Batting practice

I can't bat. I'm useless especially when facing fast bowlers. It's rare that in training situations I get to face bowlers and if I do they're generally of the faster variety as I'm the only spin bowler in our team and the other slower bowlers - Nakul and Badger they're not around much. Besides up till recently I'd always take the opportunity to bowl at people in order to hone my bowling techniques rather than practice batting.

So for ages I've been trying to come up with ways that I might be able to force some improvements. A couple of weeks back one of my team mates at Chadwell & Grays CC pulled me aside and gave me some advice about where I should stand in relation to the stumps when batting in view of the fact that I don't really move that much. What he said made sense, but I hung on the fact that he said I don't move my feet. So I had a look at some batting video tutorials on the Ninemsn website in Australia and listened to what was being said about moving your feet and being on your toes and mobile.

I was thinking it all through a bit miffed that I can't get anyone to practice with, but kept looking around for other ways to practice. I've got kids - two boys 8 & 6 years old and they've got all sorts of balls - footballs, tennis balls, wind balls, sponge balls, golf balls etc. I opened up the back of the car and noticed a bag of balls and the golf ball caught my eye and I thought - now that's a small and potentially difficult ball to hit with a cricket bat. I realised if somehow I could practice with a golf ball and hit that it would be so much easier with dirty great cricket ball. I took it and bounced it on the ground and realised the potential to possibly hit the ball bouncing off of a wall. Using a smaller bat - a size 5 I gave it a go. To the cut the story short I tried a range of balls including tennis balls and tonight ended up with a hard plastic ball (The type found in bat & ball sets used for beaches on holiday) that bounces well off of walls and it's hollow and light. Using this ball I found I could bat it against the wall and the level of ping off of the bat and wall enabled me to stand 15' - 30' away from the wall and practice a variety of strokes having to respond quickly in order to keep a rally going. The ball is smaller than a cricket ball and using a smaller bat means that (1) my eye/bat to ball co-ordination is being used and hopefully improved and (2) because the bounce combined with the spin means the ball comes at me at different heights and angles and in order to keep a rally of returns going I've got no choice other than to dance around quickly in order to get my body/bat in line and my head over the top of the ball to return it. It looks like it's proving to be a really useful exercise if only to prove that I can get the bat on the ball which usually evades me in a cricket match.

I did this last weekend using a golf ball and tennis ball and last weekend (If you read previous blogs) I score a few runs and felt a lot more confident at the crease. I'm hoping now with this plastic ball, it just means I'm going improve my confidence in that I know I can get the bat on the ball and I now can sense how vital it is to move your feet and get your head over the ball when playing shots.

What's more during the rallies because the wall where I practice has a second wall at a right angle it means I can move my feet and look to hit the ball out to square leg. Additionally the walls are only about 4'6" high so I have to strike the ball keeping it low, so I'm practicing that aspect too. All in all this looks like it may be a good practice technique - half hour of it and I was dripping with sweat.

Sports Science merge with MPA shock

I bumped into Gavin today and he asked how we'd done in our re-match with the Aussies and Kiwis which as you'll probably know or realise never happened because can't ever get a team together. Gavin went on to say they had another match scheduled which similarly didn't happen either and asked about my involvment with Chadwell and Grays CC. I then thought - here's my chance to suggest the idea of a merger between us and Sports Science to create the beginnings of a SEEC cricket team? So I said 'If you're up for a game still before the end of the season I may be able to fix a game between you lot and C&GCC'? Which he seemed well up for.

So it's been left that he's going to talk to his blokes and Dean and that the game will be played at Welstead Gardens. Tonight I've emailed my captain Fozzy at C&GCC suggesting that this may be a possibility? So all I've got to do now is find out how many people are up for it in Sports Science and see if some of the MPA boys will be up for it. I've spoken to Simon and Richard and they are, I just need to email some of the others.

Possible team -

1.Gavin
2.Ronnie
3.Dean
4.Riley
5.Conan the Kiwi
6.Paul (Sports Science)
7.Simon
8.Dave
9.Richard
10.Alex
11.Badger
12.Nakul

Then there's the possibility of Alex, Chris and Jack in the event that we're stuck for players?

Tremlett signs up for MPA 1st XI

A glimmer of hope here. Drew Tremlett contacted me through Facebook tonight and asked about the cricket saying that he had been following the blog, but then noticed that it had suddenly gone quiet with no more additions. I explained that there was some enthusiasm, but not enough to continue. He then offered to play saying that he'd come down from Cambridge to have a game! So - maybe a game before the end of the season?

Monday - Cricket with Golf Balls

I emailed a couple of the other blokes at work today - Richard and Simon suggesting that they consider signing up for Grays & Chadwell. I've heard nothing from Simon, but Richard kind of implied that he was vaguely interested, so who knows maybe this weekend. I think I'll email him again tonight and see if he follows it up?

After the relative success with the bat (2 not outs) and I made a couple of runs I'm going to see in future if I can bat further down the order as it means you face the spinners and the slower bowlers and I get on with that a lot better it seems? I'm also looking at ways of getting my feet moving and some kind of way I can improve my timing and accuracy with the bat. One thing I've found fairly useful is to use a golf ball and bat it up against a wall. Golf balls ping off the wall fast and hitting them with a bat puts loads of spin on the ball so it comes back at you at a different angle meaning you've got no choice other than to move your feet and go after it. The other thing is that a golf ball is very small and therefore potentially more difficult to hit? I've just got to find a decent wall to hit up against now in order for the practice to be effective.

Sunday report

A good day today. The sun was out and it was about 20 centigrade so very pleasent.

As usual the team struggled to get the full compliment and had to use batsmen from our other team that were playing on the adjacent pitch whilst they phoned around trying to get more players to come to the ground. They eventually turned up an hour or so into the match, so as I've been saying there's cricket to be had here and it's good fun because we frequently win.

Anyway they batted first and despite the fact that we didn't have any of our usual pace bowlers the people that stepped up to the job did well and we piled through easily and quickly. They did look like they were going to be good as they had Warsop Stebbing bats and some other obscure brands, but they dropped like flies and were all bowled out for 119 and we only used a handful of our bowlers. This meant that some of us including myself didn't even get to have an over which I wasn't that fussed about because of my shoulder. On the subject of the shoulder I was able to put into practice the throwing techniques I've been reading about and it worked. I suffered a lot pain which was nice and it's something I'm going to practice with - especially the using different weight balls.

Fielding today I was in the Deep Mid on position and had one chance where 'The Wizard' another leg spin bowler (real name Alex) forced a shot off a RH batsman that looped up high. I had to run back for it but needed my arms for balance at the critical moment as the ball reached me and therefore didn't get a good hand to it.

Not having bowled, the bowlers were given the option of what number they wanted to bat at and I opted for No.3. The openers batted through to 109 before one of them was bowled. I faced 2 balls before the other bloke finished them off, so I came away from the match 'Not out'.

The main team (3rd XI) were still playing and the visiting team were short of players and I was called in as their 9th batsman. I scored a few runs - actually hitting the ball a couple of times which was nice. The difference was that I was facing spin bowlers as opposed to pace bowlers. It's the pace bowlers I can't handle.

So all in all I had a good day. In addition I paid my membership fees for the current season, so I'll be able to attend the AGM. It seems there's going to be a big change in the way the club finances itself. The club fees are normally £75 a year but they're talking about dropping them to less than half that and increasing the match fees. So the more games you get the more you pay. Which seems okay to me.

Throwing

I've got a match tomorrow which I'm looking forward to. I've practiced a bit recently but taken it easy since last Monday when we were supposed to have had a knock about with a few of us. During that practice I was bowling some leg breaks at a much faster speed than I normally do and in doing so pulled some muscles in my lower back, but with the rest they seem to have recovered. But today I was just throwing a ball around to see what my throwing is like and it was useless. It's got to be age because when I was a kid I was such a good thrower - most accurate, longest distance and doing it for hours on end. We used to go down to a big ditch where swallows used to fly along catching flies, zooming around looping and turning as Swallows do and we'd stand there for hours trying to hit them - zipping stones at them, always failing. Or we'd go down to the Thames and throw stones at the marker poles in the river that indicated where the sewage outlets were and I'd always hit them and they miles out. But now I can barely throw a ball 30 yards - I do better throwing underarm. If I throw over or round arm I hurt myself - pull muscles and cause myself pain and injury.

I'be looked at the www.harrowdrive.com website and seen in the cricket fitness forum a link to a baseball website and there's some stuff on there indicating how you should train with regards throwing, so I'm going to have a look at that and maybe take some advice from there.

Match this Sunday

So I've got a match this Sunday. I'm looking forward to it, let's hope I at least make some contribution to the run total if only 1 run. The most I've ever made in any game has been 19. It'd be good to beat that or get my second highest score - 11. As for my bowling - recent form in practice has been okay, but I take a few overs to get into it. I'm wondering whether it'd make any difference if I was to practice a couple of hours before the game?

Teams and Clubs

Teams and clubs you've got to have then - but what a soul destroying demoralising job it is to run them. I had a series of emails from my mate Xan and his brother Boffa saying that I was mad trying to run a cricket club reiterating their own sorry stories. But I've been there before I ran our scooter club back in 1983-84 and that was the same and later in life as treasurer of the Plymouth College or Art & Design student union 1991 - 1993 it was a similar story. So I wasn't too surprised this week when an email circulated around my new cricket club (I'm only a player/member) saying that in the last 5 years or so they estimated that they'd been short changed in unpaid membership fees somewhere in the region of £10,000 - £15,000! Gutted! The email went on to point out that the money was enough to refurbish/renew our pitch and that some of the people that continuously moan about the state of the pitch are the people short on their committment to the club e.g. haven't paid their members fees.

Apparently the situation is so bad that it's threatening the existence of the club itself. I hope that those that haven't paid get their shit together and pay their dues because it's so obvious to me that there is a lot of people in the club who's lives are dedicated to it and revolve round it. For those people the situation they're faced with at the moment must be devastating.

As a new bloke and not being that sociable a person - I like what I've seen of the club despite the location of it and I like the people involve. I kind of get the feeling that for some people it's their whole life, but they're prepared to let you be involved on a surface level and allow you your own space. I looked at a lot of clubs in the area and some of them seem to be populated with total idiots. Maybe it's because these are people from my own town and the types of people I grew up with and I just fit in with them?

It's a shame that our cricket pitch is on the edge of a big estate and no-one in the area respects the pitch and the council seemingly don't spend a lot of money on maintaining it. Whereas were I live - the pitches are amazing and surrounded by beautiful trees and parks and are maintained by dedicated park keepers and the locals respect the wicket and the fence around it is left intact all year. But the impression I've had of the people in the clubs locally are that they're different. My wife says it's middle class, whereas my new club is very much made up of seemingly working class people.

Obsessed

Ebay - don't you just love it. Last year when we started out I picked up a ton of gear for £28. The gear must have been about £250-£300 new! Last week when I was feeling optimistic about the prospects of an MPA resurrection there was a bunch of left handed gear on ebay and I thought about bidding for it in the event that we might reform and have a LH player. I erred on the side of caution and didn't eventually, but later in the week a bunch of other stuff turned up - 2 bats, brand new wicket keeper gloves, size 9 spikes, thigh pads, knee pads and some other bits and it looked like no-one was bidding for it so right at the last second I put a bid in for £28 and won it. Again - one of the bats alone is worth £90 and it looks barely used, so another bargain. Again - ever optimistic at the back of my thoughts was the idea that next summer or over the winter I might try and get in touch with all the Indian/Pakistani blokes that play near the local swimming pool and challenge them to a game and this additional gear will be useful as they'll need to borrow some gear as they spent all summer playing really good cricket using kids sized equipment!

So I've won it, but now the problem is that it's up country near Derby and it's pick up only stuff. The bloke has said he's okay with keeping it until I go up there next, but that may not be till Christmas, so I've just got to see what happens. Lets just hope the blokes honest.

Pratice session that never was

Gutted!

Last week I asked around to see if there was still any interest in cricket as some of the blokes in the MPA first XI had bought equipment so that implies there was some commitment. A few people seemed to be up for it and they said they'd be there for 6pm last Monday.

I got there for 5.55pm and found Jack and Chris there playing football, but aware that there might be some cricket to be had. No one turned up and by 6.15 Jack and Chris left as well saying they might come back later. I stayed practicing my bowling till just after 7pm. Nakul had the decency to ring and Alex emailed me with good reasons for not being there. Richard had wife problems so that was understandable too.

So I reckon that's it, there wont be any resurrection and I'll leave it to the others to kick something into action if ever there will any future game or practice. What I'll do though is carry on the blog just recording my escapades with Grays & Chadwell cricket club.