JAMES GILCHREIST, of Cirencester CC, has won the ‘Sky Sports Young Coach of the Year’ award for Gloucestershire.

It is the second time in as many years that the Cirencester club has had a young coach honoured – Richard Hudson won the West Region title in 2011.

James, 20, a former pupil at Deer Park Cirencester and Wycliffe College, Stroud, who will now go forward to the regional finals. He started coaching the junior members at Cirencester CC and worked on the Club’s well-respected ‘Holiday Cricket Camps’ for a number of years.

While on a gap year in Australia, he was a Junior House Master at a top school with responsibility for the coaching, development and management of his assigned cricket team.

On his return to the UK, he completed his Level 2 coaching qualifications and has continued to go from strength to strength. Within the Club he is in charge of the U13 squad that remained unbeaten last season and he travels back from university in Cardiff on a weekly basis to be lead coach for one of the Gloucestershire Cricket Board’s U13 District squads.

James is also part of the team which delivers the ‘Chance to Shine’ programme in eight local schools.

At UWIC, he is studying for a Sports Coaching and Development Degree and is a member of the University’s 1st XI.