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.

Cricket history Tilbury Essex

Currently I've got two photographic projects on the go that are kind of based around cricket. One of them relates to recording cricket pitches as they are now, so I'm travelling around the country as and when I get the opportunity and I photograph pavilions and the grounds, along with some of the other features. But at the moment the key aspect of it is the pavilions as a record of their architecture... see here. This project is trundling along nicely and is the easier of the two.

The other project is a little different and requires a lot more research. The other project is a landscape project focusing on cricket pitches that were. So for this I have to find out the locations of old cricket pitches and establish where the club house/pavilion was. I then take a shot from a position that would have been directly opposite the pavilion/clubhouse approximately from what would have been the other side of the cricket pitch. So what I'll end up with is a set of odd landscapes where cricket pitches used to be.

I've started in my own locality and I've quite quickly discovered that there is a rich cricket history which is on the cusp of disappearing without any sign of it at all. In my own lifetime in my own town - Tilbury, I'm aware that I've witnessed the demise of two cricket grounds and their associated teams. Tilbury CC who used play on the Daisy Field in Tilbury town folded sometime in the 1980's and the players moved to other clubs in the area. A bloke I played with at Grays and Chadwell (Alan Fulbrook AKA "Fozzy") had played on the Daisy field in Tilbury during the 1970's and 80's as a Tilbury player and had knowledge of the West Tilbury cricket pitch at Condovers. My research so far has indicated that cricket has been played in the following areas...

1. Condovers West Tilbury
2. The Daisy Field - St Chads Road.
3. The Dockers Field?
4. Tilbury Fort - (See below)

There may also be another field outside Tilbury along Dock Road, but as yet there's no indication that cricket was played there... "Hedley's ground". *See update on 17/10/16 below.

Tilbury is quite famous when it comes to cricket as it's one of the only places where cricket players have killed each other over a game of cricket. In a match against Kent played at Tilbury fort a number of blokes killed each other having got into a punch up and then picking up guns (It was an active fort at the time) and shooting each other. See the account here http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/georgians/1780939/

On the SEDCB's website there's a piece on cricket in Tilbury. http://www.sedcb.org.uk/yesterdays-our-timeline/1918-formation-of-thurrock-interknit-cricket-club

In the SEDCB's article there's the mention of the Interknit Siley Weir cricket team that was based in Tilbury Docks. In the article it's identified that they played on a ground in Tilbury...

They first played on a ground at Dock Road, Tilbury.  The pitch preparation on the ground was done by the club’s own members in their spare time, as this was a time before the days when the local council began maintaining pitches.

The ground was let to them by a Mr. Bill Stickings, who, in order to avoid paying higher rates on a developed field, let cattle graze on it!  Mr. Bannister recalled: “The outfield was a bit rough, but we enjoyed ourselves, both clearing it and playing on it!”

This was around 1918. The same article says that they moved to Blackshots in 1936, so it seems that this ground then disappears from sight as such and it's difficult to ascertain where in Tilbury it was. Recently though via a Tilbury memories page on Facebook one of the blokes commenting on the subject of playing fields mentioned a field in Tilbury along 'The Broadway' where cricket was being played in the 1950's. The Broadway road back in the 1950's prior to Dunlop road being built went pretty much straight towards the Go-Cart track adjacent to Gaylor Road.

The end of the Broadway nee Dunlop Road, Tilbury. (Approx 2014) This view here is the gate entrance to the Go-Kart track looking towards Little Thurrock.

During the Facebook conversation the bloke Ron pointed out that the Broadway originally ran from Dock Road all the way up to this point here where it stops at the Go Cart track. He also mentions the impressive gate entrance and suggested that there may have been a big house here and this was the original gateway, but wasn't sure and had no evidence. I can remember that if you went through the gates, the ground between Gaylor rd and the Go-Kart track was strewn with slabs of concrete and bits of metal suggesting possibly that the site may have been used for industrial activities? Or it may have been left over stuff from the construction of the estate. But all around the Go-Kart track there was evidence of industrial activity and it had that 'Brown-field' feel about it.

Another interesting feature of Dunlop Road nee 'The Broadway' was that there was further evidence of a different past because just at the Adelaide road turn off on what was the Broadway you'll find a number of pre-1970's houses that still exist and must have been in the location when this area was playing fields (Siley's playing field)? or as we called them 'The Dockers Fields'.

Old pre-1960's houses along 'The Broadway' nee Dunlop Road, Tilbury.

These are the houses above and from what I can make out prior to the 1960's these houses just stood in the middle of what was basically countryside and a set of Playing fields as described by Ron and confirmed by maps of the time.

This is the current map of the area. The red line shows the original 1950's road 'The Broadway' running from Dock road right up to the Go Kart track - now Gaylor Road. In Ron's descriptions and my own very vague memory a road ran from the old Broadway - possibly now Adelaide Road onto Siley's fields ringed approximately in blue. In this area, there were tennis courts, rugby fields, football fields and a cricket pitch and at least one changing room building/pavilion? At the current moment I'm still in conversation with Ron and a few other blokes trying figure out exactly what was where.

This is an approximation from 1960-66 based on my memory and Ron's information.

 Legend

The blue line heading north in the image is the route of the old 'Broadway' which went all the way through to the border between field A and F. My own recollection from the late 1960's is that E was an established allotment, which once the tower blocks were built was moved to the space between the green block D and the school (St Chads secondary school). My Dad had allotment over there which was flanked by the multi-storey car park to the south of it and to the east St Chads school the other-side of the manor.

D - was a farm of sorts, I don't remember there being any houses, possibly caravans, but it did have pigs on it which you could smell and hear. As kids we were always a little wary of it for some reason - it may have had signs up saying private? To the left of D where on the map it says FP there was a thicket of hawthorn bushes.

B - Is where the football pitches were when I was kid and we called this area 'The Dockers Fields'. At that point the road indicated by the bigger blue dots was built and it had new houses on it with conventional roofs, Dunlop road and 'John's' corner shop was being built. I had a mate Ricky Ellingford who lived in the houses opposite 'John's' shop as soon as they were finished. John's shop was at the junction of Dunlop Rd and Adelaide Rd in the 1970's and 80's.

The field A appears to be broken up on this map into sections which may be borders (Fences) indication private land and you can see that the houses which are almost certainly the old houses mentioned above on the map have their boundary lines indicated too. So I'm guessing this isn't a playing field, I need to have this confirmed by Ron.

Field C (grey) is as far as I know St Chads school playing fields.

Much of this is speculation and I'm hoping to get access to more detailed maps in the next few weeks at Grays Library and see if I can dig anything up from the books they have there. My main objective is to figure where the Interknit Siley Weir cricket teams Dock Road cricket pitch was.

17/10/16 Update - Ron on the Internet (Face Book) contacted me having seen the post here and said that the pitch was definitely nowhere near the gates at the end of Dunlop Road/Gaylor Road, looking through the gates where the Go-Kart track used to be was marshes in the 1950's. He then said that pitch that was mentioned as being on Dock Road on the SEDBC website "Interknit Cricket Club" might have been one that Ron says was up near the Rookery at the corner where the Dock Road turns into Little Thurrock. Ron's mentioned it previously and has said that it was known as Hedley's ground or field. Apparently it was there until the mid 1950's and was flooded in the late 1950's. This potentially fits the description on the SEDCB's website...


"Interknit cricket club was formed in 1918 by William Bannister with his friends from the firm of R. N. H. Green and Silley Weir.  They first played on a ground at Dock Road, Tilbury.  The pitch preparation on the ground was done by the club’s own members in their spare time, as this was a time before the days when the local council began maintaining pitches.

The ground was let to them by a Mr. Bill Stickings, who, in order to avoid paying higher rates on a developed field, let cattle graze on it!  Mr. Bannister recalled: “The outfield was a bit rough, but we enjoyed ourselves, both clearing it and playing on it!”

Once they had their ground, players began to think of what to call themselves when writing away for fixtures.  They wanted to maintain their connection with the firms for whom the majority of the team worked, but also wanted to remain independent.  They finally chose the name “Interknit” for this was the telegraphic address of R. N. H. Green and Silley Weir.  This encouraged the firm to help the club and a hut, chairs and table were provided for changing and for tea.  But after this initial aid and interest, no real notice was taken of the club, except for the annual Firm v Club match".

http://www.sedcb.org.uk/yesterdays-our-timeline/1918-formation-of-thurrock-interknit-cricket-club

 Looking further using Old maps online http://maps.nls.uk/view/101457461 I've found a 1947 map of Little Thurrock with the lay-out of the fields and roads. I'm going to show Ron this and see if he pin-point where the Headley's ground/field was.

The green line coming from the bottom of the map is Dock Road and Tilbury is just off the map at the bottom. You can see the Rookery just right of the Little Thurrock. The orange road as far as I can make out is Marshfoot Road. Looking at the map I've noticed something, but I'm not going to say anything till Ron has a look at it and gets back to me. But Ron's field is probably on here somewhere and hopefully he can identify where it is?

17/10/16 Further research - I've also dug this out which is really interesting. Somewhere near the Bull Pub off Dock Road, there seems to have been a football ground, which later was a Greyhound racing track before being built on. This football ground was known as 'The Lawn'.

"Located off Dock Road, close to the Bull Inn, The Lawn was just over half a mile from the Recreation Ground and, fearful that their new rivals would steal a march on them, Grays Athletic resigned from the London League and joined Grays Thurrock in the Kent League, which comprised both professional and amateur clubs.   Despite a lack of spectator facilities, an encouraging crowd of 3,000 made their way to The Lawn on September 4^th 1924 to see Grays Thurrock take on Sheppey United in their first match in the Kent League. A couple of old army huts were converted into changing rooms and club offices and, as the months went by, the ground was gradually improved, with a post and rail replacing the original rope around the pitch, and a wooden grandstand coming into use in early 1925.  The first local derby between the two Grays clubs took place in December 1924, an eagerly awaited event which saw an attendance of 4,000–5,000, with some spectators using the skeleton of the not yet completed stand as a vantage point".

Reading this (Link below) again much later it's apparent that the Lawn field ground was gone by 1939 as Lawns Crescent was built over it...

  By 1934, The Lawn had disappeared beneath a new housing estate, though a link with the past was maintained when the builders decided to call the road Lawns Crescent.  

Source http://groundtasticmagazine.blogspot.co.uk/

Surely this ground, must have been relatively close to the cricket ground we're calling Headley's? I've tried to contact the bloke who wrote the above and see if he can shed some light on the missing 'Interknit' cricket ground.

Tilbury's Interknit gets mentioned here http://www.thurrock-history.org.uk/fondu2.htm along with 'Hedley's' right at the end of the article there's a mention of the Co-op cricket club having a cricket ground in Bridge Road Grays!!!! I've go to try and find whoever wrote this as they seem to have a wealth of cricket knowledge.

2019. I was contacted by a bloke who lived in Little Thurrock who pointed out that there is a road in the area called Lawns Crecent, so that may give some clues as to the exact location of this elusive ground? The thing is I'm running out of time, some of these people that may have some info are on the verge of taking the info with them to the grave and the mystery of the Tilbury cricket ground may never be un-earthed.

My other active blogs include…

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

Wickford 4th XI game 21st May.

Still no game at home for either me or Joe and Joe wasn't playing this week because he was on a Duke of Edinburgh award walk. So I was off to Wickford's memorial park ground...

I had to scam a lift off of Tony Harms and we arrived at dull cloudy day with the wind quite blustery from the top end of this image to the bottom end 'River Crouch end". I'll refer to the north end as 'The Pavilion End'. I was hoping to take some photo's of the team and other players for a photography project that I'm doing, but no knowing this team and where the pavilion was going to be (I'd got in the car not actually knowing we were off to this ground) I've left it till next week when Joe will be able to help me.

Tony and me were the first ones there apart from their players and it soon became apparent that the building in this image which is currently being refurbed was out of bounds and that there was no pavilion other than the one across the other side of another field 400 yards away.

Our players started to show up and it soon became apparent that we were probably going to be 3 men down with some of them not letting Dutton know it seemed, he wasn't that happy. What made it worse all over the ground we were going to play on there seemed to be the wrong team e.g. what looked like a group of athletic 17-20 year olds - 3rd of 2nd XI type players. Then a couple of older blokes turned up. It then began to sink in... this was the opposition... Nine big youths and two older blokes and these were relatively young too 40's? Whereas we had 8 players...Dutton and Tony in their 40's, me wrong end of my 50's then Gopal and Jay in their 20's early 30's. The rest were small boys all 13 years old. So a bit of an ask for us.

We walked over to the pavilion and got changed, talked about the batting order and I volunteered to open with Tony. Dutton had won the toss and oddly had decided to bat first, I think he was annoyed that we'd been let down by the blokes that hadn't shown up - leaving us in a hopeless situation, so opted to get it over and done with?

Their bowling was okay, nothing like facing Joe or spin and as a result I managed to last 10 or more overs and scored 6 including a 4 flicked off my pads down to fine leg. But eventually a straight one got me through the gate. Jay put a few more runs on the board and then there was a bit of a collapse until Dutton and Travis added a few at the end. There were quite a few extras and in the end we ended up with 77. Travis it must be said looked exceptionally confident with the bat, I reckon he's likely to score 50 at some point this season if he puts his mind to it.

With such a reduced team, not only is it difficult to make a game of it, but it then means we're short of umpires and scorers, so we struggled with that as well. Sam Goods Dad helped out with umpiring which saved us a bit, it would have been good if he could have played as well, maybe next time? Next time we play with a full team I'm going to try and get one of the kids to learn how to score, I always have a spare score sheet with me so there's no reason why one of them if not more shouldn't.

Similarly I'm going to see if I can get Joe to do it, he knows a lot of it, but needs to do it more and get better at it.

It ended up with us scoring 77 with extras added. We didn't bother with tea as it was no-where near tea, we'd only just had drinks at 23 overs when the last wicket fell at about 26 overs.

So out come their openers ex B&PCC player Jodie Reynolds and L.Keeley. With massive gaps in the field and only 77 to score, coupled with a team that looked like a 2nd or 3rd XI team V's a bunch of old blokes and small boys it was a lost cause. Dutton gave most of use a bowl, none of us come anywhere near threatening to get a wicket and both of the batsmen came away with not outs. Jodie Reynolds had a good knock dealing in fours primarily... 38 not out and his mate with 24 not out.

I didn't bowl anywhere near as good in comparison with last week. I chose to have the wind behind me which seemed to be a mistake as it meant I ended up bowling a no-ball and a couple of full tosses that went for 4. I bowled from the Pavilion end...

In the last few days it's rained a little and as you can see it's pretty green. The bounce was variable especially at the 'River Crouch' end Which I was bowling to, but this was found on a good length rather than at a full length which I was looking to bowl to. The other end 'Pavilion End' it tended to bounce a lot less and was more consistent. It turned a little, but to be honest I only bowled 3 overs and didn't bowl that well. There was some turn, but only average. I came away with 3-0-19-0.

Spin check. This in my on going tally of spinners that I play with in our team and oppositions. I've been doing it in a particular way so far and from now on I'm just going to name them and identify their teams. Today they only had one spinner a bloke that lives right near the Rec and yet he plays for bloody Wickford!!! Guess what kind of spinner he was? Yep you guessed it he was a finger spinner. In the conversation I had with him and the captain they were trying to tell me about all the spinners in the adjacent game a few hundred yards away... all finger spinners, but I had to say, no they don't count I have to play in the game with them to count them.

Wrist Spinners -

1. Anonymous Chelmsford CC 3rd XI
2. Dave Thompson. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI

Wrist & Finger combined

Chris Debond. Basildon & Pitsea CC 3rd XI

Finger Spinners

1. Lee Dutton. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
2. Joe Thompson. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
3. Alistair Hayton. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
4. Luke Daw. Basildon & Pitsea CC 1st XI
5. Brandon DeBond. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
6. Farhan Malik. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
7. Brian Waterman. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI
8. Kalai selven Kali. Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI  
9. 'Don' Wickford CC 4th XI
10. J.Elliott - Leigh-On-Sea CC 3rd XI
11. H.Jeddy - Leigh-On-Sea CC 3rd XI
12. Anonymous Bloke. Basildon & Pitsea CC 3rd XI

With Joe not playing today and me not taking any wickets the situation between us is now...

Me 17-0-71-3 Strike Rate 23.7

Joe 26-2-65-4 Strike Rate 16.3

 Another view of the 4th XI Wicket - Wickford CC - Memorial Park

The pavilion at the Wickford Memorial Park. I'll add this to my photography project here which is a typology of cricket pavilions. This one used to be a lot uglier and more interesting with metal security doors, but it's been converted into a community café and doubles up as a pavilion too.

It was massively disappointing to play in a team of 8 players against a far superior team. Next week we'll be at Langdon hills, so I'll be able to shoot the pictures I've been trying to do now for the last 3 weeks and Joe will be back. Additionally over the week I'm going to try and get in touch with my mate Keith who lives over that way and bats a bit. He's had trouble with his knees or hips for years, but recently has had them fixed and has said in the last month or so, he'd be interested in playing. He'd be able to field in the slips, but his strength is he bats, oh yeah he's a finger spinner as well!

New content can be found via the links below. This blog is no longer updated.

My other active blogs include…

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



Pre-season practice/training

The wind, rain and cold weather has abated for the weekend meaning we could get out at last and have a knock about. Last week club nets was cancelled because the school were using the nets for exams and Joe's not scheduled to have his last South Essex District training till this coming Thursday. So we've been short on cricket. With the temperature at 11 degrees and the sun trying to shin through a thin veil of haze we made our way over to the Markham's Chase cage just in case it was empty. As per usual it wasn't, but to be fair we could have used it batting at the 'House' end hitting the ball towards the fields, but Joe's always reluctant to for some reason if there's people in there so we moved on to The Rec and practiced there instead.

Markham's Chase Cage, Basildon.

 Markham's Chase Cage, Basildon.

Joe trying to retrieve another lost ball from the impenetrable bushes that surround the tennis courts at the Rec.

Joe as per usual wasn't that up for it, but he came along and initially bowled, but had to do so off of a short run-up so bowled off-breaks (Finger spin). My batting seemed okay and we used a couple of balls - bouncy ones and rock-hard hockey balls which hardly bounce at all, did okay against both. I'm hitting the ball far cleaner this year, I just seem to see it these days and I noticed that I hit almost every full toss whereas full tosses previously I've struggled with. So again I have to say I'm quite optimistic about the idea of batting further up the order this season and beating my all time best score which is a paltry 16!

Then there was the bowling...

What happened - after the ropey performance at nets last week (previous post) and the comments about the run-up and movement through the crease feeling a bit odd, I committed to reinstating the run-up that I'd developed through November last year. 

Feelings - it felt promising and fairly rhythmical and as though given only a little bit of effort I felt that I'd got it pretty close to how it was going in November.

Good/Bad (Evaluation) -  Bad... There was some leg-side rubbish towards the end, where I was trying to bowl top-spinners. Good stuff, generally as mentioned before it came together fairly quickly and felt good and was obviously much faster than I was bowling last year. When the top-spinners did come out right they caused Joe some real problems with the extra bounce. 

Analysis - I definitely need to do a couple of things. During this session I wasn't consciously thinking about getting up on my toes, so I'm not sure how well I was doing that at BR (Ball release), the other aspect that may need to be looked at is the delivery stride? Other than it all felt really good and the ball was turning off the surface and was on a nice length, Joe was having to come down the crease to hit on the full and in doing so if it turned or he timed it wrong he'd have been stumped numerous times, so in a way a big improvement over the club net session where he was coming down the wicket and smashing it while it was still in the air. Legs feel (as I suspected) as if they need some work on them, upper body strength is good, press-ups and planks are seeing to that along with some other stuff I'm doing that I picked up from Cricket Strengths website. 

Conclusion - things look to be on track with Easter break coming up and two weeks off. I need to start working on leg strength and stamina, although stamina-wise I'm pretty good usually, but I definitely need to do aerobic work as my recovery rate at the minute is probably not that good. 

Action Plan - Try and have another session tomorrow, take a camera and record the bowling action and have a look at how it's coming together. Start  incorporating leg strengthening exercises and start doing some power-walking/running training for 20 minutes a day if the weather permits or every other day at the start to allow recovery. 


So, hopefully we'll have another fine early spring day tomorrow and with a bit of luck we might get out early and perhaps get in the cage at Markham's Chase for a session?

Training SEDCB - Joe Thompson

Another good session tonight at the freezing cold Fitzwymarc school sports hall. Again another very low turn out. Tonight they set the boys another one of those scenarios in the nets. T20 game; six of the boys were batting and six were bowling. They had two nets and the bowlers were being used in spells with one boy acting as the captain. The spare bowlers were in a third net doing throw-downs with the 'Yet to go in batsmen'. When you were out you rotated with batsmen in the 3rd net.

Captain kid chose Joe to open and Joe bowled well from the outset bowling an off-stump line or in the corridor or uncertainty area. Joe set a field with fine leg and no third man and after a couple of balls, the batsmen were guiding the ball through the 3rd man region so the coach suggested a re-think on his field positions and they came up with the field setting below...

The idea being that he was looking to get the batsman to drive through the space between point and extra cover and get an edge through to 2,3,4 or 5 with the protection of 3rd man at 6 for balls that get through. He bowled well and came away with 3 wickets, all of them going through to slips or the wicket keeper as planned.

At the end the trainers spoke to the boys as a collective. The bats had all been aware of the field positions and were asked why their batting figures were so low and they admitted that the bowling was good "They bowled a good line and length", the coach came back with 'Who bowled a good line and length and bowled to their plan'? A number of the bats nodded towards and said "Joe". Which is really helpful, as that would have massively encouraged Joe, that they had acknowledged his bowling with little encouragement and that'll now make Joe feel as though he has some function in the team, as the group dynamic is still a little cliquey and fractured as far as I can make out. So bit by bit I reckon Joe is feeling a part of the team and as though people are recognising his contribution, which is essential if he's going to do well, he needs to feel as though people believe in his abilities and want him to do well and expect him to do well. So again, another really good session for Joe. 

 Joe discussing the field settings with one of the Essex coaches (Scott).

SEDBC training Joe

As per usual Joe didn't seem to be that up for going training - freezing cold night and the drive to Fitzwymarc school straight after dinner. "I'd rather go to sleep". We arrived with Mo and his Dad Naeem and saw that most of the other lads must have been of the same opinion as Joe and had stayed at home. The bloke Scott led the session talking about the need for strategies and plans then handing out written down game scenarios, saying to the lads, that's where you are in the game - think about your strategy and set your field. The boys were put in random groups of 4 and told to discuss it amongst themselves and come up with a plan and field. Quite a tough task if you're not a cricket obsessive with any desire to be a captain I'd say.

Obviously though, it was also a strategy to see who would take control of the groups, as these boys would be potential candidates  for the captains role. Joe's group only had 3 and one lad 'AB' took control from the start with Joe and the other kid chipping in. It looked though as the AB kid then having started the plan - handed it over to Joe and the other kid and said... you decide where the remaining leg-side players should be.  Which I thought was clever.

 

 

 

Their scenario was the first ball of the game as far as I could make out and they came up with this...

Joe had one other kid in his lane and using this field they both took a wicket each in the first over, nicking it to slips. Both of then bowled a pretty good line and length preventing the batsmen from scoring runs. The first 4 overs they'd gone for 14 runs, most of runs coming from balls being struck through the dark green zone.

After the four overs the bloke Scott got them to review the situation and the field was adapted to this...

Eleven was move around and 9 taken out and put in slips to cut off the runs and sure enough it had the desired affect.

 

Joe bowled really well, not once did he stray down the legside - leaving that to the other 2 kids bowling with him. Some of the balls were a little short and near the end he bowled a lovely slow ball which had the batsman all at sea. Joe came away from the session having really enjoyed it and I think he also came away feeling as though he'd learnt something really useful that would enable him to have the confidence to put the plan into place in a game scenario. As far as Joe was concerned this was his best session so far and the most useful.

 

Overall though it was observed that they're all a bit quiet still and they were encouraged to speak up and suggest things and have discussions openly about what had happened. But I still think they're all still unsure of each other and not comfortable in their roles and places in the team set-up. Joe this week probably buoyed by the session and having his confidence boosted was far more comfortable with the kids in his net and vice versa. 

B&PCC Sunday XI v East Hanningfield & Great Burstead Cricket Club

 More pavilions here - http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cricket-pavillions-typology.html

 East Hanningfield pavilion

 The wicket at East Hanningfield

 The wicket at East Hanningfield.

During the last match with Belhus Liam Harms mentioned that he had bailed out of a Sunday game against East Hanningfield and that they may have been scratching around for another player. This was in the earliest phases of working with my new bowling approach and I thought that this might be an opportunity to give the new approach a go against batsmen.

So Sunday morning I hitched a lift with Tony Harms and Jamie Britton and headed out to East Hanningfield which was a double bonus as it meant that I could also shoot their Pavilion for my Pavilion Typology project.

We arrived first and the weather was classic early September - puffy white Cumulus clouds set against a blue sky.

Hanningfield Game.

I volunteered to score and did a pretty good job of it, filling in the book and putting up the scores on the scoreboard at the same time. I even got parts of the scoring wrong and was able to figure out what I’d done and reconcile the whole thing quite easily and when it was all added up at the end it all worked out fine. A massive improvement from last year and I now like to score especially as it keeps me out of having to umpire! That went well and we seemed to do okay and we finished with a reasonable score 170ish? We had a nice tea in their lovely pavilion/clubhouse and took to the field on a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Earlier in the day I’d watched 4 Buzzards soaring on the updrafts above the pitch something which would have been unheard of 20 years ago, but Buzzards along with Kites, Peregrines, Hobbies and Merlins are all making a strong comeback in Essex despite the fact that it has a number of large urban areas. Thankfully in between our urban and industrial areas, Essex has some surprisingly beautiful and classic countryside (Think Constables Haywain).

Having been a late addition to this Sunday side and seeing that it was made up of some quality players, I didn’t know whether I’d get to bowl? I had no idea of how regular this side was and how they’d done over the season, so whether Jack would throw me the ball or not remained to be seen. The obvious bowlers all bowled first and then Jack indicated that I'd get an over or two.

This game was on Sunday after the Belhus game the day before, so whether that was a contributory factor or not I'm not sure or convinced as I played two games back to back earlier in the season and did okay, wasn't knackered at all? Or was it the Yips? Was it the fact that I was playing in a team full up with first and 2nd team players including the clubs best bowler Luke Dawe (Finger Spinner)? Or was it because this was one of the first attempts with the new re-configured bowling action? Whatever it was - it was embarrassing  - wides, balls landing half way down the strip and bouncing twice - all those horrific things that happen to wrist spinners when you start out. I went for a few fours and then hoped I'd settle down a bit in the 2nd over, but the same thing pretty much happened again and I thought that I'd be off after that. But, no, Jack gave me another over and changed the field around a bit. The 3rd over was marginally better as I went back to bowling off of one step and it worked and in the end I had 5 maybe six overs and pulled it back a bit. But to be honest so many runs were piled on during that spell I thought I'd lost us the  game. Meanwhile at the other end Luke Dawe had started taking wickets on his way to another fiver-fer.

With Luke bowling well, he pulled it back and once the two good blokes that I was bowling against had been dismissed, there was a massive collapse and we won the game easily.



Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image.

 

 

Basildon & Pitsea 4th XI v Belhus 4th XI 4th July

Basildon & Pitsea 4th XI v Belhus 4th XI 4th July

The weather looked as though it was going to be good after a week of really warm weather for the UK in the previous days, some days it was in the 36 - 37 degree centigrade region. But today it was going to be around 25 degrees with wall to wall sunshine.

Still no older son Ben as he was away for the weekend doing his Duke of Edinburgh silver award, walking in the Cotwolds for 3 days. Going into the game both Joe and I had been practicing, Joe was bowling well and I was still figuring out ways to bowl with my Achilles injury still not fully recovered.

Picked up Tim Brown on the way and arrived to hear that we had 11 players on the way. By the time we walked out on to the pitch to field it was evident that we'd probably be playing with just 9 players...

Lee Dutton, John Bedford, Jamie Britton, Tony Harms, Liam Harms, Tim Brown, Steve Bonnett, Joe and I (Thompson's).

Liam opened the bowling from the Birch Crescent end, I imagined that Joe would have then bowled from the Hall Lane end, but Lee threw the ball to me which I don't mind at all and think is a good tactic especially if I've not got an Achilles injury!

I'm now in a situation where I'm more familiar with the pitches that we play on having been the captain last year and this being the 3rd year I've played regularly in the 4th XI and I'm aware of which pitches offer turn off the wicket if you're spinning the ball and this is one of those that I've taken wickets on before and bowled quite well on. The pitch we played on had already been used by a youth team for 20 overs in the morning, so was scuffed up a bit and for me that only helps as a bowler.

Belhus put a couple of kids in first up which was good for us given that we only had nine players and Liam Bowled a good first over with a maiden and then generally bowled really well with his left arm seam up stuff. My bowling was average what with the Achilles injury and for most of the time I was approaching the crease a la' Terry Jenner at the end of his coaching career. I had numerous chances that either didn't go to hand, were dropped or just missed the top of the stumps by millimetres having beaten the bat (top-spinners). Liam had the chance of a second wicket that Joe went after at fine leg - loopy high ball, but would have had to have caught it over his shoulder, he got a hand to it, but wasn't able to keep hold of it. My only wicket was caught by Liam at mid-on - he and his Dad Tony are brilliant catchers in those positions, although Tony didn't quite get to one of mine which looked like it was a dolly in this match!

Some of my wides were ludicrous almost Tufnel-esque in their awfulness. But then interspersed with some half decent balls and some really good balls. Overall though considering the injury and the fact that I've had to adapt my bowling and bowl off a two step approach it went okay.

Then my younger son Joe (13 years old) was thrown the ball and the main event started. He's been practicing quite a bit over on the paddock, so has been grooving his action, he bowls a mixture of finger-spin (Off-breaks) and seam up. Bowling from the Hall Lane end he started this spell with the off-breaks which he bowls off of a fairly long run up and with some pace. In the first two overs he took a wicket for 2 runs including a wicket maiden. But then during the swap over from one bowler to the next the wicket keeper (Jamie Britton) suggested that he bowl seam up instead. 

Joe bowled superbly only giving away the odd run here and there and this is with only 9 players meaning that there were dirty great gaps in the field coupled with players (Including me at the moment what with the Achilles injury) that fall short of being Gibbe-sque or Collingwood-esque. In his first 6 overs he took 4 for 11 runs including a wicket maiden. He bowls an exceptionally good line and length on or just outside of the off-stump. He varies the length, but generally bowls a very good length at a reasonable pace making it very difficult to play the ball aggressively.



Joe leads the team off the pitching having taken 6 wickets for 15 runs, including 2 maidens off of 10.4 overs.

Check out my other blog here - this is all about Leg-spin bowling and nothing else. Double click on the image below.