Rolling #2

No rain and a fairly decent day. Just after lunch I went over to 5 tree field to check it out for tomorrow and just as I was about to leave Ben and Joe said that they wanted to come and play cricket so we all went over there with all the gear and had a knock about. Both of them are really out of practice despite their Sunday excursions to Rayleigh and this shows in their struggle to bowl the full 22 yards. Having said that I don't think Joe's ever bowled the 22 yards as he's only 7 years old so we must have been letting him bowl 17 yards last summer? Anyway we did the same today and he bowled alright in the end - in fact he bowled me round the back of my legs with a really nice Leg Break a la Shane Warne V's Mike Gatting! Ben was most impressed and I was too - I couldn't believe it and reckon he must have had some assistance with a lump or a hole in the ground - but still impressive.

5 Tree field was fine - slightly sticky with very little bounce and a bit lumpy, but I'm up for it tomorrow if the others are, so I've sent them a text but as yet no reply.

This evening worked on my new blog - http://www.legspinbowling.blogspot.com/ which is coming along okay and the good thing is I've already managed to put a counter on it and already it's had 12 hits which 6 must have been my own. Earlier in the evening at dusk I dragged the roller onto our wicket and gave it a good rolling for 1/2 an hour and it did seem to have some impact. When I'd finished and came away from it, you can see clearly that someones done something there as all the grass is flat. But I reckon that it is a worthwhile venture as when you walk over the area you can feel underfoot that it is different from the rest of the field. I've gone along the length of the wicket and across it concentrating on the areas 3 or so yards in front of the stumps and down the very centre. I'll try and do it every weekend, but I would like at least another big bout of rain. I also reckon that once we start cutting the grass the impact of the roller will increase and I reckon that by June or July we might have a half decent wicket?