By Martin Morgan

Last updated at 13:04, Wednesday, 14 March 2012

County starlets joined club coaches from across Cumbria to get up to speed with pace bowling at a special conference in Penrith.

Darren Thomas gives a demonstration

Former Ashes hero Simon Jones and ex-Glamorgan favourite Darren Thomas attracted around 30 coaches to the Cumbria Cricket Coaches Association event.

“The standard of delivery from the two guys was first-class, and the feedback from coaches was that they all got something out of it,” said Cumbria community development officer Marc Brown.

“We also invited 20 fast bowlers from the Under-14 to Under-17 county age group teams, and they were put through their paces using video analysis and the latest technology.

“All the boys took advantage of a rare opportunity to be coached by an Ashes hero, and they can take something out of it for the 2012 season.

“It was designed around a coaching conference and we wanted to educate the coaches in Cumbria as well as possible, while also giving something back to the players achieving county status over the last few months.”

Jones played 26 times for England and was a key figure in the 2005 Ashes triumph, while Thomas took over 500 first-class wickets in his career and is now working with Glamorgan Academy.

It’s planned to hopefully build on the success with another conference in six months’ time. We could potentially be looking at spin bowling and how to bat against spin,” Brown added. “We’ll be looking in time to take it around the county, though whether that will happen for the next conference, I’m not sure.”

First published at 11:32, Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk