In November, England Cricket superstar Paul Collingwood came to Beverley Grammar School to work with the School’s aspiring Year 10 cricketers.
The afternoon gave the Year 10 team some important coaching before next years summer cricket. The session was organised by Yorkshire Bank for their lucky competition winner, BGS year 10 student Dominic Judd.
Paul, an ex England World Twenty20 winning captain, led an impressive session with the Year 10 cricket team, coaching them new skills and giving impressive tips along the way.
The day began with an inspiring talk with Paul, before leading us in some throwing practice. Then, fielding legend Collingwood taught the inspired young students some of his many amazing catching techniques.
Despite the impressive display of catching, the session swiftly moved onto batting techniques. Using his old Ashes-winning Slazenger bat he taught the students the perfect back foot Pull-Shot before using the stroke to play a game between the two teams of the students.
Autograph Opportunity
Following the short exercise, the group stayed in the two teams and played a game of Quick-Cricket, a fast paced, fun and action packed game for all young crickets on the learning curve to success.
However, the day was not all to be practical cricket. The lads held a Question & Answer session with Paul, who would then give them some great tips for all young cricketers and the opportunity to learn about the highlights of his still-ongoing playing career as well as getting their Cricket equipment signed by him.
Paul, who many have said wasn’t the most naturally gifted cricketer to play the game, believes he made up for this with determination.
He told the BGS students that with determination, hard work, a lot of practice and maybe a little bit of luck you can become a world-class professional cricketer.
He told the students about the highs and lows of the game including his triumph as England’s World Twenty20 (exciting quick-fire form of cricket) Cup winning captain as well as his reasons for retiring from Test Cricket earlier this year following final game of England’s first Series Triumph in Australia in 24 years.
Following the Q&A session, a representative from Yorkshire bank handed out a few special presents. The winner of the competition, Dominic Judd, was awarded a brand new Slazenger bat signed by Paul. Also, Mr Walters was awarded a Wisden 2011 Cricket Almanac for the school.
Connor’s Thoughts
The Session was a real help to the team after a Rollercoaster of a season last year which finished with a great win against Beverley Longcroft. He gave us some really helpful tips which should give us a real boost in both skill and confidence for the upcoming year. The session left all of the students excited for the upcoming cricket season as well as walking away with a piece of sporting memorabilia for themselves. Overall a great day for everybody involved!
To watch Paul Collingwood’s interview with Sky Sports from Beverley Grammar School, simply click below.
Paul Collingwood Interview from BGS
We also hope you’ll enjoy looking at some of the photographs taken by our students during the day, the gallery below contains more than we had space to print in the Beverlonian!
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by Connor Lynn (Year 10)
from the Beverlonian (Autumn 2011)