Starting out at the  age of 5 with his father, never in his wildest dreams did Darren Talbot think, he would one day play county level cricket and then  mentor county board coaches.

Having played his first game at the age of 9 for Wallop School, he moved onto captain his School team scoring his first 50 taking his first 5 wicket haul setting records at school.

Later, a failed Junior Level Cricket Surrey trial was a frustration, but not a setback as Darren moved to senior school. Under the tutelage of former first class cricketer Reg Dare & Australian captain John Inverarity his cricket flourished. A dream first year at the age of 16, Darren broke the school post war record for number of wickets in a season, which he still holds today.

Surrey Under 19

Later he was picked to play for Surrey U19 team, but things didn’t pan out as he had hoped, while playing for Surrey Under 19. Trying out at different clubs after Surrey, didn’t help rejuvenate his cricketing career, as he got busy with work and less and less time was available for him to pursue Cricket. But desk-job life was just not enough for this cricketing brain. Longtime family friend Peter Ruddy, who was then Chairman of Cobham Avorians Cricket Club, which had just secured a promotion to Surrey Championship Premier Division, asked Darren to restart the club’s junior level cricket which had a lot of scope for improvement.

On completing his Level 1 and Level 2 Qualifications for coaching, Darren took over teaching the next level of Avorian cricketers by starting Darren Talbot Cricket Coaching. In the same year, he also started T20 Cricket Company with his business partner Neil Bunting which now undertakes 15-20 summer camps each year, runs an academy and a number of competitions including the Surrey Youth Indoor cricket league.

Next 30 years in Cricket

Darren is now back to the place, where he loves the most. The cricket ground.  Training the future cricketing minds in the nuances of cricket. He also manages and coaches the Surrey Deaf County squad and has been the chief instigator behind the project., with his next challenge being learning the Sign language from his team-mates.

Amongst working closely with the Surrey Cricket boards, mentoring clubs and coaches and working with Schools & Junior Leagues, he is glad to have achieved a lot in his cricketing life. But hopes to make a difference in the next 30 years for the game he loves the  most.

Check out Darren’s CricketHuddle profile or Splashpage for more details.

If you’ve got a story like Darren, just shoot as an email on info@crickethuddle.com and we sure will feature you in the next edition.