THE Somerset Cricket Board has announced the appointment of Paul Lawrence to the role of Women and Girls Performance coach.

Paul has been working with the England Women’s under 19 and under 15 squads for the past two years since relinquishing his role as head coach of the Gibraltar cricket team.

He is a familiar face to current Somerset players having coached on the girls’ Emerging Player Programme (EPP) for three years.

He also headed up the under 17 coaching for five years.

The Cricket Board’s Development Manager Andy Fairbairn said of Paul’s appointment: “He is an outstanding coach who is extremely passionate about women and girls performance cricket.

“He has helped develop many of our most talented players and on speaking to them it was clear that he is very highly regarded.”

This appointment will see him oversee the player pathway in Somerset from district cricket up to the county women’s team.

Paul will continue as head coach of the U17 side and take the reins of the recently promoted senior women’s team in 2016.

He is taking over the performance pathway from Caroline Foster, who has left the county to take up a role at Wellington School.

Caroline was Somerset’s first women and girls head coach and laid the foundations for success that Paul will be building on.

Paul’s first responsibilities in his new role will be managing and delivering a winter training programme alongside his team of coaches.

This kicks off in November with district girls training taking place in Bath and Wellington respectively.