Former Herefordshire cricketer Steve Watkins backs county lads (From Hereford Times)

Former Herefordshire cricketer Steve Watkins backs county lads

10:00am Thursday 7th March 2013 in Sport By Ian Morgan

FORMER Herefordshire cricketer Steve Watkins wants to see more local lads playing for the county and has saluted the plans for a new second team.
The ex-Worcestershire and Wales Minor Counties all-rounder admits he caused controversy in the past after questioning Herefordshire’s selection policy.
Watkins believes Herefordshire’s newly-created second team being run by Tom Bevan is ‘hugely important’ for aspiring young players in the area.
“The new second-team is hugely important for cricket in Herefordshire,” said 54-year-old Watkins, a former Lady Hawkins’ School pupil.
“It needs to be the way forward.  We need to get the lads playing in Herefordshire up to the standard.
“The better cricketers you play against, the better you can become.
“There are not many clubs in Herefordshire who are playing at a high standard at the moment.
“Kington are not playing at the level they used to and we only have a couple of clubs in the Birmingham League.
“We have to drive up the quality of the players and the clubs in the county.
“I would like to see a Herefordshire team packed with local players.
“I wrote some letters to the Hereford Times a few years ago saying Herefordshire should be picking local lads. It caused a bit of the stir at the time and there were people who stopped talking to me.”
Watkins, who lives in Withington with wife Stella, played for Herefordshire in their first-ever match in Minor Counties cricket.
“We had nine Herefordshire players in the side when we played against Wales,” recalled the former Hereford City player, who later represented Wales Minor Counties and Wales Over-50s.
“We were outplayed for five of the six sessions in that match but we won the game.
“We won the game and only took about two or three wickets in the game.
“It was a very big thing for Herefordshire to get into the Minor Counties and no-one expected us to win that first game. If you spoke to Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, it took them quite a while to get their first win.”
Watkins, who grew up in Eaton Bishop, is actively involved in cricket as a level three-qualified coach. He has worked as a development officer with Cricket Wales since September 1999.
When he first left school, Watkins went to work for South Herefordshire District Council.
He later worked for Terry Court before returning to the council to work on the finance side.
He was running Herefordshire Under-10s with Bob Hall when the county played against Cardiff and the Vale at Colwall.
“A chap called Malcolm Price was a development officer for Cardiff and he said that the Welsh Cricket Board were going to have a vacancy
He landed the role for South-East Wales in Gwent and Mid Wales.
“We have five development officers in Wales and we are now employing 18 community coaches across Wales. I line-manage six community coaches and use Monmouthshire Council as a base. It can be nice not to live in the area. A lot of my job in the next year will be in Mid Wales. There’s a lot of work to be done there.”
l WELSH club Croesyceiliog became Steve Watkins’ second home for 13 years.
He was a club professional for the Cwmbran outfit from 1986 to 1999.
“Croesyceiliog were a village side in the Gwent League and had been relegated to Division Two when I joined them,” recalled Watkins.
“My first-ever game for them was near Ebbw Vale and I got 100 and took six wickets. But I was almost caught and I should have been out for a duck that day. We won the division that year and then Division One the next. I had great times at the club.”