York Cricket club aim high (From York Press)

York Cricket club aim high

9:56am Wednesday 19th September 2012 in Sport By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

COACH Jim Love has challenged his York Cricket Club players to keep getting better.

Love, the Yorkshire stalwart who has been at the Clifton Park helm for four years, said he has already started thinking about the next step after the Shipton Lane side were crowned the best in the country following their Kingfisher Beer Cup win over Wanstead & Snaresbrook at Derbyshire CCC on Sunday.

A former England International and Scotland director of cricket, Love said experience was the key as York battered their London-based opponents by eight wickets in a largely one-sided clash at the County Ground.

But Love does not accept that, after six consecutive Solly Sports Yorkshire ECB Premier League crowns and now a national knockout title, that this York side has gone as far as it possibly can.

“I’ve been starting to think a little bit ahead – thinking ‘what can we do? Can we get any better?” he said.

“That’s the challenge – to keep getting better and introducing new players. That’s something for the long term of the club that we’ve got to keep looking at. It’s in the back of the mind.”

On the cup win, he added: “It is something we thought we were good enough to do, years ago, but winning it is all that sweeter. We have talked about being the best club in the North of England for the last two or three years. That was our target.

“Now we have done a little bit better than that. They just wanted it so much. We have played a younger team and I think we were a bit more experienced. Possibly some of our lads know their game a little bit better than the opposition did.

“They did all we asked and they couldn’t have done it any better. They have won six League titles on the trot.”

Love, whose remit at Clifton Park spans all the club’s sides from the juniors to the seniors, said he saw his main job with the first XI as trying to keep the players calm.

He explained: “It’s very much on a one-two-one basis really. It’s trying to help the skipper a little bit – with an odd word now and then – but working one-to-one with them technically.

“I’m not one for shouting my mouth off. It’s not a football or a rugby team where you are growling before you go out. My job is try to keep them calm.”

York chairman Nigel Durham thanked Love for his work and said the facilities at Clifton Park meant the club could go from strength to strength.

“It means everything to the city of York and to York Cricket Club. We have come a long way,” he said. “On the day, we performed fantastically. There were people who weren’t playing, like Marcus Wood who has seen the club through to where it is today. He is a fantastic leader of men and has got us through six championships and it was a fantastic team performance.

“We’ve got Jim Love to thank. He has brought on fantastic players like Glen Richmond.

“We have got other young cricketers coming through and the great thing about York Cricket Club is we have got a great junior set up.

“We are very pleased with our facilities, probably second to none in the Yorkshire area, and we should hope we can go from strength to strength.”