Bank Holiday

The weather's been okay so far - warm verging on very warm wth diffuse sunlight. So the ground is drying out. Last night was the big party (My Mum -in - laws 60th) and they took us all out today, so virtually no cricket - certainly no chance of a game with Grays & Chadwell and looking at the calender I'm away Whitsun Bank holiday as well with Joe on a "Beaver" camping trip so I'll miss a game then too. The only chance of a real game will be this coming weekend and Sods law will mean that it'll probably rain.

Despite the family commitments I've managed to throw a ball around outside of the house and had half hour over on the football field this afternoon and threw 9 balls this evening over there as well! The Leg break is coming together though, anytime I'm in the house or anywhere I do the throwing the ball from hand to hand in a range of diferent ways perfecting the spin and flick of the wrist and today I've been getting it to really rip with a very snappy wrist action that looks promising. Over a short distance it works quite well and sometimes when both the spin and the wrist flick come together it does turn a long way. One thing that is very satisfying is the line. Even though I don't always get the flick right and this then manifests itself as a top spinner the line has been spot on, this evening for instance the 9 random balls I bowled all went down the leg side several missing the leg stump by half inch and the other bouncing over the top with 2 balls that were crap that were dragged down and bounced 4 or five times. But my line is getting better and better.

The main thing I need to work on is just to keep with the Leg break and I'm convincing myself more and more that as the thumb gets better I ignore it and carry on with the leg break and leave the flippers and wrong uns till I'm happy with the Leg break. I feel like if I keep at it - it is going to come good, as I said I can bowl it fairly well over 17 yards and get it to turn most of the time, when it doesn't turn it's not a problem as it's straight and the line is good. Over 22 yards this morning I bowled several overs and some of them were turning but I have to be honest this is on a football pitch so whether the turn was dues to spin or bouncing off the side of a tuft of grass I'm not sure. But this morning the wrist flick was looking very affective, so just a bit more and I may have something that looks like a fair leg break ball.


As it was so dry today on the football pitch I've begun to work on cutting the wicket. The grass over there at this time of year is lush and thick, so using hand shears I cut the grass dead short into yards squares where I pitch the ball at both ends. Then this evening I've started to cut a strip 2' wide from stumps to stumps again using the shears and I'm half way. Once that's cut that then works as a starting point with the mower and I'll be able to cut the wicket the 66' x 6' wide (A bit narrow) if the weather holds out and is dry again tomorrow. Once it's cut because it's so short it then dries out nicely and is fairly easy to keep on top of, it's just a case of whether I get over there and use it enough to justify keeping it cut. I'm not right am I? I'm obviously completely mental!