Had another bowl yesterday and that went pretty well considering how much I bowled yesterday indicating that my fitness levels are pretty good. British summer time has now kicked in and we have an extra hour of light in the evenings so getting half hour a night in after work is now possible and will become a regular feature of my day now, so I'm hoping for things to come together now.
The kids had their practice session yesterday and first up was Joes mob - the under 11's. They've been practicing without nets this year and this session they were in the nets and Joe did amazingly well! Joe bowled against his captain first up who in their age group is an accomplished batsman and Joe got him 4 maybe more times! Joes moved on from Leg-spinning and now sees himself as a fast bowler and it suits the team and him as he's probably with the exception of one other boy who doesn't bowl the biggest of the under 11's and so has that intimidation factor. Furthermore, when it was Joe's turn to bat, I was amazed at how well he batted too, most of the shots he played were as far as I could see very well executed albeit primarily defensive, but loose balls he seemed to put away with a level for assurance and for the most part along the ground rather than in the air like last year. He then stayed for Ben's session and bowled and batted with the U13's and although I couldn't see him in his net from my viewing point he said he batted and bowled far better against the U13's, so that must have been very impressive.
Ben on the other hand had a different session. Similarly he was moved up into a net with the more advanced boys and the U15's. Initially he did really well, bowling the captain of the U15's at least once and generally pinning him down for much of the time, but when it came to his turn to bat - remembering he's a very reluctant batsman, they let him have it a bit and the first ball off the big 15 year old hit him in the ribs. He held it together for most of the net, but having been rattled he then got completely frustrated and probably intimidated by the bowling of the much better and or older lads and wasn't getting anywhere and felt like a fool I'd imagine and in the end his emotions got him and he stormed out of the net upset. Since then he's been relatively reluctant to play cricket with me and Joe and I'm having to tread carefully so as to not put him off completely.
