So, a crap start to the season where in the first match I went for 11.4 an over. http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/2010/04/not-as-bad-as-i-thought.html I had couple of games with G&C AKA Thurrock CC over the next few weeks as they went through the turmoil of several key players defecting to other clubs. It then seemed as though there were some fixture issues or I fell out of favour despite having paid my membership way back in January and I just didn't get the weekly call up that I got with the old club members in place. Wayne contacted me a couple of times later in the season, but each time it coincided with me being away. Eventually I got another game in Sept. So overall my experience at Thurrock this season hasn't been that good, but the last game was exceptionally good.
So what with not getting the call-up at Grays for whatever reasons I've been getting the occasional game with B&PCC which has been good albeit sporadic. Unfortunately like the first few games of the season at Grays the teams we've played against have been for the most part wholly mis-matched and we've been mullered, which is a bit depressing. But as the season went on my bowling gradually recovered despite the superior opposition in most games. But in comparison with last year my bowling has been pitiful, I don't think I took two wickets in a match let alone 4 as I did several times last year!
The highlight of the year though has been this month - September. Firstly because of the game at Grays where Wizard was the captain, I don't know how other people perceive his captaincy, but in the match I played at Grays a couple of weeks ago I reckon he did a very good job and did so with real strategy and creativity. I think with that game he helped me re-establish faith in my own game. I'm not one for banging on about missed chances in Sunday cricket, because they just happen, but in the match that I played under the wizard I'd have had 5 wickets if the fielding was marginally different or the fielders were actually there to play cricket. Wizard himself fielding at the end of the game at Mid On with another bloke at Mid off readily admitted that if he was a bit more sprightly he'd have taken one of my catches and the other bloke caught it, but it bounced from his hand with the impact of hitting the ground in the dive. Two at deep square leg should have been caught and there was also an edge that went to the keepers glove that was fumbled and dropped. So all in all I'm doing the right thing, it's not like I'm bowling bad, it's just that the field placing needs to be a part of my game and an awareness of the batsmen's weaknesses.
The other thing you may have read in recent posts, is that I've changed the way I approach the crease and 'explode' through the crease. No longer do I do the little skip and the impression I have at this early stage is that this is going to improve my bowling quite a bit. So at the end of a largely disappointing season there is promise and I look forward to winter nets and the next season.
