Jones delight at key role in spotting star talent

Sep 25 2007 by Richard Williamson, Liverpool Daily Post

MIKE JONES of Cheshire has been appointed to one of the top coaching jobs in the north west, helping identify and develop the best young talent to England standard.

He is a member at Chester and has been manager of Cheshire Boys, a county with a fine tradition in coaching young players.

Now he takes on the job of the EGU regional coaching manager for the North West of England for the Under-18 years-old boys.

“I got a phone call asking if I would like to be considered for the job and I said I would like to give it a go,” he says. “Yes, I was slightly surprised, especially as I have been on the County Executive for just two and a half years. But it is a great honour.”

He says of the job ahead, now particularly next season: “The objective is to identify the most promising young boys in the area and provide them with the right coaching with the objective of getting them to England standard in two years, at the under-16 and under-18 level.”

His area includes Cheshire and Lancashire and the Isle of Man. He will liaise with the Lancashire Boys team manager, Terry Horrocks and as Cheshire Boys manager, as he puts it: “I know my own.”

Alan Thompson of Heswall will coach the selected boys.

Cheshire is well known for its own scheme to find and develop the best of its own young talent.

It has won the Four Counties Junior tournament more often then its rivals, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Hereford/Shropshire combined and it has also won the Under-14 Four Counties in the two years since it was started.

Its coaching scheme has become a model for other counties and the production line in bringing forward young players has produced a situation where Jones is able to report that, in deciding the full county team where the maximum age is under 18, his first choice would be six players who are under 16, half the total team.

“We believe we spend as much on coaching boys as any other county,” he says. “We have produced such players as Dave Horsey of Styal, who played in the Walker Cup this year, and also Paul Waring from Bromborough who is in the England elite squad.”

They are now among those who have joined the professional ranks.

He is encouraged by the exciting talent in the north west and he puts Lancashire’s Tommy Fleetwood from Formby Hall at the front as “the leading player in the north west.”

He is now taking over from Frank Harkins of Heswall and much of his job will come next season as he attends the major regional and national events for the boys, looking for and assessing the talent on the fairways.

“Yes, it is a huge challenge,” he says. “I am very much looking forward to it.”