Saturday Practice 28th April

What a difference compared to the last session - a complete turn around! Read on......

In attendance we had Darren Hart, Trevor, Richard, Rod, Thomas, Dave, Alex, Simon and Badger, so a reasonable turn out. The weather was brilliant and we weren't hindered by footballers turning up although we did have the kids practicing football at Square Leg. In two and half hours we bowled 32 overs and that's with people padding up once they'd been dismissed. In 32 overs we scored 113 runs with 14 byes and only 6 wides! So a total of 133 and that was with 9 players two of which were still at the crease when we stopped and Simon had declared himself to let someone else have a chance (Which means he still hasn't been bowled out or dismissed for weeks)!

The Run tally...

Thomas - 36 (Bowled out - Alex)
Richard - 24 - (bowled out - Badger)
Badger - 20 - not out
Simon - 10 - declared
Rod - 10 - not out
Alex - 5 (LBW - Thomas)
Darren - 5 (Bowled out - Thomas)
Dave - 2 (Bowled by Simon caught by Badger)
Trevor - 1 (Bowled out - Thomas)

So an excellent session for Thomas most runs and most wickets!

Best Partnerships

Simon & Thomas 38 in 5 overs - 7.6 per over

Richard & Simon 32 in 7 overs - 4.5 per over

Badger & Rod 17 in 8 overs - 2.1 per over

Bowling

This doesn't make good reading for me personally and it looks like I might be out of a job!

Strike Rates (The lower the better)

Simon - SR 9

Alex SR 15

Thomas SR 7.5

Badger SR NA

Rod SR 9

Dave SR 21

Bowling Averages (The lower the better)

Simon 2.25

Alex 0.5

Thomas 2.3

Badger 13

Rod 2.5

Dave 25.5

Economy (The lower the better)

Simon 1.5
Alex 0.2
Thomas 1.4
Badger 2.6
Rod 1.6
Dave 7.2

Hmmm - don't look too clever for me! Alex you gotta stop me from bowling so many overs! Going on the data here it's the fast bowlers that are getting the wickets. Most of the runs were made off of me unfortunately - something like 75 runs!!!! Whereas the rest of you bowled a load of Maidens.... Alex 3, Thomas and Badger 2 and Rod 1.

On the plus side I only threw 3 wides in 8 overs, but the same applies to everyone else, hardly anyone bowled any wides.

After we left Great Berry I then went over to the James Hornsby and spoke to the caretaker Kevin and we've had to forfeit the £35 for missing the session. We've now got one more session in hand. While I was there I asked him about using their school field for cricket and he said yes but it's £12 an hour. I went and had a look and it's big and relatively flat - possibly very good for playing cricket on and a weird kind of grass? I said that we might use our remaining £35 to use their field next week for a few hours and he said that was fine and we could use it as long as we like so we could get out there for 4 hours next week 10 - 2pm? I said I'd have to come by with a mower in the next fortnight and cut a section shorter and see how lumpy it is and he was okay about that. So what do we reckon - use our last remaining credit to use there field free of kids or anyone and set whatever size boundary we want and really go for whacking the ball next time? (read on and see why). Or do we cancel the hall and get him to re-book for a session next November?

Later around about 3pm I was back at Great Berry trying to figure out where it's all going wrong for me and threw 71 balls and had the best practice session ever. While I'd been bowling I had a feeling I was bowling too long and during this practice session I bowled a lot shorter at different paces and it yielded far better results with the ball having more chance to spin and move across in front of the batsman. This session I recorded

15.4% Wides

18.3% Strike Rate

25% Good Balls

Which is by far the best session by miles! So now I need to do this with a batsman standing in the wicket, so on Sunday evening this is what I'll look to do.

Now here I am beating myself up over todays performance and then looking at the stats I realised that of the 113 runs that were made over 75 of them were against me. So if it wasn't for my appalling bowling today and Alex hadn't let me take that many overs - how may runs would you batsmen have made eh? Something to think about isn't it?

Cycling home from the practice session I went via a real cricket pitch which is only a few hundred yards away from where we practice and Basildon CC 2nd and 3rd XI were playing each other in a mixed team. The first team in had scored in excess of 230, so I stood and watched for a while. What I noticed was that their fast bowlers looked about the same calibre as ours. The fielding was good and energetic, but the batting and the wicket keeping was really good, especialy the wicket keeping. The bloke had a helmet and was padded up and he used his pads and whole body to stop the ball, so whether he had additional body padding I don't know but he was 2 foot behind the stumps facing up to the fast bowlers and it looked mental, but it was affective! The batsmen were just good e.g. getting on the end of everything and scoring runs. What I did notice was the size of the pitch - it was tiny and all of the fielders were in really close.

Money

I didn't take any money off of anyone, but time I'll have a tenner off those that turned up this week that come to the next session and we'll just charge £5 a session while we're playing out on the field. We've lost some balls recently don't know how but 5 have gone, so I'll probably buy another 6 to replace them as they are mine.

Injuries

Richard copped one in the shoulder off of Thomas and that should come up nice - I'll try and get a picture on Monday. He also got hit in both inner ankles wicket keeping and on the toe I think, so he stood in nicely for Mark Soye. Catching - now that hurts don't hit, it's obviously a skill that you need to learn. I got caught on the end of the finegr that bruised and hurt and also caught a ball and hurt the fleshy bit on the palm of my hand. Ouch!

Other than that a good day was had by all.

I've updated the profiles as well.