Ben and Joe had their training session today and came away saying that they weren't that excited about the whole affair because they're going over the same thing again and again. I think Ben is beginning to suffer from teenager - itis, where he doesn't like to be told that he's doing it wrong despite the fact that the coach was explaining that if he continued to field as he was he'd end up with broken fingers. Neither of them seem to grasp that the amount of practice required in order that they attain a decent level of proficiency. I think all the coaches today worked well with them - Neil, Dave and Graham and kept them busy. They even had a bit of a game in the middle and I'm wondering whether they too sensed an overall feeling of despondency amongst the kids? This is where no doubt the wheat will be sorted from the Chaff and I'm hoping that my lads are 'The Wheat'.

In the game both of them bowled 2 overs of 3 so the equivalent of an over. Joe bowled a maiden across the six balls and every ball was met with a 'Ohhh'! From all and sundry and Neil was encouraging him from the umpires position - from what I could tell from Neils reactions and Joe's indifferent report after was that 6 of his balls were right on the stumps 2 went over the stumps and the other 4 were Leg Breaks that all spun away from their original trajectory of hitting the stumps. Ben was slightly less successful but then he bowls straight and had better calibre bats to bowl against, I think he went for one. Similarly he either went over the top or just missed the edge down the off-side. One was hit and a run taken and one got an inside edge that then bounced off the leg and ricocheted passed the off-stump. But despite this they were indifferent to the session. Neither of them batted particularly well either. The rest of the session was made up of catching drills, long barrier practice and throwing accuracy. I thought it was a good session.

The weather needs to turn in order that we can get out onto our field and put some of this stuff into practice. Let's hope Easter is fine weatherwise?

With regards the field, it was used for football training this morning. It rained heavy this afternoon while we were at the training session, but the weather turned too cold for me to bother with another rolling. But it had been dry enough recently to get the mower on it I reckon and I need to keep and eye on this as it will get out of control. The field itself was cut last week, so for the moment it's quite short.