Medial Epicondylitis day 7

After a few days of grotty weather the sun came out this evening and blasted us with a lovely evening of 24 degrees and sunshine. So with a bucket of balls I made my way over to the field to have a practice but was waylaid by a group of kids and my sons and we all ended up having a knock about. I did start to bowl seam up again but hit a kid in the nuts with one of the Kookaburra plastic balls and he went down crying so I reverted to slower spinning balls and within a matter of minutes had re-activated my condition as such and was causing myself pain.

I've got a game Sunday at home and this will be my first this season. The line up as with the offer of a game I had a few weeks ago is full of spinners - Neil, Jay, Wayne, Alex and me, a combination of Chinamen, Leg Spinners, right arm and left arm finger spinners so that'll be interesting. With regards my arm and elbow (Medial Epicondylitis) I'll now rest it for the next 2 days and see what happens. I'll take pain killers prior to the match and see how that pans out and then if there is an aftermath as such I'll take a full 7 days off of bowling leading up to the next game and see if that helps. If that doesn't work I'll extend it to a 2 week lay off from bowling and so on. I bowled about 6-8 overs back to back after the kids had all gone bowling Leg Breaks, Flippers, Top-Spinners and Wrong Uns. The Wrong Uns were exceptionally good so I haven't lost the ability to bowl them. I'm having problems with the Flipper because of the swing and the fact that it's inconsistent and it feels as though it may be the Flipper that is exacerbating the Medial Epicondylitis and it did feel like it was a Flipper that triggered it tonight. But the 6-8 overs seemed to go okay despite the fact that I was suffering slightly. If it doesn't work out I'll just have to withdraw from the bowling attack on Sunday in the game, but I reckon with the pain killers I may be okay?

Ben and Joe News

Last week in the run up to the 1/2 term holiday a council flyer went round all the local schools with adverts for sports activities for kids to get involved in over the holiday. Included in the activities were 2 x 3 hour sessions at local pitches including Ben and Joe's pitch at Mopsies park.

We signed them up to the Mopsies one and then over the week the bloke who runs their team Reg rang and mentioned it too saying that most of their team had been advised to go as well. So they went along today and the weather held out for them.

Despite the fact that the flyer must have been distributed to possibly as many as 15 - 2o schools in the area covering literally thousands of kids the turn out for Non Basildon and Pitsea boys was 2. The other 20 kids were Basildon and Pitsea regulars. But the good thing was that meant that the standard was good and that it would have served as a good practice session. The other good thing is that it builds a sense of camaradare in the team when it's this informal and it was timed perfectly because the older son Ben (seen here in the picture) is in good form at the minute and seems to have turned a corner as he's batting quite well and bowling fairly well too. He's recently began to hit balls down the legside with some skill and oomph - enough to get himself some 4's if he can replicate the stroke in game conditions. Additionally he's been well up for using the proper balls and has copped a few in the body of late and toughed it out which is good to see.

So tonight when I got in Michelle said that she'd seen the end of the 3 hour session and they'd played a game. She'd timed it so that she arrived just as the game started. Ben was the captain of one team and Joe the younger son was the captain of the other. Ben's team batted first and Joe it seems was only given one 6 ball over and was hit around the park for a handful of 4's and 6's. Joe officially was too young at 7 as the sessions were supposed to be for 9 and older and loads of the over 13's were also there and it was these that poor little Joe was pitched against. But Joe bought himself a wicket, the kid was getting cocky by the end of the over so Joe threw one up and dropped it in shorter and slower, the kids swung at it and it wasn't there to be hit, the ball went past him by all accounts and hit the stumps.

Joe's team then went in to bat and as the last over came up Ben was given the ball for his second over. Joe's team needed 10 off of 6 balls. Ben took 3 wickets for 3 runs off the final over and won the match for his team, so he was well chuffed and hopefully it's this kind of experience that'll hook him into the game and he'll approach his practice and games in the coming weeks with a lot more enthusiasm? Michelle my wife who sees cricket as the work of the Devil seems to be warming to it as well slightly at last, she quite enjoys and looks forward to the prospect of sitting at the edge of the pitch in her deckchair reading a book with the sound of willow on leather set against the backdrop of Blackbirds singing in the Oaks nearby!

Their next match is against Wickford who by all accounts were very good last year, but we're hoping that some of their better players would have moved up to the over 11's catergory and the team will be slightly weaker.