Joe's progress

I've got two sons - Ben who's now almost 19 and off to Reading Uni to study Geography, he's almost certainly been lost to cricket for the foreseeable future, he played a couple of games last season and enjoyed it, but this season hasn't played any despite being asked several times if he'd play. Joe though the younger son (Only just 16) is still hanging in there despite frequent threats of not wanting to play and having an air of complete indifference. But three weeks ago, because of how badly all of the teams in the club are doing he was more or less forced to move up to the 3rd XI and therefore no longer plays with me in the 4th XI. Going on what he was saying about the prospects of moving up, this seemed like a make or break moment, but the club and the 3rd XI captain handled it well and it seems he's enjoying it. It might help that since moving up they've won as many games than they've lost and this has been in part down to his bowling. Prior to that they'd hardly won any games at all.

This week Joe took 3 wickets for 13 runs off of 6.

This puts him in the position of 2nd highest wicket taker at the club at the moment along with Rob Brooks (Off-break bowler).

I played with him this week as I was moved up, I had a good game, fielded at Mid wicket, Mid-on and silly mid-wicket where I took a good catch off of Alastair Hayton's bowling (Off-break bowler). But Joe bowled really well as you can see. The wickets were all key players amongst their top four batsmen.

At the end of the game the 3rd XI boys were all saying that they were more than happy to have him, but were fully aware that it wouldn't be for long and that he'd be going up to the 2nd XI pretty soon e.g. next season. Dutton (4th XI captain) and many others reckon that he should be straight in the 2nd XI based on his bowling, but he is only just 16 and I personally think that should be kept for next season or perhaps a game before the end of this season to see what he reckons to it and how he gets on. One of the blokes Alastair Hayton said that he's never seen anyone bowl at Joe's pace at this level. Again reinforcing the comments of a Southend 2nd XI batsman a couple of weeks back that Joe clean bowled.

In the 4th XI we're really missing him now, we've had two games where all of us are looking around asking where's all the bowling gone? In part as our Captain has had to bail out of the team for this season as well.

First match of the season v Chelmsford CC 3rd XI

After weeks of arctic wind freezing us to death, the weekend came good despite loads of people declining to play across three teams. The club didn't even attempt to get the 4th XI team out knowing full well that the cross-over with the end of the football season would mean it would never happen. It turned out that only two teams played this weekend the 1st and 2nd XI's.

Weather was bright and sunny, bit of a breeze and 13 degrees on the thermometer in the car. Although during our innings a squally April shower passed by, potentially threatening the game, but it missed us. But as it passed by the wind increased, the sun went in and the temperature dropped by several degrees.

Wayne freezing to death with several layers. I had two pairs of trousers on, a long t-shirt, a cricket shirt and a jumper and then a coat and was still cold when scoring.

We were fielded first and in the first few overs I dropped a ball that was hit at me whilst at mid wicket -looked like a ball that would have been one of those that rockets for a 6 at head height. I managed to parry it and bounced up and forwards a bit and I thought 'I've got this' only to then fumble it and it went to ground. But, somewhere in the process I twisted on my knee and something went awry. This then meant that I couldn't run around without limping. We had an extra player and the other team what with it being a friendly said that we could swap over players pretty as and when we felt like. I persevered and knowing there was a bloke on the boundary I came off for a while.

Joe bowled well, taking our first wicket - a bloke that was doing okay and the lead scorer at that point in their team. It was at that point I left the field.

I then took the opportunity to go and take some pictures for my Typology project see here. At this ground there were 4 pitches, one of which is Galleywood CC and that had a really nice traditional style pavilion. The only thing is I had a crap camera, but I still got the shots.

Walking around my knee didn't feel any better, but as I came back to the match I was called back on and asked to bowl. I tried to come off of the new run-up and bowled, but it wasn't good and then decided to come off the Terry Jenner style run-up which is a lot slower, but more accurate and gives me the options of a Wrong-un and a Top-Spinner. I took me 4 balls to get it right, but in the first over against a left-hander one turned nice and bounced well, cramped him up and the ball came off the top edge and he was caught at Mid-wicket by Luke Daw. That over with the messy start I went for 10. The next over was better - another wicket... A right hander having seen a couple leg breaks wasn't ready for a big turning wrong-un - again virtually the same thing, cramped him up and came off the top edge and went straight up in the air for Mike Blerkom (Wicket keeper) to safely catch. 2-0-13-2. Somewhere in there I'd bowled another 2 wrong-uns and they'd both turned a lot and none of the batsmen had played a successful shot to them.

Batting didn't go well for any of us. I didn't get a shot of the score book, but I think we took 8 wickets for 192 off of 40 overs and batting we fell short of 100. Chris Debond and Luke Daw making the biggest contribution with the bat. I batted at 8 with Luke and was bowled by a slow ball, played through it about 30 seconds to early. Luke at the other end said as I walked off,  I was just thinking, I need to tell you about this blokes slower ball...

We lost by having all been bowled out for 93.

Spinner check

Our team... 2 x wrist-spinners, 5 x finger spinners
Their team... 1 x Wrist Spinner. We were bowled out cheaply so we probably didn't get to see any of the finger spinners.

Their spinner was interesting, he was getting the ball to drift miles. Watching him it was apparent that he had a very low arm at the release point. Those that faced him said he was relatively easy to play because of this - you knew he wasn't going to bowl anything in the way of variations. He had a long run-up which he came in at an angle from.

As he went through his action he seemed to be really low - either a massive delivery stride or his front leg was collapsing. He also veered all over the shop as he ran in and then over-rotated in the action and stopped abruptly in the follow through. That aside he seemed to be bowling pretty well. Unfortunately I didn't photograph their scorebook, so can't say how well he did do or whether he took any wickets.

Click the image above for a video of the bloke bowling

Some photos from the match...

 Chelmsford CC pavilion

 Galleywood CC pavilion

 Joe dispensing the drinks to the Wrist Spinner

 Joe waiting to bat alongside the scoreboard and a cherry tree in blossom

 Spring cherry blossom

 G-man all wrapped up for an early season cricket game.

 G-Man on his way to bat with warm headgear.

 Mike Blerkom scoring.

This blog is no longer updated. New content can be found on the blogs listed here below...

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

Match 02 - B&PCC mash up v Loughton 3rd XI

www.listofphotographers.blogspot.com

Joe preparing for his first Adult game

 

This weekend was supposed to be my first outing as the 4th XI captain in an inter-club match with our 3rd XI. That was replaced by a friendly against Loughton CC's 3rd XI. The intention was that  we were going to get a team out combining players from our 3rds and 4ths. In reality it came down to a team made up of small boys, 4th XI players and one 3rd XI player. This is what happened...

We set off quite late and then got held up in the traffic and ended up getting lost as we approached the pitch. After some faffing about and with the help of Ben's phone we arrived about 5 mins late thankfully to find that the match start time had been put forwards to 1.30.

The wicket at Loughton

 

The facilities at Loughton and their 3rd XI blokes.

Looking around, the team I expected to see wasn't there, I knew it was going to be a bit iffy because I'd been asked to take along my 12 year old son Joe who plays in the U13's! But worse still, all of the Loughton players looked like 3rd XI types - for the most part, blokes in their mid 20's through to mid 30's and they were already all there with a full team plus what appeared to be spare blokes too!

An un-impressed Ben

We weren't the last players and our last 4 turned up 10 mins before the start and we could now see the task ahead was going to be an uphill struggle. Ben was not impressed, realising we were about to be mullered. Our team was made up of the following...

1. Ben Thompson (15) My older son (Bowler)
2. Nial Da Silva - Adult, 3rd XI player (All rounder)
3. Harrison Birch (15) all rounder
4. Mr Munday (New Bloke come out of retirement in his 50's?)
5. Me (Dave Thompson) Wrist Spinner (53)
6. Tom Hardy (16) Chinaman
7. Harn Jnr (14)? New kid only just started to play cricket today, never played in any team before!
8. Harn Snr Adult, hadn't played cricket for 10 years coming out of retirement fist game.
9. Vanders - Wicket Keeper batsman 3rd XI player
10. Mitchell McLeod (15) Good all-rounder and wicket keeper.
11. Joe Thompson (12) U13's player at our club (Bowler).

We fielded first. I'm guessing that was always going to be the case, there'd at least be a bit of a game that way, where we'd try and get them out before they scored 400 + off of 40 overs? Then face the inevitable.

That's kind of how it looked as though it was going to pan out. Ben was given the ball first and had a reasonable over only allowing a 4 to spoil the first over and then as expected it went down hill. None of the pace bowlers made any in-roads and the two batsmen quickly settled and were hitting 4's and 6's readily. The main batsman who went on to score 100 + "Nali" was dropped off of a dolly by Harrison Birch off of Nials bowling - the ball being spooned up into the air for what looked like the easiest of catches at Cover. He'd have been dismissed short of his 50 at that point.

Vanders (The captain) brought on Munday and he made an impact taking Notley's wicket with his 4th ball for 17, he looked as though at that point he might be on for a good score and we were optimistic at this point that we might still be in the game. Nali had other ideas and took a fancy to Mundays bowling and started carting him around the pitch for 4's and 6's with relative ease.

Harrison took a wicket clean bowling B Sly, but this was around the time that the game was going away from us. Every time I walked past Ben at the end of each game he said 'I hate it'! He wasn't in a good mood after going for 4-0-36-0, but he never practices outside of net sessions these days.

Nali, retired thankfully and Tom Hardy and I were brought on after drinks. We did okay. I started off a little shaky, but the batsmen were fresh to the crease and cautious to start off with so it panned out okay despite bowling fairly short, but then I found my line and length and things got a little better. I was happy with what I came away with 4-0- 15 - 0. Tom on the other hand with his Chinaman bowling came away with 4-0-25-2 making him the best bowler of the day. The other two new blokes - the father and son outfit (Harns) both had a bowl but again were carted around the pitch. But the kid considering this was his first real game was good.

They retired their players and allowed most if not all of them to have a bat and eventually they retired  with the score at 33 overs on 290. I was hoping that Joe would have a chance of bowling against the lower order bats, but Vanders put himself on to bowl and it was at that point they called it a day, so Joe missed out although he was well up for it. But Vanders then said Joe could bat at No.3 as he'd missed out on the bowling.

Our bowling figures

 

The oppositions bowling was like a 3rd XI's bowling e.g. better than the stuff we'd see at 4th XI level. Wickets soon fell with a few of us getting ducks including me. Joe found himself facing a bloke who was about 20 years old and bowling very well. Joe was crapping  himself, but the first ball up showed no mercy whatsoever, but Joe got an edge on it and it sailed through the slips cordon of 5 players for 4! So Joe's first touch in an adult game at the age of 12 and he hits a boundary! He didn't last long though, a dot ball followed and he was out the next ball caught behind.

Harrison Birch was out for 0 caught at cover off of an identical ball to the one that he dropped off of Nials bowling. Ben was up next swinging the bat like mad and he caught one that sailed over the top of the fielders for 4. He lasted a few more and was bowled by S.Godding the bowler that was destroying our batting line-up. That brought me to the crease and I managed to block for a couple of overs against the bloke Godding who broke both the stump and the bails bowling at Harrison, but it was the other bloke Ahmeds bowling I didn't like - slightly slower and swinging a little. It was him in the end that got me off the faintest of edges. Neither he or the wicket keeper who caught it seemed to be interested, but the other fielders in the slips cordon were and after what felt like ages Tom did a Rudi Koertzen with a slow raise of the finger condemning me. Nial, Vanders and Mitchell all had a go, but without any support it was a lost cause and the inevitable came to pass.

Tom Hardy waiting to bat.

The batting figures and the final score

Ben hated it, all the way through, but I enjoyed it, it was one of my ambitions full-filled, as I'd played cricket with both my sons in a match. It'd been nice if Joe had bowled, but they'd both got runs whereas I  hadn't. In addition Joe had been thrown in the deep end with batting at No.3 and he also did a long old stint as the umpire doing square leg and the bowling end. Not only that, he had to make decisions about appeals - one on Ben for an edge, that Joe didn't buy into and one on Vanders the captain - that he gave out plum LBW. So I was suitably proud of him.

Next week a proper league game and I'll be in charge. I just hope I get some players and we can make a fist of it, otherwise if it's like this every week I don't think Ben will sustain it. My other concern about the coming weekend is that I've heard nothing with regards to whether I've been allocated a tea lady or if it's my problem to sort out a tea lady -in which case I'm up whatsname creek!!!

Oh yeah - I almost forgot! This was my first ever match with both my sons...

My running total currently (2 games) is 8-1-29-2