Strewth! I missed this yesterday - but check this weather out - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081758/Octobers-weird-weather-continues-village-inundated-6ft-drifts-hailstones.html maybe we're going to have a proper Old Skool winter like back in the early 80's and 1962 and 1949?

Just went and had a quick look at the wicket. It looks as though the tractor has been on the field again and cut the grass ready for the weekend. The wicket is now only visible just because the grass looks greener and stronger especially where the top dressing has been put down, so that looks to have worked really well and really quickly. I've now got to research into using some kind of weedkiller to get rid of the plantain weed which is very prevalant on that part of the field. See image. There's a chemical called round-up that's pretty nasty, but that'll be a job for the spring, but you have to wait until the weed is actually growing so that when you spray it the leaves are covered in the chemical and then it's absorbed into the root and kills it. The chemical does kill the grass as well if you're not careful and there's all sorts of rules and advice about using the stuff as it is quite nasty. Once that's done mowing the wicket on a regular basis then helps the grass grow fairly densely and this in turn restricts the light from reaching the soil and germinating any seeds. I'm also hoping that we cut the wicket enough during the summer period so that the seeds from the plantain wouldn't have ripened and fell onto the wicket area?

So far it looks as though my efforts will pay dividends for next summer. My only real concern is the rolling of the wicket as the timing has to be right. If I do it too early in the season it'll get ruined again by footballers sliding and tramping all over it again, whereas if I leave it till towards the end of the season it may never get wet enough for the roller to have any impact on it?

Oh yeah I've lifted the plantain image from - http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/plantain2.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/plantain.htm&h=378&w=361&sz=46&hl=en&start=1&usg=__NH-j4y5RclzhhYrJLpEzYcGdtKs=&tbnid=SvYWoqnRXyGrpM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplantain%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

They seem to have the copyright on the image so I've linked to their website. Have a look it's a good gardening website.



On the subject of yesterdays comments re money corrupting and ruining sport, looks who's piped up with a similar point - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/1/20081030/ten-beckham-money-is-killing-sport-c60bd6d.html

Other than that the weather continues to be cold and rainy not allowing much to happen. I've been doing some of my exercises, especially the stretchy band behind the head for the rotator cuff. I've done a load of them and I'm now up to 30 at each go which means I'm now struggling to pull the thing apart by the time I'm up to the 26th stretch and it's an effort. Yesterday with it being a work day I did a few in the evening and that was about it, so at the minute I'm doing okay but I can see that once I'm back to work proper it'll be a bit of an effort.

I was hoping to get on the tarmac somewhere tonight for half an hour but looking outside we've got thunder and lightning so I don't suppose that'll happen. Ben and Joe on the other hand hopefully are going to try out a couple of places this next few days. On Saturday morning they're going to go and look at Basildon CC colts sessions at a local school which runs the sessions between 10 and 11.00 am which is ultra convenient. I'm just hoping the people and the kids there are going to be friendly and that they don't feel too intimidated by the situation. It'd be a shame if they were because I reckon both of them have a bit of potential in the right situation with the right encouragement. The thing with the Basildon club is that it's local and when the kids play matches both the local fields that they use are very nearby and good pitches. Then on Tuesday I'm going to take them down to Tilbury for my own clubs colts sessions and see how they get on there. Needless to say as it's my own club there's loads of plusses, but the club and the venue are miles away - and it relies on my wife taking them and I don't think she'd that up for it, whereas the saturday at Basildon is so much more do-able. We'll see what happens.....