42 days to go.....

Another mammoth bowling day, this time on my own wicket. Must have bowled in excess of 300 balls, maybe nearer 400? Progress is good but it's going to be interesting tomorrow when there's a few people to bowl at. Hopefully there's going to be a handful of us - I managed to speak to Simon, Thomas (Who's idea it was that we all get out and practice this Saturday) who both said they'd be there. My brother in Law is coming along and I left a message with Alex and Badger. Simon said he'd spoken to Badger and badger's going to be there as well so at least I think it's going to be -

Simon
Badger
Thomas
Me
Ian (Bro in Law) and hopefully Alex. It's going to be a gloriously sunny day so I'm going to be over there at 7am marking the pitch out and mowing the wicket - looking like a mental patient that's escaped from the local hospital (hence the reason for getting over there at 7am)!

43 Days to go.......

Brilliant weather - back to back sunshine with blue skies, must have been 20 degrees? So warm I had my shirt off and have caught the sun.

A good 2 hour bowling session varying my length and different ways of bowling this flipper. Towards the end I was bowling really high loopy balls that were landing almost on the stumps - certainly between where the batsman would stand and the stumps - the kind that would end up being a full toss if the batsman could read the flight. But I'm thinking that's the kind of ball that's going to be knocked up in the air for a catch off of anyway that lacks any batting savvy? Then if a few of those are followed by a shorter delivery with underspin they might cause problems - something I need to try out.

I had a few goes at the leg break as well today and was hitting the stumps a few times with that and it was turning a little bit. The Wrong Un was okay as well so all in all a good session.

While I was over there I designated a wicket area for the practice session on Saturday. Having done that I measured out the boundary as well and the field is big enough with the exception of the boundary directly behind the batsman. I don't think we're going to be changing ends just for a practice so that seems fine to me. The boundary straight down the wicket ends exactly where you run out of field and the boundaries to the side at 90 degrees end at the edge of the football field with some spare beyond that. I've put markers down and over the next couple of days I'll do more. I'm going to sort out a piece of string that's the radius of the pitch and put in about 24 markers all around at equal spacing. On the day I've got 24 tent pegs and I'll stick 24 tesco bags in at the markers so it's pretty clear as to where the boundary will be and we'll just use straight lines bewteen each bag to indicate a boundary line?

The wicket is pretty flat already as is all of this field, but again either tomorrow or Saturday morning I'll get over there early and I'll mow half a wicket in front of the stumps so we've got nice short grass to bowl onto. I had a go on it today and it's nice and firm with a decent bit of bounce in it, so it should be fun. So come on lets have a half decent attendence please?

Hoepfully we'll have -

Me
Thomas
Mark
Alex
Simon
Badger
Nick?
Trevor?

And possibly my Brother in Law. I'll try and give a you all a call tomorrow and see who's likely to turn up. Simon - can you ring or text Nick and Trevor and see if they're up for it please?

The Simon Grainge Fan pages

There seems to be a lot of interest in Simon Grainge as a cricket player so I am considering creating a seperate 'Simon Grainge Fan club page' or maybe a Simon Grainge Cricket Pages blog. If you all think this is a good idea please leave comments on the blog and I'll see what I can do!

Don't forget you can see him in action on May 20th at Welstead gardens! 5pm onwards.

Watch out for in the near future - 'The Simon Grainge supporters Mask' download and cut out masks just like the England cricket team have - but with Simon's face!

Format for playing on grass?

Playing on Grass

Ideally played with as many players as possible up to a number of 12? (Needs a minimum of seven of us).

Batting Team

Using some kind of random selection process choose the order that the batsmen will play in

The objective of the game is – as a partnership to score as many runs as possible before being bowled out/caught etc.

The innings start, as do any by running between the stumps to accumulate points, hitting fours and sixes. Who ever ends up at the strike end is on strike. This emphasises the necessity of communication between both players.
The individual run scores although totalled are not the issue. The partnership should look to work at getting the most affective batsman on strike in relation to who is bowling e.g. if Thomas was batting with Simon and they were facing me as the bowler the partnership should aim to get Thomas in at the strike end at the end of each run between the stumps because Thomas is possibly more affective at dealing with spin?

Bowling

Working on the basis that an over takes 5 minutes to complete and the game is played over 2 hours – 24 overs may be played – the maximum overs bowled by each bowler can be 4 x 6 bowlers. Or 5 x 5 bowlers; 6 x 4 bowlers)

3 hour game 5 x 6 bowlers – 6 x 5 bowlers 7 x 3 bowlers

The order of bowling is down to the captain or vice captain when not available to field - Alex and Simon respectively.

Scoring

Or we just have the closest fielder as the scorer? I feel it’s important that we keep scores accurately and analyse the stats. But I’m not sure how we can keep tabs on the scores when we’re all playing? The closest fielder seems like the obvious solution as he can talk to the bowler, batsman and wicket keeper and agree as to whether balls are wide, no balls or byes?

Maybe as an incentive we could stump up a cash prize from the subs £50 for instance for the best partnership at the end of the season? I think this way the best batsman maintains his place in a batting position for as long as he can and it offers more incentive for the bowlers and fielders to get him out and destroy partnerships with as many tactics as possible. It should make for an exciting game?

46 Days and counting.....

Up at 07.00hrs - 10 chin ups, 10 press ups and 15 crunches later (And that's not the caramel and chocolate type) I was out on the wicket in the frost with a couple of stumps and my 25 cricket balls. The sun gets on the wicket early so there wasn't any frost.

I then place a target 4-5 yards in front slightly to legside which I aim at trying to get the ball to turn into the stump with the flipper. I throw 25 balls up one end and then back the other end and in about 20 minutes I've thrown 100 balls back and forth. In that time I'm aiming to get the target or the stump (Yes - 1 stump not 3) and I did so 6 times and the target I hit twice. Just as long as the ball pitches around the target and turns left or goes straight on legside I'm happy. In 100 balls I threw about 10 wides.

Question. If I'm bowling to a RH batsman and pitching the ball legside and it doesn't spin in across towards the stumps is that then a wide?

Got back in did another 10 press ups and then breakfast and off to work. Hopefully I can sustain this for the next 46 days and theory is with the increase in strength and accuracy I will be Shane Warne on the day!

47 days and counting

There's less than 50 days now till our first proper match against the Aussies and Kiwis. The onus to win isn't as much as the match with sports science but I still wouldn't mind beating them, no actually lets get this right we are going to beat them! So with less than 50 days to go and reading tonights installment on www.harrowdrive.com relating to fitness I'm starting to get serious. Hopefully tomorrow what with a slight improvement in the weather I'll be up before work and I'll throw at least 10 overs on my pitch. Tonight I'll be starting a press-ups, chin ups and crunch fitness regime and I'll now follow that through the whole of the summer (It'll be good for the surfing in July/August. So tonight I've done for starters....

10 press-ups (easy enough)

5 Chin ups (6 would have been pushing it too far)

15 crunches.

The press ups I can do anywhere and I'll aim to get 100 of those a day within 2 weeks. The chin ups I'll aim to do 30 - 40 of those within 2 weeks over a 24 hour period and I'll throw in bringing my knees up to my chin as well as I do the chin ups after a few days.

The crunches I'll aim to do 20 of those a day. Hopefully the affect will be bowling will be easier and as I'll be bowling daily the increase in arm strength wont affect the accuracy in any adverse way? Hopefully the affect will be I'll be able to bowl the flipper for instance much faster and at a lower angle and therefore with a massive variation between flight and length?

Come in No.10 & 11

We're still short on regular players and I'd rather have 11 regulars than have to rely on people that say they might play. I might go public with a request within the college as there's got to be someone who fancies themselves as a cricket player within the staff surely, there may be a couple of blokes out there gagging to be in a team and while we're at it challenge the rest of the college to a match either in teams or a whole college team if they can get their act together? What do you reckon?

Practice locations

The preferred venue still seems to be Great Berry Open Space. On Saturday mornings it's used by an unofficial kids football club and when we've practiced there before early 10.00am they arrived at about 10.30 and situated themselves quite some distance away from us and we were both able to use the space side by side. They appeared to practice till about 12.00 - 12.30 so if we get over there at 13.00hrs we should have the space to ourselves? If that's the case we'll situate ourselves in the centre of the field and I may even mow the grass and start to create a designated wicket (As I do with my local football field). I've already been over there and had a look to see how flat it is and it's impressively flat, locals say that several years ago it did have a cricket square but was never used. I'm contemplating contacting the council to see what it would take for that to be reinstated?

Other places that have been metioned recently include the school field where Thomas and my kids go. Thomas didn't follow that up so I did and having had a look myself and talking to the caretaker it's not really usable as it's far too small.

Another option I will look into is the fields behind the school where we have the net practice. This is a good field in that it's got high security fencing all around it and it is massive. How level it is I don't know but I've never seen people playing football on it so it may be really flat? If the caretaker will allow us to use and not charge us for it again I'll ask him if we can maintain it e.g. get a mower over there and keep it short and designate a wicket area? The only downside is that it's in an ugly/chavvy part of basildon whereas Great Berry Open Space is in a posh bit and it's quite picturesque.

Suggestions & Ideas re - practicing

I've already mentioned that some of us reckon that it may be time to give up on the net practice sessions. I had my doubts as to whether that would be a good idea or not, but Simon has come up with a good idea.....

We carry on with the bookings that we've got in place which will see us in the hall till mid May. But we only use the hall for the first hour and then move on to grass straight after saving ourselves £35 and whatever extras we have through good turn out. So we carry on paying the £10 each and bank it to go towards equipment and/or the end of season do?

That way there'd be a better turn out of people playing on the field? Potentially 8 or 9 of us and I'm sure once you've got a taste for it you'll be wanting to stay for 2 or three hours maybe even longer? With two blokes batting and up to seven fielding it's going to be similar to the real thing and a boost to our abilities and training. It'll mean

1. Batsmen will be forced to learn how to play it over the top of fielders or in between fielders and we'll then have a more realistic idea of who should play in what batting positions (I've moved up the ranks I think since Saturday because I showed that I've got the ability to get the bat on the ball and put it where I want it and I've adopted a far more agressive approach to attacking the ball).
2. Fielders Alex will get some idea of who can and can't throw a ball at a set of stumps and hit them. Who can/can't throw the ball over long distances. Who can/can't catch. Who's going to run balls down, who's going to put the effort in to back up fielders when running to the outfield, who's going to back up and cover throws in from the outfield at the non-wicket keeper end etc?
3. Bowlers who can come up with the goods on grass - execute 'bowled and caughts' as the bowler. Have the knowledge and skills to vary the pace.

Plus we all get used to having the Captain tell us what to do and where to go.

Saturday 7th April

Looks like there may be potential for some early morning cricket this Saturday. A few people have shown some interest in a quick knock about on the grass after last Saturday disappointing turn out. So far we've got a tentative list of...

Dave
Thomas
Alex
Mark
Simon
Badger
(Possibly my brother in law)
Trevor
Hayley (AKA Dennis) as umpire and scorer

Even if only three of us turn up we've found it's still useful in loads of different ways and I'd recommend it to anyone because it is so different to playing in the hall on concrete/mats.