Cricket Club Issue 49 | Page 72

Melrose FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/CRICKETCLUBMAG Monte Cassino Come as a stranger ... leave as a friend! Situated at the old Railway station in the beautiful, historic Borders town of Melrose, is the family run Monte Cassino Restaurant; an authentic Italian Restaurant owned by Multi Award Winning Chef, Antonio Caterino. We pride ourselves on the quality and variety of our menu and our daily ‘Specials’, using only the finest, freshest of ingredients, and of course our reputation for exquisite seafood dishes sourced daily from local fish markets! All cooked by ‘real’ Italians in our ‘open view’ kitchen Multi Award Winning Restaurant, including Platinum Award for best Authentic Italian Cuisine in the UK. To reserve a table please call us on 01896 820082 www.montecassinomelrose.co.uk CC: How important is youth cricket to the club? RW: Obviously, the youth team is very important as these players will be the club’s future but we have had trouble getting numbers down to their sessions. To act on this, we plan to set up some sort of advertisement of the youth training sessions around the community including places like schools, churches and the local co- op! Also, more senior members will make an effort to get involved with the junior sessions to encourage them to keep playing and work their way into the senior team. CC: How do you ensure that young players enjoy a smooth transition into the senior game? RW: In the past, youth players have been invited to senior training where they are eased into batting against a faster bowling attack. This tends to be the area they are more concerned about, and it is important not to scare them away by bowling too aggressively. Bowling and fielding seem to be easier transitions, some of the youngest players are the best fielders! During net sessions seniors can give the younger players tips and tactics that are more relevant in the senior game. All of these things seem to make the youth players more enthusiastic on getting into and playing in the senior side. CC: Would you consider yours to be a community club? Palma Place, Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders, Scotland, TD6 9PR CC: What are your plans for 2019? RW: There are big plans for 2019 ranging from an interest in a café being set up in the clubhouse to recruiting more youth team players and also working on improving the transition from junior to senior training. We had a meeting back in March with most of the team members and people who were involved in the club in some way. The two Howard brothers, Conall and Duncan, have been instrumental in the club’s organisation since I’ve been at Melrose and they have really driven some new ideas that we will implant this season. We discussed clubhouse improvements (which have already started), ways of securing more sponsorships, youth training, club roles and recruitment. We have a solid team so hopefully we can look to finish in the top half of our division or maybe even promotion. 72 Issue 49 RW: I would consider Melrose CC as a community club. In terms of members within our club we have local joiners, a reverend of a local church, lads from the rugby club, a local author and even the Melrose Police Chief. As a club, we also put on a summer event called the Melrose sixes. This is a tournament where anyone can enter a team of six and battle through knockout stages to win the trophy. A barbeque is held on the day and a bar is arranged so it’s a really good event for family and friends. We do need to get more involved in the community which would develop a greater awareness of the club and then more members. Hopefully we will be able to organise more events and advertisement to really get the wider community involved.