Rydal Penrhos School has announced that it will be the latest venue for the Marylebone Cricket Club Foundation Hub.
The club offers high-quality cricket coaching to talented children in the state school system, who have displayed the potential to become good cricketers.
The MCC will fund three coaches for 25 two-hour sessions at the school for under 13 and 15 players, which equates to a session every week in the off season.
The Hubs are put together, funded and mentored by the MCC Foundation. The day-to-day running of each Hub is left to a local manager, who runs local trials to identify talented children and who oversees the coaching sessions, which are open to male and female players from state schools across North Wales.
Director of Sport and Hub manager Allen Boyd announced that former Glamorgan and Wales star Dion Holden will be leading the coaching team.
Holden was part of the West of England side that toured the West Indies in 2006 and also played in the prestigious Bunbury festival which included current England players Jos Butler, Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Sam Billings.
At the age of 15 he was selected to the Glamorgan Cricket Academy and went on to make a number of second team appearances for the county.
Holden, who will captain ex-North Wales Premier Division champions Menai Bridge next season, said: “I’m very excited to be a part of this new scheme and can’t wait to get started.
It’s a brilliant opportunity to work with young aspiring cricketers from North Wales and I feel a block of structured sessions at Rydal Penrhos can only aid their cricket development – Dion Holden, former Glamorgan and Wales star
“It’s a brilliant opportunity to work with young aspiring cricketers from North Wales and I feel a block of structured sessions at Rydal Penrhos can only aid their cricket development.
“We will look to target all three disciplines of the game before testing our skills against other MCCF hubs around the country in the summer,” he said.
