With the cricket season fast approaching, we sat down with popular cricketer and excellent coach Simon Williams - a huge part of Haverfordwest Cricket Club and the key cog in the junior set up.
With the cricket season approaching fast, what are you doing coaching wise this year?
This season, I am coaching with Haverfordwest & Cricket Wales West.
For Haverfordwest, I'll be with our All Stars, U11s & U15s. It's not ideal to be with so many sides but our numbers have grown massively which is a testament to the fantastic work our coaches like Danny Dewstowe, Dan Field, Mark Thorpe among many others, who have all done these past few seasons and it will be great to have the likes of Andy Ward on board this year. We are running our first Girls section this summer, which will be exciting given the growth the womens & and girls' game has had in recent years. We look forward to working with Carl Holding to hopefully get them some games with other Pembs clubs this summer.
With the West, I've been involved coaching numerous age groups this winter, but I'm coaching the West U13s this summer along with Dean Hollands from Kidwelly CC. I'm really looking forward to the summer. The boys have worked hard all winter on their skill sets, ready to put it into action on the grass when given the opportunity.
As captain of Haverfordwest Second XI for the coming season what’s the goals and ambitions for the club as a whole and the second team specifically?
On a personal level I'm looking forward to completing the applied coaching activities to complete my ECB Advanced Coaching Course (Old Level 3) after a winters work towards it.
I've got to mention the great job Nigel Morgan has done these past few years & it will be vital to have his experience still in the 2s along with vice-captain Tacky Marchant for the coming season. For the club in our Bicentenary season, I think it's just to keep building on the foundations we have put in place & to keep giving youth the opportunity to learn and gain experience in senior cricket.
For the 1sts under Chris Phillips, they will look to stay in Division 1 after an excellent campaign last season. Our 3rds & 4ths have new skippers too with Danny Dewstowe moving up to the thirds to continue the great work he has done blooding youth into senior cricket and through the senior sides & Mark Davies is taking the 4th team reigns which will have a mixture of older, experienced heads with younger talent. Jo Price is our ladies skipper & has done a sterling job growing the side & competing in the top division in Pembrokeshire Ladies Cricket.
You’ve been a player and coach in Pembs a while now, what’s your biggest achievement to date?
Tough one as a player, I'll probably go with winning the Ken Morris back in 2008 & I got MOTM at 18 in the final against Llangwm.
Coaching wise, in 2015 I won ECB Young Coach of the Year for Wales & Sport Pembrokeshire Coach of the Year for work with regional & club cricket, along with helping develop the U19s competition at the time. Although it was great to win those awards personally, I have to acknowledge that it was down due to the great work of those who I coached alongside - Huw Scriven, Paul Mansbridge, Nitin Mathias among many others.
One goal I have for the 2024 season is to play a game with both my cousin Kieran (Currently in Welsh Disability Squad) and Uncle Colin (Former Wales Minor Counties) before Colin hangs up his cricket boots for the last time. For anyone who knows Colin, I'm sure he's told you that already many times.
Do you think the regional set up is better now that it’s been restructured? Players of a certain age and older all have very fond memories of representing Pembrokeshire, do you think that’s been lost somewhat?
It is a hard question as with any change, there will be those who like the new structure & those who prefer the old one - and that's without those nostalgic about the Dyfed set up as well. Generally speaking, a lot of what is delivered is the same with subtle differences. 4 coaches at most sessions as an example.
Representing Pembrokeshire was special to those who did at the time but there are young players who feel just as proud pulling on a Cricket Wales West jersey. It is a personal thing, and many will have their own thoughts on it. The new structure has the aim of providing a challenging, enjoyable yet supportive environment for boys and girls to develop and thrive. The people behind the scenes are pretty much the same as they were before & everyone is striving, as we always have to develop and grow the game.
One of the biggest strengths of the new structure has been Regional Girls Cricket which had died off before. The West have 3 sides at 11s, 13s & 15s this summer which is a great example of that growth in the game in recent years.
How do you view youth/junior cricket at the present, is it healthy in numbers and interest?
To answer this I will use Covid as a bit of a caveat. 2020 was a difficult year for obvious reasons but with hardly any youth cricket played it was obviously a concern for those involved but the growth in the game since has been phenomenal. Looking around the county, there are numerous sides with thriving junior setups with numbers of young players in All Stars, U9s & U11s continuing to grow. There are many examples, but the work Stefan Jenkins has done at Cresselly is an example to follow. Alongside his fellow coaches, they have rebuilt a junior section into the biggest in the county. An example of "If you build it, they will come".
Every club with a junior side or section have at least one person, usually more, who go above and beyond to ensure young players in their area have access to our game. It would be remiss of me not to mention the hard work Martin Jones does organising the junior leagues. A thankless task at times but a vital one, which I think all coaches will agree that we greatly appreciate.
The only area for concern is the number of players involved into their late teens, the number of teams in the Ormond Youth as an example has less teams now than it has been before but retention is an issue all sports are struggling with at the moment and unfortunately there has been no silver bullet answer.
The one thing every club could use more of is coaches. If you are interested in coaching, or being a support coach, then please look into the courses ran every winter. Your club would be grateful for any help!
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