Wicket Keeper Panic off

Having spoken to Richard he is still the wicket keeper!

6 Days

Still 2 men short - including a wicket keeper

Quite a bit of rain today and there I was sitting there at 19.25 looking at the sunshine outside thinking - shall I take the roller over to Great Berry and roll it and see if I can get it any flatter? I suppose any improvement is going to be worth it so off I went. Rang Nakul on the way and he met me over there and we rolled the wicket at both ends. The ground despite the rain didn't seem that soft, but there was a bit of give in it, so it did seem as though we may have had some impact if only slight. From previous experience I've found that it stresses the grass and impedes it's growth, so even if it just has that affect I reckon it'll be worth it, as it means it may be less green and more dirt and hopefully help my flippers and leg spin?

Nakul's been out and about today and got some of his gear and he's been able to buy a longer sleeve version of our short sleeve shirts over at Primark Lakeside - so that may be worth looking into? It seems the same shirts are not available in Basildon, so we all need to get to either Lakeside or Southend to source the shirts ASAP - again if you want the short sleeve version let me know and I'll get them for you on Tuesday if you pay me back promptly.

If you're after gear including bats - try the big place on the Lakeside retail park (the name escapes me for the minute) they've got a big range including some bats in excess of £200 each.

6 Days to go and only a few more opportunities to get out there and practice - made all the more important because of the fact that Richards let us down with the wicket keeping and Rod's shooting off to Florida. If anyone wants to practice come and join Nakul and me over at Great Berry if the weather clears up a bit. We're generally there from 7.30 to 9.00 almost playing in darkness by the time we pack up. Since the practice on Saturday I feel a lot more confident in my own ability and in how the rest of the team will do http://www.harrowdrive.com/the-law-of-10000/ also if you have a look at this link, I'm kind of given a boost in that we have been practicing and I'm not so sure this first team we're playing have been. Also if you have been using the links I've been putting on the blog teams like our always vary in their ability and I've got a sense this team is very similar to us. So I'm looking forward to an even match or one where we may dominate with the bowling.

7 Days to go..............

Good day in the field for all

The weather looked ropey, I screwed up the net practice and there wasn't a lot of communication prior to everyone turning up - but it all came together brilliantly. We had 2.5 hrs out on Great Berry with no rain, wet under-foot and spongey but we got the practice in. We had four sets of stumps lined up with with everyone taking turns to face the bowlers for 15 minutes or so. We even did the thing were we set scenario's such as - You've got 6 balls left and you've got to score 10 runs in six balls to win the match In order to bowl and bat under pressure. That was good fun and got people going and a few people managed it which was good.

Alex (The Captain) said that my batting had developed and was showing such an improvement that I'd be further up the batting order, so I'm looking forward to the email to say where I'm going to be - I'm hoping 6 or 7?

Richard Bottles it

For some reason Richard's bottled it with regards to being the wicket keeper - I didn't catch why and this now leaves us with a big problem as there's no-one else to replace him. The only other people that have kept wicket with varying degrees of success have been Alex, Me and Simon and none of us were that good as we didn't expect to be dropped in this situation at the 11th hour otherwise we'd have done more of it and put the hours in to practice and besides we're all bowlers.


Long Range Weather forecast



It's still some way before next Sunday and you can check it out as the week progresses at http://magicseaweed.com/UK-Ireland-Surf-Tools/1/ use the synoptic charts as they're the most useful. As it stands tonight the chart for Sunday looks like this.... http://85.214.49.20/wz/pics/Recm1681.gif
If you look closely the southern half of the UK is in the Yellow zone (warmer weather) in a high pressure anti-cyclonic system so that's good. The colder blue green cyclonic weather systems on this chart are moving north so by Sunday the warmer weather will be pushing in from the Atlantic probably dragging warm air from central Europe via the Balkans.

Next weeks nets

Next weeks on Saturday we'll have a formal practice in the nets. After a discussion today we'll be trying to get the nets for a 11.00hrs start and we'll only do an hour so as not to be knackered for the match the next day. We'll have 2 nets up with with each person having 15 minutes facing everyone else as bowlers - much the same as we did today. As it's the day before the match we'll waive the £5.00 charge and all pay £10 for the match fee the next day.

The Food situation

Consensus seems to be that we're happy to pay a caterer to do the food and this is going to cost us about £60 but it may be well over the top - but we'll see? We're going to have to pay Welstead £22 for tea - but it'll be unlimited it's the only way they're able to make money out of us.

The Bar shuts at 8.30 pm

I've got to check this as it might be that they want us off the premises by 8.30 pm.

Wanted - 2 Cricket Players (preferably ones that resemble Adam Gilchrists skills)

Gutted - one of our better players - Rod Jeanes 'The Aussie' isn't going to be able to make it to the first or 2nd match as he's on holiday so we need an 11th man and a 12th man still. What with Richard dropping his wicket keeping bombshell on us the 11th man would be good if he fanices or has experience at wicket keeping. (See next item).

New Kids on the Block

This evening Nakul and I had an hour and half of practice - batting and bowling and we were joined by a couple of youths (16 year olds) who fielded and kept wicket. Talking to them they said that they'd played on Great Berry last summer and that locally there was 4 of them that played cricket relatively seriously (School teams) and that they'd be up for joining us for our practices and I got the sense they'd be interested in joining the team. So if the weather holds off over the coming week they'll be joining Nakul and me and getting involved with our evening practice sessions. I'm thinking that if one of them is a wicket keeper and he also says he's handy with the bat - could he be our eleventh man? He'd have to get a helmet (ECB rules) but he might be who we're looking for?

Other than that - could this be the start of the MPA2ndXI ? Or the Great Berry First XI? They're definitely the real article as they have their own pads and bats so who knows?

Finance

Just had a look at the finance situation and we're currently in credit to the tune of £132.00 - that's assuming that on Monday Simon and Naughty pay in their £10.00

It's been agreed that we'll all buy our own shirts see previous entry, as it was decreed that we'd only pay £10 this week whereas I was hoping for £15. So the general rule from now on will be that formal practice sessions will cost everyone £5.00 (Even the last net session Saturday 19th May)

Our kit/strip

Just a quick update till later in the day when I can get on here properly. A good session today despite the threatening weather we had 2.5 hours without rain and 9 turned up so a real result.

So this is our kit. The shirts are £6.00 each and they're from Primark so get yourselves down there and buy yourselves a shirt. The team's not going to pay for it, so it's a case of buy it yourself or if you can't get to Primark bewteen now and Sunday email me and let me know your size and I'll get it for you and you can pay me back.

Either dark blue/black jogging bottoms or dark blue/black shorts.

If you buy a helmet go for Dark blue as well. They've got helmets in JJB Sports in Southend and Basildon, but they're not cheap - but then neither is a ball in the teeth at 70mph?

Don't forget - get yourself a box and if you can stretch to it cricket shoes with spikes - again you'll be buying them at the wrong time of year - i did post links back in November for a place on ebay that was selling them new for £10. The more protection you have the more confidence you'll have to face up to the fast balls and there's only going to be you and the other batsman out there when your batting amongst all the sledging and pressure, so the more you can do to boost your sense of confidence the better.

8 Days to go.........

A couple of screw ups first.

1. There wont be any net practice tomorrow as the school is using the hall and the caretaker did tell me about it and I just forgot. So the next and last net practice is Saturday 19th May the day before the match.

2. Rod Jeanes wont be playing in the game against the Aussies and Kiwi's so we need 2 more players - The 11th Man to replace Rod and a 12th Man in the event that someone doesn't turn up on the day. Suggestions and volunteers required.

Practice - Saturday 11th May

I'll try and ring round to everyone and let you all know that the net practice has been cancelled and that we will be out on Great Berry Open Space and under the threat of rain. We're not going to be playing a game more than likely setting up the stumps somehow maybe 2 - 3 lots of stumps and all having 15 minutes of batting practice rotating while everyone else bowls and collects the balls. Everyone needs to be clear on the idea of defending the stumps and your legs until the ball goes wide and then having a go at it. This is probably our weakest point in that some of us think it's just a case of whacking it. Hopefully it wont rain. The forecast is rain over night but between 10.00 and 13.00hrs it's cloudy/bright....

This is the chart for 10.00hrs on Sat 11th May. So we may get lucky.

Other than that me and Richard went over to Welstead tonight to have a look and it looks okay. The wickets a bit green for me but the rest of you will do okay. The outfield looks a bit irregular in shape and I'm not sure what they'll be designating the boundary on the day, I'll have to ask Gavin what they normally do there.

The bar will be open till 8.30 and then we're out it's normally shut at 6pm on a Sunday but Gillian at Welstead is getting the bar staff to stay longer.

I've done some pictures and post them on here later. The pitch isn't as small as I thought it would be and it's probably similar in size to our pitch at Great Berry and similarly there are some short boundaries and long ones (Unfortunately for me the long ones are in my favourite hitting zones.

I've heard that Sports Science have been taking the mick out of my obsessive desire to get this right particularly the etiquette aspects. I think I've got the food bit sorted now for the game on Sunday, but now Gillian at Welstead has thrown a spanner in the works for the friday matches. It seems she doesn't get there till 7.30 to open the gates to the field - but Dean has got the code and the keys to the field and the changing rooms so hopefully we'll all be able to pile over there at 5.00 pm approx and he'll open up and we can start. Gillian also said that on evening games it's unlikely that there'll be a food requirement - I'll have to check with Gavin....

Having checked out the food/tea situation it looks like we're going to call on volunteers to knock up some food. We need sandwiches, cakes, sausage rolls, quiche, a bit of salad and orange/barley squash to be sorted. The tea is going to be provided by Welstead as it's the only way that they're going to make any money out of us unless of course the match finishes early and money is spent in the bar.

Harrowdrive have good link tonight if you subscribe. There's a podcast between David Hinchcliffe and some bloke called Pat Legge who's a coach. Have a listen to it while you're doing something else, it's interesting and there's some good points that may help how we play and possibly train. There's some excellent points made about commitment and the attitude of English players at all levels compared with the Aussies.
Play Better Cricket - Harrowdrive.com
Cricket coaching podcast

Not long now..........

Not long now till the first game with the Aussies and Kiwis. The preparation is coming together and there's only a few things to iron out. Money - I need a fiver from everyone that was at the last practice and on Saturday It'll be a tenner so basically I need £15 off of everyone this Saturday which'll go towards the food on match day.

Team Sheet

Again to go over the team selection and no doubt at some point Alex is going to have to over the order in which we play, but as it stands it's still this....

Thomas Slater
Mark Soye
Richard Sainsbury
Rod Jeanes
Badger
Alex Wood
Simon Grainge
Dave Thompson
Naughty
Trevor
Nakul Handa

Personally having seen Nakul bat a bit I reckon he should be further up the order. If you're aware that someone in the team doesn't check the blog and might not realise the game is only just over a week away - can you text them or phone them to make sure they know and feed back to me whether they're going to be there please?

The 12th Man

We need a 12th man who might also serve as a scorer but also for injuries and in the event that someone doesn't turn up. Any ideas..... Customs Paul? Darren Hart? Either of you fancy it?

Last Net Practice & formal training opportunity

Needless to say this Saturday is our last opportunity to have any practice, hopefully you'll have all taken on board the advice in the links I posted in the last entry on the blog. We've only got an hour in the nets on Saturday at 10.00hrs so we need to be there early and set up and ready to go at 10.00hrs. If we all have 5 minutes each having the ball thrown at us that'll take up the hour, so we need to have the next person up and ready to bat while the first one is batting for his 5 minutes. Once you've batted you then do five minutes of ball collecting and then join the bowlers.

Everybody needs to understand that you face up to the bowler standing in front of the stumps and if the ball looks threatening you defend it. If it's going wide you hit it and do so in a way that it's not going to get caught, so try and keep it low. You need to move around using your feet to get into position to defend the ball or hit it, try and do this in practice. If you're afraid of being hit by the ball at this stage maybe crickets not for you or you need to think about getting a helmet and wearing a box, maybe even thigh pads or forearm pads?

Running between wicket only use the words Yes No and Wait don't say 'go' as it sound like 'no'

If the ball goes behind you - the other batsman calls as he can see where it's going, as you run you need to look where the ball has gone and be aware of how it's being fielded. In short have a look at the video links and watch them again and again until you know the drills.

Everyone needs to watch the fielding videos, don't watch East Enders or whatever crap there is on the tele get on-line and watch these videos over and over till you can recite the words like a living coaching manual. Then next week if you can get together with someone and practice even if it's tennis balls!

Umpires - LBW & Wides

Tony Sweeney is umpiring for us and they're providing the second umpire. LBW decisions it seems will be the most contentious point and I still need to consult with people as to what the consensus will be, some games at our level don't even include LBW as a rule because of the nature of how iffy the decisions can be. This is something we need to discuss before the match? See ref 6,7 and 8 http://www.essexcricket.com/clubs/clubviews.htm Also note that there are issues regarding wides - anyone have any idea what might arise as an issue over wides? Do the umpires have specific roles?

Balls

The ball has been ordered for the match and it's been agreed that they'll supply another, hopefully they'll use the same Slazenger Crown Match ball. If we lose any balls it'll be down to using a cheap one as we usually do.

Match Fees & Food

There will be food and tea provided at the end of the first 50 overs. Someone will have to provide this, I'll be speaking to Gillian at Welstead tomorrow to see how much this is going to cost. Our match fees will be £10 each on the Sunday. The other team will be chipping in £3 each towards the food. Ideally we'd sort and bring our own food but I don't seem to have any volunteers to who are prepared to do this? I'll keep you posted as to what's happening regarding this.

Pitch inspection

I'm going to try and get over there tomorrow if possible either in the morning after about 11am or maybe later in the evening and have a look. In the images that are available it looks like a mud wicket free of grass, but it could be a green wicket at this time of year?

You Tube - Don't you just love it!

Here's a real non - cricket treat - give it a minute and it kicks in - literally! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_sviZc7PqI&mode=related&search= and there's tons of it! This could be a whole new blog subject!

Cricket Training video links

I've found some good links to cricket 'How to' type videos - Batsmen have a look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izSF5couS-A&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH1ZmCuG3BU&mode=related&search=

Also - Fielding tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHPrHkavD_Y&mode=related&search=

There's some really good basic advice at the end of this video about stopping balls and throwing balls - obvious stuff that should make a heap of difference, the one I liked regards picking up a ball that's roll towards you - keep your foot behind your hand so if it goes through your hand, your foots going to stop it.

fast Bowling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBa1OxNYI-Y&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqVnlpur1OE&mode=related&search=

Wicket Keeping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey2PXy8c0Ss&mode=related&search=

Tactics - Captaincy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zboRr7SDgZI&mode=related&search=

Acute Leg spin logistics

Most people even with a vague interest in cricket (As with me) know about the Shane Warne ball against Mike Gatting (June 1993). It was a leg spin ball that was pitched wide of leg seemingly so wide that it was safe and as we all know as soon as it landed it deviated off its natural line turning in so acutely that it went round the back of Gattings legs and took his bails off. Here's another example of Warnes bowling but the video quality is a lot better than the Gatting incident (See previous blog entry for that example) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3469032838578228442
The question I have is what are the conditions that are required to facilitate this kind of movement/deviation off of the natural line?

I'd love anyone out there that bowls leg spin - especially if you bowl flippers to comment and share your knowledge as to the combination of variables that enable this to happen. No-ones going to believe this for a second and I'm working on someone recording some footage of me doing it but - I can do this using the Flipper. Explanation of conditions...

Scenario 1. I practice for hours and hours and the flipper is my stock ball. Becuase of the time constraints and where I live etc one of the places I practice is a kids play area with a tarmac surface. The surface is not one of those smooth tramacs (I'll get a picture of it over the next few days) but it's flat and even. The ball I use is a hard plastic ball about the same weight as a cricket ball but the size of a 4.75oz ball (it may even be that weight). It has no seam and it's round, slightly pitted all over and scratched as you'd expect it would be.
I throw it the regulation distance 22 yards pitching it so that it lands 2'-3' wide of leg about 5 or 6 yards short of the stumps. I use a target so that I have a point to aim it at and it sometimes lands spot on target. Doing this - using the flipper not the Leg Spin I can get the ball to deviate off course so acutely that it comes across the face of the stumps and often goes wide of the off stump.

Scenario 2. Just across the way from where I live there's a football pitch and my obsession is such that over the last winter I rolled a section of the pitch flat in order that I can go over there set some stumps up and throw some balls. Rolling it has meant that the grass has been starved of oxygen (Compressed earth) and it is pretty threadbear in the area into which I pitch the ball. The quality of the earth is that it is heavy duty clay and it is rock solid when it dries - not inclined to crumble at all. It's not phenomenally flat, but when you bowl Wrong Uns they turn right and when I bowl my flippers they turn left and the straight balls go fairly straight. Again recently I had a practice session bowling 138 balls on this wicket primarily flippers looking to do the Shane Warne 'Round the legs' ball. Initially the balls did the right thing as in the description above regarding the plastic ball on tarmac, but I put it down to the fact that the wicket is a bit rough. So I tried some Wrong Un's and they turned correctly and then returned to the flippers and I was consistently able to make them turn at acute angles across the face of the stumps, so much so that I had to conclude because of the consistency that it was indeed the spin that was facilitating the deviation and not the luck of hitting lumps otherwise the conistency wouldn't have been there?

Scenario 3 And this is the bit that is devastating. We have another practice wicket that is much smoother, greener with grass growing on it nicely and densely. The field that it was on used to be a wood less than 10 years ago and therefore the make up of the earth is far more loamy and crumbly. For the life of me I cannot make the ball turn like I can on the tramac practice wicket and the clay wicket! This is where we practice in a team and it makes me look like a muppet because the ball wont turn!

So are there any experts out there that can comment on this?

One last thing written by Bob Woolmer...

It is worth understanding why Shane Warne is so good and for that you will have to understand the hours of work he put into his trade. For those who do not understand cricket and its nuances and the intricacies of leg spin bowling, it is the hardest art form of the game, it is extremely difficult to master and indeed to teach. Warne, it would seem, was a natural from a young age but spent his life perfecting the art. Indeed what drove him to become this perfectionist, what gave him the drive to become better than anyone else? Only he knows!

Practice netting

http://www.tildenet.co.uk/acatalog/Plastic_Netting.html

Small Plastic Garden mesh
Ideal for general garden use, pond covers, fencing, lawn paths, compost retention, debris guard in gutters and running behind your stumps when you're practicing bowling (Cricket) etc. Easy to handle, smooth to touch, strong, durable and long lasting

6m x 1m
£15.31
Size 6m x 0.5m - £8.176m x 1m - £15.31
Colour GreenBrown