened the bowling and got 2 wickets for 15 runs, something I couldn’t have imagined myself doing before I came to Manchester

This has been a really good experience and I’ve met so many great people because of it. Thank you to everyone that helped me along the way, and I look forward to whatever is next!