Not a lot of cricket happening for me personally, what with the shift to British summer-time the day didn't pan out in the way that I'd hoped for and any cricket activities that happened today were all centred around Ben and Joe.
Yesterday was a cricket failure as Michelle had signed us all up to go on a paintball type activity without paintballs. Though when we got on the bus G-Man was there along with his son Ryan and Harrison with his Dad (Another couple of kids in Ben and Joes team). Talking to G-Man while we were shooting the other teams he was saying that he's seen a massive difference in both Ben and Joe's abilities over the last year and was pleased with their progress as I am. Incidentally we teamed up with the other cricketers calling ourselves the 'A' Team http://www.lasertagessex.co.uk/ and took on a couple of girls and their Dads making us a 10 person team and we went on to win every single battle whether attacking or defending meaning at the end of the day we were the team that won overall not being beaten in any battles - which was good.
So if there was any cricket to be had it was going to be today. Just before the training session with the B&PCC we went over to 'The Rec' and had a quick knock about and warm up there and then more or less went straight to the last indoor session at Fitzwymarc School. As with last week they played a few games instead of the usual bowling and batting practice and it went well. Ben was commended for his good fielding - he was getting his leg down for his long barrier and just getting his body in the way of the ball generally. He bowled nice and tight conceding few runs and not bowling any wides as far as I recall. He's a lot more confident with the bat now as well, but does still tend to hit in the air a bit, but as G-Man had said yesterday he's a lot better than he was last year. In fact a lot better than he was in September, I think the work that we've all been putting in over at The Rec during the winter in the tennis courts has made a big difference to all of us - me included.
Joe though had a brilliant game. He took four wickets and was on a hat-trick at one point, but the event of the session was a brilliant jump and stretch to his high left of off Charlies batting which he plucked out of the sky taking his wicket. As he did it I was thinking 'No way is he going to get that' imagining that at best he might take some of the stimg out of it's flight but his little hand reached out and it stuck solidly to produce a brilliant catch that Ben said of it "Joe's catch was better than mine a few weeks ago I reckon". They looked fairly much the same - but I saw Ben's from a different angle and his had looked special and it was off of Killers big batting, but then Joe's was a left-handed catch so I reckon they were both on par with each other. So that was a good game with both of them pretty enthusiastic at the minute about the prospects of the new season. The only down-side I can see of the new season is that there are so many kids in the team at the minute, it looks as though they'll be lucky to get a game every fortnight?
Jeff Noble had a word with me about getting involved in the B&PCC set up, I said that I'd help out as much as I can and said that I'm up for helping out, but he was a bit vague about what he wanted me to do instead asking me what it was that I wanted to do? Not sure of any of the particular roles that there are in these kind of set-ups I said that I was willing to do the scoring and help out where possible. He went on to talk about coaching and I said that I'd be up for taking the courses and he said that the club would pay for the training and that it would be a couple of Saturdays in Sept/Oct this year and I said I'd do that. In the meantime I'm well up for helping out with the training and he said that I could shadow the current trainers this summer, so that'll be good.
Paddock News
What with the recent rain and the fact that it's now been more than 2 weeks since I put down the grass seed, I had a think about what the next move should be. It looks like for whatever reason that seed hasn't taken it looks like Plan B needed to swing into action. This morning I had a look around the garden and found a bag of processed earth that I'd graded last summer - 25% compost 75% clay. So I decided to have a second go at seeding the patches and this time rather than just rolling the seed into the clay I'd cover it with this earth and then roll it and also do some repairs as there's a couple of dents that need some work. So after the training session with Ben and Joe I went over and did the work and rolled it again. After it was rolled it was looking exceptionally good and it has got to grow this time surely as we're almost in April!!! As night fell this evening there were drips of drizzle, but it could do with a good drop of rain to help this new earth merge and also give the seed a good soak and hopefully get it on its way.
I've just looked at the forecast and there's a chance of light rain with some heavier rain in the weak. The most troublesome thing is the fact that there's going to be a series of night where the average temperature is due to drop to 2 degrees which wont help as that may damage the seeds? On a more positive front the day-time temperatures are going to be 10 degrees with sunshine and showers, so if the seed can survive the cold potentially frosty nights - the prospects look good.
More cricket
Then this evening Joe, Ben and I had a knock about using the Bradman bat and Ben was doing exceptionally well with that. I reckon by the end of the summer there may be a big improvement in Bens batting, the key thing he needs to be doing is playing it slightly later so that he keeps it on the ground. With regards his bowling he just needs to keep it as it is, because he just gets faster and faster and more and more accurate.
