End of year review 16127 more to follow......

Well it's a few more hours till Christmas, I've got to wrap up a bike for my younger son and make a start on the final entry for this year. I've noticed that I've just had a couple of followers added to my followers list - so cheers you blokes for tagging along with my cricket diary, thanks for the support.

So a good year for me 2009 - it's the year that it finally all came together, looking back at the blog entries it's only been a little over 3 years that I've been playing cricket. I started in summer 2006 when my younger son broke his arm so July 2006 and this was the first time I'd picked up a cricket bat since I was about 11 or 12. Around that time back in 1971 - 1972 the amount of hours playing cricket must have been about 2! So it was at the age of 46 that I started playing. 2007 was as the MPA 1st XI - last 2 months of this year with G&CCC.
2008 was with G&CCC playing badly.
2009 - with G&CCC not bowling too bady.

I think my objective last year was to beat my mate 'The Wizard's' figures and I managed to do so. The other big thing was to recover my Leg Break which I also managed.

2009 also saw my sons start playing cricket with B&PCC and a change in where we practice. In 2008 we started to practice on a local field near us and we continued to do so in 2009, but during 2009 I realised that a neglected paddock across the road from my house was big enough to practice in and what with it having a fence round it - it was almost usable as a net to train in. The surface was ridiculously uneven but over the months during the summer I filled in the cracks and worked to get it a lot more even and towards the end of Autumn I seeded it and levelled it using a roller.

2010

I'd like to be able to say that I'm going to play more cricket in the summer, but the likelyhood is that I wont be - I've got a wife and 2 kids so there's alway competition for my time, so it'll be once every weekend that I can manage it. There was talk last year because of my massive improvement in my bowling and the fact that I'm pretty committed in the field that I might be better off playing league cricket for the 2nd XI on a Saturday rather than friendly cricket on Sundays, so I'll see how that pans out. At the minute I've not made my mind up about what I'm going to do and it's primarily down to how it fits in with the family situtation. What I would like to do though it play right from the outset as I didn't get a game till May last year which was disappointing. But I reckon my objectives for this year will be to improve my wickets, average, strike rates and batting, but more of that later.

The Paddock

The paddock, if you've been reading the posts over the last few months is kind of coming together. I've contacted the council about the fencing around it and they've said that it's earmarked for renewal, so that my happen in the new year. With regards to the on-going rennovation of the wicket that we've established for practicing I've noticed in more recent weeks especially with the snow on the ground in the last few days that people walk across it. Unfortunately this in the area where I'll be bowling, so whereas I thought it was going to be easy to prepare it for next summer it looks like it's going to be more awkward, but despite this I'll persevere with it and get it as good as I can. To be honest when we first started using it back in July it was a wreck and the work we've done with it already if we were just to leave it as it is now would represent an exponential improvement in that it would be relatively flat.

On a more optimistic note I still think there's scope to roll it several times before we start to play on it, but I concede that any early rolling and further sewing of seeds will be not work as the best option and I think we'll have a fairly thin covering of grass on the area that is currently being damaged. But I reckon as long as it rolled early in the spring and then is allowed to dry without sustaining further damage as it dries we'll end up with a nice wicket to practice our bowling on. So in short I'll keep my eye on it and try and get it as good as I can ready for May.

The Rec

A big change for us will be re-location to the Rec for our games and practicing. As my lads are getting older they're now able to go further afield in their wanderings and I'm expecting that they'll be going as far as the Rec on their own this summer - they did this summer to some extent. I'm also expecting the other kids on the estate to be doing the same thing and this means there's real potential for bigger groups of boys to play cricket as the estates that surround 'The Rec' kids are far more 'Posh' and middle class and as a consequence many of the boys that frequent the Rec have their own bats and play cricket for their schools so this offers good opportunities for my kids to bowl against decent kids and face similar bowling. So that's something we'll be looking forward too. Additionally it's also the place where the old tennis courts are where we practice over the winter when the weather has been fine and where we'll test out our new 'Backyard' game 'Pair 25's'. This also has an additional benefit in that it means we'll not have to use the 'Paddock' because we have somewhere else to practice pre-season and that'll enable us to give the Paddock a chance to establish grass growth quite well. Additionally the big field at the Rec has a cricket pitch and if the weather allows it - we'll be able to use the outfield for any practice on grass if need be.


Pair 25's

Not only do I reckon I've come up with a good practice format with this game, but some of the blokes at work who used to be in the MPA 1st XI are up for trying it out and having a game and a knock about which'll be good for my own batting and bowling. The blokes at work are gagging to give it ago to the point where they sound like they'll give it a go as soon as the weather breaks and it gets a little warmer. Some of them will come into Basildon from as far as



Fitness


My Bowling


My Batting

Winter Equinox

Looking for Legspin specific blogs? - see these....
http://spinbowling-wrongun.blogspot.com/
http://spinbowling-legbreak.blogspot.com/
http://spinbowling-flipper.blogspot.com/

At last it's here the Winter Equinox, December 21st http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice the shortest day of the year where here in the southern half of the UK the sun rises at about 07.45 and sets around 16.00 hrs giving not a lot more than 8 hours of light. The good thing is that it marks the start of the race towards summer and lengthening daylight hours, so each day marks the prospects of more light to bowl in and later in the year warmer weather. After 4 days of snow and ice we've seen rain today and an increase in temperature so there's a thaw, so hopefully sometime over the Christmas break there will be an opportunity to go and bowl.

I've updated the Leg Spin blog with some videos I've shot today in response to some requests on a forum, so there's a couple more videos uploaded covering spinning exercises described by Peter Philpott in his book 'The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8wAzBKmgYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zob1Md0HVqs

Backyard Cricket 'Pair 25's'

I've been trying to come up with ideas for practice formats with limited numbers of people. At the start of the MPA 1st XI we used to have a knock about in the hall after nets where it was one bloke against everyone else, but it lacked something and the obvious thing is the running between the wickets in pairs. Then over the last couple of summers as my lads have got older we've been playing cricket on the local field sometimes in pairs, sometimes as singles, but again even in pairs the onus of the game was the individuals score. Also these variations were played in a 'Terrier cricket" style where there was a limit of two overs each and there was a tendency for the better kids to hog the Strike. So I've come up with another variation which I'm calling Pair 25's.

The idea of the game is that the onus is on the pairs to play for each other and instill the need to communicate with reach other and work together. The game can be played over as many overs as they like, so that the approach they take is up to them, but they're looking to reach 25 runs and do so on the 1st ball of a new over, because as soon as they reach the 25 they have to declare but then have the opportunity to bat out the remainder of the over. So theoretically if they reach 25 or pass 25 on the first ball of the over they can potentially hit 5 more sixes off the remainder of the balls in the over and get their score up to in excess of 55.

The partnership ends as soon as one of the pair is dismissed, but the other batsman remains to make up the new pair, so in effect good batting is rewarded with more batting. That batsman has to stay focussed and it kind of emulates a real game situation. The format suits our new set up where we've been practicing in tennis courts and the like and would probably suit indoor cricket in sports halls. But the potential of it is that it appears to work quite well using a backyard cricket approach to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backyard_cricket and if you've got 10 or more players you can even have 2 umpires. But in a small area it seems to be workable with as little as six people.

Paddock update - 15966

Not a lot of work able to be done on the Paddock, but what with the snow being on the ground I could see where people have been walking when they come into the Paddock and the bad news is it's right on the wicket pretty much where I need to be bowling and it's more or less just about where the dog has been causing the damage which leaves me with a bit of a dilemma.

I'm now considering working on the bowling end and maybe preparing that instead. The downside to that option is that the fence behind the wicket is in a bad state of repair and the ground is as bad as the current good end was in the summer which is pretty bad.

I think I'm going to have to stick with the current end for this season and just hope that the grass does hold together and establishes a good root system that then wont be too damaged by any rolling I do as the season approaches.

Line and length

On the forums there's a lot of discussion centred around bowling Leg Breaks on a good line and length. As a learner the Wrist Spinner is notoriously innacurate leading to situations where they as individuals may lose a game for the whole team or in a better scenario they're taken off. Everyone knows that if you bowl short you're going to be hit for 4's and 6's to the four corners of the ground with ease by a batsman with a modicum of skill and as a result many Wrist Spinners throw in the towel and turn to one of the other easier bowling disciplines.

Currently I'm asking the question - is there any merit in leaving your efforts to spin the ball on the back boiler and focus on bowling straight just to ascertain whether you can bowl the ball on a decent line and length? The theory being that if you can establish this, you then at least know that you've got a grasp of the fundamentals. If you can master the basic actions of bowling it then strikes me that you would only need then to change your grip to the basic wrist spinners grip and start to add on the step over, the arm coming through past your hip, the rotation of the shoulders and the follow through and the ball is going to start to turn away from the edge of the bat?

A year ago this was virtually what I had to do in order to recover my Leg Break when it was lost to the Googly Syndrome. I went through a couple of months of bowling the Top Spinner with the wrist flick looking to turn the wrist slightly to get the leg break it didn't happen. It was only when I stopped trying to flick the wrist and concentrated on the basic wrist position and emphasised this in conjunction with making sure the ball left the 3rd finger with good contact that the ball started to move off the seam towards off.

Practice session

At last I had a practice today for the first time in weeks and it went okay, Very accurate varying degrees of turn off the surface in accordance to how I bowled - I do have a variation that turns big and my usual one which turns well and is faster. Threw a few wrong uns that went well, I was more impressed with the line and length than with the amount of turn I was getting off the surface. Threw a couple of the Flipper Top-Spinners they were good both went straight on to the stumps. Normal back-spinning Flippers were rubbish all were full tosses, so I'll have to work at them. All in all a promising looking session. Tried the Biggun with very limited success, there's something there - but it'll need a lot of work.

The Paddock

Here's where all this DIY pitch prep inspiration came from - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02b_xMIi3vg&feature=related
I had another look at the paddock today and it looks as though the same person has been on there again since yesterday and the dog has done the same thing. I reckon if I could catch whoever it is that's doing it I'll have a word with them and try and get them to stand somewhere different. I had a walk round the rest of the paddock which was depressing because it now looks like the bit of the paddock that looks to be in the worse state of disrepair is the bloody wicket area! I'm now trying to come up with a different solution to the problem.

As you can see the damage of the 'Dogged' section in comparison of the 'Non-dogged' section nearer the stumps on the Leg Side is obvious.

I went over to my Father in Laws and had a look at his school field (He's the caretaker) as it's being repaired by a professional company and he was saying that a large section of the field was still looking a bit poor because the seed was sewn at the start of a 6 week drought in the summer when it didn't rain once. He was saying that the company are going to put seed down this coming week because of the continuing mild weather. I considered doing the same, but the fact is if the grass does come through it's only going to be ruined by the dog.

I was watching some old video of the 2007 world cup in Jamaica and noticed the Sabina Parl wicket

and how shiny it is and realised that if it wasn't for the dog I could roll the surface now because the surface is so wet and possibly work towards getting it this kind of flat. I think in the short term there's not a lot I can do and I've just got to live with the fact that this damage is obviously going to continue. Timing is a major factor because when I roll it in the late winter or spring I need to do so when it's in the kind of condition it's in at the moment e.g. ultra soft and saturated with water. I reckon too at that stage I should also seed it and then just hope that it slowly dries out without sustaining any more damage from dogs or people. If the grass doesn't take I may have to change tactics and work towards getting as above. The grass that does survive which looks like it's all going to be on the Leg side I'll just have keep ridiculously short. All that aside I came across this article about earth/bulli

http://www.agcsa.com.au/static/atm_articles/html/1_4e.html


Clay mineralogy
Clay soils are composed of secondary minerals derived from primary parent rock minerals during the natural weathering processes. Most of the clay in natural soils is colloidal and which is of a crystalline structure. The crystalline structure can be seen by high-powered microscopy. The crystalline structure of clays are either of a two-layer or a three-layer. The dominant atoms are silicon and oxygen and to a lesser extent, aluminium. The degree and pattern of � soil cracking� during normal wetting and drying cycles of wickets is primarily determined by the type of clay crystalline structure. Clay minerals are basically classified into one of three clay groups. These groups being kaolinite, illite and montmorillonite (smectite). Clay mineralogy is typically determined by X-ray diffraction techniques and differential thermal analysis. Wicket soils are typically composed of each clay mineral in varying proportions. Uniformity of the cracking of the wicket surface is an inherent characteristic within the soil, based on the proportions of each clay type.
The kaolinite clay group comprises a two-layered, rigid structure that does not expand when wet. Illite has a three-layer structure and is another clay type like kaolinite, which does not expand when wet. English wicket soils are largely composed of illite and kaolinite. Montmorillinite or smectite on the other hand is a two-layer structure. Montmorillinite does have space between the layers and which expands when wet. In addition, montmorillinite clays have a greater capacity to exchange cations and which are held in the exchangeable (plant available) form (Donahue et al 1971). Both Bulli and Merri Creek soils are largely composed of smectite. Bulli and Merri Creek soils are alluvial black earths. Collins wicket soil (Sydney) is a volcanic black earth with properties which mirror those of the original Bulli soil.
Clay mineralogy results in linear and volumetric changes of clay soils, which explains their cracking ability. This is readily seen during wetting and drying cycles. High quality clay soils must possess plasticity (ability to be moulded and shaped without rupture) and maintain coherence (ability to remain dense when in a dry and moulded state). Changes in linear and volumetric shrinkage have long been used by civil engineers to characterize the structural stability of soils. Linear and volumetric shrinkage can be readily measured by laboratory methods and is a useful physical measurement to compare unknown soils in order to predict their behavior in the field. Intimate knowledge of the properties of clay soils plays a vital part of wicket preparation to achieve the desired results.

Finally............

I've just seen that Ryan Giggs has just won the BBC sports personailty of the year. I'm not a big fan of football but I've always liked the way Giggs plays football and I especially like the fact that this bloke is almost double the age of the people he plays alongside and with and he's still there in the Premiership. Well done Ryan Giggs!

General update 15745

Looking for Legspin specific blogs - see these....
http://spinbowling-wrongun.blogspot.com/
http://spinbowling-legbreak.blogspot.com/
http://spinbowling-flipper.blogspot.com/

Eventually got to have a look at the paddock and yes it has sustained a lot of damage - I'll try and shoot some pictures of it tomorrow and upload them. As described a few days ago the damage is being done by a rather big dog and the new grass growth is being trodden into the mud by the dog going back and forth. There was a load of leaves as well in amongst the mud and on the wicket generally, so I've raked them away. Where the dogs footprints had created real uneveness I've kind of raked it hard to sort of level it off a bit, but in doing so realise that's potentially damaging to the grass and the roots.

I'll have another look tomorrow and see if there's anything more I can do, but I'm fairly resigned to the fact there's very little I can do. I'm trying to think of something I can do that is simple to encourage this bloke to stand somewhere else so that the dog runs back and forth to another spot on the paddock and the only thing I can think of is to put a paving slab or something nearby where this bloke stands to entice him to stand on that instead?

Bowled and batted with the kids over at the tennis courts went okay - video'd the proceedings. I'm hoping tomorrow to have an hour of bowling properly on my own and maybe video it.

Weather & wickets 15633

Nothing doing so just stuff about the weather. I knew it seemed a bit rainy but blimey that was 50 days of rain!

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20091207.html

So next we've got Frost to look forward to and possibly fog, at least I'll be able to get out on to the paddock do some repairs, sweep the leaves away and look at doing some levelling at the bowlers end. Photo's soon to update how it's going Wo-hoo! (Said in a Homer Simpson manner).

Looking for Leg spin specific stuff? Have a look at my other blogs......

http://spinbowling-wrongun.blogspot.com/
http://spinbowling-legbreak.blogspot.com/
http://spinbowling-flipper.blogspot.com/