It's been a while since I last posted anything on here or the two forums I'm normally active on. There's been a number of reasons... The 'Gove' affect is one of them and one of the others is the discovery of Battlefield 3 on the Xbox in 'Hardcore' mode, but that's kind of wearing off now as I'm reaching the highest level in the game. The other reason was the multitude of cricket games, Joe's been playing, Ben's been in the Under 15's, 16's, 4th XI and the 3rd XI with me, so it's just been mental and we went surfing in the middle of it all and the weather has been very commendable. All of which has meant there's been very little in the way of time for blogging! But. now the season has finished and the nights are rapidly drawing in, there's more time and I can get back on it and report on what's happened and what I've been up to.
One of the things that I aim to do is come up with some kind of strategy whereby I possibly blog once a week and formulate some way of reducing the waffle. I'll have to see how it goes.
Anyway, todays content - The Paddock
Last year at this time of year I didn't do any remedial work on the paddock and at the batting end of the strip, there was still evidence of wear from the previous season, so needless to say this season that wear has been exacerbated and it's been in a right state for months, not helped by the good weather. So this year I've decided to risk it and tonight I've been over there and filled in the big hole with a mixture of clay and organic matter (Compost) and some of the smaller holes and the foot marks at the bowling end. I've used coated seed for shady areas made by Qualcast. There's rain predicted for the next couple of days and then another warm spell, so with a bit of luck that'll get the grass growing and on its way. I just hope that the footballers don't come over as they seem to at this time of year and wreck the whole field including the newly seeded areas. There's nothing I can do about it other than keep my fingers crossed!
Generally though the paddock is looking okay and looks to have benefitted from having the brambles and trees cut down from the fence on the south side as they were starting to block the light.
I didn't used it as much as I normally do and I'll say why in a blog in the next week or so, Ben and Kieran hardly used it, I think Kieran came along and bowled once and the fact that neither of them bowled in there and practiced in the way that they normally do is reflected in the fact that neither of them bowled spectacularly this year and it affected their selection and where they bowled in the bowling attack. Neither of them won any awards either, whereas Joe, who has been in there practicing and working on his fitness, did benefit from it and won U13's all-rounder this year which is good.
