A LONG-SERVING cricket coach has been given an award in recognition of the contribution he has made to the sport in Waltham Forest.

Derek Steward, 74, has coached cricket in the borough for the past 47 years and was presented with his award by David Morgan, the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman, at Lords during the Twenty20 world tournament on Friday, June 12.

The ICC hounoured 1,000 volunteers across the country at Twenty20 games who have given their free time to contribute to cricket.

Mr Steward said: "I am not an egotistical person. I want to make sure people know about cricket in Waltham Forest because I don't want it to die out. I was pleased to receive it and the crowd gave me a big round of applause afterwards.

"However, I would rather have taken a bus load of about 15 kids from Waltham Forest and have them play at Lords. It would have been a test match standard wicket and obviously you don't get that in Walthamstow."

During his time coaching, Mr Steward has noticed a deep decline in the standards of wickets in the borough while coaching with the Waltham Forest Cricket and Football Association.

He said: "We used to have three of the most marvellous playing surfaces in the whole of London. One was where Morrisons supermarket stands today.

"There were some lovely playing fields there. Another is the Arsenal training ground at the Peter May sports centre and there used to be a lovely one at Blades Field East near Walthamstow Stadium.

"The wickets today are not cared for properly. If kids are batting they want to know where the ball is going to go."

Mr Steward, of Boundary Road, Walthamstow began coaching cricket in 1959 as a way to relax from the pressures of his job as headteacher at Chase Cross school in Romford and every August he ran street cricket at the Peter May sports centre in Wadham Road, Highams Park.

He also took groups of youngsters to Arundel, West Sussex, to play cricket during the summer holidays.

Mr Steward also ran the cricket league in Waltham Forest but it ran into difficulty during the 1970s where there was a movement against competitive sports.

Speaking about cricket in general, he said: "It's a lovely game. It really tests your intellect and encourages teamwork. I really enjoy teaching it. The youngsters never wanted to stop playing. We would have a break where they would eat some ice cold berries by some bushes and soon as they had finished they would want to continue for the rest of the day."

The ICC will no doubt hope that Mr Steward's passion for cricket will rub off on the current generation of young players to carry on teaching batting, bowling and fielding to Waltham Forest's future sporting stars.