The awful weather continues, the thing is realistically this normal weather so why I'm expecting it to be dry and warm I don't know? Global warming I suppose and last years weather? So after a weekend of rain I was kind of hoping that this weekend might have been sunny and dry but seemingly not looks like tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday will be okay and then on Saturday and Sunday it's just going to be a repeat of last weekend - wind and rain.
Still haven't shaken this cold off which isn't good as it means I'm kind of resting my body and not doing any exercises. I almost felt inclined to go for a run tonight but then thought it'd make my cold worse. So it looks like another cricketless weekend coming up.
School holidays and the leaflet from the local council drops onto the doormat and I was expecting that there might have been some more cricket coaching for my boys to get involved in. But nothing - Kick Boxing, Butt Kicking, House burgling, Grafitti spraying and Hip Hop dancing sessions aplenty - but no cricket! I was gutted as that last session was excellent, but it's obvious that the low turn out probably meant they felt they couldn't book it again? Shame.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
No chance of any cricket today
No cricket happening here even though it's Easter and last year we were playing cricket with our shirts off if I remember rightly!
But at least it's not like 1962-63
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/secondary/students/winter.html#coldest
Fed up with crap weather - forgotten how much fun cricket can be - check this out - This is my garden above check out this Aussie garden - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz_LQBhJagI&feature=related
Saturday, March 22, 2008
22nd Mar
Woke up this morning feeling a bit ropey - like the beginning of a cold coming, so I want to get that sorted and out of the way by next weekend as next week marks the start of the 2 week holiday and I've got several days off in which to tighten up on my bowling further still. I'm quite happy to have come down with a cold as that part explains why I was bowling so badly yesterday (Well that's my excuse). The downside is that if I do go down with a proper cold that will mean I'll lose any of the fitness I'd have built up - not that there's a lot of fitness.
My athletes foot has all but cleared up seemingly down to the Canesten cream, as soon as I started to use that there was a marked improvement, I've just got to carry on using it now till mid April for it to work 100% it seems.
I've done some stretching of my calf muscle this morning and the left one which was the one that was injured in the last game with Grays & Chadwell still feels tight, whereas in comparison the other good leg suffers from no tightness at all. I obviously need to stretch the tight one more still. I reckon generally I'm still very unfit and not particularly agile, which feels like something I should address. Other exercise such as core strength exercises are going well with things such as the plank - I'm able to do the arms and legs off the ground at the same time with that (Diagonally) and my rotator cuff exercises seem to be okay too. But the running does concern me and the prospects of pulling the calf muscle again early in the season if I don't get that sorted. As I've said before I kind of consider the fact that I'm usually able and very willing to run with full commitment when fielding and see that as an asset when I'm playing cricket, I can't bat and if my bowling turns out to not to have improved in reality I need to be half decent at something and that's my ability to chase after balls and stop runs being made. Which then brings me on to catching which is another weak area. I dropped a catch yesterday when practicing which made me look like a right woman - in fact I didn't get my hands anywhere near it and it was embarrassing, I'm so glad there wasn't a whole team watching cos I'd have died. But in my defence the field is dead uneven and when you're running and looking up at the same time and uneven surface doesn't help as it sets you of balance. So catching high balls is something else I need to practice.
In the short term though let's get rid of this cold - Lemsips and sucking raw garlic cloves here we come.
My athletes foot has all but cleared up seemingly down to the Canesten cream, as soon as I started to use that there was a marked improvement, I've just got to carry on using it now till mid April for it to work 100% it seems.
I've done some stretching of my calf muscle this morning and the left one which was the one that was injured in the last game with Grays & Chadwell still feels tight, whereas in comparison the other good leg suffers from no tightness at all. I obviously need to stretch the tight one more still. I reckon generally I'm still very unfit and not particularly agile, which feels like something I should address. Other exercise such as core strength exercises are going well with things such as the plank - I'm able to do the arms and legs off the ground at the same time with that (Diagonally) and my rotator cuff exercises seem to be okay too. But the running does concern me and the prospects of pulling the calf muscle again early in the season if I don't get that sorted. As I've said before I kind of consider the fact that I'm usually able and very willing to run with full commitment when fielding and see that as an asset when I'm playing cricket, I can't bat and if my bowling turns out to not to have improved in reality I need to be half decent at something and that's my ability to chase after balls and stop runs being made. Which then brings me on to catching which is another weak area. I dropped a catch yesterday when practicing which made me look like a right woman - in fact I didn't get my hands anywhere near it and it was embarrassing, I'm so glad there wasn't a whole team watching cos I'd have died. But in my defence the field is dead uneven and when you're running and looking up at the same time and uneven surface doesn't help as it sets you of balance. So catching high balls is something else I need to practice.
In the short term though let's get rid of this cold - Lemsips and sucking raw garlic cloves here we come.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Freaky Friday
Here in the UK we're looking at the prospects of a snowy weekend or at least cold sleety rain. Fortunately the weather cleared this morning and was windy so it dried out a bit and I managed to squeeze in an hour with my mate Thomas before it did pour down with hailstones. Nothing to write home about other than it was one of those practice sessions where nothing went right and nothing felt right. I'm not going to dwell on it because I reckon you can just have really bad days and this was one of them.
In the evening I went to a "Gig" where one of the blokes that played with us last year "Boffa" was playing with his band. Partly to catch up with people I used to hang about with back in the period 1978-1987 and partly to see some of the blokes form my past that are up for a game of cricket if I can get the "Five Tree Field" blokes shaped up into a team and it was all a bit strange. I bumped into my cousin who I haven't seen since 1988 and found out his Dad is still alive and he said that they'd been talking about me recently. So I might go and see them, I haven't seen this uncle since possibly 25-30 years! I bumped into a few people I hadn't seen for in excess of 20 years and it was all a bit freaky. But speaking to some of them they seem up for a game and in a way I'd feel far more at home seeing all these people in that situation rather than at a gig where you're having to shout at people standing 2' in front of your face. So maybe a game might be on the cards.
In the evening I went to a "Gig" where one of the blokes that played with us last year "Boffa" was playing with his band. Partly to catch up with people I used to hang about with back in the period 1978-1987 and partly to see some of the blokes form my past that are up for a game of cricket if I can get the "Five Tree Field" blokes shaped up into a team and it was all a bit strange. I bumped into my cousin who I haven't seen since 1988 and found out his Dad is still alive and he said that they'd been talking about me recently. So I might go and see them, I haven't seen this uncle since possibly 25-30 years! I bumped into a few people I hadn't seen for in excess of 20 years and it was all a bit freaky. But speaking to some of them they seem up for a game and in a way I'd feel far more at home seeing all these people in that situation rather than at a gig where you're having to shout at people standing 2' in front of your face. So maybe a game might be on the cards.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Snow
Four days off and it's going to snow! Walking home from the railway station tonight I was looking at how wet the grass/earth is and noticed it was pretty much saturated again after a good period of dry weather and now the forecast is for snow probably tomorrow and almost certainly Saturday. So it looks like there's not going to be any cricket at all - devastated! .jpg)
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The image here was taken at Great Berry Open Space on the wicket I used to cut and maintain there - this was early April last year, so lets hope in a couple of weeks "Five Tree Field" will be looking the same?
So - what to do now? I suppose I could go back to bowling on concrete in the basket ball courts, at least that'll be some exercise and it'll keep me going, I might even be able to tempt Thomas down there as well as it's just round the corner from where he lives and I could get to bat a bit if I use one of the really crappy bats? So if there is a let up in the weather that's a definite option.
Other than that I could carry on trying to learn all the fielding positions. I think I now almost know all the basic legside fielding positions apart from the ones that are behind the bowler "Long On" I think is one of them which is at the edge of the field. I'll try and test myself later on and see if I can name them all. The other thing I also need to do is carry on learning the rules regarding umpiring and how to use the scoring books, I've not had a look at that for a while and I need to get back to that as well.
Today at work the dept that's adjacent to us had a bit of a shift around of all their desks and it seems that the Sports Science blokes are all moving up to where we sit, so I'm going to be sitting right next to a bunch of cricket players and all ready they're saying that later in April they'll all be getting down to the nets and that I should go along too. (These are the blokes that are mates with the 6'8" South African or Aussie bloke that put a fast one in my ribs last year). So that'll be something to look forward to!
Another thing I can try and do is replace my grips on some of my bats. I had a look around at the applicator devices today and didn't realise they were so simply constructed. Being as skint as I am I'm now trying to think how I can make one myself, they seem so simple in design I can't see why there's a reason not to be able to come up with some kind of idea that would work? Looking at the construction I reckon I could probably make one entirely out of wood and I may give that a go tomorrow?
Other than that I could carry on trying to learn all the fielding positions. I think I now almost know all the basic legside fielding positions apart from the ones that are behind the bowler "Long On" I think is one of them which is at the edge of the field. I'll try and test myself later on and see if I can name them all. The other thing I also need to do is carry on learning the rules regarding umpiring and how to use the scoring books, I've not had a look at that for a while and I need to get back to that as well.
Today at work the dept that's adjacent to us had a bit of a shift around of all their desks and it seems that the Sports Science blokes are all moving up to where we sit, so I'm going to be sitting right next to a bunch of cricket players and all ready they're saying that later in April they'll all be getting down to the nets and that I should go along too. (These are the blokes that are mates with the 6'8" South African or Aussie bloke that put a fast one in my ribs last year). So that'll be something to look forward to!
Another thing I can try and do is replace my grips on some of my bats. I had a look around at the applicator devices today and didn't realise they were so simply constructed. Being as skint as I am I'm now trying to think how I can make one myself, they seem so simple in design I can't see why there's a reason not to be able to come up with some kind of idea that would work? Looking at the construction I reckon I could probably make one entirely out of wood and I may give that a go tomorrow?
Just to brighten up the blog - here's "Five Tree Field" with 3 of the 5 trees just to the right of the wicket. Not ideal but everyone will have the same batting fielding issues so we'll just have to live with it. This was shot in February and is the place that I've designated as being my main practice area and the intention is to do exactly as I did with Great Berry Open Space (See above) - mow it, maintain it as best I can and mark out the crease. In case you're only just looking in and catching up on the rationale and asking why choose there with the trees when you can use the same place you did last year in the image above? The reason I'm using this field (Five Tree Field) is that last summer there was a big group of blokes 20-30 of them that played cricket on this field all summer using kids size stumps and bats and a cricket tennis ball. what I'm trying to do is get them to play cricket with real equipment and a full size wicket.
You might also ask why not get them to go to the other field? Well that is the intention once I've got their trust as the other field is about a mile away and is a much better field that the council have already said they have no issues about me marking out the wicket and mowing it and it's flatter. But some of these blokes are first generation immigrants I think and I'm not sure they're all English speaking and when I spoke to them last year they seemed slightly wary of me. So I've got to gain their trust and make friends with them before I start getting them to move out of their comfort zone and playing elsewhere. It may sound like a lot of aggro, but these bloke were playing 20/20 matches nearly every night of the week it seems and they looked pretty handy. They all looked like fairly decent medium pace bowlers, so if I can get this up and running not only is there the potential for real cricket matches on the nearby council pitches (400 yards away) but it's non-stop practice and cricket all summer!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The weather looks bad
Rain today and the prospect of snow over the weekend. Not looking good. Positives though are the flare up of Athletes foot is in reverse now and looks like it's clearing up nicely. I didn't opt for the voodoo remedy in the end and initially went for the powder which didn't really seem to be doing much. After a few days I opted for the Canesten Cream which seems to have worked a treat.
I've been in contact with Boffa one of the Tilbs and he's up for a game and he's working on getting "The Boys" together for a match in the summer. That might be interesting?
Neil my captian at Grays & Chadwell CC emailed me tonight and said he's been following the blog, which is kind of weird for me because he's a proper cricket player and Leg Spin bowler and it just seems really strange to think that there's something in the content here that's of use to him - God knows what? But - cheers Neil for having a look and offering encouragement. He asked whether I was improving? I must have - surely all the effort I've been putting in and the decision to limit the variations to just 3 and concentrate on them must have had some impact. I spend a lot of time on the cricket forums elsewhere and ask a lot of questions on there and make suggestions and I'm sure I've picked up tips there? I'm certain my line and length has got better and just my understanding that just varying pace, length and flight can have the desired affect all must mean that there's got to be some kind of improvement?
But as I have said every now and then - that's all fine as long as when I step up to the crease I don't get freaked out by the occasion. I also think that there may be a marginal improvement with my batting in that I think I can appreciate the importance of moving your feet and keeping a straight bat. All these things are so basic - but they're all new knowledge to me as I'm a virtual beginner and unless I'm told about them I'm totally unaware. The straight bat thing - that for instance is so obvious and I've only learned it through the link from a couple of days ago with the video with Bob Woolmer!
Enough of all that - let's pray to the Gods that the sun comes out and we have some proper weather this weekend or that there's a massive improvement for the school holidays and I can get out there and have some practice?
I've been in contact with Boffa one of the Tilbs and he's up for a game and he's working on getting "The Boys" together for a match in the summer. That might be interesting?
Neil my captian at Grays & Chadwell CC emailed me tonight and said he's been following the blog, which is kind of weird for me because he's a proper cricket player and Leg Spin bowler and it just seems really strange to think that there's something in the content here that's of use to him - God knows what? But - cheers Neil for having a look and offering encouragement. He asked whether I was improving? I must have - surely all the effort I've been putting in and the decision to limit the variations to just 3 and concentrate on them must have had some impact. I spend a lot of time on the cricket forums elsewhere and ask a lot of questions on there and make suggestions and I'm sure I've picked up tips there? I'm certain my line and length has got better and just my understanding that just varying pace, length and flight can have the desired affect all must mean that there's got to be some kind of improvement?
But as I have said every now and then - that's all fine as long as when I step up to the crease I don't get freaked out by the occasion. I also think that there may be a marginal improvement with my batting in that I think I can appreciate the importance of moving your feet and keeping a straight bat. All these things are so basic - but they're all new knowledge to me as I'm a virtual beginner and unless I'm told about them I'm totally unaware. The straight bat thing - that for instance is so obvious and I've only learned it through the link from a couple of days ago with the video with Bob Woolmer!
Enough of all that - let's pray to the Gods that the sun comes out and we have some proper weather this weekend or that there's a massive improvement for the school holidays and I can get out there and have some practice?
Monday, March 17, 2008
Good video clip
This looks good in conjunction with the practice ideas I've suggested with my mate Thomas. If you look at this video with Bob Woolmer at the point 18 mins into the video he talks about how to throw the ball at the batsman in order to practice gliding/glancing the ball off the bat to legside. He advocates throwing the ball from the position it bounces from upwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-soOsOLIGQ&feature=related
Other than that crap weather with no real prospect of it getting much better for the coming Easter weekend. On a more positive front it was still light at 6.45 this evening and that's with cloud cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-soOsOLIGQ&feature=related
Other than that crap weather with no real prospect of it getting much better for the coming Easter weekend. On a more positive front it was still light at 6.45 this evening and that's with cloud cover.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Ebay - cheap?
My younger son Joe seems to be getting more interested in cricket especially after the coaching session by the bloke from ECCC a few weeks back. So trying to encourage this I thought I'd get him a new bat. I had a look on ebay and there were what seemed like cheap bats and I was tempted, but all these were new. His size is the smallest as he's only 6 and it's the size you see in the kits sold in toy shops and beaches. I then remembered that Sportsworld were selling really cheap stuff at the end of last season - Duncan Fearnley and Slazenger brands. So I went and had a look. There was a Duncan Fearnley beginners set with a bat, 4 stumps and a ball - it was £6.00. You couldn't go wrong. When I got to the till I got charged £3.00 because it was a sale item! I almost paid £16.00 for the same thing off of ebay.
Rain
Crap day today, more or less rained the whole day, so what with yesterdays rain and now todays all the fields are going to be soaked. We've got a long weekend coming up with two bank holidays, so with all that time on our hands could this herald the emergence of the Gloucester Crew? So I'm thinking do I get the mower out some time towards the end of the week and cut the wicket on the Five Tree Field? I noticed too that even though the sky was really dark it didn't get dark till well after 6pm. If I was to cut the wicket the locals might notice that something was being done and they may all start talking about the prospect of playing there again and start turning up? The other scenario might be that they always get there before me and don't let me join in despite all the gear and looking after the wicket and cutting the grass? No matter what happens I've got to try.
It's a bit early for forecasts but this Met Office Synoptic chart shows a strong high pressure area in the south for the coming Friday. Fingers crossed and it may be the high will keep the wet weather at bay?
Other than that I'm trying to learn all the fielding positions so that when someone tells me to go and field at Fine Leg I know what they're on about! I've also been trying to learn the rules as well so that I can help out with the scoring and the umpiring. I've also been teaching Joe some of the umpires signals - he loves it and he's been watching the video recordings of last years world cup in the West Indies. Michelle in fact today said something positive with regards cricket, she suggested that Joe joins the colts at Grays and Chadwell or at least goes along to the matches with me this summer! I'm not sure he'd stick out 6 hours of cricket, so that may work against encouraging him.
I emailed Boffa last night as he'd contacted me. He reckons he can get the Tilbury boys together to form a team, I reckon that's a real possibility we could use one of the council pitches - either The Rec or the Gloucester Park pitch. I'm just wondering if any of their lot could umpire? I'll have to see what he says about my proposition.
Another thing I've got to do now if I intend to mow the wicket some time this week is mark it out. So I'll look to do that at some point. Also using the markers that I've been using they can stay there permanently and that'll be useful also for when it comes to marking out and painting the crease - that'll gaurantee that they're square and painted in consistent place.
Another thing I want to do is practice with my batting and try and persuade Thomas to bowl or through the ball in a manner that will be helpful rather than trying to throw the ball so hard that if it ever made contact with the body it would take flesh and bones with it! So I'm going to try and do some kind of exercise where I try and learn strokes and put the ball into areas I want it. Hopefully he'll be conducive with the idea?
It's a bit early for forecasts but this Met Office Synoptic chart shows a strong high pressure area in the south for the coming Friday. Fingers crossed and it may be the high will keep the wet weather at bay?
Other than that I'm trying to learn all the fielding positions so that when someone tells me to go and field at Fine Leg I know what they're on about! I've also been trying to learn the rules as well so that I can help out with the scoring and the umpiring. I've also been teaching Joe some of the umpires signals - he loves it and he's been watching the video recordings of last years world cup in the West Indies. Michelle in fact today said something positive with regards cricket, she suggested that Joe joins the colts at Grays and Chadwell or at least goes along to the matches with me this summer! I'm not sure he'd stick out 6 hours of cricket, so that may work against encouraging him.
I emailed Boffa last night as he'd contacted me. He reckons he can get the Tilbury boys together to form a team, I reckon that's a real possibility we could use one of the council pitches - either The Rec or the Gloucester Park pitch. I'm just wondering if any of their lot could umpire? I'll have to see what he says about my proposition.
Another thing I've got to do now if I intend to mow the wicket some time this week is mark it out. So I'll look to do that at some point. Also using the markers that I've been using they can stay there permanently and that'll be useful also for when it comes to marking out and painting the crease - that'll gaurantee that they're square and painted in consistent place.
Another thing I want to do is practice with my batting and try and persuade Thomas to bowl or through the ball in a manner that will be helpful rather than trying to throw the ball so hard that if it ever made contact with the body it would take flesh and bones with it! So I'm going to try and do some kind of exercise where I try and learn strokes and put the ball into areas I want it. Hopefully he'll be conducive with the idea?
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Bit of a practice #2
With the threat of rain all Sunday waking up to no rain and a bit of sunshine and relative warmth today meant one thing. At some point I was going to have to throw some balls on my own even if only for 3/4 of hour. So after lunch wearing not much more than a t-shirt I set off for 5 tree field.
Probably threw 100 - 125 balls and it went okay. Again I had that realisation that I don't really throw loads of wides anymore which was nice. I threw combinations of Flippers, Wrong Uns and Top spinners and spent a short period trying to bowl Leg Breaks. The main three went well especially the wrong uns and I noticed that even my top spinners tend to drift off to off when I bowl them, but the Wrong Uns themselves were good - slow and fast they were turning nicely. This made me reflect on the question if one my strongest and potentially best ball spins to off does that make me an off spinner rather than a leg spinner? I bowl mostly Flippers mixed in with Wrong Uns and Top spinners and the flipper as I've said many times here spins to leg like a Leg Break - but not as consistently as the Wrong Un. I was thinking about this and thought maybe I'm just a spin bowler not necessarily a Leggie or an Offy just some weird hybrid? That made me think - Let's have another go at the leg break and I tried throwing a few, but they were all over the shop - too long, too loopy and slow and none of them turning.
I find that if I try and bowl Leg break balls over short distances I can get it to turn, but I seem to be able to do this with a really short walk in that ends up with an abrupt stop rather than a follow through. If I then add the follow through I don't get the spin. There seems to be something about me that's not that bothered or defeatist when it comes to the Leg Break, but another part of me wants to be able to do it hence the reason I keep returning to it half heartedly and trying it. A part of me believes that if I was to put the hours in it might come good. I reckon that if I was to get some one to one from someone I might get it, but in the short term it evades me and I'm obviously not that bothered. So surely that means I'm not Leg Spin bowler and if I keep posting in the forum I do eslewhere I'm in the wrong thread!!!!
Probably threw 100 - 125 balls and it went okay. Again I had that realisation that I don't really throw loads of wides anymore which was nice. I threw combinations of Flippers, Wrong Uns and Top spinners and spent a short period trying to bowl Leg Breaks. The main three went well especially the wrong uns and I noticed that even my top spinners tend to drift off to off when I bowl them, but the Wrong Uns themselves were good - slow and fast they were turning nicely. This made me reflect on the question if one my strongest and potentially best ball spins to off does that make me an off spinner rather than a leg spinner? I bowl mostly Flippers mixed in with Wrong Uns and Top spinners and the flipper as I've said many times here spins to leg like a Leg Break - but not as consistently as the Wrong Un. I was thinking about this and thought maybe I'm just a spin bowler not necessarily a Leggie or an Offy just some weird hybrid? That made me think - Let's have another go at the leg break and I tried throwing a few, but they were all over the shop - too long, too loopy and slow and none of them turning.
I find that if I try and bowl Leg break balls over short distances I can get it to turn, but I seem to be able to do this with a really short walk in that ends up with an abrupt stop rather than a follow through. If I then add the follow through I don't get the spin. There seems to be something about me that's not that bothered or defeatist when it comes to the Leg Break, but another part of me wants to be able to do it hence the reason I keep returning to it half heartedly and trying it. A part of me believes that if I was to put the hours in it might come good. I reckon that if I was to get some one to one from someone I might get it, but in the short term it evades me and I'm obviously not that bothered. So surely that means I'm not Leg Spin bowler and if I keep posting in the forum I do eslewhere I'm in the wrong thread!!!!
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