Rain stopped play again and general update

 Last weekend all the cricket was called off, as far as I'm aware not a match was played despite the fact that over the weekend the weather was fine, it was the run up to the weekend - rain, rain and more rain and all the venues including our own pitch at Mopsies were water-logged. But the weekend saw a change in the weather. The Azores high pushed north moving all the bad weather up to where it's supposed to be... In the north - Scotland and Northern Ireland and at last for the first in months we had some proper weather. Sunshine 25 degree centigrade and blue skies!

We'd decided to go up the Midlands (Derby) to see the in-laws having had notifications by email and text messages that our matches were off, so this was the perfect opportunity to get up there and see them. But, somehow I'd missed the fact that Ben had a game on Sunday and it wasn't until we'd left and were half way up the M1 that Kieran Barbero's Mum sent a text asking "Is the U13's match off then"? So as soon as we go there I had to text Ben's manager Dave Ayres and explain that we'd cocked up. He then did say that it wasn't 100% that the U13's game was on and that it may yet be called off and sure enough by the end of Saturday we got notification that it had been called off as well because of the state of the pitch, so I felt a lot better about the situation as it felt as though we'd let the team down.

Joe's recovery update

I haven't posted any pic's of late of Joe's leg, so here's the most recent shot this morning. As I've said before the visual aspect of the recovery seems to have slowed down massively and the difference from one clinic visit to another is now very minimal. Overall though, Joe's doing well, since the consultant spoke to him, relating his condition to the astronauts and the way that their bones and muscle deplete because of inactivity, Joe's been ditching the crutches and hobbling around with out them when he's indoors, outside though he's still using the crutches, but he seems to be putting more weigh through the injured leg.

He's got his first physio visit at the hospital this Wednesday and we're all looking forward to seeing what they say, but a few people have said that they reckon by the time he gets back to school in early September he'll be walking around with a limp with no crutches or even a walking stick, which if it happens will be really good news. But for the moment he's still very reliant on his crutches and is missing out on so much, normally he's a very active kid and just today on day one proper of the 6 week holiday he already looks very fed up and is saying that he's bored and that he wishes that he could get into his new school.

A couple of days later... Just been to see the Physio at the hospital (Jill) and that's gone really well. She checked out his posture and the way that he's walking and where Joe's got deficiencies and over-compensating for the injured leg. His mobility in his ankles and knees are good and generally his strength in the bad leg is okay and only slightly behind where she expected it to be at this stage. So Joe's been given a list of bends, stretches and drills to do and we have another visit next week. Overall it went really well and again the message is that he's expected to be walking without any aids by the time he goes to secondary school. When we got home I suggested that Joe have a little go on his bike and he had a little go and said it felt weird - I think he's mostly worried about falling off and having to put the bad leg down quickly.

I've just gone through the physio routines with Joe and there was only one where he reported pain. Sitting on the floor with a green terra band around his foot with me holding the end he has to  push his foot away from me as at 2.56 in this vid. From the physio advice I've had from Liz Ward on www.bigcricket.com in the past I know that if there is pain then this shouldn't be done, so we adjusted the resistance so that it was much lower and then this was fine.

This is Joes wounds as they were on Monday. The top one is the inside of the leg with "The hole" to the left and the "Exit wound" to the right nearer the top of the leg and as you can see they're very slowly getting better. The physio today had a look at the scars and said that the exit wounds can and should be massaged to break down the scar tissue under the surface and showed Joe what he needs to be doing, which was good as this is one of the things I've been a little concerned with. The lower image is the impact wound.

The Paddock.

After months of rain the paddock at last has dried out enough for some work to be done on it. As usual the kids that try and play football in there, they run all over it and ruin it and for some reason dog walkers pretty do the same simply because the grass is short.

With some rolling though and the addition of a few buckets of water it came good and by the next day we were able to get the nets up for the first time and have a bit of a knock about.

Once the work had been done what with the temperature at 30 degree centigrade and 20 at night the moisture soon dried out and left us with a pretty smooth surface for Ben and Kieran to bowl on. The leg -side we leave a little rough so that the wrist spinners have got something to work with.

The nets had to be put up in a different way this year because the fence has been taken down and the council refuses to replace it and this took ages and I had virtually no help at all from the boys as they all mucked about as I put it all up.

Once up though it worked quite well and needless to say if it goes up again it'll be a lot easier 2nd time around.

Ben Transformation

This morning Ben left the house on the verge of being labelled a 'Bleedin Long Haired' and came back with a new hair cut, not only that having had it cut he looked taller than me and when we measured him at the age of 13 he's about 5mm taller than me!

Here's the new look Ben...

What a difference 20 minutes makes to your life, and this wasn't instigated by me, this was his own doing and he loves the new look and the way that it feels.

Fox in the back yard.

This is a bit off-topic, but a fox turned up in our garden in broad daylight and decided he'd have a snooze. He knew we were watching him out through the window, but he wasn't bothered although he kept and eye on us, he ended up being there for about an hour and half.

Stuck a net up outside the house

We stuck a net up outside the house so that Joe could have a bat. We stick a chair behind him in case he over-balances and it works quite well and most of his shots are leg side and it gives him a chance to have a bit of fun and gets him working with both legs and balancing all of which are good news and it's just good that he gets out and about doing stuf rather than being indoors doing nothing much at all.

It's good to see that Joe's now getting up and about doing things, we've been up North recently to see his Grandparents in Derby and his Granddad has set up a table tennis table and for much of the time we were playing table tennis and this again was encouraging Joe to balance and use the bad leg.

 

 

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

 

And on and on and on (The rain)

Rain Stops Play. When is it going to stop? It feels like we haven't had a 24 hour period when it hasn't rained for weeks now, maybe a month? Every day it rains at some point, most days, as it is now for hours and hours on end soaking every single cricket pitch in the area. I've got a match on Sunday and so has Ben, but with 48 hours to drain and dry the likelyhood is that all the matches over the whole weekend will be called off again!

Paddock
I had a look at the paddock the other day because the football kids had been on there, they still haven't got it even though we've lost yet another international competition. Lads it's a lost cause, that will never be helped especially by practicing on a pitch that is barley 70' long! Stamina is a part of what you need to be able to demonstrate, go and play on a full size pitch somewhere!!! Inevitably, with it being so wet and combined with the fact that it appeared that they had decided to stand on the wicket at the point where seamers would land the ball, the wicket was ruined, don't what they'd been doing but it was only in this area and they'd turned it to mud almost.

During one of the breaks in the weather, I went over and re-seeded the area and scattered top soil on it at dusk. Over-night it rained and this morning I had another look and the seeds and the top soil because of the rain all seemed to have merged into the surface, possibly setting up a situation for quick establishment of growth assuming the rain and sun carry on in this on off manner. I'll have to wait and see.

Joe's Leg

I've not posted anything on here for a while re Joe's progress with his leg. We've got an appointment tomorrow at the fracture clinic so we're hoping for some good news going forwards with the bone healing situation. The big open wounds are all now almost sealed and the only one that is still 'Wet' is the impact wound. We're not getting our hopes up too much as this has been called as a year long healing process, so there may be very little difference tomorrow, but some good news would be good. We'll have to wait and see...

The Weather & The Paddock

We're into May now and it's dismal - day after day it's just grey and wet, not always loads of rain just light persistant rain interspersed with a brief sunny spells. But all this combined with a wind pattern that is dragging cold air from the North Pole it's cold, damp and miserable, more akin to the weather you'd expect to have in March.

This is supposed to be a Bank Holiday where we're supposed to get away to the beach or somewhere, or at least get out and about in the fresh air and have a knock-about with a ball or something.

You can't really see from this image how boggy the wicket is over at the Paddock, but it's as it would be usually in February, except that the grass is growing, but if you tread in the boggy stuff you sink and it leaves a big indentation in the mud/grass. Unfortunately the kids off the estate are getting in there and playing football despite it being a mud bath, but I can't begrudge them that and it's good to see kids playing sports rather than sitting on their back-sides texting and playing computer games. To be honest I think they're avoiding this muddy area and I like to think that they're doing so because they know we mow it, look after it and use it for practicing? Dog owners on the other hand are another matter and most of the damage is done by dogs and they allow them to crap all over the grass in the paddock where kids play!

The seed that I put down which I was worried about suffering due to dry weather I reckon for the most part has probably gone mouldy because of the rain in the boggy area previously mentioned, but in the batting area as you can see from above the seeds germinated and has started to come through, so that's a positive.

In addition with regards the knackered fence, I've had a reply from a different person in the council and they're looking now at the possibility of the fence being replaced like for like which'll be a chain link fence. Whether they're thinking a brand new fence all round or just a patch up job I don't know, but with a bit of luck it'll be all round as it'll mean we lose a lot less balls than we do at the moment.

Paddock news

We're in the midst of what may turn out to be a pretty bad drought on par with the 1976 one as previously mentioned, back then life was a lot more basic and there was still the hangover from the post war austerity and I know that many people would have only taken baths once or twice a week and showers were a luxury that 'Posh people' had. So when it came to the point where the water was turned off for long periods of time most people coped with it, but I've got a feeling that this drought is going to shake people a bit, when they get to realise that the only water that they can access over a period of 24-48 hours is what they can carry in a bucket, having collected it 200 yards down the road from a stand-pipe!

But today and yesterday we've had some showers and this means the paddock is looking a bit better and it's prompted me to go out and by some grass seed and if the weather continues as predicted (Weekend and beyond) it may be the case that I'll be able to establish some grass at the batting end and do some repairs on other areas that are a bit sparse?

A couple of days ago I even negotiated with Ben to have a bowl and I faced him with the bat, he's a bit rusty, but he's got plenty of training coming up both at school and at the club, for the moment he doesn't want to give up, but XBOX is gradually consuming his life and he is becoming a stereotypical teenager, watch this space...

The Paddock gets its first mow

With the knowledge of a warm day on the cards, I decided that I'd give the paddock a cut with the mower. So after the dew had dried out I got in there with the mower set on a relatively low blade and cut 2/3 of the wicket from the batting end. Having done that and noticing that it's pretty damp still in areas where Ben would bowl, I got the roller working as well and gave it another going over with that.

So here's how it's looking today 24th March. The bare patch where the batsmen stand is already cracking up and the unrolled bit in front of that is too dry to be affected by the roller, so that'll cause problems for anyone batting against spin.

Having got it ready I had a bit of a bowl - 28 overs worth, went okay. I seem to have picked up from where I left off last year which is good news as I was bowling pretty well at the end of the season last year. I then went on and grooved my bowling action through October and November and I'm pretty much where I was back then already and it's not even British summer time! Additionally I seemed to have gained some control over the way the ball spins - being able to bowl with the seam at 45 degrees and another method with the ball almost at 90 degrees and switch between one and the other quite readily. As a result I'm getting the ball to turn big. But additionally I've got accuracy! With the accuracy and the results I've been seeing in nets I'm now bowling round the wicket pitching the ball wide of Leg Stump turning the ball in to the stumps. I'm not that sure how that would work with good batsmen as I've got a feeling they would play the ball off the back foot - but at the same time these batsmen may fall to Deep Square Leg? But, I've been bowling the ball on or about leg stump with the better bats and this seems to have been causing problems, so it'll be an option. This new approach initially would suit bringing the field right up, but I think I'd have to prove consistent accuracy in game situations to justify taking that approach. But, overall my bowlings looking very strong and if I can increase fitness and stamina things look promising.

Easter Break

It's only a week and it'll be Easter and potentially 2 weeks of non-stop cricket either in the Paddock or over at the Rec. It's over this 2 week period that my fitness and strength increases exponentially because I'm out all day doing nothing but doing stuff with the kids - cricket, cycling, swimming, walking, running, rugby - even a bit of soccer! Today bowling those 27 overs, my arms and shoulders are fine, but my feet are the parts that are sore. My knees have come through fine too as last year they were ropey at times. So just some general activity over the coming three weeks should see a good level of fitness. More fine weather tomorrow, so more bowling and hopefully I'll be able to get Joe, Kieran and Ben involved.

The Paddock

Here in the UK we're heading for a drought unless a lot of rain falls pretty soon, rivers and reservoirs are up to 50% down on capacity and this is before the summer even starts. We've had 2 consecutively dry winters, with very little in the way of rain and increase in colder snowy weather which only lasts for a week or so.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geoffreylean/100144383/drought-in-britain-whats-the-worst-case-scenario/

As far as the Paddock is concerned, what with the removal of the fence, I was in two minds whether I'd maintain it this year, but last week we had a bit of a knock about in there using the sidearm. I've said to Joe, Ben and Kieran that whoever bowls me out 10 times first will get a tenner and that's given them all incentive to pick up the sidearm and start using it therefore improving their accuracy with it and giving me the chance to face faster bowling. But interestingly, even though the paddock is in a real mess at the moment, the ball was coming through fine, so with a little rain today I took the opportunity to get in there with the roller and give it a going over. As I write it's raining right now and due to continue through the night, so it's likely that I'll have another go tomorrow and I may also seed it.

With regards the fence, I contacted the local council and they've said that there's a small chance that something may happen, so fingers crossed if they've got to spend money before their financial review and they're looking for projects to spend the cash on quickly, we may get lucky?

Paddock Pre-Season

It's been very dry and mild this winter and as a result we're expecting a drought this summer unless of course we have an odd summer and it rains all the time. But, recent summers have been pretty good with lots of sunshine and fine weather, so there's no real reason for that to change. As a result the Paddock isn't swampy as it was last year and its lush and green (Where there is grass) because nature thinks its spring - 11 degrees today! So yesterday I went over and had a look to see how it was recovering with no seeding done last Autumn.

As you can see, the crease area at the batting end is slowly recovering, but it's not going to be ready for April/May. I'm going to have to get some seed down as early as possible. The bowling end isn't so much of a problem as we've got some very heavy duty rubber matting and that's going to be at the bowling end where it normally gets worn. We'll just bring that backwards and forwards I reckon. We'll have to see.

Pre Season Paddock

I had a quick look at the Paddock last weekend and it's looking okay, nowhere enough grass at the batting end, but the rest of it looks reasonable. With the incredibly dry winter, it's not become a swamp this winter which is good and all I need to do now is get my timing right with regards to seeding it this spring. I'm thinking get the seed down at the end of Feb and keep my fingers crossed that it takes and that we don't get a very cold March and the grass gets established? I'll have to do some research and see if that's the right approach.

The fence which was mysteriously ripped down over August Bank Holiday hasn't been replaced and that's potentially an issue as any cover drives or balls through the offside are going to end up denting the cars that the commuters from Billericay all park just adjacent to the Paddock. I'll have to look out for some more scaffolding netting and perhaps get that up when we have knock about in there, the downside of that being its more aggro putting it all up and getting it put away again.

Follower No.13 signed up this week. Welcome mate hope you check out the blog everynow and then and get something from it.

The Paddock

The mild weather continues with it being between 14 and 16 degrees today and over-night it's only going to dip to 10 degress meaning that the grass is still growing in the paddock. The good news is that we've had some rain in the last few weeks ending the very long run of dry weather and the process of re-growth is beginning to happen of its own accord. Because of the potential Gyspy invation post Dale Farm I didn't do any pre-winter remedial work in the paddock at all other than rake some dirt back into the area where the batsmen stand, which I did mid October when it was still really dry. Since then I've not been over there and the only people you see in there are the fair weather footballers.......The ones that can't be bothered to run about on a field because it means being fit and leaving their phones more than a metre away from where they are. Or the people that let their Staffordshire Bull Terriers in their so that they can shit everywhere and our kids get it all over their clothes. But, today I went over and had a quick look and was quite surprised at how well it was recovering without any intervention. I'll have to keep and eye on it and see how it goes and maybe in the spring get some seed down early?

The other idea I've been toying with and it's one that I'm surprised that B&PCC don't adopt for their nets where the bowlers create a big hole when pivotting, is this Heavy Duty Playground matting. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-x-Rubber-Grassmats-Playground-Safety-Mat-Flooring-Set-/150461579063?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2308357f37

It comes in 1.5 x 1 metre sections and as you can see you can seed it and the grass grows up through it and eventually a thin layer of earth covers it meaning that the root system for the grass stays intact in amongst and under the mat, so pivoting on the mat only damages the very tips of the grass that are growing through. For the paddock it would be ideal as it would be flush with the surface and allow a good surface to bowl on that wouldn't wear away. I reckon I could get away with getting it fitted over the winter and just simply cover it with earth as it bedded in. I'm just not sure whether once I got the seed I'd need to expose the mat in order for the seed to germinate and grow through the holes, I think at that point the footballers or the dog owners might spot it and have it away despite how many fixings I put in it to secure it. Something I'll have to think about I reckon.

Side Arm

The other interesting thing that I've seen recently was this here, a bloke on big cricket asked how you might be able to make your own bowling machine and one of the coaches on-line suggested this.......

It's a 'Side Arm' and allows with a little bit of practice for the user to bowl the ball with a lot of accuracy and massively enhanced speed. It also enables the thrower to bowl balls that 'Swing' and spin - Leg Breaks and Off-Breaks, so it would be exceptionally useful for me and the kids next season in the paddock. Something we'll look into as a Christmas present I reckon.

Paddock under threat

The paddock by my reckoning is under threat this year. A couple of months back I reported the mysterious removal of the fencing. The fence was taken down carefully and removed leaving no trace, not obviously vandalised and for no reason as the metal in a wire fence is minimal. Later I thought about it and realised that the fence may have been taken to allow easier access onto the site in a vehicle and the wire taken away perhaps useful to make barracades?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/oct/19/dale-farm-evictions-live

Then on Sunday a big brand new pick up truck had pulled up onto the verge opposite the paddock and a big burly bloke was there on the phone talking. He saw me watching him and he then left. I reckon that some of the displaced Gypsies from the Dale Farm eviction will now pitch up on the Paddock and I'm half expecting them to be there tonight when I return home. In which case the era of the Paddock will come to an end. Longer term, if they ever move on, the fence might be repaired!

What the hell?

On my way to work this morning I looked up and someone has nicked the bloody fence from the paddock over night on a Bank Holiday Monday. They've nicked the side which protects cover drives and balls bewteen there and backward of point from going in the road or onto the cars. WTF is that about, it had holes all over it as well, so you wouldn't be nicking it to put in your back yard? It doesn't make sense either from the point of view of your usual suspects nicking it either, they usually nick stuff to claim the scrap value, but this was a flimsy wire fence!

The paranoid part of me thinks this is stage 1 of a more malicious process. Will have to wait and see. It's bizarre, because they've done a really neat job of it and taken it away and left all the rest of the fence on all the other sides which in some ways might have been easier to nick and it's of a better qaulity. There's been a group of teenagers who've been in there playing football of late who are not from our estate, but why they'd do anythng is beyond me unless stage 2 is due to happen soon?

Net Practice

Via the blog it’s fairly well known at our club that we’ve got the paddock as a facility to use and as you’re probably aware it features on the blog and on my youtube channel quite a bit, so it’s not like it’s a secret. Over the last couple of years a few people have joined us in there for a knock about and this year I’ve invited people to come over when they’ve mentioned seeing it on the blog.
On Saturday I got a phone call from the Farrington’s saying that they might come over and join us on Sunday evening. Being so late in the season it’s looking a bit worn out and it was in need of a cut, so Joe, Ben and me decided in the afternoon that we’d go across and give it a bit of spruce up.

Joe gets to work painting the crease lines at the bowling end.

Not having had a measure up since March we checked the length of the wicket and had to make some adjustments. As you can see, it was shaping up as a spinners wicket.

Joe got a shot of me sweeping away some of the loose stuff in order that we could get some paint down.

Joe carefully painting the crease lines.

Me and Ben took the mower over and cut the grass. Then Joe and I went over, measured the length of the wicket, marked out where the stumps would go and painted the batting and popping crease lines.

Some nice lines are prodcued by the Ransomes Ajax mower that we use.

The main issue we had though was the timing of their visit. They were due to arrive at about 5.45 which is around about the time that the football types get in there and the gangs of youths, whereas we’re usually in there earlier in the day or later than 7.30. So we decided that we’d get the nets up by way of discouraging anyone from getting ideas about playing football in there. So at about 5pm the nets went up and we got most of the gear ready. We then had to go in and have our dinner, so we left all the gear there and sat in the kitchen keeping an eye on it as we ate, that’s how close it is to our house! After scoffing the dinner down we got back and shortly Mark, Jack and Frank all turned up and the cricket got underway.

We all got to have a bat with the exception of Ben as he’d had a bike accident earlier and grazed his ankle and it was still all wet and weeping and his pads would have worn against it and he was saying it was feeling sore anyway. Initially Joe wasn’t interested in batting and declined the chance to bat, but then changed his mind later as he got into it and realised that he was really enjoying it and fancied his chances. So he went home while Frank was batting and got his gear on. My bowling wasn't too bad, ropey for the first few balls as always, but then as I relaxed and got the arm speed up a bit the balls began to dip and spin a bit and they looked a bit challenging. Franks as ever though was quite adept at putting them away, but I reckon I got one or two past him and he may have hit a few out to Mid Wicket for a catch?

Joe, fired up with enthusiasm at having some proper cricketers in the paddock batted out of his skin, I've never seen Joe bat so well and agressively. Almost every ball I bowled at him he came down the wicket and blocked and maybe once or twice I got the ball past him for a stumping chance. It was good to see and he really enjoyed himself as well which is really good to see as sometimes Joe can lack enthusiasm.

I batted as well towards the end and like Joe I batted reasonably well getting balls on the legs and the legside away, I even got a couple of those deft little paddle flick things that Ian Bells does. The ones where you reach the bat out forwards almost on the ground and length-wise to the ball as it come in and you just angle the bat so the ball comes off it and goes fine down leg. Ben who is totally dismissive of my batting and technique was pretty impressed, but then went on to bowl me out three times. His bowling in comparison to what I faced on Saturday was far superior, faster and as far as I'm concerned impossible to play. It was so fast he's on the verge of getting the stumps out of the ground, on one of them the stumps were all over the shop! With me he gets the ball under the bat and if I'm able to block it more than a few times he has this ball that he bowls a little outside of off that he flicks out of the hand kind of using an offies action with the fingers that he gets to turn in, it is a devastating ball. Mark was very impressed and then he said he couldn't understand why Ben hadn't been picked for the big match next Sunday. This was news to me and later we had to check out to see who was playing and sure enough Ben's been forced out of the team to reserve at No.12. Some of the other lads at the lower end no doubt batting better than Ben has been. It's all gone a bit Ravi Bopara for Ben!

Joe preparing to face some of Franks fizzing Legspin.

Joe helping to get the nets up.

The nets being unravelled.

Joe captures me tying the nets to the goal posts in the paddock.

Fun Day
The up and coming funday at Basildon requires that we get ourselves into teams of 6-8 and either Mark or Jack made the point that this combination could constitute our team? I think I'm quite happy to go with that and maybe have Michelle as the female player which'll take use to 7 players on the team. Whether Frank and Jacks Mum will want to have a go or not I'm not sure, but if she does I'm sure Michelle will be quite happy to hand over the bat/ball on the day!


Post titles
I've recently learned something about this blogging lark with regards to getting hits on your blog and it relates to the titles of each of the posts. The trick is to make the titles very generic in order that when people go looking for information they then stumble upon your blog. For instance by having the title of this post 'Net Practice' it increases the chances of people clicking on it and having a look. Unfortunately though at the minute my counter seems to be out of action.

Paddock Fun

Not being able to attend last weeks inter-club match we didn't get the nod to say that there wouldn't be any cricket this Sunday at Mopsies, but ever the optimist (when it comes to cricket) I expected that there would be something going on despite not having any emails to say otherwise and others did the same! So we turned up and there was no-one there and the kids including Kieran (Ben's mate and fellow team member) were gagging for cricket and Joe suggested we get in the paddock and have a knock about in there.

Once home after a cup of tea, we set up the paddock. In the paddock much of the batting tends to be a bit agricultural, so I'm always looking for ways to encourage driving the ball and looking through my vids a few days ago I found some footage of a variation of 'Paddock cricket' that addressed this in some ways. Batting in pairs Kieran and Ben, Joe and I we played a game where each pair faced six overs of bowling with a series of rules that forces the bat to hit straight or gently dab the ball into the middle to run a single or deftly edge the ball wide of the keeper.

* A ball hit straight back past the bowler hitting the back fence = 2 runs
* A ball hit short into the middle or either side fence enables a single.
* A ball fielded and thrown at the stumps at the bowlers end and not fielded goes for an over-throw and therefore a single and the bats would have also run one.
* A ball bowled and not stopped by the keeper goes for either a leg-bye or bye single.
* A ball hit deftly off the bat not stopped by the keeper hitting the back fence goes for 1
* A cover drive that goes through the 'Cover drive hole in the fence' is automatically 1 run.
* Any balls that other-wise go over the nets are no balls and no runs given.
* Conventional no-balls (Height and stepping over the line) are singles + an extra ball to the bowler.
* Wides are covered by the 'Back fence rule'.
* Your wicket constitutes minus 3 runs.
* Contentious balls, like those that go vertical or right up in the air to land near a fence impeding the fielder are decided on the toss of a coin and the same with LBW decisions.

The consequence of which is the batsmen have to communicate really well and be a bit fast between the stumps and back up the striker. They have to consider their batting and the most effective way to get runs is to probably hit the ball along the ground back past the bowler for two or nice cover drives through the hole in the fence. The bowling has been interesting because of the pressure that is put on the batsmen. In both the games we played this morning Joe and I batted first and off both innings we only scored 10 and 11 runs respectively. With the first innings I thought we'd lost it easily because Ben and Kieran get the ball on the bat far more readily than Joe and I, and our 10 was score primarily through defensively poking the ball into the middle of the wickets and quick singles, which was fun because of the desperate scrambles to get the ball retrieved and back at the stumps for a stumping. Initially we did really well, but then Ben and Kieran started to talk tactics and pulled our fairly high score back to ten through at least 2 stumpings caused by indecision by me primarily.

Slow bowling won the day, after yesterday's bowling abomination where I bowled like a squirrel. (Yeah - squirrel, have you ever seen a squirrel bowl - exactly, that's how bad it was)! Today I was back to normal service drawing both Ben and Joe out of their crease for Joe to take several good stumpings and Joe did the same thing with his bowling and he hit the wood-work once and forced Kieran to edge the ball into my gloves on one ocassion smartly. The second match was close, Kieran and Ben were beating us with three balls to go and on the 4th ball of the last over Joe got the one that was edged into my gloves and then he bowled 2 dots balls for us to take the win for the 2nd time. All in all it was a very good game and hopefully for Ben at least a good learning curve.

Paddock Prep

Hot and sunny today and we had a session in the paddock which is beginning to crack up, making it fairly dangerous to play against faster bowling in, so I've had to take some action to repair it and make it usable as a mate of mine is coming over tomorrow and he's going to bowl and bat in it.

So this afternoon I've been back and forth with buckets of water getting the surface wet and soft so that it can be rolled with some of the bigger cracks filled with fresh earth. So having done that and rolled it, it's looking pretty good again ready for tomorrow. The only downer is the fact that some of the football kids who are always looking to ruin our cricket activities in some way, trod all over the newly rolled surface, making pock marks all over it. Luckily they dont have a clue as to what to do in order to cause problems and real damage so their attempts were fairly superficial. It'll be interesting to see how the repairs and rolling hold up, because the work was done in a new way, with the surface being soaked locally along the seamers line and then fresh dry earth being applied in a thin layer over the wet surface. The idea being that once rolled the dry earth will bond with the original surface and become damp. Once that was done an additional light watering was applied to the new surface and rolled beneath a fine mesh to get a really smooth surface. It'll dry over-night, so I wont know if the bonding of the two substrates will work, because they're of two differing soil types, the existing surface is primarily clay with some organic material 95% + 5%, where as the new layer is probably 50/50, so may dry out far quicker and therefor crumble quickly. This is all experimental so we'll just have to see how it goes?

Paddock News

Ben and Joe had a game of cricket this morning over at Mopsies - an inter-club match, all the U13's and a handful of U11's. Yesterday it rained and the expectation was more rain today, but the forecast suggested that between about 08.00 and 12.00 it might be okay and sure enough during that time the rain held off and then started to pour on the way home. The game was a good bit of fun and I was given the job of umpiring, which I need to do more of, but I think I managed to blag it. The highlight for the Thompson's was Joe taking Mitchell McLeods wicket, with the ball being hit to Harry Davie at Mid wicket to be caught.

During the afternoon, the rain continued sporadically, interspersed with short periods of sunshine and thunderstorms. This has meant that I've been able to get in the paddock with the roller and give it a bit of a going over in preparation for the next batch of good weather.

The earth has softened up so much that the deep cracks that were appearing have all now disappeared as the rain has been absorbed into the earth and made the earth swell. The rolling has now smoothed the surface out nicely and if the drying isn't too rapid we may get a few weeks of decent batting conditions before the surface crazes again and starts to break up.


Usually by this time of year the grass is yellow and the surface has gone through 3 stages - deep cracks, small crazing type cracks and the final flaky and crumbling surface, making it only any good for bowling on.

Here's the net being used to stop all the clay/earth sticking to the roller. This also helps to show up indents in the surface if it's uneven.

We've just got to hope now that there is a decent amount of drying that occurs over the next 24 hours, otherwise the football kids will get in there and run all over it damaging the surface. I've also cleaned up all the dog crap that was in there. I can't believe it, but people know kids go in there all the time playing football, but they take their dogs in there and let them off the lead so that they can s**t where they like and they don't clean it up.

Paddock's looking good!

As I hoped, overnight it's rained again softening up the paddock, so that I've been able to get in there with the roller and the mower today. Once the sun came out and the grass had dried off, I got in there with the Ransomes Ajax MKIV and lowered the blades to their lowest setting so far this year and gave it the once over at the batting end. I've taken to only cutting the batting end really short and I leave the other end with a lot more grass on it.

Once I'd mowed and gave it a good roll, Joe adjusted the blades even further (See below) and then gave it another going over (See above) virtually removing all the grass.

We then gave it another roll trying to flatten what grass there was left into the earth so as to give it a nice smooth sheen. (See below).

Some small repairs were done and some of the Plantain were dug out at the batting end. At the moment the Plantain isn't too bad and I do have the option of using some heavy duty weed-killer, but earlier experiences with the weed killer have shown that if you're not careful with the stuff it kills off the grass for the rest of the year. It looks like the only way that you could use it would be to get down on your knees and apply the weed-killer to the weed itself using a paint brush or some kind of drip applicator. Any excess weed-killer (Round-up) that falls on the grass causes big circular patches of grass to be killed.

So, now we're waiting for a little more rain - hopefully over-night to bed in the repairs, as the new dry 'Repair' earth is loose on top and it needs to integrate with the surface. Once that's happened I'm looking forward to get a net up and having Ben and Kieran and hopefully Joe to have a bowl. The weather report for tomorrow looks as though we may be lucky with the games in the morning, but come midday the rain is due and there might be a lot of it. If it does rain heavily, I may get back in there again and roll it some more and make it really smooth. Just need some adults to get involved and come along and have a bowl or some bigger teenagers who can bowl a bit.

Kieran News

I've had an update on Kieran's game a few days ago and Joe had got it all round his neck. The Billericay bowling attack saw the opposition off by the 15th over. The bowling icluded Kieran, Finlay and Harrison Birch from B&PCC. Finlay took 2 wickets bowling Leg Spin which is very good news as the under 13's could do with another Leg-Spinner aside from Frank, so to here that he was taking wickets and that the oppo was bowled out over 15 overs scoring something like 25 runs is good news. Kieran was put in as the opening Batsman by his captain Harrison Birch and they cruised through to 25 within 3 and a half overs.

Paddock news & the Big Flick

A couple of days ago (6th June I think) it rained properly for the first time since February giving me the opportunity to get in the paddock and get the roller going. In recent weeks what with the back to back sunshime in what is now the dryest and warmest start to a summer for more than 101 years, the paddock had already gone through the big cracks phase and was on the verge of strating to crumble on the surface. So this bit of rain is most welcome as it's allowed us to get out there and affect some serious repairs and set us up for another month or two I reckon. Looking around tonight when I was bowling (see below) there was more ominous clouds and the report is for more chances of short but heavy down-pours. If that happens I'll get out there again and roll again.



I've just bowled another 250-300 balls tonight all flicking the ball rather than my usual rolling technique, not once tonight have I rolled, which is a major break-through 5 years into my development as a bowler. Again tonight I followed the same format as last night - cocked wrist - gently flicked or unfurled, with the big flick off the collective fingers as in my Youtube video from a couple of months ago which I need to re-shoot. Initially I was having some reasonable success omitting the looking up, but in comparison to last night the results weren't so consistent, but still nonetheless reasonable. Then the last bucket of 50 balls I went back to the looking up at the hand and bowled 44 good balls. 4 went wide legside and 2 went wide off-side and all using the big flick and looking up at my hand as I bowled.

I haven't got a clue really what the affect of the looking up is, but the impact on my bowling is massive, it may be I'm standing taller, I know in doing it I get up on to the ball of my foot in the rotation and it maybe that I'm releasing earlier as well, but all in all it's giving me a massive improvement on what I've been doing the last couple of years! It's not fast - but it's loopy and accurate and turns big. In between the odd ball here and there I've been bowling the Wrong Wrong Un and that is vastly different and coming along very nicely- Tiny off-break action and skids in low at massively higher speed. All in all a very good couple of sessions in the paddock and my recently re-injured knee is showing signs of improving already which is good.

Ben & Joe B&PCC news

Both Ben and Joe have a game this weekend and again they're at different venues. So far I've been at Ben's games and watched those and they were on a winning streak. Since then we've been away on holiday and missed 2 games and 2 other lads that were in the 'Core' U13's team were also on holiday and some of the other lads got to play and came up against some very stiff competition and B&PCC having got off to the best start to a season in their U13's history came crashing down and out of the cup across the 2 games. On the upside though, Joe's Under 11's have continued there winning streak and have yet to lose a match. I reckon I'll go and see Joe at his away game with Horndon. Ben's at home and he's playing against the Horndon U13's. From what I can gather the remainder of the games for the season are against the strongest teams in recent junior cricket history, so both matches will be difficult.

The Paddock - The background story.

Summer 2006 on the night we were to travel to Cornwall for our annual surf trip, my wife said 'Take the kids over the Rec on their bikes to wear em out a bit before the 8 hour drive to Cornwall". So we went over the Rec where there's a big hill and Joe who had just turned 5 wanted to ride down the big grassy hill with Ben on their bikes. On the 3rd go Joe got wheel wobble doing about 20mph and went diving over his handle bars with the bike following him as it had flipped over the front wheel and both boy and bike landed on Joe's elbow smashing his left elbow and dislocating the forearm bone. Two operations and 3 days later Joe was in a cast and the holiday in Cornwall was no more. With his left arm in plaster the question was - what are we going to do all summer and the answer was cricket, a game I hadn't played properly ever and only had done as a kid in the street once or twice back in the late 60's or early 70's.

But having started it another Dad joined in and one thing led to another and within 6 months I'd formed the MPA 1st XI at work. I encouraged the kids to continue playing and bit by bit one of the things that we soon realised was that in order to bowl or bat we needed somewhere flat to bowl on. During the late summer that year in September I used take a pair of shears and cut the grass in the immediate area where we batted and bowled in order to try and improve the experience for Ben and Joe. At this point my obsession with Wrist Spinning was only just emerging.

Spring 2007; I was hooked and had carried on bowling through that winter and was now looking to bowl on grass, but had no-where to do so. Ben and Joe wanted to be involved too and the only solution I could see was to start cutting a wicket in the corner of little used local football pitch and so I set to it with a pair of shears whilst looking to get hold of a little manual mower.

So bit by bit using a pair of shears we cut the grass shorter enabling us to bat and bowl - See below Ben aged 7.


Initially we just cut a rectangle, but bit by bit it grew in length and this sufficed for a couple of years and over the winter I score a roller and I would roll this little rectangle in the corner of the field.

Then other kids started getting involved and we all started to get a bit better at batting and started to lose balls in the adjacent woods. This field is only about 100 yards from my house and is right next to the paddock almost, just the other side of the trees. We never considered the paddock as it was dead rough and often over-grown. This early wicket was in the corner of the local football pitch see below at A.

By the end of that summer I'd obtained the Ransomes Ajax lawnmower, a design classic, one of the best mowers ever, featuring a design that originated from the 1930's and mine was the MK4. This mower enabled us to get a ridiculously close cut on the wicket down to 6mm, improving the quality of the pitch massively.

Prior to establishing the wicket on the local field, I'd already been mowing a playing field about 3/4 mile away for the MPA 1st XI boys to play on and we used this over the summer of 2007. Being a playing field and council property, there was a potential issue with the council getting the hump about me mowing the grass on the field (Great Berry Open Space), but that Easter the counicl caught up with me and commended me on my grass roots approach to cricket and cutting the wicket and said that I could continue doing so. See below - Great Berry Open Space.

Spring 2008; More kids had got involved the summer before and Ben and Joe were showing promise as bowlers and the need for a local wicket grew, so early in the spring we got the shears going, cutting the long grass in the middle of the football field which still wasn't being used much at all by the people that owned the field. As with the corner wicket, this initially had to be cut by hand using shears (below). But once we'd got the grass short enough to deploy the Ransomes that came into use and we establised a half decent wicket to play on and practice on and the people who owned the field turned a blind eye to use using it.

We used this field for another year and then in 2009 I noted that the field was used a lot more and towards the end of the 3rd summer of use this wicket 'Valence Way Wicket' came to an end with the owners of the field clearing the field and cutting bushes and giving us the impression that it was going to be utilised more frequently. They suddenly started mowing it more and did a load of drainage repairs and filled holes and I decided that we'd stop using it. This wicket is B on the map. You can see how close all these strips are in relation to my house D.

Scratching around for somewhere to go next and looking for somewhere to bowl myself I ventured into the paddock a couple of times and bowled across the paddock from top to bottom up hill as you look at the ariel map. It wasn't that good and I didn't really consider it as being viable. I even looked at the potential for establishing a wicket over at Glouscester park and mowed a couple there looking to get the attention of a load of Asian lads, but it didn't work out. Then in July 2009 I wrote............

At the end of my road 1/2 way to our private wicket there's an enclosed compound more or less square in shape 34 yards x 35 yards with two full size goal posts in it. Around it there's a chain link fence in state of disrepair but 85% intact. It's not flat and runs of to one side at an angle and because it's used primarily by kids to play football the grass is exceptionally uneven and in a right mess and has probably never been levelled ever? I've practiced in there before bowling up the hill but today I went in there and had a bowl from side to side and realised that with a bit of work it could be made usable as a practice wicket and would be better because it's enclosed by fencing. Then thinking about it as I bowled I realised the potential for putting our nets up. Because of the position of the goal posts and the distance between them it's almost an ideal place to put nets up temporarily with very little effort using the goal posts as the main supports for the nets.

Repairs were made, filling in the holes between rough tufts of grass and I started to practice in the paddock and by the end of the summer realised that with some work it had real potential. So since July 2009 the paddock has gone from the images here below to the space you now see.



Again, the same as Great Berry Open Space it is council property, but I've wrote to the bloke at the council telling him I'm utilising it in the way that I am and that I'm cutting and maintaining it and he's okay with it. What they're more concerned with is that these spaces are utilised by the public and therefore do need to be maintained. If the public don't use them, then they can't justify their up-keep and the employment of staff. I've even asked for the fence to be repaired and replaced with one of those heavy duty steel fences and for the height to be raised. The council didn't say no and said that work on the fence was ear-marked for the future when the budget was there.

The idea of space utilisation is something that I find interesting, what are these spaces for and how can they be utilised and what constitutes good and bad usage. It seems that I've just been a bit more up-front than most people and I'm thick skinned, so that when people do walk past when I'm mowing it and look at me as though I'm a complete ****, I'm not bothered. What it means is that with a little bit of my time and a little money and asking around I've created a situation where we have this across the road from our house............


And here we are today having a knock about in the paddock - such good times!