Coach's Corner

Although Fairburn have three qualified cricket coaches at the club, the head coach responsible for the Fairburn training sessions is Billy Weaver. Here you can follow "Beavers" coaching views, starting now with Weaver's thoughts for the coming season

Part One:

New season, new league and a chance of a new start. Lets go into a new and hopefully

successfully era in the Pontefract League with a fresh attitude; a positive one. Personally I'm looking forward to playing teams who we don't know, trying to work at how to bowl against fresh batsmen and how to score runs against bowlers we've never seen in action. However we do these things though, we need to do them in a positive way.

I lost count of the number of times last season that our batters got out playing a shot that they tried to pull out of at the last second and ended up virtually lobbing the ball to a fielder in the ring. Nine out of 10 of these dismissals (if not more) could have been avoided if the batter would have carried on with the intended original shot with full conviction. This comes down to having a positive attitude in your batting and having the confidence and self belief in your decision making and ability to perform the shot.

A positive shot doesn't necessarily mean an attacking shot. A forward defensive that involves getting your body right behind the ball, playing with a straight bat and keeping the ball down can send out as many positive vibes to the opposition of a drive to the boundary can. The same can be said about a leave. As a bowler I'd much rather see a batter swing and miss at a ball than let it through to the keeper. Good leaving of a ball that is not a scoring opportunity or isn't a threat to your wickets is a real frustration to bowlers and will lead them to bowling the ball to where YOU want it bowling to and not them.

Lets not gift our wickets away this season, but at the same time let's not die wondering. Keep things simple; if its there to hit then hit it, if it's not then don't !

If we go into each correct match with the correct attitude and all work as a team then the results will happen with the players we have. Let's pull together to make our first season in the Pontefract League a successful one...and remember:

NOTHING GREAT WAS EVER ACHIEVED WITHOUT ENTHUSIASM

Website administrated by Mark Abdy and James Clegg