The Centre of Excellence is the premier indoor facility in the South West and amongst the best in the region. The Centre offers coaching for women and girls, and disability cricket training. Schools and Clubs can use the facility to practise net cricket,or in competition; Six-a-side leagues are also a feature.Individuals can have specifically tailored courses to maximise their practice time, enabling them to improve their skill levels in any of the cricketing disciplines.

Contact  Tel: 0845 337 1875 / 01823 352266 24hr answering service

Fax:01823 332395

Centre of Cricketing Excellence (Patron: P.C.Ondaatje, CBE, O.C.) & Somerset Cricket Development Department

The Centre of Cricketing Excellence is the focal point for the development of cricket in Somerset at all levels from grass roots to the playing arena. The Centre supports the England and Wales Cricket Board's National Strategy in delivering the seven "steps" of cricket development, namely primary schools, secondary schools, clubs, district cricket, representative cricket, first class county cricket and the national squads.

Youth Cricket - Grass Roots
Through the Cricket Development Officer and the Youth Development Officer, Somerset oversees the work of the schools' coaches who provide high quality coaching in over 200 primary schools and secondary schools in the county. Over a three year rolling programme, Somerset coaches are introducing the new school resource, "HOWZAT". This provides every primary school with a range of cross-curricular activities and every secondary school with an inter-active CD Rom, linking cricket development to the world of IT.

Information Technology, together with numeracy and literacy, is at the hub of the new Study Support Centre, hosted by the Centre of Excellence, providing children from local schools with an opportunity to develop their educational aspirations through cricket. The project is termed "Playing for Success"

Primary Schools
Somerset aims to introduce cricket to every boy and girl in the county and the popular game "Kwik Cricket" is universally enjoyed. Kwik Cricket festivals, competitions and coaching are offered to schools through opportunities at the County Ground and outreach work in the schools. For the first time this year, a Year 6 girls' competition was promoted and proved to be popular. In total, over 8,000 primary school children in Somerset play cricket.

Secondary Schools
Building on the success of Kwik Cricket, a new game for secondary school children has been developed. This game is "Inter Cricket" and can be played in a sports hall, in the playground or on the school field. The game is fast and great fun. In its first year, over 20 secondary schools participated in an indoor "Inter Cricket" competition, culminating in a grand finals day at the Centre of Excellence. Over 4,000 children in Somerset secondary schools regularly play cricket.

The Centre of Excellence has recently been designated as an "Access Organisation" for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and increasingly, young people are able to pursue their D of E Award through cricket.

Junior coaching and competition
The most important element of youth development is to link the work carried out in schools with junior club cricket. This is now greatly assisted by Active Sports, a scheme promoted through Sport England and funded by a partnership involving the National Lottery, local authorities and the sport's governing body. This scheme provides basic coaching, club development, coach education and district opportunities and covers nine sports, including cricket.

Somerset County Cricket Club provides group coaching on Saturdays and during half-terms and school holidays. These courses are extremely popular and involve up to forty young children at each session. There is a real purpose to these activities as progress is monitored through simple skills tests.

Somerset also promotes indoor and outdoor competitions. The Centre runs junior six-a-side and knockout competitions. There are a number of junior leagues in Somerset, with over 3,500 young people involved and a national club knockout competition for under 13 and under 15 age groups.

Individual coaching for juniors enables increasing numbers of young cricketers to improve their game and perhaps proceed to district and county representation. The one-to-one individual coaching sessions at the Centre of Excellence have never been more popular and early bookings are essential for those wishing to take part.

With the support of the Somerset Cricket Board, a new Cricket Centre at Writhlington School in North East Somerset has recently been completed and will enable even more young people to access opportunities for grass roots and development courses.

Club opportunities
The Centre of Excellence provides clubs with opportunities for coaching and playing, and also acts as an Advice Centre for all affiliated clubs in Somerset. Club nets continue to be used extensively, particularly in the build up to the start of the season. Early booking is again advised. The six-a-side league at the Centre runs throughout the winter, with the league winners progressing to county and regional finals.

The Somerset Disabled Cricket Club practices regularly at the Centre and this year, following a visit from the England Blind Cricket Team, a visually impaired section has been created. It is hoped that following the introduction of initial training and practice sessions, a number of matches can be arranged.

The Cricket Development Officer and other members of the Centre staff are readily available to give advice regarding league cricket opportunities, groundsmanship, umpiring, scoring and other related courses for volunteers such as Child Protection and First Aid.

The Cricket Development Officer also holds seminars for clubs on such matters as facility development and funding, and is always available to meet clubs to assist with their development projects.

Coach education
Somerset believes that its most valuable cricket development resource is its coaches. Through a number of courses, ranging from Introductory Courses, through to assessed courses at Levels One, Two and Three, Somerset boasts a breadth of talented coaches both professional and volunteers. Somerset's 1st XI and Assistant Coach / Regional Academy Director are working towards Level Four. This course is based on a modular system phased over three years.

Courses are promoted through the Youth Development Officer, who is also the Somerset Coaching Coordinator and the Cricket Centre is used as a prime venue for courses at Levels One, Two and Three.

District Cricket
Somerset were the pioneers of District Cricket, which is now promoted, via Active Sport, throughout the country. Somerset's District system is known as the "Corners" and is run from age groups 11 to 15. Around 400 young people gain representative experience through this system and some move on to full county representation. The scheme, which involves trials, coaching and corner matches, is managed by the Youth Development Officer.

Representative Cricket
Somerset's age group squads commence practice at the Centre in the late autumn. Squad sessions are directed by the Youth Development Officer and supported by the Ist XI and 2nd XI coach, together with other members of the Somerset coaching team and staff professionals who are able to offer assistance in their own areas of expertise and experience. Individual specialist coaching is arranged as appropriate, using the full range of technical support offered by the Centre of Excellence.

The Somerset Women's and Girl's squads also train at the Centre in the lead-up to the start of the season, with fully qualified coaches, both male and female involved.

Development of Excellence
For young cricketers who are particularly talented, the Centre of Excellence spreads its area of expertise to cover the whole of the south-west peninsula. South West Regional courses are run from the Centre and the South West Junior Talent ID scheme identifies those who have the potential to emerge as Regional Academy students.

The Centre of Excellence is perfectly placed to host the Regional Academy, from where our talented players can hone their skills in preparation for a possible future career in County Cricket with Somerset.

Thus the Centre of Cricketing Excellence provides a seamless transition from grass roots to the playing arena and offers those who have the inclination and determination, every opportunity to improve.

All this would not be possible without the vision of Somerset County Cricket Club in providing such a superb facility as the Centre of Excellence, with the appropriate staff to deliver its objectives.

The staff members based at the Centre are as follows:
Andrew Moulding:
Cricket Development Officer / Centre manager
Peter Sanderson:
Youth Development Officer / Somerset Coaching Coordinator
Brian Hoyle:
Clerical Assistant / Duty Officer