Mid week no sign of a game at Thurrock - not on any of the team lists. Towards the back end of the week I got an email from Wayne asking if I could play Saturday, I emailed Wayne saying that Saturday wasn't possible but if there was anything going for Sunday I'd be up for it and then didn't get a response so as Friday came I was looking at a gameless Sunday. Then on Saturday morning a bloke from B&PCC (Joe and Ben's team) rang and asked if I could play for them and I said yes. So on Sunday morning I was at Grays with Ben and Joe who play for B&PCC who were playing against my club - Thurrock. Then in the after I played with their club against SLHCC. So it was going to be a bit hectic as usual.
The weather for the weekend was predicted to be good - the warmest days of the year so far with the temp up in the 28 degree region. So Saturday started out with us setting the net up in the paddock and Ben and Joe initially quite enthusiastic about the prospect of batting and bowling. That started out okay but within a short period of time the heat was taking the fun out of it and they got fed up and neither of them were batting well. But we had about an hour in there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX7f53F5QS8 The surface of our wicket in the paddock with the heat and it being clay is beginning to break up and come loose and possibly is causing the ball to move off it's line too readily so even throw downs become difficult to bat. Faster balls tend to be truer, but I don't think that helps too much with their batting as they benefit from the ball being bowled at increasingly faster rates rather than going straight into fast balls.
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In the afternoon we went over the Rec with 3 other families and had a knock about, but again slightly problematic in that my boys want to play it seriously and the majority of the others are just mucking about. The only thing that they potentially end up improving is their bowling, but then everyone else is saying 'Give the other kids a chance' and things like that. The other aspect is when the not so adept kids are bowling the fielders and the batsmen get bored because the ball isn't on target, so these are difficult situations to manage. In essence we need more kids that play a bit who can bat and more importantly bowl so that my two kids have to learn to play proper strokes. All in all though a good day in the warm sun. The kids came home slightly red primarily from the hour in the morning in our nets.
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Sunday B&PCC v Thurrock (AKA Grays and Chadwell CC)
So, Sunday morning up at some stupid time getting ready to get the boys off to Grays. Again the prospects of another beautiful hot sunny day in stark contrast to the week before. We arrived early and soon were set up with some stumps and got the lads practicing with their bowling. B&PCC were put in to bat first with Harry Davy and Billy Franks opening between them the came away from their 2 overs with a figure of minus 6 what with both of them being dismissed once each ( -5 points for each wicket lost) Billy Franks hit a four. As you can see this version of the game Terrier Cricket focus's on the need to not lose your wicket and I suppose is designed to encourage the boys to play straight and not go swinging at the ball when it's straight.
Ben and Alfie Davy were up next and they came away from their 2 overs with minus 3, Ben lost his wicket -5 and they both made a run each + 2, so as a pair they did better than the opening pair.
Ben comes away having only been dismissed once and is relatively happy.
Ben comes away having only been dismissed once and is relatively happy.Joe and Joe Franks were up next. Our Joe who probably likes batting less than Ben came away un-scathed and played a good innings, playing straight and blocking the balls that were on his stumps, anything wide he had a go at and one ball off of the kid bowling from the pavillion end he made good contact with but the Grays boys were on their toes in the field and were fielding with full-on committment and the ball which may have gone for 4 was fielded comfortably. Joe Franks a big swinger of the bat across the line on the other-hand in his first game was dismissed twice - bowled once and run out once, his run out was off a ball hit to Mid Wicket, Joe saw it was going straight to the bloke and stopped, but Joe Franks was well on his way and Joe legged it and made it home, but the fielder threw down the stumps from almost side on leaving Joe Franks short of his crease by about 4 metres he ended up minus 10 + 2 runs; Minus 8 for the pair. 
Joe contemplates a clean sheet and no minus figures.
Anthony Ayres and Charlie Blerkom were up next and did really well coming away with the only set of plus figures. Both Anthony and Charlie made runs scoring 4 and 3 respectively and with only Anthony's wicket being taken they came away with + 2 runs.
Anyway, all that aside and the fact that they did lose doesn't reflect the fact that they batted far better than in the previous games a lot fewer wickets were lost and at the end of their innings the prospects looked excpetionally good. The Grays boys had some good bowlers, but most impressive was their fielding, very energetic and tight with our lads not being able to get the ball through the fielders.
The Grays lads on the other hand batted well and were quick to take singles looking for opportunities when our fielding was a bit lack lustre. Our bowling was pretty good, but the Grays lads batting was more than up to it and they lost fewer wickets and were soon past our total and in a strong position. The last four batsmen stood their ground and held on to their wickets consolidating their position and winning the match by ********
But our lads came away realising they'd put in a good performance that demonstrated a good level of improvement over the previous week.
The Grays lads on the other hand batted well and were quick to take singles looking for opportunities when our fielding was a bit lack lustre. Our bowling was pretty good, but the Grays lads batting was more than up to it and they lost fewer wickets and were soon past our total and in a strong position. The last four batsmen stood their ground and held on to their wickets consolidating their position and winning the match by ********
But our lads came away realising they'd put in a good performance that demonstrated a good level of improvement over the previous week.
The Bowling
Here's the bowling figures Ben opened the bowling and bowled 2 overs and went for 2 runs, Looks like he bowled a wide and a no - ball and the no-ball looks like it included a runs as well. Joe bowled even better with No runs for the first over but he bowled a wide and his 2nd over was a maiden, so he did really well. Confusingly there's another over here that looks like it conceded no runs but did include 2 wides and yet that's been marked as a Maiden? Generally though the bowling in comparison right across the team is massively better than last year, far fewer wides and no-balls. The wickets interestingly come from the blokes that also go for slightly more runs.
Basildon & Pitsea cc v
