Amelia Kerr Leg Spinner

Amelia Kerr Kiwi Leg Spinner - just 14!

Just found this via http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/videos-and-links.50392/page-27#post-571903 and just had to post it. I'm a fan of Women's cricket so when this link was posted I thought this sounded promising and sure enough it was!
Just check this out, a young female Peter Philpott tearing through the back end of the opposition of a televised T20 match in New Zealand. Let's hope she keeps this up and moves on to play for the Kiwi international team... might get to see her here in the UK playing against the English women's team? Definitely one to watch!

Adil Rashid

Adil Rashid - Yorkshire - England - Wrist Spinner - Leg Spinner

I did use some images here of Adil Rashid and then I read this...
http://www.zyra.info/getstu.htm

 

 

I've just been watching Scott Borthwick bowling in the final at Lords between Durham and Warwickshire Bears in the 'Royal One day cup'. He bowled 2 overs and went for 7 for no wickets. One of the commentators Strauss was talking about leg-spinners in a general way, saying that Borthwick at the stage of the game was a risky option as he might go for runs, but was an option as the spinners create chances. I didn't watch both overs, but I was disappointed that he only bowled the two, but in the context of the game and the need to keep the score down it obviously made sense to the captain. They brought on an off-spinner later and he did well taking 3 wickets. Breese 7-0-30-3.

 

But the point of interest was the fact that Strauss mentioned the fact that Rashid had done well this season and that with age his bowling is maturing and that maybe he'd be reconsidered for a place in the England set up in the future?

 

Reading around different websites it seems that he had a terrible year in (2102) with a public slagging off from Geoffrey Boycott and was dropped from the Yorkshire 1st XI. All of that on top of the fact that he was slaughtered when he played for the England one day team and some people were concerned that the exposure to cricket at that level was potentially damaging.

 

It does appear that the damaging series in South Africa, where he was removed and replaced by Swanne who had been injured, did knock his confidence. Rashid still maintained his position in the England Lions set up and continued playing for Yorkshire, but then went through a few lean years culminating in 2012 where he seemed hit an all time low. Despite the public drubbing from Boycott it appears that Jason Gillespie the coach that came in 2011 had faith in Rashid and started to rebuild Rashid's confidence believing that he could play a vital role in the Yorkshire team. That belief started to pay off during the 2013 season and continued through this season and it appears Rashid is on track to return to the England set -up...

 

How Adil Rashid has not played for the England Test side is beyond me. He is the best spinning all-rounder in the country. Adil is an unbelievable player and I don’t understand why he is not selected ahead of James Tredwell, who doesn’t spin it. Adil is a good batsman, a great fielder who should be in the England set-up. We are crying out for spinners so I find it baffling that the selectors continue to overlook Adil.

 

From http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/give-credit-to-yorkshire-cc-coach-jason-gillespie-1-6843926

 

Reading between the lines, there does seem to be a different approach to the handling of Leg-Spinners here in the UK in comparison to Australia? It might be just the fact that Gillespie despite being a fast bowler has somehow picked up on the 'Party-line' advocated by the likes of Jenner and Warne. It's baffling to me that Boycott on one hand is suggesting that Rashid is pretty much useless and yet in comes an Aussie and within a year he's managed to get Rashid back on track and spear-heading a fantastic season at Yorkshire.

 

To me there seems to be a genuine belief that the leg-spinner has a role to play despite the fact that they are acknowledged to go for runs early on in their careers. Rashid has been quoted as saying that the advice from Gillespie has been...

 

‘He has told me to just let the ball rip out of my hand and to not worry about going for runs'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2754893/Adil-Rashid-targets-England-return-Yorkshire-title-offers-path-wilderness.html#ixzz3DsDtyzzf
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 Hopefully, this season heralds a new beginning for Adil Rashid and he continues in the vein of the last two years. With various people saying that he is of the calibre to once again pull on an England shirt, we may get to see him on the bigger stage in the coming years?

 

http://yorkshireccc.com/teams/view/10/adil-u-rashid

 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2012/content/story/566751.html

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2754893/Adil-Rashid-targets-England-return-Yorkshire-title-offers-path-wilderness.html

 

http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/give-credit-to-yorkshire-cc-coach-jason-gillespie-1-6843926



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/counties/11082593/Jason-Gillespie-says-winning-County-Championship-with-Yorkshire-would-match-his-Ashes-successes.html


http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/legspinner-adil-rashid-yorkshire-are-ruining-me-8565082.html

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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Stuart Macgill - Spin Doctor

Over at Big Cricket on the Spin Forums we've been discusing the prospects of someone taking up the role of Terry Jenner as the 'Spin Doctor'. We've always though that Warney would be unlikely as he's far too taken with the role of celebrity star and we all thought that Stuart Macgill could be a likely candidate.

A while back Stuart Macgill joined one of my forums and went public on Youtube and for a while was readily contactable, he's since moved over to his own Google page and currently he's got Basildon & Pitsea Cricket Clubs Frank Farrington's video on there for discussion and analysis. Frank's one of our clubs U13's players and he plays in my younger sons team. In the email contact that I've had with Stuart he's previously said that he was looking at doing something along the lines of Terry Jenner and it looks as though this is happening see the link here

Stuarts contactable via his Google page and his 'The Cricket Club' page.

General update 51 days to go

Just back from another training session at James Hornsby school. Ben did really well batting. They had the Bola machine set at 55mph for most of the time he was there and I think they speeded it up to 60mph for one or two of them and he coped with it for most of the time. He seemed to be following their instructions to step out towards the ball and he was playing the ball with a straight bat in the way that Frank McLeod showed him last summer which was good to see. He needs this if he's going to secure a place in this team (U15's) as there's a lot of competition for the places in the first XI as such, especially with regards to the specialist bowlers, it may turn out that it's simply not good enough just to be able to bowl. Fielding might be taken into consideration and is always something I like to see e.g. full committment to fielding and I'd want to see Ben making 100% effort with regards stopping the ball in the field and chasing the ball down, but the ability to get 10 or more runs on the board on average each week might make a massive difference in the games. So a good start by Ben this early in the year. The main thing is that he came away having enjoyed it. My only worry is that it is a psychological thing and when confronted with a real ball and the additaional human variation factor, he may not do so well?

U13's weren't that well presented with only Harry there in attendance, and Joe watching. No sign of Stevie this year as yet. There was some confirmation that Ryan G-Mans son was playing for another team this season and there was some speculation that Killer Barnes might not be playing this year?

Joe update.

Joe's on 51 days to go now, but I've got a feeling I was being a little pessimistic with that schedule. I seems to recall that if he was on track and if it hadn't been for the slip in the ice he'd only be looking at 3 weeks now before some sense of normality could return. This week coming... Friday he's got another visit to the fracture clinic (4.30) and prior to it 5.15 he's got a physio session. I think the main emphasis of the fracture clinic observations is the wound (Stiches/pin removal wound) rather than the bone, so I don't expect that they'll be taking more Xrays. But it'll be interesting to see what they say with regards what he can and can't do and any update on when he can return to normal activities. But overall things are going well, the treatment clinic change the dressing on a 2-3 times a week basis and check the wound and we re-dress it on a daily basis removing everything except for the Steri-strips.

Limp and movement-wise, Joe's getting on well, today he was running from the car to the hall because it was raining and cold and when you watch him and he's unaware he does tend to walk fairly well and looks 65% okay, with only a bit of a limp. I'm quietly confident that by the end of the season/summer the limp with have gone and if I'm really optimistic I wouldn't be surprised if the limp was gone by the end of April. A lot of this is down to the weather though. If we have an early spring and the weather is conducive with getting out there and doing stuff, I'm sure that the increase in activities and sport will simply mean the muscles will develop quickly and normailty will resume. The bad weather holds everything back - me included.

Dave update.

As yet my training plans and schedule are still behind where I'd like them to be. During the week I'm just exhausted by the time I get in and as a partial sufferer of SAD syndrome, I can't motivate myself to do stuff when it's dark. I'm enthused by seeing the gradual return to summer and every evening getting on the train seeing more light in the sky. A couple of mornings ago the sun was up when I went to work and today I've seen a Black Headed Gull with its spring plummage (Chocolate Brown Head)

Which is a good indicator that summer is on its way.

But when I have been enthused I've been working on my deltoids as they were a problem and core strength and flexibility drills. Stretching and planks mostly with some yoga moves thrown in. I have noticed though in the stretches, my knees creek like hell which doesn't sound good at all, so I've been massaging my knees as well. What I really need to do is get a little sequence of exercises and stretches put together so that I can just do a regular sequences every day, rather than a mixture with something here and something there as I am at the minute. The other thing I need to do having seen on the news that people like Andrew Marr have keeled over with a stroke and he's only the same age as me and you'd imagine he'd be one of those types that would have been down the gym at least once a day? So I should be doing cardio-vascular stuff too. The CV stuff doesn't appeal to me at all, but really it is something I should be doing. What I have done though which I think I am seeing the benefit of is the reduction in meal sizes and the avoidance of fat in my diet. I've reduced the amount of chocolate that I eat and I need to maintain this.

At the training session I had a bit of a bowl, to see if it would affect my foot as I'm suffering from metatarsalgia, and the good news was that I seem to have come through that quick session okay. The work that I've been doing on my deltoids seems to have paid off as I'm not suffering from any pain there, it does feel like they've had a bit of a workout, but not like they've been over-loaded, so that's good news and encouraging from a point of view where I feel more inclined to continue with the exercises. This here is the one that I'm using at the minute as it only requires working with your own body weight. Hopefully if it all goes well, I'll move up to something a bit more demanding and resume doing handstands.

The Paddock

I've yet to mention the paddock as far as I can recall this year as the weather has been so bad, I may have mentioned it a month or so ago as a group of youths all about 17-18 years old went over there a few times all wearing football boots. The paddock is as wide as it is long, it's tiny 80' x 80' maybe and there was about 8-10 of these blokes and they played football in there for about 2-3 hours. I couldn't look after they'd finished, the impact of so many blokes in such a small area would have been devastating, so I've no idea whether it's recovered or not. I know from my own garden, that the weather in the last couple of weeks has been in excess of 4 degrees centrigrade and therefore the grass has been growing. But it has been raining and the drainage is poor in there, the upside of that is, it's so wet you can't play football in there, but at the same time it makes it difficult to maintain the grass. I may have a look at the end of Feb or over half term, I think I usually get in there with a roller during Feb, to give it a flattening. I need to clear some bushes as well as they're shading the grass which is never a good thing, so there is some work to do.




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It's a conspiracy!

Blimey! There's poor old Joe, a  year out of cricket with his leg injury and then when he's on the verge of a come back it sounds like there's not enough kids in his age group for the club to get a team together! They can't even cobble together a team with younger kids because they all play at the same time as the U11's on Sunday mornings, so there's no way that there's going to be enough U11's spare to joing the U13's. The other way round e.g. Joe getting a game in the U15's - that's not going to happen as the U15's is rammed packed with good players! We'll have to watch that and see how it goes.

What was good about the session was that G-Man was there doing the coaching and it sounds like he'll be around for the season on and off helping with the coaching, but not playing. Oliver Bybuke was there too which is good to see, as he's another one of my Protege's and one with potential as an all-rounder. He made a good account of himself facing some of the better bowlers, and coming away with a not-out whilst some of the upper order batsmen came and went, while he hung it out and put runs on the board. This was good for him as he lacks confidence in his abilities and all last summer after initially saying he's play in matches, he bottled out at the last minute, worried that his indiviudal performance would let the side down.

Hopefully this good start along with his Mums insistance that he plays this year or she's no longer bringing him, will see that he plays in a few games. As the weather clears up, I'll be doing as much as I can over at the paddock and at the Rec to ensure he gains some confidence.

4th XI

One of the blokes at the club mentioned the up and coming season, saying that there'd be plenty of cricket for me to look forward to over the summer, as there were more fixtures arranged this year for the 4th XI. On that front I'd been into Boots the chemist today looking at in-step/arch supports for this ropey foot of  mine. I'd found some, but could not believe the price... £26.00 or there-abouts, so I'm going to have to have a re-think on that front.

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?