Back in action

16808

W'hey I'm back in action, went to the hospital and the bloke said the dislocation is fine and that I just need to exercise the ligaments and get them back into shape. Went straight home and bowled for an hour or so and did exceptionally well, noticed that some of my balls do drift, one was pitched just wide of the off-stump, it drifted in landed just outside of Leg Stump came back in off the wicket and hit middle and off! I was Shane Warne!!! LOL!

So I'll be playing Sunday with a bit of luck?

The Paddock Wicket

Today's been a lovely day possibly the warmest day this summer with it getting up to 30 degrees centigrade. The weather reports are that in the next few days there maybe rain so I've been working on the wicket in the paddock. Even though it's still been dead lumpy we've been batting on it on the odd ocassion and that combined with the recent good weather the grass has all but died. I've treated the plantain with weed killer and most of that has gone although it could do with a drop more. But what with the grass dying off and going yellow and being scuffed up I've got more of an idea of how level the area is and it's clear to see that the work that's already been done is coming together.

So today I've been trying to level it off and make it ready for seeding. Looking at some on-line resources the recommendation is that it's seeded between now and early Autumn. So if I can get a nice level bed ready for the sowing of the seeds, that'll mean I'll be able to cover the seeds with another layer of topsoil, which'll be made up of primarily clay along with some compost and then roll it. If that's successful it looks as though we'll have a nice level area which is approx 9' wide and 20' deep onto which we can bowl. It's looking as though by the end of Sept maybe early October as long as it's not too dry we may have a lovely new wicket on the way ready for next summer and it's looks as though it's going to be dead flat.

At the minute it's looking far better than it was when we first started using it and it is almost level already. The earth that's been used to level it at the moment is lying loose on top and in between what was clumps of grass, with the couple of times that I've cut it, the clumps are no longer so clumpy and the area being worked on is pretty even. My only real concern is that I'm not 100% certain how long the new layer that is being gradually built up will take to integrate with the existing layer of earth and become as one. The theory that I'm working with is that as the new grass seeds takes the roots will bind the two seperate layers and as the winter comes and the earth is saturated the clay will then combine and become one. It should work.

The Paddock June - with 1st levelling work.
The Paddock Mid July looking a bit patchy with the earth visible between the clumps. The Paddock today - a lot less grass and to me a lot more level.

Bowling

The first ball I bowled since dislocating my fingers hit the stumps middle and leg coming in from the legside, so that was a promising start! The hour that I bowled went really well and backed up the notion that sometimes taking a break from intensive practice is a positive move that sometimes moves your bowling forwards. I mentioned either here or elswhere that I never watch the ball as it flies through the air, I'm totally focused on where it's going to land and whether it's going to turn off the wicket, but I've been involved in a lot of forum dicsussions on how much does the ball need to spin in order that it turns off the wicket. As a consequence the day or so before I did my finger I'd taken to watching the ball as it flew through the air away from me and observed how much it was rotating and this was with this new relaxed grip technique that I've developed. The things is it truns what looks to me as being relatively slowly, but despite the speed of the rotation it breaks off the wicket quite well! But today with my absence from bowling and looking at my bowling with fresh eyes and now watching the ball go away from me in flight I noticed that one of my first balls left the hand heading for the off-stump rotating almost 90 degrees to the the wicket and then it drifted in towards the leg-side landing outside the leg-stump and then breaking back in and hitting Middle and Off! Not a big break maybe 6" outside of leg, but nonetheless a good delivery! So perhaps I do get the ball to drift or maybe this is new with this new delivery technique, or is it that I just have never watched the ball flying through the sky before? But it's a good start after my finger incident.