Hampshire Cricket Board's wicket keeping programme, funded by the Ben Williams Trust has now come to the end of its first phase.  Throughout the winter and in preparation for the season Bobby Parks, Hampshire Cricket’s Wicketkeeping Coach, delivered a specialist coaching programme which aimed at standardising the approach to wicketkeeping development across the County. 

The programme which involved wicketkeepers from both boys and girls county squads was a huge success, with all players benefiting from 9 hours of specialist coaching.  As this is the first time many of the players have received specialist wicketkeeping coaching, county coaches have seen a vast improvement in performance during the first few games of the season.

The second phase of the programme will help to standardise the approach to wicketkeeping coaching even further and will involve Bobby working with the head coaches and wicketkeepers from each District within Hampshire.  This phase of the programme will start in October and by the start of the 2010 season Bobby will have passed on his professional experience to approximately 40 young keepers.

Phil and Gilly William’s son Ben was a talented wicketkeeper who died of a rare heart condition aged just fourteen. In his memory they set up the Ben Williams Trust to provide funding to support children and young adults suffering from abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), and to support youth cricket projects, especially wicketkeeping. While the Trust has provided significant funding to create a role for a specialist nurse at the Royal Brompton Hospital, it has also supported winter coaching programmes for two young Surrey wicketkeepers.