'Coaching's changed and I've had to move with it'

Renowned for his immense contributions as a coach in cricket and hockey, and now also a keen umpire, he has joined the select few to be named in the Guernsey Sports Commission’s exclusive Coaching Roll of Honour.

But recognition has never been his motive. He instead does what he does for the love of coaching, to see players enjoy themselves and develop.

‘It’s being able to communicate to children and adults information that they won’t necessarily be able to pick up and then to watch them develop,’ he said.

‘You get the greatest pleasure when you see somebody actually achieving a great deal at the top.’

Sometimes, he has pleasant exchanges with pupils from many years ago, which also brings him joy.

‘They talk to you and you start to create relationships with people,’ he added.

‘There was a guy talking to me the other night... he was taking me back to 25 years ago and he’s playing hockey with his daughter and to me that’s fantastic.

‘Above all, though, you get enjoyment if the kids are enjoying it. You don’t enjoy it if they’re not enjoying it and they feel forced to.’

Before his diverse contributions to local sport, Kinder was inspiring young people in England.

His own education came at a grammar school in Nottinghamshire before he began teaching in 1972 at a Sheffield comprehensive, where he later became head of PE.

Always a cricketer, he noticed a lack of outlets for young players and began delivering sessions for the whole of Sheffield – staged at a local sports centre – which quickly bore fruit.

‘It was quite hard work, but very enjoyable, and eventually we managed to get people into the Yorkshire Schools selection processes.

‘Then we started to get local schools competitions, so we built up cricket from virtually nothing. There was only cricket for adults, mainly, in those days.’

He took his advanced coaching award in the company of Sir Clive Lloyd and even had the great honour of delivering sessions at Lord’s, meeting more fine people.

One outstanding feat of his was helping to develop a club side that won the U15 national championship.

Beyond prominent coaching roles, he also became chairman of the Yorkshire Schools Cricket Association.

So it was much to Guernsey’s gain when, in 1983, Kinder came over with his young family to teach at Elizabeth College. He was head of PE there and later became Guernsey cricket’s first development officer – these two roles ran in tandem for around 15 years.

He credited the 1989 cohort as his best College first XI, a side who achieved notable successes over MCC, Jersey’s Victoria College and the champions of Staffordshire over one May bank holiday weekend.

He considered it a well-balanced team, though he highlighted the individual excellence of all-rounder Stuart Mackay – known for his inter-insular century that summer, a feat only three other Sarnians have achieved to date – and opening batsman David Marshall.

Kinder has seen many other great players come through the College ranks.

Tim Hollyer-Hill showed real potential before being taken away so young by cancer, while he was also most impressed by Tim Ravenscroft, David Walder, Adrian Birkett, Will Thompson, James Warr, Pierre Moody and Mark Smith.

‘There are many of them – my only caveat would be, can you compare them with what it is now? And I don’t know, I’m not sure you can. It’s a different game now.’

Both in interview and at the Guernsey Sports Commission Awards, he paid tribute to former resident Ami Banerjee.

Banerjee formed a great partnership with Kinder when he came to coach at Elizabeth College in 2002, but he also impressed as a player who contributed heavily to Guernsey’s run of five inter-insular wins.

‘What a coach,’ remarked Kinder before describing him as an ‘Indian cricketer who played Indian-quality cricket’.

Individually, Kinder was also a successful bowler who enjoyed good longevity at Island senior and Channel Islands over-50 level – until a knee injury sidelined him.

But he still coaches and umpires to this day.

‘I’ve had a full career in cricket, really, and I still follow it – I look at the press, I look at the telly.

‘I follow people that I know and it’s interesting when you look at that. It’s “I know him” and “I worked with him” and I suppose the biggest person was Clive Lloyd, who, on that advanced course, was the first ever West Indian to be invited.’

His hockey coaching career began modestly on the hard shale pitches of his former Sheffield school.

At the time he was a qualified football coach and relatively inexperienced in hockey, and it would be much later, in Guernsey, that his interest would truly take off.

Kinder, in his words, ‘infiltrated’ Guernsey hockey.

Surrounded by influential figures such as David Wray, he became heavily involved as coach, umpire and player.

Over the last decade or so, he has been integral to Guernsey Hockey’s work in primary schools and serves as head coach of their successful Outreach programme.

Again, making sure children enjoy themselves and do not feel forced is critical.

‘The thing about hockey is that a lot of kids in Year 5 see a hockey stick as a strange object.

‘Because of that, it’s something new to them, they back off a little bit and they’re nervous.

‘The moment they’re nervous, they think they can’t do it, and the moment they think they can’t do it, they stop doing it – it’s our job to say there it is, you can use this, there it is, have a go.’

Kinder and co. use an England Hockey programme called Me and My Ball, focused on making lots of touches before developing into competitive situations.

The great stalwart said he wants to continue ‘as long as I can physically coach, as long as it’s appropriate’ and, as such, has not stamped an end date for this impressive coaching career.

But he admits being a coach now is very different to half-a-century ago.

‘Just like sport has developed, coaching has developed.

‘When I did my first coaching award, it was talk and tell and then take part – in other words, you taught people by telling them what to do.

‘There was no way round it – “You will do it this way” – so it almost created robots.

‘Coaching’s now moved on, so coaching is player-centred and you try to work as someone who’s facilitating the development of cricketers and hockey players.

‘You try to get them to suggest how they can develop themselves and we just facilitate that and provide opportunities.

‘The thing with the Outreach is I’m not there to criticise. Yes, I’ll give them some of the tools necessary to play the game and try to get them game-related, but all with enjoyment, that’s the real key thing.

‘Coaching’s changed and I’ve had to move with it – you have to move with the times.’