The team that stays together and plays together eventually wins together.

This is the philosophy of Somerset Cricket Club coach Winston Reid, currently preparing the West Enders for their first season in top flight cricket in the past three years.

Reid, who featured in a record double-century opening stand with Gladstone (Sad) Brown representing Bermuda during the 1982 ICC Trophy in England, also represented Somerset in the annual Cup Match classic from 1977 to 1988, scoring 325 runs at an average of 20.29 runs per innings.

Reid, 53, coached Somerset to the First Division limited overs league championship and KO Cup double last summer in his second season back as coach after taking over the helm from Jeff Richardson.

Now armed with a batch of very promising young cricketers, Barbados-born Reid intends to place heavy emphasis this summer on youth development at the club.

Somerset recently had six members named to the Island's Under 15 national squad, who departed for Trinidad today.

"What we are doing at Somerset is focusing and trying to promote our youngsters," Reid explained.

"And instead of going all over the Island and begging players to come and play for us we are focusing on our own players because they are the future.

"So if they stay together and play together eventually they will win together, and I don't think that will be too far down the road because at the moment we have several players presently in the Under 15 national team which is good for our cricket.

"If we can keep this group of players together that will be great ? and they all come from Somerset and so I don't see why they shouldn't stay together. I believe in winning and not just playing cricket. So my long term goal is to win because I'm not satisfied with coming second."

In terms of preparation, Somerset have been preparing for the upcoming season since last January.

"We've been in the gym and outdoors in the nets on Sundays. We had our training wickets prepared very early and so we were able to go into the nets and work on a lot of things we did in the gym," said Reid.

"We have been working on a lot of technical stuff in the gym and now we've brought it out on the pitch."

And so far, Reid has been impressed with numbers during practice sessions.

"This has been the first time in years we've actually had good numbers train at this stage of the year," he added.

"Sometimes we've had up to 12 players training and I think this is very good considering it's still football season."

Somerset skipper Devon Wade has stood down, leaving fellow senior member Reid Jones a firm candidate to take over the vacant post.

The West Enders have again taken up an invite to participate in next weekend's Kenneth (Mickey) Thompson Super Sevens Tournament at White Hill Field, but have decided to do away with what had become a tradition in recent years of touring Barbados for pre-season warm-up matches.

In addition to some of the younger prospects at the club, Reid will again have the valued services of stalwarts Wendell White and Tony Cheeseman along with senior national team all-rounder Azeem Pitcher.

Pitcher made his debut in Cup Match last year at Wellington Oval and is now poised to make his national team debut in the Caribbean early next month.

Greg Maybury Jr, Jordon DeSilva, Michael Hudson and Marcus Johnson are just a few of the youngsters coach Reid has at his disposal at Cricket Lane. Maybury is the nephew of former Somerset Cup Match skipper Perry Maybury while DeSilva has been a Somerset Cup Match reserve for the past two years.

"We have a whole group of youngsters who are really looking good for their age," said Reid. "And so I'm sure we can go out there and be positive and win games."

Reid will also coach a Somerset's Cup Match team that will attempt to wrest the coveted cup from champions St.George's at Somerset Cricket Club in August.

However, the former opening batsman ? who stroked 90 against Viv Richards' Antigua at White Hill Field in 1984 ? opted to steer clear of an ongoing heated debate concerning national cricketers and Cup Match.

National coach Gus Logie said he would prefer not to have his top strike bowlers participate in this summer's classic, yet gave all-rounders and batsmen the green light to play.

"That is not my call and I'm only going to coach those players that are available to play," he said. "Cup Match is over one hundred years old, and so I prefer to leave that one alone."

The 2006 cricket season is tentatively scheduled to commence on April 22.