| sdhfg | Field of dreams | ||
| BOLA
machines are playing their part in helping Millfield School groom
a new generation of cricketers. Millfield
School in Street, Somerset has churned out first-class cricketers
for as long as anyone can remember. Most recently it was the launching
pad for the career of England paceman Simon Jones. |
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| Tennis ball machine | |||
| The
tennis ball machine is used with boys of about 14 depending on their
ability. At Millfield the first team play County Academy and under
19 sides so the boys will be receiving short pitched bowling at an
earlier age than other school teams. The same is also true of spin
bowling. There are few good spinners in schools cricket so the machine
has an important role in priming batters for future match situations. Mark thinks the new stands are a major improvement to the health and safety aspect of using bowling machines. “The kids would delight in smacking lofted drives as hard as possible and trying to knock me off my ladder. Now I can just grin at them from a position of safety. Also, it cuts down preparation time as I leave the stand, with a cover, permanently in the nets and it takes just a few seconds to attach the machine head at the start of every session.” Millfield boasts excellent facilities including an indoor school, 24 grass and all-weather nets and a plethora of pitches. The end result is that Millfield have seven pupils currently in academies at Gloucestershire, Glamorgan, Somerset, Kent, Lancashire and Essex. Their training programmes are devised between the academy staff and Mark who is also a part-time coach at Somerset’s academy. |
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| TOP:
Andrew Walton at the Melbourne Cricket Centre |
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| "The
kids would delight in smaking lofted drives and trying to knock
me of my ladder. Now I can just grin at them from a position |
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