Former Somerset Cricket Club coach Winston Reid is back at the helm of the Cup Match champions.

Barbados-born Reid has taken over from Jeff Richardson who had held the reins for the past two years.

?The decision was made in the latter part of last year after we had met with Jeff,? confirmed Somerset cricket chairman Anthony Bailey.

?The club decided it was best to make another change because we want to move forward and some of the players were not responding to him.?

Richardson, himself a former Somerset Cup Match player and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman for Western Stars, has yet to make an official decision on whether or not to remain with the club in another coaching capacity.

Bailey continued: ?Jeff hasn?t indicated if he?s willing to do anything else and in all fairness we haven?t asked him either.

?I know as being a coach in charge and then to turn around and be asked to do a job of a lesser value . . . he may not look upon that as something he wants to do.?

However, Richardson told yesterday: ?As far as I?m concerned it?s all over. The club informed that they were moving on and so in my estimation it?s a done deal . . . I?m finished all together.?

Richardson says he?s now traded the cricket bat for the golf club.

?I?m going to work on my handicap,? he said with a smile. ?At this point in time I am done with coaching. Although I enjoyed it a lot, it wasn?t the best experience.

?At the club level things just did not go as I had expected. The players were just not committed and so I am through with cricket.?

During the 1979 ICC Trophy competition in England, Reid led Bermuda?s batting averages, runs scored in aggregate and produced the team?s highest individual score with an unbeaten half-century against East Africa at Birmingham.

He also enjoyed a playing stint at Warwick Workmen?s Club before ending a ten-year Cup Match career at Somerset in 1988 with an average of 20.29.

All Somerset cricketers and those interested in joining the club for the upcoming season have been asked to attend training on Sunday at Somerset Cricket Club, beginning at 10 a.m.