Four days off and it's going to snow! Walking home from the railway station tonight I was looking at how wet the grass/earth is and noticed it was pretty much saturated again after a good period of dry weather and now the forecast is for snow probably tomorrow and almost certainly Saturday. So it looks like there's not going to be any cricket at all - devastated! .jpg)
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The image here was taken at Great Berry Open Space on the wicket I used to cut and maintain there - this was early April last year, so lets hope in a couple of weeks "Five Tree Field" will be looking the same?
So - what to do now? I suppose I could go back to bowling on concrete in the basket ball courts, at least that'll be some exercise and it'll keep me going, I might even be able to tempt Thomas down there as well as it's just round the corner from where he lives and I could get to bat a bit if I use one of the really crappy bats? So if there is a let up in the weather that's a definite option.
Other than that I could carry on trying to learn all the fielding positions. I think I now almost know all the basic legside fielding positions apart from the ones that are behind the bowler "Long On" I think is one of them which is at the edge of the field. I'll try and test myself later on and see if I can name them all. The other thing I also need to do is carry on learning the rules regarding umpiring and how to use the scoring books, I've not had a look at that for a while and I need to get back to that as well.
Today at work the dept that's adjacent to us had a bit of a shift around of all their desks and it seems that the Sports Science blokes are all moving up to where we sit, so I'm going to be sitting right next to a bunch of cricket players and all ready they're saying that later in April they'll all be getting down to the nets and that I should go along too. (These are the blokes that are mates with the 6'8" South African or Aussie bloke that put a fast one in my ribs last year). So that'll be something to look forward to!
Another thing I can try and do is replace my grips on some of my bats. I had a look around at the applicator devices today and didn't realise they were so simply constructed. Being as skint as I am I'm now trying to think how I can make one myself, they seem so simple in design I can't see why there's a reason not to be able to come up with some kind of idea that would work? Looking at the construction I reckon I could probably make one entirely out of wood and I may give that a go tomorrow?
Other than that I could carry on trying to learn all the fielding positions. I think I now almost know all the basic legside fielding positions apart from the ones that are behind the bowler "Long On" I think is one of them which is at the edge of the field. I'll try and test myself later on and see if I can name them all. The other thing I also need to do is carry on learning the rules regarding umpiring and how to use the scoring books, I've not had a look at that for a while and I need to get back to that as well.
Today at work the dept that's adjacent to us had a bit of a shift around of all their desks and it seems that the Sports Science blokes are all moving up to where we sit, so I'm going to be sitting right next to a bunch of cricket players and all ready they're saying that later in April they'll all be getting down to the nets and that I should go along too. (These are the blokes that are mates with the 6'8" South African or Aussie bloke that put a fast one in my ribs last year). So that'll be something to look forward to!
Another thing I can try and do is replace my grips on some of my bats. I had a look around at the applicator devices today and didn't realise they were so simply constructed. Being as skint as I am I'm now trying to think how I can make one myself, they seem so simple in design I can't see why there's a reason not to be able to come up with some kind of idea that would work? Looking at the construction I reckon I could probably make one entirely out of wood and I may give that a go tomorrow?
Just to brighten up the blog - here's "Five Tree Field" with 3 of the 5 trees just to the right of the wicket. Not ideal but everyone will have the same batting fielding issues so we'll just have to live with it. This was shot in February and is the place that I've designated as being my main practice area and the intention is to do exactly as I did with Great Berry Open Space (See above) - mow it, maintain it as best I can and mark out the crease. In case you're only just looking in and catching up on the rationale and asking why choose there with the trees when you can use the same place you did last year in the image above? The reason I'm using this field (Five Tree Field) is that last summer there was a big group of blokes 20-30 of them that played cricket on this field all summer using kids size stumps and bats and a cricket tennis ball. what I'm trying to do is get them to play cricket with real equipment and a full size wicket.
You might also ask why not get them to go to the other field? Well that is the intention once I've got their trust as the other field is about a mile away and is a much better field that the council have already said they have no issues about me marking out the wicket and mowing it and it's flatter. But some of these blokes are first generation immigrants I think and I'm not sure they're all English speaking and when I spoke to them last year they seemed slightly wary of me. So I've got to gain their trust and make friends with them before I start getting them to move out of their comfort zone and playing elsewhere. It may sound like a lot of aggro, but these bloke were playing 20/20 matches nearly every night of the week it seems and they looked pretty handy. They all looked like fairly decent medium pace bowlers, so if I can get this up and running not only is there the potential for real cricket matches on the nearby council pitches (400 yards away) but it's non-stop practice and cricket all summer!
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