Basildon & Pitsea CC 4th XI v Southend on Sea & EMT cc 6th XI at the Garrison ground

Everything you need to know about bowling Leg Breaks here.
As usual, right at the last moment blokes were moved around and the team ended up being very different to the one originally selected earlier in the week. This one very heavy on U15's and U13's players.

The ground that we were heading for is one of my favourites in this area - The Garrison ground in Shoebury, Essex. The ground appears to have been there since the 1870's as that's the date the pavilion buildings were constructed. It's big cricket pitch surrounded by some beautiful houses that used to be officers houses along three sides and one side there's a row of modern new buildings. See images below. 

Joe and I picked up Tim Brown and Sam Jones on the way and made our way there via the A13 and the A127 with Stuart Munday and Harry Davie following us. We got there in plenty of time and as we arrived the Blerkoms had arrived just ahead of us. By the time Lee turned up we had 10 players including Under 15's player Andrew Tokley. As our openers made their way on to the pitch we were only 1 bloke down, but they were in the same situation us. I recognised a bloke in the opposition who in the last game I played against him bowled the whole game from one end and took 6-7 wickets, he was there.

The batting didn't go to plan and the 'Good bloke' (R.Long) opened the bowling from the left hand end as seen from the Pavilion. But it wasn't him that took the majority of the wickets. The other bloke with the beard (P.Hall) who was the more wayward took a few, whilst the big wicket taker from the previous game was seen to be more predictable. Despite this wickets fell quickly and cheaply. The ball when struck well along the ground, especially on the further side of the pitch visually slowed down as if rolling across a sticky substance, with balls that you'd expect to go for four being quickly retrieved and restricted to ones on most occasions. All of our key batsmen were one by one marched back to the sheds. The captain Lee Dutton was dropped about 6 times. Charlie Blerkom was caught at Mid off. As he came in he asked 'How the hell did he catch that'?' With his hands for a start was one reply...'But he came forwards and then back again and he still caught it'. Yeah that may have been because the ball was in the air for about 4 minutes, he could have come over the pavilion and said to us all 'Watch this' and still got back to mid off to take it. Charlie unfortunately was out for 0. His Dad Mike, mishit the ball trying to get over the in-field and his ball went more up than along and he was caught in the covers, the bloke having time to run deeper and take the catch. 

It was down to Stuart Munday and new bloke Anthony Joseph to dig us out of the potential hole. For Stuart though, this was the first time he'd picked up a bat since September and he had some concerns about his knees and ankle. Stuart did well, really well, he stayed the rest of the game with little support from the bowlers, but helped them get us into treble figures. Harry Davie made 6 before being bowled by Mirzah, he wasn't happy with that. Joe was out next to face the bowlers. Joe had a good innings, he's normally dismissed within a matter of a few balls and it knocks his confidence making it so that he doesn't want to bat and reinforces the fear of faster bowlers. As he went out he was aware that he'd be facing a fast kid and a slow bowler so he was a little more optimistic. Stuart coaxed him through several overs and although he struck the ball well on a number of occasions, but he didn't get value for his strike of the ball. The grass on the Southern side of the wicket with modern houses was stiff and wiry grass, unlike most grasses and the ball just slowed down and virtually never got to the boundary. This was despite the fact that the boundary had been brought in by several yards around the entire pitch! Joe made 3 runs in the end, but blocked well and hit the ball a number of times and enjoyed it. 

I went out and Stuart said let's get to treble figures and go from there. Once we reached 100 he said that we should just try and hit the ball and rotate the strike rather than be too cautious as I normally am. I wasn't able to be as positive as I'd hoped to be after batting with Joe, but I did bat with far more intent than I usually do and as a result I made a few runs. I was hoping to stand slightly out of the crease and as I had with Joe, but the keeper noticed and he stood up to the stumps and in doing so scuppered my plans. He did the same thing with Stuart and Stuart, looking to play with slightly more aggression moved out of his ground missed the ball and was stumped, so I ended up with a 5 not out. 

Basildon Batting with Lee Dutton at the crease.

 The pitch inspection party - our 'Youth' contingent. Left to right... Andrew Tokely (U15), Charlie Blerkon (U13), Sam Jones (U15), Tim Brown (U16), Joe Thompson (U15) and Harry Davie (U16). 

 The wicket looking towards the Officers accomodation.

 The wicket looking South East.

 My son Joe.

 The Pavilion at The Garrison Cricket Ground Shoebury, Essex.

 Basildons batting scores.

 Bowling figures.

 Southend on Sea and EMT batting scores.

 Joe and me scoring and waiting for our chance to bat.

 Lee Dutton 

 Drinks.

The new bloke Anthony Joseph (Adult) opened the bowling and bowled a ball just outside the 'Channel of uncertainty' that obviously looked as though it was going down the off-side as the batsman shouldered arms only for the ball to come in and take the top of his off-stump, a classic well executed off-cutter. It was the exact start we needed trying to defend 104 runs!

Thereafter though he was put off his rhythm by the umpire calling 'No-ball' for stepping too wide on the crease in his run up. A number of '4 wides'  occurred too and what with the limited runs we were trying to protect the combination of no further wickets and leaking runs Lee took him off and I got a bowl. In the meantime Harry Davie after a shaky start tightened his bowling up and bowled superbly for little reward, coming away with the figures below...

I was then brought on at the South Eastern end. I don't know if I was already in state of being injured, but I reckon I was or if I wasn't, it became apparent in the first over or certainly before the end of it. It just felt as though my shoe was digging into the back of my heel (Achilles tendon)... not painful as such, just uncomfortable and nagging to the point where I was aware of it. My first over went for 8 which is on par with last week, but to be honest the fielding was pretty poor, the ball for the most part went through the fielders or past the fielders in such a way that if an old bloke like me, Stuart or Lee were there we'd have dived and made a concerted effort to stop the ball. One of them hit through square leg went through the fielders hands above his head, but he'd left a gaping great hole in his hands as he tried to catch using the Aussie technique. To be honest with the heel it just wasn't happening for me, I wasn't accurate, consistent or spinning the ball anywhere near as well as I was capable of, the whole thing felt like a disaster, but I battled on and took three. The first one was an LBW and it was the batsman that looked well set and with the potential to get them over the line in quick time (M.Robinson). It pitched on leg and came in a smidge and he didn't hit it, no-one else went up for it and to me it was obvious and for a split second I nearly didn't appeal, but then did vocally and the Umpire totally agreed with me and sent the bloke back to the Pavilion...

  The Pavilion at The Garrison Cricket Ground Shoebury, Essex. Potential here for a new photography project... cricket pavilions a la' the Bechers

He wasn't impressed, standing his ground momentarily looking back at the umpire in utter disbelief 'I hit it'! He said, neither I or the umpire heard it or so it and to us it looked as out as out could be. Following that one I then had what looked to me at least two more on the same bloke that the umpire didn't give and this bloke went to hit several fours through the legside (See above re ropey fielding). His mate at the other end was a kid armed with a Warsop... Joe, Ben and I (all bowlers) all say 'Oh look out, now we're in trouble the bloke/kids got a Warsop' as it usually indicates that the batsman takes his batting so seriously that he's invested in an expensive bat and he's now going to give the bowlers a jolly good thrashing! He was gone - out stumped by Mike Blerkom for 2 runs. The following over was horrific as you can see with 8 runs off it with a number of wides and I then said to Lee - 'Give someone else a go'. By this point my son Joe was bowling his off-spin at the other end and had already taken the wicket of the other bloke J.Mohan who'd been scoring runs. 

Lee kept me on, I then got hit for yet another 4 that should have been stopped and the game was lost. The big older bloke who was ruining my figures was still on strike (S.Laflin), but I managed to get him off strike so that the new batsman was facing me (S.Trivett), he'd been watching and listening and despite the fact that it was a wholly lost cause, there was still an outside chance that between Joe and I with our spin bowling the remaining wickets might fall even though they were now drawn. I bowled a Leg Break as best I could given the situation and it came out okay - spinning well straight into Mikes hands outside the off-stump. It was my last ball and I only had two wickets, the bloke looked as though he fancied his chances against the spin, if it was on the stumps it was going to turn, all he had to do was clear his leg and smack the ball through the covers... That's what I wanted him to do, that's what he intended to do. Chances were I wouldn't be able to follow the last ball up with anything as good, I just wasn't bowling that consistently. It needed the Top-Spinner with a bit of a wrong-un in there with it, could I do it... my last ball? Yeah - give it a go... 

This bloke hadn't faced one of these yet, so the chance was he'd play for the turn. The ball went down it was high and loopy up above his eye-level, his eyes lit up, he stepped back and across exposing his stumps waiting for the turn and he was going to smack it through the off-side with a cross bat shot, exactly as I planned... It didn't break to the off at all, with the top spin it bounced and apparently came in a smidge and hit the bails in the middle. My last ball - taking me to 3 wickets! A lovely final ball for me to finish on.

That then brought Joe on to take the rest of the wickets in his over. He needed either a Maiden or a preferably a wicket maiden. He bowled really well and bowled 3 dots and all the fielders played their part for those balls, not letting the ball get through, but eventually with several wickets still in hand and trying to hit the ball hard with a field that was right up, they hit the runs they needed and the game was lost.
 
Joe's bowling was good, this isn't Ben, this is my younger son Joe who's still only 13, he took a lovely wicket with his off-spin that he was well chuffed about and in the usual Joe style he was really economic too...



As I walked off, my mind then turned to why was I bowling so badly? Was it the soreness along my Achilles? Once inside and then being able to take my spikes off I realised that it was nothing to do with my spikes and that in fact it was my Achilles tendon. I then realised that this might be a re-occurrence of a tear I suffered in my Achilles in 2002, which saw me out of action and wearing a plastic boot for the best part of a year including as I recall having to wear it for months in bed to ensure it repaired in the right position! It then dawned on me that last ball might be the last ball I bowl for another year!

Once home I ice bathed it and then decided it would probably be a good idea to get it checked at the hospital.

 Ice bath no.4

 Crutches on Sunday.

 Writing the blog whilst literally chillin'

Simmonds test pose. Monday 8.45pm


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

 

 

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Spinners drill - competitive off-spin v Leg spin

My younger son Joe bowls finger spin so is a right arm off-spinner and I bowl Leg spin. We quite often practice in the paddock together trying to see who can hit the stumps the most times and things like that and I've done similar things at the club before. Tonight I came up with a good little drill you can easily do which encourages accuracy with line and length with the necessity to spin the ball.

Using a set of Kwik Cricket or training stumps, remove the middle stump. Make a decision that you're both going to bowl one side or another and both bowl that side. We both bowled over the stumps in this illustration. Then mark out a zone into which you're going to bowl, we use a mat. The zone/mat needs to be wider than the stumps and placed on a good length to bowl. As both bowlers look down the wicket from the bowling end they've both got a fair equal area onto which to bowl, one side shouldn't favour the other.

So the off-spinner bowls as per this illustration below - landing the ball on any part of the mat but aiming to hit the furthest stump, so with the offie he has to hit the leg-stump so encouraging him/her to turn the ball as much as possible. We play it - giving a point for landing it on the mat (A) and 3 points for landing it on the mat and hitting the designated stump (B). If the bowler hits the easier stump no points are given. Needless to say you could easily modify the rules and give points for the nearer stump too.

For the leg-spinner (Me) I have to pitch the ball on the mat (C) and turn the ball into the off-stump (D) to get maximum points. The way we play it is if the ball hits the stumps having gone straight on we still get 3 points.

 

Needless to say this only really works if you've got a good few balls. But it's good in that it's competitive and encourages bowling on a good length spinning the ball hard enough to hit the furthest stump. Looking at it, you could if you had some white tape mark the mat out as below and award even more points for landing it in the outside zone and hitting the opposite stump? The variations and possibilities are quite varied.

 

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

 

 



The gather in bowling

Just read and interesting piece of advice from SLA on bigcricket.com regarding 'The Gather'

The gather is the part of the action that precedes the arm reaching up and out towards the batsman as you explode through the crease (4th from left). As you walk or run in, he suggests that if your action is going completely wrong and you've identified it's the gather that is the problem, you grab your ear until you're in position to the reach up and out (From the left that would be image 2 & 3 that would  be the ear grabbing stage).

Or from 50 seconds in on this Vid of Warney.

Maybe don't actually grab your ear, but get your hand up around your face and hold it there as you work through the issue.

I've virtually written a book!

Over the last few years I've been trying to update my other blog (The legspin one) which still gets loads of hits despite the fact that it's not been updated properly for years. I've got a load of files in folders that I've been working on with the intention of up-dating that blog and possibly areas of this blog. I still need to get hold of a copy of photo-shop to work on loads of ideas I have for graphics, photo's and illustrations for the blog, but tonight I've had a bit of a sort out and now I've got some sense of how enormous this project has become and how far more advanced it is in comparison with any of the existing content. I wouldn't hold your breath though, because there's still a lot of work to do, but I may be able to start uploading the content chapter by chapter to the other blog.

It looks as though without a doubt it's likely to be the most comprehensive web-link on the internet with regards wrist-spinning, not because of my advanced knowledge or anything like that, but just because of my enthusiasm and committment to our speciality.

Nets at Essex County Ground

This year I've not attended the net sessions at my club because they've over-lapped with Ben and Joe's training/net sessions and I'm not a massive fan of the process, although I seem to be warming to it recently. So I was pleased and surprised to hear that we had four weeks at The Graham Gooch Centre at the Essex County ground in Chelmsford. It's a bit of a trek at 20 miles away and 9pm at night start was a little odd as well, but do-able. Initially I wasn't that interested, but at the last youth training session one of the better bats (If not the best) Sony Downes asked if I was going and whether I'd be taking Joe and Ben. I hadn't realisd that Joe and Ben could potentially go and when I asked about it, both Sonny and Dave Ayres said it was fine. It turned out that later that Michelle didn't think it was such a good idea this week as it was Wednesday and they've got two school days after and they'd not be coming in till nearly 11 by the time I got back, so eventually when I did go they weren't with me.

There were a few emails and some stuff on Facebook saying the club wanted as many people as possible to turn up so I was surprised in the end when there was only about 10 of us in two nets and none of them, the blokes that I played with in the 4th XI. In fact most of them were the younger blokes who played in the first and second XI's.

I had meant to take my Canon G9 because there was the prospect of Dave Bonnett turning up and he's the clubs Wrist Spinner who plays in the first or second XI's. From what I've seen of him and heard of him (Most wickets in the district 2 seasons ago) and a really smooth (and to my eyes) and near perfect bowling action and therefore I wanted to video his bowling action in order to see if Stuart Macgill would have a look at it for me and comment on it. Reason is, I'm still not that versed in what is a good action and what is not and what to be looking for when analysising other people's and my own bowling action. Dave was there, but I didn't have the camera, so I cant post up any videos or even show you what the facilities are like, so I'll try and get that done next week. But I did get to see what Dave's bowling was like and later on I got to face it, I'll come back to that later...

As far as I'm aware, the rest of the sessions this year have been at Fitzwymarc school, which as I recall has a slight cushioned fabric floor rather than a concrete/wood floor which tend to be slippery, but it's very dark in there with poor lighting exacerbated by the fact that the walls are dark. The Graham Gooch centre has the fabric surface, but far better light and a lot bigger as you'd exepct from a county cricket clubs facilities, but having said, that I've seen council facilities up North that are far better Ilkeston in Derbyshire is phenomenal. The facilities for cricket in Derbyshire as far as I've seen are generally far better than we have down here in the south. Anyway, so I got to have a bowl. Last weekend at the youth training session I had a bowl and did fairly well, took a few wickets over three overs for virtually nothing - 2 stumpings and a catch and a nick where the kid didn't walk and a plump LBW that I didn't go up for, so on the basis of that performance I was kind of looking forward to this session.

I didn't do too bad considering it was a net against better level players, my fitness needs working on which is an issue in view of the fact that as far as the weather is concerned we're still in the midsts of winter, you just can't get out anywhere to have a practice or run around because it's freezing cold or the fields are just sodden. So as the session went on I started to bowl wides every now and then, but generally I was quite happy with it. Tactically it was the Top-Spinners mixed in with the Leg Breaks that seemed to be the winning ball, they all know I'm a 'Leggie' and I think they assume the balls going to be be going away from the edge of the bat if I get the line right (Off-stump). So to then bowl a Top-Spinner that causes some upsets. My Flippers initially were coming out well, but I can't disguise them that well as it's obvious that the way I bowl them includes far more effort, and that gives away the fact that it's a different delivery. I guess they see that it's flatter and faster and therefore realise it's not going to turn and they treat it as a seam up (Which it is) medium pace ball and they'll generally put it away with a high degree of ease. So, how useful it is at the moment as a delivery is subject to some reflection. I think I need to lob them up maybe, but with the back-spin they are going to stall and almost stop, it's something I'll have to work on once the weather clears up. My Wrong-un wasn't working that well and was coming out as a Top-Spinner. Overall I was happy with the session from a bowling perspective, as I was using my faster run-up. I'd also taken note of something someone had said with regards to the last video I posted up on Youtube about the fact that I was over-thinking everything and trying to change too much and said, just relax and bowl, so that's what I tried to do.

Batting

I did the usual thing, whereby I batted last, I bat last in matches or at 10 so it reflects the match situation to some extent in that the bowlers are not 100%. I didn't fancy it, but once there it didn't look as bad as I'd imagined. I used Ben's bat as well which has more meat in the middle of the bat rather than nearer the toe of the bat which is the case for my own bats which are also heavier. That aspect went well - it felt okay and I did manage to get the bat on the ball and block almost everything. I had Dave Bonnett bowling at me, Rusty and some other geezer who I don't know and another bloke who came in and had one or two. Incidentally the bloke who only bowed one or two balls kind of strolled in with "What's the issue here lads, he's an old bloke and a No.11 at that - just bowl him out". And he did, well, he forced a nick off the edge, the faintest nick that I guess the wicket keeper would have gloved. But the others were far more interesting as they all obviously wanted to do the same thing, but I managed to keep them out. I was mostly just blocking, but the odd loose ball I may have got away for singles or two's, but the high-light was a Paddle Sweep off of Dave Bonnetts leg-spin which brought some laughs, no-one expected to see that! But the fun part was they were all trying to figure out what they needed to do to get rid of me and I kept them at bay for ages. Then the bloke who I don't know came over the wicket and eventually forced a top-edge that would have been caught by the bloke running in from Mid - wicket. I was trying to just steer the ball down the leg-side and it didn't come off, so that's something I need to adapt to.

Dave Bonnett

I've noticed before that Dave has a tendency to bowl accidental Wrong Uns, and I reckon he may have a litte Googly Syndrome. But this is early in the season and may not be a reflection of his abilities generally. But he goes for a really flighty approach that is similar to Frank Farringtons bowling, getting the ball right up above the eye-line. Again because it is early in the season, he was getting the length wrong and many of the balls initially were full-tosses. But his bowling action looks very good, he pivots and gets right up on his toe and because he bowls relatively slow, the whole thing looks very balletic and smooth. Tonight he didn't seem to be getting many revs on the ball, so the ball wasn't turning that much, but with variation of speed, length and flight you can see why and how he is effective, so hopefully I'll be able to video him and get some vid on-line for comments and analysis. I'd love to be able to do this with loads of different Leggies in this area and make a database and biography of spinners of Essex.
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Field Setting from Forum

The original comments and response were as follows - (See http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/page-3#post-412325 )


Hey Guys,
I am generally confused on where to place my fielders. I'm an okay legspinner. I can bowl the odd crap ball and I'm not the most accurate of bowlers. I'm playing in a league with 12, 13 and 14 year olds who aren't that confident at catching but throw well. The wicket keeper is reasonably inconsistent. What would you guys suggest as a good field placement?

If you require more info please ask?
Seeing as your fielders aren't much kop at catching, you need to try and get wickets by hitting the stumps. So pitch the ball right up there on middle and leg and tempt the batsmen into playing across the line and beat them with your turn. You should see the ball thumping into middle and off with reasonable regularity.

As you are attacking with your legspin, you can defend with the field. Kids tend to hit across the line so put three men back on the leg side boundary - deep backward square leg, deep midwicket, and long on. have everyone else on the single - 4 in a ring on the offside, and a couple of men on the one in the leg side.




Here's a field setting we've been discussing over at http://www.bigcricket.com/ on the thread that set up in response to the fact that there's very little out there by way of field settings. At the minute the discussion has picked up a bit and it's pretty productive, so if you've got any thoughts yourself on the matter join up and join in?