First league match - this coming Saturday 7th May. B&PCC v Leigh-On-Sea CC

It’s Thursday as I type, the squad was posted up on the website on Tuesday and a few of the regulars appeared on the list along with some new names. See below.

 If you look there’s a new aspect to the squad list that identifies the ratio of finger-spinners to wrist spinners. I’m under the apparently misguided impression that there is a dearth of Wrist Spinners because it’s so easy to do and there are hardly any finger spinners because that’s so ridiculously difficult to do. So with the teams I play in over this season I’m going to try and identify the ratio between Wrist-Spinners and Finger-Spinners. At the moment I firmly believe that there are far more Finger Spinners than Wrist-Spinners but on Bigcricket.com there’s a bunch of people that are assuring me I’m very wrong, so we’ll see. Last week’s came as far as I’m concerned was packed with ‘Wristies’ as there were two of us one on each team, but in-line with my observations there were at least 4 finger spinners on my team and our team was bowled out cheaply before the finger spinners were deployed on their team, so there may have been more?

The weather has changed massively, the weekend was cold last week, but on Monday when we all went back to work the wind direction changed from northerly to southerly and now we’re into Spring proper with temperatures today in the low 20’s and by the weekend mid 20’s so we’re going from freezing our nuts off with three layers and coats to sun-bathing and shirts off at the weekend.

 Leigh-On-Sea are a new team for me and a new venue so hopefully there’ll be opportunities to shoot pavilions and report on whether their wicket is spin-friendly. I’ve not checked yet, but I reckon their ground must be ‘Belfairs’. We’ve gone down a league too, so we should do okay this season.

Injuries – I twisted my knee and pulled something last weekend, but this week I’ve not bowled or done anything to stress it any further, so have rested it, so hopefully with a knee support I’ll come through if I take it easy. As proved last week if I have to, I can bowl off of a Terry Jenner-esque two step walk in and still take wickets and that was against a 3^rd XI team described as being strong, so hopefully it’ll come good this weekend.

Fitness – I’m not feeling it at the moment because of the crap weather at the start of spring, so if the knees recovered enough and I come through this weekend unscathed I’ll have to start working on fitness. My back has nearly fully recovered from a lifting/carrying injury, but thankfully doesn’t seem to be affected by my bowling, so hopefully I’ll get to bowl for more than 2 overs this weekend? Having said that there’s loads of names in the initial squad sheet that I don’t recognise and for all I know they may all be bowlers?

New rules – Aside from the 45 overs rule, I heard at the weekend that there’s a maximum bowling allowance. No-one is allowed to bowl any-more than 14 overs and this apparently is designed to stop ‘Old blokes’ from bowling the whole game from one end, which I’ve seen happen once before with a Southend EMT game at Langdon Hills, this they’re hoping will give kids a chance to bowl. With only 45 overs it looks as though I’d be dead lucky to get 14 overs in the future, our team usually has people queuing up to bowl and I reckon if you get 5 blokes bowling 9 overs each you’re going to be counting yourself lucky. My son Joe is usually given his full allocation of 12 because of his ability, and if he’s supported by another seam bowler doing a similar job, that’ll leave 21 overs for the rest of us to fight over, it doesn’t sound good at all especially if there’s more than 5 ‘Bowlers’ in the team.

 

First league game of the season and the good news is that we fielded 11 players…

Weather – Warm -22-23 degrees Centigrade, south easterly breeze 15-20 mph, with hazy cloud varying between 40%-60% cover. (We played on the wicket top left) Double click the image for an assessment of whether it was a spinning wicket

Lee Dutton* – Captain
Jamie Britton – Wicket Keeper.
Joe Thompson*
Dave Thompson@
Farhan Malik*
Abhinanadan Bidari
Gopal Viswanathan
Jayanand Shivapujimath
Steve Bonnett
Josh Debond*
Travis Singleton

* - Finger Spinners

@ - Wrist Spinners

 I asked the opposition about their spin options and they said they had one finger spinner, no Leg-Spinners, when I was talking about this Lee and another bloke joined in and said “You got a lot of kids a few years back trying Leg-Spin, but once they all got up to adult cricket they tended to disappear… it’s too hard, that’s why you get so many finger spinners, Leg-Spin is so much harder to bowl”.

The team had a very different look to it, with a lot of new blokes including two kids Josh and Travis who are only 13 years old. Tony and Liam Harms were not there and the word is because of Tony’s new job we wont be seeing him for a minimum of 5 weeks, whether that’s the same for Liam or not I’m not sure? Farhan has played in the 4’s before and possibly Gopal, but the other two blokes were new-comers.

 Dutton won the toss and with all the new blokes being unknown quantities opted to field. Before we went out I marked out my run-up from the end I wanted to bowl from (Southern end) and had a practice next to the wicket to see how my knee twist injury from last week was feeling and it was obvious that the new energetic run-up was a no-go, so there and then I decided to play it safe and come in off of a Terry Jenner two step approach to the crease if I was asked to bowl.

 Joe - was asked to open and I was at the other end with spin. Joe as always got off to a good start bowling seam up, he continued to do so all the way through both his spells, but he did say at the end he was at one point considering bowling some finger-spin, but opted not to.

Joe’s 2^nd spell was the better of the two with two wickets being taken, the first wicket on the scorecard was a run-out by Jayanand. But the two wickets in the last over with the very last 2 balls were very good, as was the bowling around it, excellent length, getting the ball to swing away and go away off the seam. He was also unlucky in the first spell as a ball was hit straight to Steve Bonnett at Gully, a high ball that Steve jumped up to and parried upwards off the top of his fingers and not being able to gather, but he stopped it going for a certain four despite the state of the outfield.

My first spell went okay. One of the two first balls, possibly the first ball hit the bloke on the legs plumb as far as I was concerned - nice and full, but I didn't go up initially and then did so half heartedly and was turned down. Ball number three was exactly the same, but this time I went up for it and the batsman was on his way back to the sheds. With all the new blokes, Dutton was looking to give everyone a go, so I was off after 4 despite looking quite threatening. The 4's unfortunately were both wrong-uns that were a little short, and again the same in the 2nd spell, so that needs some work. Other than the handful of Wrong-Uns I kept it quite simple, there was very little on offer for spinner on this wicket and Lee was of the same opinion, so the order of the day was to pitch it up. No wides as you can see, which was pretty good, there were a few leg-side balls, which because they were pretty full, none of the blokes played that well. I had one ball that got through the gate, can't remember whether it was a wrong-un or a Leg-Break, but it hit the inside edge or something and deflected missing the leg-stump by a gnats breath.

The other thing I noticed when I was bowling was that one of the balls drifted a lot, drift isn't something I see with my bowling much, as I have very vertical arm normally, so I can only assume with this different two step 'Run-in' my arm must have come down a little or maybe it was the head wind which was blowing slightly left to right.

I found this drift aspect quite interesting, as last week the Leg-spinner at the Chelmsford game was getting loads of drift and it was obviously as a result of the Malinga style arm. In the past I've practiced with a much lower arm and done so with a good level of success, the ball turns more and drift as I recall was more evident. Along with that the ball turned more too. The thing I'd have to work on is getting it so that I could switch from a high arm and gradually bring it down and then go from high to low and still maintain accuracy. It's something I might work on Wednesday at nets next week.

Considering my knees knackered, it was an okay performance and with the wicket. The opposition were very complimentary about my bowling with a number of them commending me for bowling so well!

2-0-13-2 (last week)

This week 6-0-23-1

Grand Total - 8-0-36-3 plus this week I took a catch off of Lee Dutton's bowling.

Dutton came on a little later and bowled well, he was happy as he's starting to suffer from arthritis in his fingers and was saying that it hurt to bowl, plus last week he was involved in a car incident and suffered whiplash. When he was bowling he had me at Mid-on, and one of the better batsman hit a ball straight at me and I did virtually the same thing as I did last week and dropped it again. But I redeemed myself in the same spell where one of the blokes T.Bull who looked like a steady batsman hit one right up in the sky in my general direction. For a moment I'd written it off and then realised it was going up more than it was going along, so changed my mind and went after it and got myself in position. Lee was watching and said to himself Oh crap, this is going down as well (I'm not known for my success rate with high catches like this), but I caught it... not perfectly, but it stuck and the geezer was out... Nice.

5-0-15-1 Lee Dutton

Another surprisingly good bowling performance came from Travis Singleton, who's only 13 he bowled as per below...

Batting Yeah this didn't go so well as you can see from the sorry looking scores below. 2 new blokes top scored Jayanand below and one of the new kids Travis. The rest of us were a bit of a shambles, which was a shame as the bowling (see the bowling stats for their team) was a little ropey at times, but then as one of my mentors used to say to me ***t bowling gets wickets. Having said that some of our bowling was a bit off the mark too.

My dismissal was crap. After all the net sessions and that carrying through to club nets and despite last weeks 4th ball dismissal, I was hoping to make some runs with the support of Jayanand. It seemed that one of their better bowlers was saved for this part of the game and he was on when I went out after Jamie. I kept him at bay for a couple of balls and then had the prospect of facing one of the kids (Wrobel) that seemed to be bowling at an innocuous pace. The first ball he served up was short and legside... A gift in most people's eyes and I thought the same... whoa that's short and it's safe and then I knocked it straight into the hands of Barton at head height at square leg. Gutted - out for 0 again off of about 4 balls faced, same as last week. Note to self Hit the ball into the ground - roll the wrists.

 Jayanand Shivapujimath here was our best bat of the game followed very closely by the 13 year old Travis Singleton.

Image below left to right Lee Dutton, Josh Debond, Travis Singleton and Steve Bonnett.

 The wicket looking north

 The 2 captains at the toss.

 Joe Thompson medium fast today. 10-1-22-2 He bowled well today, getting the ball to swing away and move off the seam away from the bat and deployed his knuckle ball.

 Below Left to right... Lee Dutton, Jayanand Shivapujimath, Abhinanadan Bidari and Steve Bonnett.

 Mobile phone hell... Abhi looking a bit left out.

 Lee said to Joe - play with a straight bat, get on the front foot... Joe nicks an edge for a spectacular dive off of the wicket keeper and like so many of us out for 0.

 Some of the lads said they'd be back next week...

 Hello what's Bob Willis doing at Leigh On Sea? The opposition start to pack up.

 Dutton gathering the cash...

 The drainage ruts...

 The drainage ruts run at regular intervals across the outfield.

 Joe and Jamie Britton trying to jam the bags into the back of out Astra.

The next game is at home against Horndon-On-The-Hill, who are a team I don't recall playing before, but I think they're going to be quite strong because their team was bolstered by the demise of Pegasus.

Joe my younger son was saying that we've not gone down a league, because there was a big shift around in the organisation of the what teams played against who, making it so that we play teams that are more local to us, rather than go miles to play, which I don't mind myself even though it's me that has to stump up for the diesel! Joe was saying we're pretty much playing at the same level again this year, which if it's true is a shame because it'll be a season of getting beaten virtually every game. I guess we'll see as we go through the season?

It was a disappointing loss especially as the opposition captain was saying that his team was weak. I don't know what it is that we do wrong, I came away from this thinking, maybe it's nothing to do with the batsmen, maybe it's the way we field? When we field, the positions are always pretty conventional, but for some reason when the opposition hit the ball they get it in the gaps? Then I thought is it the bowling? There were shed loads of extras in this game, in fact I don't think I've ever seen as many extras in game ever - other than kids cricket.

We bowled the 45 overs and bowled 23 wides and 1 x No-Ball. This was down to the fact that some of the players were totally new to the 4th XI and Dutton gave everyone a go, possibly to see who does what? Hopefully this next match he'll take a slightly different approach, now he's got some idea of people's strengths and weaknesses?

They bowled 23 overs and bowled one more extra than us. So perhaps they were doing a similar thing? I did ask their players about who bowled what, trying to find all these wrist spinners that people are talking about on the internet, but there was only one...me. A handful of finger-spinners, but just the one leg-spinner.

It's a funny old game this cricket, difficult to make sense of? Or was it they just had far superior batsmen? We lost so badly and they didn't even have to use Bob Willis ;-)

2 games down. Spin count

Finger spinners 10, Wrist Spinners 4

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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 bowling development.

Bowling development. 5 weeks to go till the first proper game of the season, 3 weeks till the chance of a friendly match. Not long to work on the new bowling action that I've been developing since last September. Quick re-cap, last season went really well at the start because of the input and feedback from a wicket keeper we had play with us for a number of weeks (Mike Blerkom). He made some observations about my bowling in that I had a couple of basic run-ups... (1) A Terry Jenner-esque walk to the crease and bowl off of 2 steps or (2).  A longer run-up albeit all over the place and inconsistent. He advised me to stick with the longer version and I took notice as he's a current 2nd XI player and has in the past played in the 1st XI and knows a bit about cricket.

Up until I strained my Achilles tendon batting I'd bowled better than I have done for years and on reflection at the end of the season made the decision to work on the longer run-up. This was also influenced by watching a video featuring Glenn McGrath on how to work out your optimum run-up. See here.

So, in September I made a start... see my Youtube channel here. A big turning point came when Tony M a coach and contributor on Big Cricket contacted me directly and gave me some pointers and advice. My bowling then started to come together and by the end of November when winter set in properly it was looking very promising. Winter put a stop to the development and now I'm trying to play catch-up a little, slightly thwarted by the fact that so far the Easter break here in the UK has been crap as its a lot earlier in the year than usual. Fingers crossed the forecast from tomorrow onwards is for an improvement and I'll be able to work on some of the things I've made observations of in the video below. Double click on the image below to watch the video.

In my usual lecturer style and advocating what I teach, I'll reflect on the bowling using the Gibbs reflective method...

What Happened. Primarily we were at Writtle to work on our batting see here but with three of us it meant while two were in the batting net there was an opportunity to have a bowl so I spent 10 minutes or so bowling. I mixed up bowling with and without a ball.

Feeelings. Initially I didn't think it went that well, it felt as though there were a number of problems with the bowling action and the outcome at the other end wasn't that special either.

Evaluation (Good and  bad). Good was the fact that I actually took the time out to bowl when that wasn't the key objective of the Writtle visit and the fact that I had the camera to record myself. Other good things included the speed that I was bowling and my overall fitness. It was commented at the last net session at the club that my bowling speed has gone up and this was one of the key things that Mike Blerkom thought was a key thing I needed to work on. Bad stuff, despite the fact that it looked fast it didn't feel as correct as it had been back in November when I was spending more time working on the action. Also the percentage of good balls versus bad balls at the business end wasn't good.

Analysis. Without going into to technical stuff straight away, watching the video back there's obvious things going on. One that I noticed is that I kind of waver as I approach the crease. The other thing which is a throwback to the old days, is the observed over-rotation. Other key observations are the hip and knee thrust aspect, the hip and knee don't drive through properly in most of the footage in the original 10 minute version of the video. When bowling without the ball it's a lot better, but in this session I wasn't able to bring that aspect of the action with the ball in my hand, so that needs some work.

I think  the main thing is the lack of time at the moment given over to bowling practice. Conventional club nets sessions are useless because of the period of time between balls, so I need to set aside bowling time amongst all of the being put into developing my batting. I think if the time is given over to bowling, the changes will come along with improvements quite quickly. Looking at the video, there's a couple of things I know I should work on straight away... (1). The hip-drive and (2). The over rotation. I think with the hip drive, the over-rotation might come together as a consequence of working on the hip-drive.

At the start of the bowling action in the first phase PDS, I note in the video that my head turns to the side during the gather, I'm not sure if this is an issue or not, but it's something I'll keep an eye on though in the next sequence of videos which hopefully I'll shoot tomorrow. There are other issues such as not getting right up on the toes at FFC, but I'll leave that for the end of the coming week.

Conclusion. It seems okay, the few problems I think will be fairly easy to iron out, and possibly the key thing to do is bowl more so that the action is grooved and increases in consistency.

Action plan. Work on the hip drive tomorrow and the over-rotation.

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 nets practice

I've not bowled for months now having given myself a rest and focused for once on my batting. The nets that we go to once a fortnight are rammed solid at the weekend and booked up, so this weekend we're not going. Last weekend we practiced at a local 'Cage' and it proved to be a decent place to practice, so we went again today and did some work with batting and bowling for once.

Batting went okay, although Joe was a bit of a pain as he came along with attitude and didn't seem to do anything with any effort or conviction. He's 14, nearly 15, so has a bit of an attitude issue when you drag him away from Youtube! Similar to last week I was practicing moving my feet - getting to the pitch of the ball, driving the ball and paddle sweeps. All of which I'm doing with far more assuredness and success.

The bowling was reasonable, but I've already identified what I need to focus on and it's exactly what Tony M was recommending when I last bowled at Writtle... focusing on getting up on the toes in the delivery. There's a weeks holiday coming up soon for me (Lecturer) which means I can focus on this and practice with a lot more conviction and maybe get the video recording going and record my progress. What is good though is the fact that the 'New run-up' seems to be feeling pretty natural and the ball is coming out okay despite not bowling properly since late October early November.

Wrist Spin Tactics - Pravin Tambe T20

Tactics/Plans

Over at one of my other blogs I'm slowly writing a post where I'm looking at tactics and plans, so at the moment that post is a bit disorganised and I'm still at the research stage. Last night I was researching Pravin Tambe and watching a Rajastan Royals match with Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he takes 4 wickets in his four overs.

Pravin Tambe has an interesting story in that he came from nowhere, progressing from being a club cricketer to playing for RR in the IPL bowling at the likes of Virat Kohli, AB Devlliers et al. Despite that massive progression he's done exceptionally well, partly due to the fact that it is T20 cricket and the batsmen have to go after the ball and score and the fact that he's been handled well by the captains seemingly.

Watching the Youtube video Tambe's spell is interesting because of the way that he goes about getting Virat Kohli's wicket. In the game Kohli is the only bloke that looks as though he's going to be able to put runs on the board because all around him the other players are falling for pitiful scores. On his side Tambe has the benefit of the fact that Kohli therefore is under immense pressure to score runs. Up to the point where Tambe gets the Kohli's wicket, Kohli has played Tambe fairly well, scoring singles and rotating the strike. Then Tambe does something very simple, not changing his action - so he runs in exactly the same as before, the bowling action effort is the same, but he does something quite obvious in one respect, especially if seen from the side, but from Kohli's position at the crease, possibly not that apparent...

He bowls from way back on the crease, so the ball pitches shorter and Kohli plays through the ball far too early and scoops it up for an easy catch at Mid Wicket. Very simple tactic and very effective.

Stuart MacGill field setting leg spin

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Click on the image below to go to the field setting...

Stuart MacGill v Pakistan Right-Handers at Rawlpindi 1998 1st Test.

 

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

 

Field settings - Mustaq Ahmed v The Aussies 1995 at the SCG 3rd test

Leg Spin Bowling - Field Settings

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Just been watching Mushtaq Ahmed bowling against Mark Taylor and David Boon. Taylor is a left-hander and I've been able to suss out his field for him and it's here. The associated video which is his whole spell is below the field setting diagram

If you want to discuss this field join the spin forum here...
http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/page-8#post-576114.

From the same game, here’s the field setting for David Boon (Right-hander).

Also here http://www.legspinbowling.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/leg-spin-bowling-field-settings.html

New post at the Legspin blog

I've now got a website check it out at www.wristspinbowling.com



I've got a couple of other Leg-spin blogs that I've neglected, but I've noticed that they get far more hits and views than this blog, so the stuff that is more specific to bowling is going to be posted there. Here's the first 'Diary Post'.

Click on the Image to go to the post.

Consistent and repeatable action - Wrist Spin Bowling Part 2

Added 12th September 2105

Gibbs Reflective Practice in Cricket

What Happened? - See here for previous post . Since the practice at Nutbrook I've played two games and used the new technique in both. In the first game - a league game on Saturday I went for 8-1-32-0 which was on par with everyone else and this is despite the fact that I was bowling with a wholly new approach. It wasn't perfect, but the main thing is with regards my run-up it was coherent and consistent. The Sunday game the next day for some reason was chaos (see previous post here). Since the Sunday debacle I've practiced as much as possible doing at least 3/4 of an hour - hour and half every night working with this new action.

Today, I've bowled 200 + balls and videoed the development over the last couple of days seeking guidance and observations from fellow wrist spinners on the big cricket spin forums.

How do I feel? - Good, there seems to be progress being made each day and the new run-up feels right for the job... Fit for purpose. I now stand at the top of my mark and I know what I'm going to do and how it's going to happen. I know I stand 11' from the bowling crease and I lead with my left foot. Never before have I had that as a set process, so this feels good.

What was good/bad? - Everything seems good, there were a few balls that were too full and a few legside wides, but this is a new action and that has to be expected surely?

Analysis - It now strikes me that I've been struggling for the last 8 years with this because I've been ignorant of the fact that you need a sound foundation on which to build the rest of your action. Someone once said you can't fire a canon ball off of a canoe. It now seems the basis of my bowling has always been a bit canoe-esque. Or to use a construction analogy I've been trying to build amazing houses on a sandy foundation.

I now feel like I've discovered a sound foundation on which to build my bowling and over the coming weeks if it continues to stay dry here in the UK I'll continue to groove this action. Then one by one I'll start to add the rest of the components and today I started to do that. having looked at a video of the bowling from yesterday...

I noticed that my leading arm wasn't doing a lot - others commented on the forums agreeing with me so today I worked with that. So today I was trying to reach forwards and upwards towards the stumps. Initially I was trying something different and it wasn't working at all, but once |I tried forwards and upwards it came together a bit better and seemed to be working.

Conclusion - there may some minor difference in the leading arm, it looks slightly stronger, but I think more work is required. 

 

Action Plan - Spend the next few sessions continuing to groove the 3 step and bound approach to the crease and continue working with the leading arm. Look again at the Beau Casson video where he talks about this. See here in the video he talks about the leading arm being long and strong. Having just watched the video I think I need to video my action from the side and look at that arm a lot closer. So the two key points at the moment are...

1. Continue with the 3 step and bound.
2. Work with the leading arm, get it long and strong and video it.

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

 

 

Leg-spin bowling a consistent and repeatable bowling action.

As soon as I got home from the Jamie Britton maiden hundred match I went over the paddock...

I went out on the paddock having remembered seeing a Glen McGrath 'Masterclass' on SKY where he'd discussed how he established his run-up and this had resonated with me and I thought I need to go over the paddock and explore that approach and see if it works for me? So, the basic premise is that you find an open space - not necessarily a wicket and you start to run in and as soon as you feel you've got the necessary rhythm, you then go into your bowling stride. Do this 10 times and get someone to watch you or record it somehow, where you start and where you finish and look for the length of run-in that you produce most consistently. Then mark it or take it to a wicket and do it again this time looking to establish that this is a repeatable action. Earlier this month on the Big Cricket forums I posted this...

8 Years into my wrist spin journey and only now have I realised the importance of this. My run up over the years has changed so many times. Initially focusing on the 8 step Shane Warne approach, I did that, but the bowled off the wrong foot with a skip like Titch Freeman. The skip took all of the zip out of any prospect of having any "Explosive energy" through the crease and in the end I realised I needed to confront this as an issue if I was going to bowl more than 4 overs before being told "Have a blow Dave".


I turned to my younger son Joe to help me and within hours I had the basics in place and then over several sessions I converted. Having converted, I was still utterly lost as to whether to bowl off of 8 steps, run-in fast like MacGill and a 100 other options. On here loads of people were facing the same problems in different ways, loads have tried bowling like Warne - me included, then someone pointed out that Warne being the freak that he is, combined with his physique was probably not the best template for your bowling.


In the meantime I had different levels of success, with the implementation of different approaches. It seemed these worked for a while and then for some reason or other something changed or I wanted more of something - speed, turn, dip, flight etc and so the experimentation went on.


At the end of last year, I decided that I was just going to ignore all the advice and just run in the way that felt right and bowl. It worked to some extent, but my two sons said "Dad your bowling action is crap, you look a mess when you bowl". I videoed it and they were right it was rubbish and inconsistent. At the start of this season I came in with two methods... (1). A slower Jenner-esque approach and (2). A slightly more energetic approach with a bit of a bound. A very experienced player for the first time in almost 7 years gave me some advice - basically "Mate, don't step in and bowl, use your short run up as you get more zip off the wicket" He was right, over the next 4 or 5 matches I played in I bowled some of the best spells ever against good batsmen in some instances and took a load of wickets. Then I damaged my Achilles (Strain).


This injury forced me to re-think my action through the crease and the approach to the crease. In the short term the solution was to bowl "Jenner-esque" off of a step or two, but trying to put a lot more revs on the ball. It worked to some extent, but I wasn't taking wickets and my line and length was inconsistent, something was wrong. I videoed myself again and the footage was bad - all sorts of problems, but the main thing was I was bowling too 'Front on' not getting side-on through the crease.


So step one was to get back to getting side on. I got round this by ensuring that I was looking down the wicket -over my shoulder - looking around my leading arm. Straight away, immediate results, 2 wickets in a game, going for only 3 an over and being used for 13 overs. But during the game I was still wholly unsure about whether to come off of 4 steps, 6 steps or to include a bound and it just felt crap.


On SKY here in the UK, there's been a documentary about McGrath & in the documentary he explains how he worked out his run-up and discusses how it was conceived. The basics are – you run until you feel rhythmic and are able to enter your bowling stride and action feeling comfortable. He says do this on an open field (outfield) marking your start and get someone to mark your landing point out of the bound. Do it 10 or more times to check the length and consistency and take the average length and that’s your run-up. Check it out here from 14 minutes onwards and then genius bit is discussed at 16min and 40 seconds.

If you asked me what my run up consists of – or how long it is, until today I couldn’t have given you an answer. In matches, I stutter, stop, try different lengths and look like a complete pillock and then bowl off 2 steps of late, but without a bound and with collapsed pivot leg. It had to stop!


This morning, I videoed how I bowled yesterday – 40 balls, I then videoed an attempt at bowling ‘naturally’. I then compared the two and came up with a plan. I knew I wanted 3 outcomes…

(1). More speed, so I had to do more than walk-in.

(2). More energy and dynamism – I needed to bound.

(3). Get side-on.


Stage 1. On a flat paved area I marked a starting point and very quickly discovered it was important to start off with either my left or right leg leading. I went for the left leg leading, so came off the right foot from my mark.


Stage 2. In the short term, three steps seemed sufficient before I performed the bound into the side-on ‘Landing’ position, set up for stride into the rotation stage.

At this point all those things that happen at that stage were un-important, what mattered was…

Steady your self at your mark, lead with the correct foot consistently – initially this was hard, it’s not something I’ve ever done and initially I found myself doing the stuttering thing, or going with the wrong foot. I just had to just keep repeating the same lead with the left foot.

Having got that right – the three steps felt fairly natural leading into the bound. The whole action being utterly new then felt different through the crease and initially the results didn’t look that promising, but by the 3rd or 4th ball there was a significant improvement. I then, over an afternoon in three sessions bowled 400 + plus balls. By which time I’d measured the distance from my mark to the stumps as being 8’6” and this worked pretty well.


For the moment, there are other issues – I don’t seem to be able to spin the ball as hard at will, but I noticed when I was more relaxed, everything came together including drift so bounce and massive turn. The more obvious short term effect was massively improved accuracy with regards line and length and more speed in comparison with yesterdays ‘Jenner-esque’ step in and bowl.


But in the short term I seem to have developed a consistent method which now gives me the basis on which to address other issues one by one methodically. So over the coming 2 weeks (No game next week for me) I’m going to work with this and hone it, so that it is my approach to the crease not Jenner’s, 

Since then, I've had a weekend at Nutbrook Cricket Club, Derbyshire where with the permission of the clubs coach I was able to access a good quality net and have been able to work on this new action. That combined with a couple of sessions in the paddock  I reckon I've at last developed an approach/run-up to the crease now that I'll stick with for ever-more. I've struggled with this aspect of my bowing since starting, so it's a bit of a pivotal moment these last two weeks.

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

 

 

B&PCC v Belhus CC U15's at Holy Cross cricket ground 18th May.

Somehow I've got to come up with a way of writing up these reports in a more concise form. I guess I'm just going to have to write them up from a bowlers perspective unless something worthwhile and of note happens with the bat?

It rained earlier in the day as expected, but then cleared up by about 2pm with a blustery wind and bright sunshine, so the match looked on. I managed to get out of work early and then walking home from the station I realised the wind was in the north somewhere and I'd have to probably take more clothes than normal if I was going to be sitting scoring.

I didn't realise that the wind was coming directly from the North Pole and I was almost fooled by the warm spring sunshine, but getting ready I thought I'd better chuck a coat, a hat and some track suit bottoms in my bag just in case? My God was that a good move...

The venue was a neutral ground Holy Cross cricket ground along Whitmore Way in Basildon...

Got over to the ground to find that we were likely to be a man short. Frank did the toss and the opposition won choosing to bat first, which he was surprised by, but thinking about how quickly the light was going to fail, seemed like a good call to me? Mark the Under 15's manager asked me to score and I said yes, but then Mike Blerkom offered his services, so I said I'd prefer if he did it officially and I'd score alongside him for practice.

Right from the outset Belhus looked as though they were in trouble, getting off to an unsteady start oblivious to the fact that we have a secret weapon... Mohammed Baig the Leg-Spinner and then if that doesn't work, certain death in the form of Frank Farrington.

Abdul Baig, Mo's older brother started off with a shaky start from the 'Pond End' and my son Joe Thompson (13) bowled from the Pavilion end. Joe bowled tightly for his initial three overs and Abdul who was unable to find any rhythm was taken off after two overs.

This brought on Sam Good one of the U13's to join the attack and he got off to a blinder of a start. Bowling seam up his first over went for just one run. Five overs in with all of the byes and wides making a bigger contribution than the batting we were on 20 and needing a wicket. One of their batsman his a ball down to 3rd man and the bloke at the other end shouted yes, but he didn't account for Mohammed Baigs lightning reaction, quick across the pitch, a clean pick up and throw down of the stumps a la' Ricky Ponting. The kid was gone and heading back to the sheds for 6 and he looked like the most promising of the 2 at the crease. That then loose Sam Good... He's not called Sam good because he's rubbish. Gunning was stumped by Charlie Blerkom, Sam Good drawing him out of the crease for 3. Z. Wilson was clean bowled for 5 and then F Todd for 0 and all this in the 7th over at which point Sam was on 3 for 3 off of 2!

 

Joe's spell was curtailed after 3 on 0 for 7 and Frank brought on Tom Paul. Sam then having done some damage suffered some damage himself as he was hit for consecutive 4's off of a series of full tosses. At the same time Tom bowled away with good tight over that included a maiden and then he joined in with the wicket of their best batsman A. Williams who was stopped on 20.

 

Then came the 'Sucker Punch,' Frank brought on Mohammed Baig ... Mo's first ball bowled T Sorelli (name might be wrong)? who was on 2, he followed that with a dot  ball, his 3rd ball bowled 'Morris' for 0. He then had another dot ball and followed that with his 3rd wicket of the over - B.Garwood for 0 too.

  In the 19th over Frank Brought Joe Thompson back on (My son) who then finished the game off with his first ball. As he ran in Travis Singelton was heard to make a ball hitting the stumps noise before it even happened... G-dink! Sure enough his prediction was spot on. They'd been bowled out for 73 in 19.1 overs. Frank didn't even need to bowl himself.

 

Batting - With 74 needed in failing light it looked as though it was going to be a similar story. By now with the long evening shadows stretching across the wicket and that very brisk North Westerly wind, it was getting very cold and I had all of the clothes that I'd brought with me on. It was FREEZING! Over the following hour or so it got colder and colder. If you ever go to a early season cricket match, never assume it is going to be warm, dress or at least take clothes more suited for December! If it is warm you wont have to wear them, but if it's cold - man are they a Godsend! Next week a woolly hat and thicker socks!

 

The batting didn't get off to a good start - new lad Andrew Tokeley was out first ball hooking a ball that bounced up into the air to be easily caught by the bowler. Travis Singleton was another early victim gone for 0. Thankfully Frank and Charlie Blerkom took their time and got off to steady starts and made 25 and 21 respectively. Like last week the middle order struggled and the runs dried up as the last few overs approached and it looked like another nail biting end. Sure enough the runs dried up and it looked increasingly like we wasn't going to get across the line, then their spin bowler at a critical point with little more than an over to get the runs bowled a over the head no-ball, which Sam Good lifted his bat above his head to, to smack through the Gully and Point area and it snuck through and he then ran 3 getting Basildon across the line

 

Some pictures...

Holy Cross cricket ground Basildon off Whitmore Way.

 

 Left to Right - Charlie Blerkon, Anthony Ayres (Umpire), Andrew Tokley, Frank Farrington (Wrist Spinner). Joe Thompson (At back). Random Belhus bloke in foreground nearest the camera?

Charlie Blerkon Batsman/Wicket Keeper B&PCC

 Words of encouragement from Mark Farrington (U15's manager) for Charlie Blerkom.

 Victorious B&PCC U15's leave the pitch Left to right - Joe Thompson, Abdul Baig, Travis Singleton (Green Jumper), Sam Good (Helmet) and Frank Farrington (right).

Left to Right - Travis Singleton, Sam Good, Charlie Blerkom (part obscured) Tom Paul (In football kit), Anthony Ayres, Andrew Tokley, Joe Thompson, Frank Farrington, Abdul Baig and Mo Baig (Wrist Spinner).