On Sunday after the match Saturday, I felt knackered - whole body kind of knackered, so I need to look at doing something about that especially lower body strength and stamina. I didn't get out onto the paddock to have a warm up till after lunch and then Joe and I went over and had a bat and bowl with a windball. An hour of that kind if loosened me up and I felt that later in the day I could have a proper bowl and later that evening I bowled properly for about an hour and that went quite well. Again looking to be accurate and to turn the ball.
Tonight I had another hour practicing on my own again just looking to spin the ball with differing degrees of spin and practicing what are becoming the four different deliveries I may be using in actual games. The most promising is the new Googly I'm using it has loads of top spin and is bowled using a very different method to my leg break. It's pretty accurate so if it doesn't turn it ends up being a good top spinner with loads of bounce, but occasionally when I get it right it's a very good bouncy off-break. Time spent practicing - about 50 minutes or so and the session got progressively better.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Saturday, May 09, 2015
Basildon & Pitsea 4th XI v Hainhalt & Clayhall 5th XI May 9th
First game of the season for me and Joe's first this season in the 4th XI
On the morning of the game the only bloke that looked as though he might no show was Luke Edmonds.
Got ready and had a couple of calls from people that wanted a lift. The weather looked okay - bright and sunny and blustery initially, but then as midday approached it clouded over and it looked as though there might be the prospect of rain.
Set off at 11.45 and picked up Tim Brown and Jamie the wicket keeper. Got there in good time and arrived at about 12.25. No-one else from our team had arrived. We were met by a man wielding a machete, which I didn't bat an eyelid at, but apparently Tim and Jamie were a little freaked out by it. As Joe said "We've got a machete in our garage and we use it for gardening and stuff". Turned out that the bloke was cutting some rope, so it completely made sense that he was walking around with a machete.
Eventually some of the others turned up and it looked like we would have a game, although the opposition looked short of players. We won the toss and fielded first. The pitch was pretty poor, possibly worse than the pitch over at Stanford Le Hope, Joe reckoned it was worse than the wicket in the paddock! It was green with a longish covering of grass, but there were holes all over it and divots, but I wasn't fussed and no-one moaned that much.
I then discovered when I'd packed my bag I'd virtually put everything in it including the kitchen sink, but I'd left my whites at home! Fortunately the opposition had a pair of trousers and a top, so I had something to wear. The other thing I forgot was a SD card for my camera, so I had a camera but no way of capturing the images.
Our bowling opened with Tim Edmonds - seam up medium pace stuff - accurate. The first event of note was a ball hit on the offside over my head at Gully, I leapt up but was only able to get the tip of my thumb on the ball. Runs were difficult to come by for the opposition and we restricted them to a good over rate 2.9 up till the point were I bowled. In the meantime bowling in tandem with new bloke Anthony Joseph who bowled tightly not giving much away, only one wicket went down. Tim bowled one that went to hand at point being caught by his son Luke.
Lee then brought me on at the end furthest away from the sheds bowling into a diagonal wind, which I thought would be a problem right from the outset as it was a really brisk wind. My bowling's slow at the best of times, but then to bowl into the wind is just asking for trouble. The theory was that I'd be able to make use of the drift (Have they mistaken me for someone else)?
I let Lee set the field and he set an in-out basic field, some of the others who don't see me bowl that much were asking about putting blokes on the boundary on the legside, but Lee showed some faith and set a field that would help to reduce singles and challenge the batsmen to go over the top with aggressive shots.
It worked pretty well and as the overs passed blokes came in and the field tightened with it adapting to something I'd have chosen. In the first over I went for a run and a wide, the first ball was bowled a la' Terry Jenner and went for a single, it felt as though with the wind in my face that bowling off of 1 step left me vulnerable due to the loss of speed in the air. I then decided that I'd go for the 'Run in' approach and see how that went. My bowling didn't feel right and in this 1st over I went for a run and a wide. But the balls that were okay including the one that went for a single landed on a good full length and turned off the pitch really well.
2nd Over. This was better with just two runs conceded with the ball being flicked off the legs and being chased down by Tim Brown who was fielding round the corner. But again the ball was turning off the wicket and for the most part I was getting good accuracy line and length wise.
3rd Over. Same again 2 runs, the ball turning and I was bowling very well although not feeling at all comfortable with any aspect of my run up or bowling in this wind.
4th Over. The first ball went for 1 and then the next ball was my first wicket of the season... Landed in front of the batsman on middle and turned through the gate hitting off-stump as I recall. The next bloke came in and I bowled virtually the same ball this time he played forward trying to defend it and the ball found the edge and went straight to Jamie. I was on a hat trick at this point and only managed a dot ball. The last ball conceded a run (may have been a no-ball). At this point I was on 2 for 8 off of 4 overs. At this point I was think I could pull out the Googly I've been working on in the next over.
Meanwhile Tony Harrms was bowling away at the other end keeping things tight and the game looked as though it was moving along in our favour.
5th Over. This was the best of all of them, 5 great balls producing no runs, two of the balls were Googlies pitched on middle stump and both turned and missed the leg stump by a mile, but Jamie snaffled both of them easily. The last ball was pitched outside of leg, turned round the back of his legs and hit leg stump! Jamie said it was a beaut! A wicket maiden bringing me up to 3 for 8.
6th Over. 3 runs off of this one including a no ball and I was starting to tire a little at this point but unusually in my legs!. It was also in this over that I had to stop during my bowling action, because as I bounded a gust of wind physically blew me side ways and I had to pull out of the delivery.
7th Over. The wind and my legs then conspired to produce my worst over with loads of balls being sprayed all over the place and I went for 7 runs, mostly through bowling legside. In amongst it was a no ball as well. I also said to Lee... "Lee that'll do, I'm bowling crap", but he then still gave me another over as he said that I was on track for a five-fer. But I was knackered.
8th Over. For this over I decided I'd bowl off of one step a la' Terry Jenner and bowl Top-Spinners and Googlies. It worked okay and I only conceded another 2 runs and the Googlies looked pretty good too. Lee then called it a day on my bowling and I'd finished with... 8-1-20-3 an average of 2.5 and a strike rate of 6.6. I was more than happy with that.
What I did notice though was how unfit I was and this became noticeable in the 6th and 7th over, it wasn't upper body fitness, it was general out of breath-ness and weak feeling legs. To be honest though in comparison with last years pre-season work I did on fitness, I've done very little. Last year I had a massive incentive, my younger son Joe was in recovery from an RTA and over two years of low level activity last season was his first in which he had no pins in his leg and he needed to get rid of all the weight that he'd put on and get fit. So we were out running every other night for 20 minutes. This year I've done none of that and it noticed today.
Leg-spinners moan - There were at least 2 other chances. One in the 2nd over where there was a stumping, everyone went up for it and the leg-stump umpire stuck his finger up, the umpire at my end said 'He's given him out', but then there was some kind of dispute at the other end and the square leg umpire retracted the signal and dismissal saying - 'No he's not out his foot was on the line', someone then pointed out that he needed to have something behind the line and the umpire seemed unsure about the rules. Lee decided to leave it as not out and told the kid the rule about having to have something behind the line. The kid has my sympathy, it hate being an umpire and mistakes are easily made.
There was also a ball in the 6 th over that pitched on middle and turned across the front of the bat and the glove and was caught by Jamie, but it looked as though as it did it deviated, but what with the wind and no-one else going up other than Jamie - it was left and I didn't say anything and I turned to the umpire at my end and said 'I should have gone up for that - it looked as though it came off his bat or glove' and the bloke nodded!
Joe bowled next and surprised me as he chose to bowl his Finger Spin off-breaks against the oppositions two best batsmen. He did really well. He had one chance dropped by Luke Edmonds who was fielding around the corner but quite close and Tony Harms who normally catches everything fumbled and dropped one in the slips. So Joe was very unlucky to come away wicket-less, he also had a couple of LBW's that he reckoned were plumb that the umpires didn't give. He bowled finger spin for his first 3 overs and then seam up for the final over...
Joe came away with 4-1-20-0. Mike Blerkom also took a wicket. Lee Dutton came on at the end to finish their innings off and the opposition ended up with 137 which looking around at our lads I thought was feasible.
Over tea it was discussed who would bat first and Joe and I were put in. Because they only had 8 players we gave them a couple of ours. The batting didn't go that well. I felt for Joe a bit, the first ball he faced he offered a half - hearted straight bat defensive shot but the kid was bowling dead straight on the stumps and Joe somehow played inside it and it hit the off-stump. Recently in practice and nets he's batted with loads of confidence and afterwards he said he wished he's had a chance at the leg spinner as he fancied his luck against him. Meanwhile I was trying to evade a leg-spinner (A Nangia) who was bowling quite well. I managed to keep him at bay for 5 overs, but in my usual style - unable to score any runs. In the end he bowled me through the gate.
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On the morning of the game the only bloke that looked as though he might no show was Luke Edmonds.
Set off at 11.45 and picked up Tim Brown and Jamie the wicket keeper. Got there in good time and arrived at about 12.25. No-one else from our team had arrived. We were met by a man wielding a machete, which I didn't bat an eyelid at, but apparently Tim and Jamie were a little freaked out by it. As Joe said "We've got a machete in our garage and we use it for gardening and stuff". Turned out that the bloke was cutting some rope, so it completely made sense that he was walking around with a machete.
Eventually some of the others turned up and it looked like we would have a game, although the opposition looked short of players. We won the toss and fielded first. The pitch was pretty poor, possibly worse than the pitch over at Stanford Le Hope, Joe reckoned it was worse than the wicket in the paddock! It was green with a longish covering of grass, but there were holes all over it and divots, but I wasn't fussed and no-one moaned that much.
I then discovered when I'd packed my bag I'd virtually put everything in it including the kitchen sink, but I'd left my whites at home! Fortunately the opposition had a pair of trousers and a top, so I had something to wear. The other thing I forgot was a SD card for my camera, so I had a camera but no way of capturing the images.
Our bowling opened with Tim Edmonds - seam up medium pace stuff - accurate. The first event of note was a ball hit on the offside over my head at Gully, I leapt up but was only able to get the tip of my thumb on the ball. Runs were difficult to come by for the opposition and we restricted them to a good over rate 2.9 up till the point were I bowled. In the meantime bowling in tandem with new bloke Anthony Joseph who bowled tightly not giving much away, only one wicket went down. Tim bowled one that went to hand at point being caught by his son Luke.
I let Lee set the field and he set an in-out basic field, some of the others who don't see me bowl that much were asking about putting blokes on the boundary on the legside, but Lee showed some faith and set a field that would help to reduce singles and challenge the batsmen to go over the top with aggressive shots.
2nd Over. This was better with just two runs conceded with the ball being flicked off the legs and being chased down by Tim Brown who was fielding round the corner. But again the ball was turning off the wicket and for the most part I was getting good accuracy line and length wise.
3rd Over. Same again 2 runs, the ball turning and I was bowling very well although not feeling at all comfortable with any aspect of my run up or bowling in this wind.
4th Over. The first ball went for 1 and then the next ball was my first wicket of the season... Landed in front of the batsman on middle and turned through the gate hitting off-stump as I recall. The next bloke came in and I bowled virtually the same ball this time he played forward trying to defend it and the ball found the edge and went straight to Jamie. I was on a hat trick at this point and only managed a dot ball. The last ball conceded a run (may have been a no-ball). At this point I was on 2 for 8 off of 4 overs. At this point I was think I could pull out the Googly I've been working on in the next over.
Meanwhile Tony Harrms was bowling away at the other end keeping things tight and the game looked as though it was moving along in our favour.
5th Over. This was the best of all of them, 5 great balls producing no runs, two of the balls were Googlies pitched on middle stump and both turned and missed the leg stump by a mile, but Jamie snaffled both of them easily. The last ball was pitched outside of leg, turned round the back of his legs and hit leg stump! Jamie said it was a beaut! A wicket maiden bringing me up to 3 for 8.
6th Over. 3 runs off of this one including a no ball and I was starting to tire a little at this point but unusually in my legs!. It was also in this over that I had to stop during my bowling action, because as I bounded a gust of wind physically blew me side ways and I had to pull out of the delivery.
7th Over. The wind and my legs then conspired to produce my worst over with loads of balls being sprayed all over the place and I went for 7 runs, mostly through bowling legside. In amongst it was a no ball as well. I also said to Lee... "Lee that'll do, I'm bowling crap", but he then still gave me another over as he said that I was on track for a five-fer. But I was knackered.
8th Over. For this over I decided I'd bowl off of one step a la' Terry Jenner and bowl Top-Spinners and Googlies. It worked okay and I only conceded another 2 runs and the Googlies looked pretty good too. Lee then called it a day on my bowling and I'd finished with... 8-1-20-3 an average of 2.5 and a strike rate of 6.6. I was more than happy with that.
Leg-spinners moan - There were at least 2 other chances. One in the 2nd over where there was a stumping, everyone went up for it and the leg-stump umpire stuck his finger up, the umpire at my end said 'He's given him out', but then there was some kind of dispute at the other end and the square leg umpire retracted the signal and dismissal saying - 'No he's not out his foot was on the line', someone then pointed out that he needed to have something behind the line and the umpire seemed unsure about the rules. Lee decided to leave it as not out and told the kid the rule about having to have something behind the line. The kid has my sympathy, it hate being an umpire and mistakes are easily made.
There was also a ball in the 6 th over that pitched on middle and turned across the front of the bat and the glove and was caught by Jamie, but it looked as though as it did it deviated, but what with the wind and no-one else going up other than Jamie - it was left and I didn't say anything and I turned to the umpire at my end and said 'I should have gone up for that - it looked as though it came off his bat or glove' and the bloke nodded!
Joe bowled next and surprised me as he chose to bowl his Finger Spin off-breaks against the oppositions two best batsmen. He did really well. He had one chance dropped by Luke Edmonds who was fielding around the corner but quite close and Tony Harms who normally catches everything fumbled and dropped one in the slips. So Joe was very unlucky to come away wicket-less, he also had a couple of LBW's that he reckoned were plumb that the umpires didn't give. He bowled finger spin for his first 3 overs and then seam up for the final over...
Over tea it was discussed who would bat first and Joe and I were put in. Because they only had 8 players we gave them a couple of ours. The batting didn't go that well. I felt for Joe a bit, the first ball he faced he offered a half - hearted straight bat defensive shot but the kid was bowling dead straight on the stumps and Joe somehow played inside it and it hit the off-stump. Recently in practice and nets he's batted with loads of confidence and afterwards he said he wished he's had a chance at the leg spinner as he fancied his luck against him. Meanwhile I was trying to evade a leg-spinner (A Nangia) who was bowling quite well. I managed to keep him at bay for 5 overs, but in my usual style - unable to score any runs. In the end he bowled me through the gate.
As you can see they bowled quite well, with the only person able to make any impression being 13 year old Charlie Blerkom who did really well in comparison to the rest of us. The pitch which as I said was pretty awful proved to be a right handful for some with the ball bouncing really irregularly and bouncing up and hitting people in the chest and I think Dutton got one under the chin. If Ben had been there to open the game may have been very different as the pitch would have played a big part in the game, more so than it did in the end today. Despite the loss it was an enjoyable day out and good one for the younger members -especially Charlie.sjkfleqwfg ug2q3ro23r kjh3l2rgt
Friday, May 08, 2015
Basildon & Pitsea U15's v Thurrock 15's at Blackshots
As the day drew towards the evening the weather turned and I looked outside at 4pm and it was raining and the sky was grey with little hope of any potential improvement. On the train travelling west from Southend it looked as though the weather was worse in the west where the weather was coming from. Walked from the station in light rain and as I ate my dinner the rain got worse. Joe was ready and we checked all the social media for the inevitable cancellation notice and it wasn't there.
The manager for the U15's this year is Mark Farrington and I called him on my phone (First time I've turned it on since March)! and left a message. Looking outside it didn't look any better but the rain wasn't that heavy and I thought there may be a vague chance the game might be on still and decided we'd drive over and have a look.
It rained all the way albeit light and as we got within site of the pitch it was obvious that there were players there. Once we pulled up it soon became obvious that we were still short and as the start time approached we were still short of two players Mo and Abdul Baig. Then I realised that I had their Dads phone number and gave him a call. They were on their way but struggling with their Tomtom satnav thing.
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The weather in the meantime had improved, the rain had stopped but it was grey. Thurrock won the toss and with the wicket wet, the light already really poor and us short of two players they decided to bat. Our lads with the first ball got off to a good start with my son Joe bowling okay and then Sam Good taking the wicket of 'Alex' with his first ball without making a run. Then in his second over Sam good got 'Sharma's' wicket cheaply caught by new kid 'Andrew' at Mid-off. Joe then followed that up with another wicket with a catch going to the impressive new kid Andrew this time at square leg.
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Around about this time Abdul and 'Mo' Mohammed Baig turned up and joined the team making up the full team. The game was going well with 29 runs made off of 7 overs for 3. Frank Farrington the captain brought on the next two bowlers Abdul Baig and Tom Paul. Tom got a wicket with his brother taking the catch (Henry Paul) and the combination restricted the runs to a potentially achievable total, subject to the light conditions as they were worsening by the minute. Then Frank brought on Mo Baig (Leg Spin Bowler) and this move turned the game massively in our favour. Mo's first ball was LBW and then he went on a rampage...
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In his last over including the last ball of his spell, Mo took three wickets! In all he took 5 wickets for 13 off of 4 and this was his first under 15's game and he's still only 13 years old. The other thing was these weren't balls that were in the air, these were wickets where he hit the stumps including their in-form batsman 'Alfie'! So well done Mohammed Baig.
Thereafter the tail was cleaned up and with the light fading extremely quickly they all went off for a break and as far as I was concerned took far too long given that the light was quickly disappearing behind the horizon. No-one else seemed to think it was an issue and the opening batsmen Frank and Sam Jones seemed to dawdle on to the pitch as if the floodlights were going to come on any second. Initially they scored slowly, painfully slowly considering that the light was failing so quickly, for a while we were behind the run rate for the first 7-8 overs and then the run rate increased as Frank started to score runs.
To be continued...
The bloke that appeared to be Thurrocks manager, umpire and scorer all in one was the legendary Wrist Spinner Alex McLellan. We were blessed with a whole army of people to do a number of jobs. Despite being a one man show Alex did very well and hosted what was a very good game.
The manager for the U15's this year is Mark Farrington and I called him on my phone (First time I've turned it on since March)! and left a message. Looking outside it didn't look any better but the rain wasn't that heavy and I thought there may be a vague chance the game might be on still and decided we'd drive over and have a look.
It rained all the way albeit light and as we got within site of the pitch it was obvious that there were players there. Once we pulled up it soon became obvious that we were still short and as the start time approached we were still short of two players Mo and Abdul Baig. Then I realised that I had their Dads phone number and gave him a call. They were on their way but struggling with their Tomtom satnav thing.
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The weather in the meantime had improved, the rain had stopped but it was grey. Thurrock won the toss and with the wicket wet, the light already really poor and us short of two players they decided to bat. Our lads with the first ball got off to a good start with my son Joe bowling okay and then Sam Good taking the wicket of 'Alex' with his first ball without making a run. Then in his second over Sam good got 'Sharma's' wicket cheaply caught by new kid 'Andrew' at Mid-off. Joe then followed that up with another wicket with a catch going to the impressive new kid Andrew this time at square leg.
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Around about this time Abdul and 'Mo' Mohammed Baig turned up and joined the team making up the full team. The game was going well with 29 runs made off of 7 overs for 3. Frank Farrington the captain brought on the next two bowlers Abdul Baig and Tom Paul. Tom got a wicket with his brother taking the catch (Henry Paul) and the combination restricted the runs to a potentially achievable total, subject to the light conditions as they were worsening by the minute. Then Frank brought on Mo Baig (Leg Spin Bowler) and this move turned the game massively in our favour. Mo's first ball was LBW and then he went on a rampage...
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Thereafter the tail was cleaned up and with the light fading extremely quickly they all went off for a break and as far as I was concerned took far too long given that the light was quickly disappearing behind the horizon. No-one else seemed to think it was an issue and the opening batsmen Frank and Sam Jones seemed to dawdle on to the pitch as if the floodlights were going to come on any second. Initially they scored slowly, painfully slowly considering that the light was failing so quickly, for a while we were behind the run rate for the first 7-8 overs and then the run rate increased as Frank started to score runs.
To be continued...
The bloke that appeared to be Thurrocks manager, umpire and scorer all in one was the legendary Wrist Spinner Alex McLellan. We were blessed with a whole army of people to do a number of jobs. Despite being a one man show Alex did very well and hosted what was a very good game.
Thursday, May 07, 2015
Rest day today - games start tomorrow...
Worked late tonight so didn't get in till gone 9pm. There's been some shifting around in the 4th XI line up creating an opening for my younger son (13 years old) Joe, which is good news. He's got his own U15's game on Friday night as well at 'Thurrock' which I'm looking forward to, that's my old team 'Grays and Chadwell cricket club' with the legendary Alex 'Wizard' McLellan, so I may get a chance to see him and ask him how his bowling is going. It'll be tight on timing as I don't get out of work till just before 5 and I've got to get all the way to Grays.
The weather for Saturday looks promising...
Brisk wind 30mph South Westerly.
Cloudy bright.
The weather for Saturday looks promising...
About 15 degrees centigrade.
I'm looking forward to the game and it's interesting to see that it is made up of a number of kids as it was last year, but this time I'm not the captain. There seems to be a distinct lack of a fast bowler like Ben (My older son) although Joe's getting bigger and stronger and he may start to fulfil that role as the season goes on and potentially because he's slightly more interested in cricket than Ben is, he may approach it in a different manner? I reckon Tim Edmonds will bowl a lot of overs. But this does look like a difficult game.
| 1 : | Lee Dutton |
|---|---|
| 2 : | Charlie Blerkom |
| 3 : | Tim Edmonds |
| 4 : | Luke Edmonds |
| 5 : | Jamie Britton |
| 6 : | Joe Thompson |
| 7 : | Dave Thompson |
| 8 : | Tim Brown |
| 9 : | Tony Harms |
| 10 : | Anthony Joseph |
| 11 : | Mike Blerkom |
Wednesday, May 06, 2015
Rain stopped play
What Happened
Again another crap day at work, came home feeling knackered again and the wind from yesterday hadn't really died down, so there was a very brisk wind and the threat of rain. My older son Ben who's preparing for his GCSE exams hasn't been getting out and doing anything much and Michelle suggested that he went training/nets tonight, so any idea that I might not go was then thwarted. So off we went for a net at our club...
Initially because of the weather and the cold, there was only 4 blokes there training in the middle, so we joined them and bowled at the bloke in the net - one of the first team players, a bloke who holds the highest score for one innings at the club.
Feelings
Prior to actually bowling - knackered and not that optimistic, especially when confronted with bowling at this particular bloke. But that turned around over the session, although I was smacked for a couple of big potential sixes.
Evaluation
Good stuff, the bloke above gave me some good feedback and after last nights debacle, I bowled okay considering.
Analysis
I'd said last night that I was going to bowl Flippers and Top-Spinners, I didn't follow this through entirely because if you think it through, the variations have to be bowled in amongst your stock ball in order to have the surprise aspect. Initially to the good bloke I bowled outside of the off-stump and he was able to cut me through the off-side or just guide the ball through the Gully region with ease. Having thrown up a few of those I then deployed the over-spun Googly and that brought about a potential dot ball, but the two that he was surprised by and later commended me on were the 2 Flippers that I bowled. Both of theses were faster and flatter and he said they skidded on quick almost catching him out both times... "In the 4's you'll take wickets with that ball, I only just got the bat down for 1 of them, whereas your other balls were too loopy and too short".
More blokes turned up shortly and Joe, Ben and I and two other U16's players went to the other nets. My younger son Joe batted and despite bowling fairly well with loads of turn, I was generally a bit short. I'd have had him stumped a few times including with an exceptionally good Googly. Unfortunately it then started to rain lightly and progressively got worse. In the end after an hours worth of bowling we had to quit and come home.
Recently I've been thinking about the field set by a bloke on Bigcricket "Angry Ranga".
Off the back of the commendation of the flippers, this now makes me think I should work on them more, so that I can bring them out in the game with more confidence. It's often the case that when I bowl the Flipper the first one is massively wayward, but not so tonight, so perhaps I should persevere with it? The other thing I need to do is work with the length I bowl, so once the weather clears up I'll get out on the paddock and move the mat around - nearer the stumps.
Action Plan
As above - move the mat around, work with the length and vary it, work with the basic flipper and get it going early on in the practice session, looking for first time accuracy.
Again another crap day at work, came home feeling knackered again and the wind from yesterday hadn't really died down, so there was a very brisk wind and the threat of rain. My older son Ben who's preparing for his GCSE exams hasn't been getting out and doing anything much and Michelle suggested that he went training/nets tonight, so any idea that I might not go was then thwarted. So off we went for a net at our club...
Initially because of the weather and the cold, there was only 4 blokes there training in the middle, so we joined them and bowled at the bloke in the net - one of the first team players, a bloke who holds the highest score for one innings at the club.
Feelings
Prior to actually bowling - knackered and not that optimistic, especially when confronted with bowling at this particular bloke. But that turned around over the session, although I was smacked for a couple of big potential sixes.
Evaluation
Good stuff, the bloke above gave me some good feedback and after last nights debacle, I bowled okay considering.
Analysis
I'd said last night that I was going to bowl Flippers and Top-Spinners, I didn't follow this through entirely because if you think it through, the variations have to be bowled in amongst your stock ball in order to have the surprise aspect. Initially to the good bloke I bowled outside of the off-stump and he was able to cut me through the off-side or just guide the ball through the Gully region with ease. Having thrown up a few of those I then deployed the over-spun Googly and that brought about a potential dot ball, but the two that he was surprised by and later commended me on were the 2 Flippers that I bowled. Both of theses were faster and flatter and he said they skidded on quick almost catching him out both times... "In the 4's you'll take wickets with that ball, I only just got the bat down for 1 of them, whereas your other balls were too loopy and too short".
More blokes turned up shortly and Joe, Ben and I and two other U16's players went to the other nets. My younger son Joe batted and despite bowling fairly well with loads of turn, I was generally a bit short. I'd have had him stumped a few times including with an exceptionally good Googly. Unfortunately it then started to rain lightly and progressively got worse. In the end after an hours worth of bowling we had to quit and come home.
Recently I've been thinking about the field set by a bloke on Bigcricket "Angry Ranga".
I don't know how tongue in cheek this was, but to some extent if you're coming around the wicket to a bloke that only seems to have a leg-side shot it may offer something? This set me thinking about extreme off-side fields of a similar nature, but having a more of an in-out field...
I think I need to put it out there on big cricket and see what people say as this definitely an area of my game I'm not that confident with.
http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/page-8#post-576030
ConclusionOff the back of the commendation of the flippers, this now makes me think I should work on them more, so that I can bring them out in the game with more confidence. It's often the case that when I bowl the Flipper the first one is massively wayward, but not so tonight, so perhaps I should persevere with it? The other thing I need to do is work with the length I bowl, so once the weather clears up I'll get out on the paddock and move the mat around - nearer the stumps.
Action Plan
As above - move the mat around, work with the length and vary it, work with the basic flipper and get it going early on in the practice session, looking for first time accuracy.
Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Depressing session (Gibbs Refelection)
What happened.
For a start the weather has turned from being pleasant to a very brisk wind making it cold, but I was determined to have a bowl, so went out and bowled about 10 overs worth with Joe.
How did it go/feelings?
Depressing. After yesterdays success I took a camera out and had the intention of videoing it and it started out bad and went downhill until I got rid of the camera. Then the improvements weren't that good either, so overall a very depressing session.
Evaluation -
Not much good to take away from this at all, except that the Top-Spinner and the Googly were the best and most accurate deliveries.
Analysis.
Lack of focus and not relaxed. I had a crap day at work and my wife said that I looked like I had the hump. I did go out with the intention that it might relax me a bit and take my mind off of work. But then I remembered that I'd intended to go out with a plan to video the proceedings and bowl to an accuracy plan. What with the wind and the cold, setting up the camera and tripod depressed me even more and then Joe came over to have a bowl as well when I wasn't expecting him too. I tried to put a positive spin on that by acknowledging the fact that the time between his over and mine would be realistic and therefore re-creating a real bowling scenario.
With the camera running, the first ball was 7' wide of the stumps, possibly helped by the wind, but then so was the 2nd and 3rd ball and by then I was very wound up and not in a good place psychologically - certainly not relaxed. The camera continued to play up and bother me (Wind movement) and pre-occupy me and it wasn't until the SD card was full and the camera eventually taken out of the equation that I was able to focus on the bowling. By now I'd got to the stage where I was thinking the only positive to take out of this is the fact that it is exercise!
Eventually I thought about my grip and bowling with a looser grip and then things started to come together a bit better, but it was cold and miserable and I never really got into the zone.
Conclusion.
Don't try and film it when it's cold, only try that when the air is still and warm.
Action Plan
Go to training tomorrow night and try and be a little more relaxed. 2 hours or so in the nets, maybe focus on top-spinners, flippers and Googlies when bowling against the batsmen in the nets. Sloggers try and pitch the ball quite wide looking for edges and nicks?
For a start the weather has turned from being pleasant to a very brisk wind making it cold, but I was determined to have a bowl, so went out and bowled about 10 overs worth with Joe.
How did it go/feelings?
Depressing. After yesterdays success I took a camera out and had the intention of videoing it and it started out bad and went downhill until I got rid of the camera. Then the improvements weren't that good either, so overall a very depressing session.
Evaluation -
Not much good to take away from this at all, except that the Top-Spinner and the Googly were the best and most accurate deliveries.
Analysis.
Lack of focus and not relaxed. I had a crap day at work and my wife said that I looked like I had the hump. I did go out with the intention that it might relax me a bit and take my mind off of work. But then I remembered that I'd intended to go out with a plan to video the proceedings and bowl to an accuracy plan. What with the wind and the cold, setting up the camera and tripod depressed me even more and then Joe came over to have a bowl as well when I wasn't expecting him too. I tried to put a positive spin on that by acknowledging the fact that the time between his over and mine would be realistic and therefore re-creating a real bowling scenario.
With the camera running, the first ball was 7' wide of the stumps, possibly helped by the wind, but then so was the 2nd and 3rd ball and by then I was very wound up and not in a good place psychologically - certainly not relaxed. The camera continued to play up and bother me (Wind movement) and pre-occupy me and it wasn't until the SD card was full and the camera eventually taken out of the equation that I was able to focus on the bowling. By now I'd got to the stage where I was thinking the only positive to take out of this is the fact that it is exercise!
Eventually I thought about my grip and bowling with a looser grip and then things started to come together a bit better, but it was cold and miserable and I never really got into the zone.
Conclusion.
Don't try and film it when it's cold, only try that when the air is still and warm.
Action Plan
Go to training tomorrow night and try and be a little more relaxed. 2 hours or so in the nets, maybe focus on top-spinners, flippers and Googlies when bowling against the batsmen in the nets. Sloggers try and pitch the ball quite wide looking for edges and nicks?
Monday, May 04, 2015
Leg Spin bowling practice - Gibbs Reflective Practice in Sport (4th May)
What Happened.
Had another practice - the equivalent of 12-14 overs. Again only using 6 balls. Venue the paddock. Objective - accuracy and spinning the ball hard.
Feelings.
Yeah, a lot more positive than yesterday, a definite move forwards with some positive observations relating to the things that I tried.
Evaluation. (Good and Bad).
The good thing was with the additional focus on accuracy, it seemed to work really well. In addition my Googly is coming together - very accurate with loads of top spin a lot of the time. Bad stuff - for some reason irrespective of what delivery I chose at the start of the over, a lot of the time it ended up very wide down the legside.
Analysis.
The way I'm practicing this season is to use a mat, we started to do this last year, but since then I've looked at a few things and realised that one of the really important things is the length. In the nets over winter and at training I come up against some very good batsman who are able to read the spin, but if the flight combined with the length come together it leaves them in two minds. So the focus is to land the ball in a specific area. The point of reference for the ideal length comes from information that batsman have suggested 4-5 yards from the stumps and this is confirmed if you watch the IPL when the spinners are bowling their pitch maps have a 'Good length' defined as 4 metres.
The area that I spin into is relatively large, again there's some debate about this, spinners such as Grimmett and Benaud talk about being able to land the ball onto very small areas, but I reckon that if you're pursuing this discipline and you stick to that idea, you're going to get very despondent. It might be a target to aim for in the much longer term e.g. when you've been bowling this stuff for ten years or so, but when you're learning something akin to what I'm doing here I reckon is a good start.
Confirmation of the idea that a big target is acceptable, can be found here (Click on the image) and watch it at about three minutes in. This is Terry Jenner, Shane Warne's mentor.
.
Had another practice - the equivalent of 12-14 overs. Again only using 6 balls. Venue the paddock. Objective - accuracy and spinning the ball hard.
Feelings.
Yeah, a lot more positive than yesterday, a definite move forwards with some positive observations relating to the things that I tried.
Evaluation. (Good and Bad).
The good thing was with the additional focus on accuracy, it seemed to work really well. In addition my Googly is coming together - very accurate with loads of top spin a lot of the time. Bad stuff - for some reason irrespective of what delivery I chose at the start of the over, a lot of the time it ended up very wide down the legside.
Analysis.
The way I'm practicing this season is to use a mat, we started to do this last year, but since then I've looked at a few things and realised that one of the really important things is the length. In the nets over winter and at training I come up against some very good batsman who are able to read the spin, but if the flight combined with the length come together it leaves them in two minds. So the focus is to land the ball in a specific area. The point of reference for the ideal length comes from information that batsman have suggested 4-5 yards from the stumps and this is confirmed if you watch the IPL when the spinners are bowling their pitch maps have a 'Good length' defined as 4 metres.
The area that I spin into is relatively large, again there's some debate about this, spinners such as Grimmett and Benaud talk about being able to land the ball onto very small areas, but I reckon that if you're pursuing this discipline and you stick to that idea, you're going to get very despondent. It might be a target to aim for in the much longer term e.g. when you've been bowling this stuff for ten years or so, but when you're learning something akin to what I'm doing here I reckon is a good start.
Confirmation of the idea that a big target is acceptable, can be found here (Click on the image) and watch it at about three minutes in. This is Terry Jenner, Shane Warne's mentor.
Recently I've noted that when I bowl with loads of balls I don't take it as seriously as I should do, as there's always plenty of balls in the bucket to bowl correctly next time and it seems I get really sloppy. So now I go out with just six balls looking to bowl really well from ball 1 and trying to make every ball count. The fact that I then have to walk down the other end and gather all the balls together almost recreates the time gap that occurs as the other blokes over takes place. We never bowl more than six balls at a time and therefore our rhythm is disrupted and I feel that it's important to recreate this when you're practicing.
So today I set up the mat initially so that line was as below...
When I do this I pre-allocate points to each strip. So on this occasion I've said that landing the ball on 'A' scores me 3 points, the ball on 'B' scores 2 points and 1 point for 'C'. Hitting the stumps in addition scores an additional point. The mats as mentioned previously is on that 'Good length' the centre of the mat is at 4 yards, so the more I'm able to bowl onto the mat, the more it becomes to feel natural to bowl that length. The drill can obviously be changed in order that you bowl fuller or shorter and this again stretches your abilities.
So the first half of this evenings session was with this configuration trying to bowl at the stumps which in theory would draw the batsman forward to defend or drive the ball, or get him skipping down the wicket. So as I'm bowling I'm also trying to change the speed and flight and get more over-spin in order to get the ball to dip more rapidly. All these subtleties, still require the ball to land on the mat.
Initially I didn't score that high, the balls were too full and I didn't have any way of recording the points. In addition the amount of spin I was getting with my Leg Breaks meant that all of the balls were missing the off-stump by a mile. So then I changed the mat position to the one below...
With the ball turning so much I was then able to focus on getting the ball on the 'A' line attempting to turn it into the stumps and this was a lot more successful. Hitting the 'A' line coming around the wicket at the other end for some reason was a lot easier. My top-spinners were very accurate too and these look as though will be a key feature of my bowling at the start of the season. If they work as well as I'm envisaging that'll be a big leap forwards. My Googlies again were very accurate tonight landing on 'C' and missing the leg stump by some way as well. Point-wise I scored a couple of 9's and a 10, but to be really honest and brutal I need to take a piece of paper and record my success rates and post these up on the blog maybe?
I didn't have the camera tonight and yet I bowled relatively well, it does seem as though if I've got the camera recording me I get the Yips!!!
Conclusion -
I still need to get the first over bowled well, with good accuracy, so it may be that I should bowl Top-Spinners for the first 2 or 3 balls next time and then see if the 3rd or 4th ball as a leg break produces a better result? The first ball of several of the overs went way down the legside irrespective of whether I bowled around or over the stumps and I need to explore this. It may be that I'm still just be sloppy?
Action plan -
Bowl tomorrow night using the same approach. Record what I do and the points scored. Position the mat slightly differently and bowl over the stumps. Have the 'A' strip slightly wide of leg and have that as the '3 point' target. Bowl with more over-spin. Bowl some overs with a top-spin priority and adjust and record the target strip.
If you're looking for more info and ideas about Wrist Spin Bowling - check my Leg Break bowling page out here. http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/wrist-spin-bowling-leg-break.html
.
Saturday, May 02, 2015
2nd match cancelled
There was a sniff of a chance that I might get a game today. Ben was selected for a 3rd XI game, but declined as he's doing GCSE revision at the moment, so I emailed and said I'd play if they needed a replacement. No-one answered the email, but then later on Friday on that Twitter thing someone said the game was cancelled because the other team couldn't get a team together. Desperate to have a game I contacted some mates who play for other teams to see if they were short, but they were okay.
Last night Joe and I made a long journey up to a place called Southwold in Suffolk to pick up a bike I'd won on Ebay. I've had the same type of bike for a few months now and as yet haven't been using it that much, but I thought if Joe had one that'd give me an excuse to use mine more frequently. I might try and get him to cycle to Camber sands when we go next, something I've not done for a while. We'll have to do a bit of training running up to it as it's a fair old stint.
Last night Joe and I made a long journey up to a place called Southwold in Suffolk to pick up a bike I'd won on Ebay. I've had the same type of bike for a few months now and as yet haven't been using it that much, but I thought if Joe had one that'd give me an excuse to use mine more frequently. I might try and get him to cycle to Camber sands when we go next, something I've not done for a while. We'll have to do a bit of training running up to it as it's a fair old stint.
64 miles...
This morning when we checked it out there were a couple of small things that needed to be adjusted. Once that was done we went for a ride which included some pretty big hills, so if we do that on a frequent basis that'll help with fitness - stamina and leg strength. Once we had that all done we then went over the paddock and had a bit of a knock about. Both of us tried a number of different things with the batting, Joe batted better than me, but that's because I just find Joe very difficult to bat against - he varies what he does so much.
The Paddock
The paddock this year is coming along nicely, we've done quite a bit of work, planted a lot of seed in the autumn and cut a load of bushes and brambles off of the fence on the right. We've mowed it this afternoon as there's rain forecast tomorrow and Wednesday and there's seed on the wicket at the moment, so a drop of rain would be good to see.
This afternoon we came up with a nice little accuracy drill which I may start using see here
Monday, April 27, 2015
Practice on the paddock
We've worked on the paddock again this year, rolled it and cut it and so far it's looking pretty good despite the fact that April has been very dry. The dryness has enabled us to get out there and bowl, so Joe and I have been practicing most evenings and then getting 2 or 3 sessions in at the weekend and things are coming along nicely. Joe's the one on the left here. My older son Ben on the right is in the midst of GCSE exam revision so is committed to that at the moment (Plus his girlfriend and his mobile phone). Joe on the other hand is full on cricket at the moment and I'm loving it. He's grown about 6" in the last year as well and is taller than both Ben and me, when I get a picture I'll post one up. As a consequence he's bowling a lot faster and batting with a lot more confidence, so I reckon he's got a good season ahead of him and I'm looking forward to playing in the 4's with him this summer.
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The only issue I seem to have is overall cardio fitness and running, I was hoping to go cycling frequently to help with this, but as yet I've not been motivated enough to get out there and do it. So for the moment with a little less than two weeks to the first league match I'd say I was a little short of where I'd like to be.
Bowling - Everything looks promising at the moment with an improvement over last years bowling looking evident. I've been messing around with grips over the winter, flippers and the top spinner. At the end of last summer whilst on holiday in Cornwall mucking about with Ben and Joe I tried bowling finger spin, as they can both do it fairly well, Joe especially. I couldn't do it, but I found that I could still spin the ball like a leg break if I had the ball high up in the hand using a really fingery grip similar to an off-spinners grip. I then tried bowling with over-spin and found that worked and the ball was dead straight, so over the winter when the weather allowed I bowled this fingery version of the top-spinner and slowly it's come together. It's a wholly different approach in comparison with my over-spinning leg break, but it does give me something very different and it's pretty accurate.
At winter nets I tried it as well and if not over-used it worked really well against batsmen at all levels. Because it's a completely different grip to my leg break I also though that there may be scope to twist my arm and wrist and dip the shoulder and see if I could make it break like an off-break and sure enough it did. I've been working with both these over on the paddock and bit by bit they're coming together.
In addition I've been mucking around with different wrist positions for my leg breaks and this shows real promise in that it enables me to bowl a variety of sub variations. One really obvious variation I'm gradually working with is the use of a lower arm. This produces a very different delivery to my standard 'Stock' Leg break in that the ball might turn more (Not 100% sure), but one big difference is that it skids in low, much lower than my bouncy stock ball that has more over-spin than side spin.
Flipper - Been working with this as well. The difficulty with the Flipper is that I need to bowl it frequently in order that I can suddenly pull it out of nowhere and bowl it on the stumps with accuracy. Of all the things that I'm working with this is the ball that I'd be more inclined to scrap as it's the one that takes a couple of deliveries to get right and the first ball can end up off the cut strip if I try and get the speed up much higher.
The only issue I seem to have is overall cardio fitness and running, I was hoping to go cycling frequently to help with this, but as yet I've not been motivated enough to get out there and do it. So for the moment with a little less than two weeks to the first league match I'd say I was a little short of where I'd like to be.
Bowling - Everything looks promising at the moment with an improvement over last years bowling looking evident. I've been messing around with grips over the winter, flippers and the top spinner. At the end of last summer whilst on holiday in Cornwall mucking about with Ben and Joe I tried bowling finger spin, as they can both do it fairly well, Joe especially. I couldn't do it, but I found that I could still spin the ball like a leg break if I had the ball high up in the hand using a really fingery grip similar to an off-spinners grip. I then tried bowling with over-spin and found that worked and the ball was dead straight, so over the winter when the weather allowed I bowled this fingery version of the top-spinner and slowly it's come together. It's a wholly different approach in comparison with my over-spinning leg break, but it does give me something very different and it's pretty accurate.
At winter nets I tried it as well and if not over-used it worked really well against batsmen at all levels. Because it's a completely different grip to my leg break I also though that there may be scope to twist my arm and wrist and dip the shoulder and see if I could make it break like an off-break and sure enough it did. I've been working with both these over on the paddock and bit by bit they're coming together.
In addition I've been mucking around with different wrist positions for my leg breaks and this shows real promise in that it enables me to bowl a variety of sub variations. One really obvious variation I'm gradually working with is the use of a lower arm. This produces a very different delivery to my standard 'Stock' Leg break in that the ball might turn more (Not 100% sure), but one big difference is that it skids in low, much lower than my bouncy stock ball that has more over-spin than side spin.
Flipper - Been working with this as well. The difficulty with the Flipper is that I need to bowl it frequently in order that I can suddenly pull it out of nowhere and bowl it on the stumps with accuracy. Of all the things that I'm working with this is the ball that I'd be more inclined to scrap as it's the one that takes a couple of deliveries to get right and the first ball can end up off the cut strip if I try and get the speed up much higher.
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
April 2015
An unusual year ahead of us this year. My sons are 16 and 13, Ben's doing GCSE's and has a girlfriend and a mobile phone, so his commitment to cricket has waned a considerable amount which was expected. He's also going to be setting aside time to revise for his GCSE's, so how much cricket he'll play this year remains to be seen. Joe on the other hand at 13 and having now recovered from his RTA and taller than both Ben and me is looking to be a useful bowler this year. He bowls off-spin and medium pace, but his medium pace is getting quicker and quicker and I reckon by the end of this coming season he's going to be a tricky bowler to face especially if he continues to practice on the paddock across the road from me.
In the nets, Joe's been far more successful at dismissing me than Ben has, Ben bowls a length that I find easy to block, whereas Joe bowls on a really difficult length as far as I'm concerned and varies his pace and the way he bowls a great deal. Like Ben he has an off-cutter and unlike Ben Joe bowls with swing occasionally and seems to be more interested in bowling as an art.
Over the Easter break we've been doing some work over on the paddock getting it ready. It's been very wet, but this last couple of days with the sunny weather it's starting to dry out. We've cut back all of the grass, brambles and bushes that were growing along the fence as these were blocking out the light and encouraging drug users to hide behind the bushes and do their stuff. With the increase in light the wicket will grow nicely this year and we'll have some good practice sessions. We've focused on getting the off-stump channel line rolled really well this year so that batting might be possible. But we'll have to see how it dries out and how it plays.
In the nets, Joe's been far more successful at dismissing me than Ben has, Ben bowls a length that I find easy to block, whereas Joe bowls on a really difficult length as far as I'm concerned and varies his pace and the way he bowls a great deal. Like Ben he has an off-cutter and unlike Ben Joe bowls with swing occasionally and seems to be more interested in bowling as an art.
Over the Easter break we've been doing some work over on the paddock getting it ready. It's been very wet, but this last couple of days with the sunny weather it's starting to dry out. We've cut back all of the grass, brambles and bushes that were growing along the fence as these were blocking out the light and encouraging drug users to hide behind the bushes and do their stuff. With the increase in light the wicket will grow nicely this year and we'll have some good practice sessions. We've focused on getting the off-stump channel line rolled really well this year so that batting might be possible. But we'll have to see how it dries out and how it plays.
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