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Darren Nicol, aged 12, from the North Kildare club in Kilcock, has emerged as the first winner of the ‘Find a Fast Bowler’ campaign, an initiative launched by the Leinster Cricket Union this summer. Over 100 young bowlers were observed during the summer months at bowling clinics and youth games held around the city. The purpose of the campaign is to identify young bowling talent and to provide assistance and support for them to reach their full potential.

Commenting on Nicol’s achievement, campaign organiser Brían O’Rourke was quick to praise the young bowler’s progression. “Darren has been a regular attendee at our winter coaching clinics and is slowly-but-surely developing into a high quality seam bowler. He has a very natural action, generates good pace and has the ability to swing the ball late, away from the right-handed batsman. Darren was our leading bowler at the U’11 age group last summer and we will monitor his progress as he progresses through the youth sides”.

Darren recently played for the Southern XI U’11 team in their fixture v’s Northern XI at Armagh CC and played this season with virtually all of the youth sides at North Kildare. His favourite bowler in world cricket is Brett Lee, while in Ireland he is a fan of Paul Mooney. He also plays hockey, golf and rugby.

Ireland World Cup-bound bowlers John and Paul Mooney have agreed to work with Darren to assist his development at Leinster under-age training sessions over the winter.