ONE of Somerset’s favourite sons Pete Trego has been the  batting coach with Western Storm for six months and on Monday afternoon he was at the Indoor School in the Centre of Excellence at Taunton working with Sophie Luff the Storm captain, writes Richard Walsh.

Afterwards I caught up with the man whose record shows that he played in 200 first class games for Somerset in which he scored 8775 runs at an average of almost 34 and claimed 349 wickets at 36.32.

“I’m really enjoying myself and have been involved with the Storm now for six months and cant wait to get the season started and transfer all of the skills from indoors to outdoors," he said.

"Unfortunately because of the weather the outdoor side of things has been a bit stop start, but the girls have been fantastic to work with, the coaching environment has been very supportive and it’s exciting to see how the girls play.

“We had a great pre-season tour of the UAE where we had a couple of games with very explosive power plays so hopefully we can keep that going through the season.”

In addition to his coaching Pete has also been involved with the Legends Leagues.

“I have been playing some cricket myself in these Masters/ Legends Leagues in Asia which has been awesome. I have come away having played in one final and another final victory which was a bonus - its always nice to have a bit of silverware. 

“It’s been exciting duelling with a lot of the cricket players who the fans will recognise from the past 20 or 30 years of international cricket. It’s been a brilliant experience for me playing on big stages in front of decent crowds so I’ve really enjoyed myself.”

How has Pete found coming from playing in the men's environment to being involved with women’s cricket?

“I actually think that one of the bonuses in working in women’s cricket as a young coach is being able to share a lot of my personal cricketing experiences in the game.

“Working with the girls over the last six months I have had to adapt the way that I talk and deal with the different levels of experiences which has at times been challenging at times but I have enjoyed it all. 

“In pre-season the girls have worked a lot harder than the boys do when we were away and I only hope that they get their rewards from that, but now we have the acid test.”

Pete added: “We are almost into the season proper so I’m guessing that there will be a nervy batting coach sitting somewhere hoping that the girls can do justice to all of the throwing and hitting we have been doing during this winter!”

Western Storm begin their season with a fixture against Sunrisers in the 50 over Rachel Heyhoe-Flint Trophy at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Saturday 20th April.