First league match - this coming Saturday 7th May. B&PCC v Leigh-On-Sea CC

It’s Thursday as I type, the squad was posted up on the website on Tuesday and a few of the regulars appeared on the list along with some new names. See below.

 If you look there’s a new aspect to the squad list that identifies the ratio of finger-spinners to wrist spinners. I’m under the apparently misguided impression that there is a dearth of Wrist Spinners because it’s so easy to do and there are hardly any finger spinners because that’s so ridiculously difficult to do. So with the teams I play in over this season I’m going to try and identify the ratio between Wrist-Spinners and Finger-Spinners. At the moment I firmly believe that there are far more Finger Spinners than Wrist-Spinners but on Bigcricket.com there’s a bunch of people that are assuring me I’m very wrong, so we’ll see. Last week’s came as far as I’m concerned was packed with ‘Wristies’ as there were two of us one on each team, but in-line with my observations there were at least 4 finger spinners on my team and our team was bowled out cheaply before the finger spinners were deployed on their team, so there may have been more?

The weather has changed massively, the weekend was cold last week, but on Monday when we all went back to work the wind direction changed from northerly to southerly and now we’re into Spring proper with temperatures today in the low 20’s and by the weekend mid 20’s so we’re going from freezing our nuts off with three layers and coats to sun-bathing and shirts off at the weekend.

 Leigh-On-Sea are a new team for me and a new venue so hopefully there’ll be opportunities to shoot pavilions and report on whether their wicket is spin-friendly. I’ve not checked yet, but I reckon their ground must be ‘Belfairs’. We’ve gone down a league too, so we should do okay this season.

Injuries – I twisted my knee and pulled something last weekend, but this week I’ve not bowled or done anything to stress it any further, so have rested it, so hopefully with a knee support I’ll come through if I take it easy. As proved last week if I have to, I can bowl off of a Terry Jenner-esque two step walk in and still take wickets and that was against a 3^rd XI team described as being strong, so hopefully it’ll come good this weekend.

Fitness – I’m not feeling it at the moment because of the crap weather at the start of spring, so if the knees recovered enough and I come through this weekend unscathed I’ll have to start working on fitness. My back has nearly fully recovered from a lifting/carrying injury, but thankfully doesn’t seem to be affected by my bowling, so hopefully I’ll get to bowl for more than 2 overs this weekend? Having said that there’s loads of names in the initial squad sheet that I don’t recognise and for all I know they may all be bowlers?

New rules – Aside from the 45 overs rule, I heard at the weekend that there’s a maximum bowling allowance. No-one is allowed to bowl any-more than 14 overs and this apparently is designed to stop ‘Old blokes’ from bowling the whole game from one end, which I’ve seen happen once before with a Southend EMT game at Langdon Hills, this they’re hoping will give kids a chance to bowl. With only 45 overs it looks as though I’d be dead lucky to get 14 overs in the future, our team usually has people queuing up to bowl and I reckon if you get 5 blokes bowling 9 overs each you’re going to be counting yourself lucky. My son Joe is usually given his full allocation of 12 because of his ability, and if he’s supported by another seam bowler doing a similar job, that’ll leave 21 overs for the rest of us to fight over, it doesn’t sound good at all especially if there’s more than 5 ‘Bowlers’ in the team.

 

First league game of the season and the good news is that we fielded 11 players…

Weather – Warm -22-23 degrees Centigrade, south easterly breeze 15-20 mph, with hazy cloud varying between 40%-60% cover. (We played on the wicket top left) Double click the image for an assessment of whether it was a spinning wicket

Lee Dutton* – Captain
Jamie Britton – Wicket Keeper.
Joe Thompson*
Dave Thompson@
Farhan Malik*
Abhinanadan Bidari
Gopal Viswanathan
Jayanand Shivapujimath
Steve Bonnett
Josh Debond*
Travis Singleton

* - Finger Spinners

@ - Wrist Spinners

 I asked the opposition about their spin options and they said they had one finger spinner, no Leg-Spinners, when I was talking about this Lee and another bloke joined in and said “You got a lot of kids a few years back trying Leg-Spin, but once they all got up to adult cricket they tended to disappear… it’s too hard, that’s why you get so many finger spinners, Leg-Spin is so much harder to bowl”.

The team had a very different look to it, with a lot of new blokes including two kids Josh and Travis who are only 13 years old. Tony and Liam Harms were not there and the word is because of Tony’s new job we wont be seeing him for a minimum of 5 weeks, whether that’s the same for Liam or not I’m not sure? Farhan has played in the 4’s before and possibly Gopal, but the other two blokes were new-comers.

 Dutton won the toss and with all the new blokes being unknown quantities opted to field. Before we went out I marked out my run-up from the end I wanted to bowl from (Southern end) and had a practice next to the wicket to see how my knee twist injury from last week was feeling and it was obvious that the new energetic run-up was a no-go, so there and then I decided to play it safe and come in off of a Terry Jenner two step approach to the crease if I was asked to bowl.

 Joe - was asked to open and I was at the other end with spin. Joe as always got off to a good start bowling seam up, he continued to do so all the way through both his spells, but he did say at the end he was at one point considering bowling some finger-spin, but opted not to.

Joe’s 2^nd spell was the better of the two with two wickets being taken, the first wicket on the scorecard was a run-out by Jayanand. But the two wickets in the last over with the very last 2 balls were very good, as was the bowling around it, excellent length, getting the ball to swing away and go away off the seam. He was also unlucky in the first spell as a ball was hit straight to Steve Bonnett at Gully, a high ball that Steve jumped up to and parried upwards off the top of his fingers and not being able to gather, but he stopped it going for a certain four despite the state of the outfield.

My first spell went okay. One of the two first balls, possibly the first ball hit the bloke on the legs plumb as far as I was concerned - nice and full, but I didn't go up initially and then did so half heartedly and was turned down. Ball number three was exactly the same, but this time I went up for it and the batsman was on his way back to the sheds. With all the new blokes, Dutton was looking to give everyone a go, so I was off after 4 despite looking quite threatening. The 4's unfortunately were both wrong-uns that were a little short, and again the same in the 2nd spell, so that needs some work. Other than the handful of Wrong-Uns I kept it quite simple, there was very little on offer for spinner on this wicket and Lee was of the same opinion, so the order of the day was to pitch it up. No wides as you can see, which was pretty good, there were a few leg-side balls, which because they were pretty full, none of the blokes played that well. I had one ball that got through the gate, can't remember whether it was a wrong-un or a Leg-Break, but it hit the inside edge or something and deflected missing the leg-stump by a gnats breath.

The other thing I noticed when I was bowling was that one of the balls drifted a lot, drift isn't something I see with my bowling much, as I have very vertical arm normally, so I can only assume with this different two step 'Run-in' my arm must have come down a little or maybe it was the head wind which was blowing slightly left to right.

I found this drift aspect quite interesting, as last week the Leg-spinner at the Chelmsford game was getting loads of drift and it was obviously as a result of the Malinga style arm. In the past I've practiced with a much lower arm and done so with a good level of success, the ball turns more and drift as I recall was more evident. Along with that the ball turned more too. The thing I'd have to work on is getting it so that I could switch from a high arm and gradually bring it down and then go from high to low and still maintain accuracy. It's something I might work on Wednesday at nets next week.

Considering my knees knackered, it was an okay performance and with the wicket. The opposition were very complimentary about my bowling with a number of them commending me for bowling so well!

2-0-13-2 (last week)

This week 6-0-23-1

Grand Total - 8-0-36-3 plus this week I took a catch off of Lee Dutton's bowling.

Dutton came on a little later and bowled well, he was happy as he's starting to suffer from arthritis in his fingers and was saying that it hurt to bowl, plus last week he was involved in a car incident and suffered whiplash. When he was bowling he had me at Mid-on, and one of the better batsman hit a ball straight at me and I did virtually the same thing as I did last week and dropped it again. But I redeemed myself in the same spell where one of the blokes T.Bull who looked like a steady batsman hit one right up in the sky in my general direction. For a moment I'd written it off and then realised it was going up more than it was going along, so changed my mind and went after it and got myself in position. Lee was watching and said to himself Oh crap, this is going down as well (I'm not known for my success rate with high catches like this), but I caught it... not perfectly, but it stuck and the geezer was out... Nice.

5-0-15-1 Lee Dutton

Another surprisingly good bowling performance came from Travis Singleton, who's only 13 he bowled as per below...

Batting Yeah this didn't go so well as you can see from the sorry looking scores below. 2 new blokes top scored Jayanand below and one of the new kids Travis. The rest of us were a bit of a shambles, which was a shame as the bowling (see the bowling stats for their team) was a little ropey at times, but then as one of my mentors used to say to me ***t bowling gets wickets. Having said that some of our bowling was a bit off the mark too.

My dismissal was crap. After all the net sessions and that carrying through to club nets and despite last weeks 4th ball dismissal, I was hoping to make some runs with the support of Jayanand. It seemed that one of their better bowlers was saved for this part of the game and he was on when I went out after Jamie. I kept him at bay for a couple of balls and then had the prospect of facing one of the kids (Wrobel) that seemed to be bowling at an innocuous pace. The first ball he served up was short and legside... A gift in most people's eyes and I thought the same... whoa that's short and it's safe and then I knocked it straight into the hands of Barton at head height at square leg. Gutted - out for 0 again off of about 4 balls faced, same as last week. Note to self Hit the ball into the ground - roll the wrists.

 Jayanand Shivapujimath here was our best bat of the game followed very closely by the 13 year old Travis Singleton.

Image below left to right Lee Dutton, Josh Debond, Travis Singleton and Steve Bonnett.

 The wicket looking north

 The 2 captains at the toss.

 Joe Thompson medium fast today. 10-1-22-2 He bowled well today, getting the ball to swing away and move off the seam away from the bat and deployed his knuckle ball.

 Below Left to right... Lee Dutton, Jayanand Shivapujimath, Abhinanadan Bidari and Steve Bonnett.

 Mobile phone hell... Abhi looking a bit left out.

 Lee said to Joe - play with a straight bat, get on the front foot... Joe nicks an edge for a spectacular dive off of the wicket keeper and like so many of us out for 0.

 Some of the lads said they'd be back next week...

 Hello what's Bob Willis doing at Leigh On Sea? The opposition start to pack up.

 Dutton gathering the cash...

 The drainage ruts...

 The drainage ruts run at regular intervals across the outfield.

 Joe and Jamie Britton trying to jam the bags into the back of out Astra.

The next game is at home against Horndon-On-The-Hill, who are a team I don't recall playing before, but I think they're going to be quite strong because their team was bolstered by the demise of Pegasus.

Joe my younger son was saying that we've not gone down a league, because there was a big shift around in the organisation of the what teams played against who, making it so that we play teams that are more local to us, rather than go miles to play, which I don't mind myself even though it's me that has to stump up for the diesel! Joe was saying we're pretty much playing at the same level again this year, which if it's true is a shame because it'll be a season of getting beaten virtually every game. I guess we'll see as we go through the season?

It was a disappointing loss especially as the opposition captain was saying that his team was weak. I don't know what it is that we do wrong, I came away from this thinking, maybe it's nothing to do with the batsmen, maybe it's the way we field? When we field, the positions are always pretty conventional, but for some reason when the opposition hit the ball they get it in the gaps? Then I thought is it the bowling? There were shed loads of extras in this game, in fact I don't think I've ever seen as many extras in game ever - other than kids cricket.

We bowled the 45 overs and bowled 23 wides and 1 x No-Ball. This was down to the fact that some of the players were totally new to the 4th XI and Dutton gave everyone a go, possibly to see who does what? Hopefully this next match he'll take a slightly different approach, now he's got some idea of people's strengths and weaknesses?

They bowled 23 overs and bowled one more extra than us. So perhaps they were doing a similar thing? I did ask their players about who bowled what, trying to find all these wrist spinners that people are talking about on the internet, but there was only one...me. A handful of finger-spinners, but just the one leg-spinner.

It's a funny old game this cricket, difficult to make sense of? Or was it they just had far superior batsmen? We lost so badly and they didn't even have to use Bob Willis ;-)

2 games down. Spin count

Finger spinners 10, Wrist Spinners 4

This blog is no longer updated. New content can be found on my new blogs listed below...

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

..

First match of the season v Chelmsford CC 3rd XI

After weeks of arctic wind freezing us to death, the weekend came good despite loads of people declining to play across three teams. The club didn't even attempt to get the 4th XI team out knowing full well that the cross-over with the end of the football season would mean it would never happen. It turned out that only two teams played this weekend the 1st and 2nd XI's.

Weather was bright and sunny, bit of a breeze and 13 degrees on the thermometer in the car. Although during our innings a squally April shower passed by, potentially threatening the game, but it missed us. But as it passed by the wind increased, the sun went in and the temperature dropped by several degrees.

Wayne freezing to death with several layers. I had two pairs of trousers on, a long t-shirt, a cricket shirt and a jumper and then a coat and was still cold when scoring.

We were fielded first and in the first few overs I dropped a ball that was hit at me whilst at mid wicket -looked like a ball that would have been one of those that rockets for a 6 at head height. I managed to parry it and bounced up and forwards a bit and I thought 'I've got this' only to then fumble it and it went to ground. But, somewhere in the process I twisted on my knee and something went awry. This then meant that I couldn't run around without limping. We had an extra player and the other team what with it being a friendly said that we could swap over players pretty as and when we felt like. I persevered and knowing there was a bloke on the boundary I came off for a while.

Joe bowled well, taking our first wicket - a bloke that was doing okay and the lead scorer at that point in their team. It was at that point I left the field.

I then took the opportunity to go and take some pictures for my Typology project see here. At this ground there were 4 pitches, one of which is Galleywood CC and that had a really nice traditional style pavilion. The only thing is I had a crap camera, but I still got the shots.

Walking around my knee didn't feel any better, but as I came back to the match I was called back on and asked to bowl. I tried to come off of the new run-up and bowled, but it wasn't good and then decided to come off the Terry Jenner style run-up which is a lot slower, but more accurate and gives me the options of a Wrong-un and a Top-Spinner. I took me 4 balls to get it right, but in the first over against a left-hander one turned nice and bounced well, cramped him up and the ball came off the top edge and he was caught at Mid-wicket by Luke Daw. That over with the messy start I went for 10. The next over was better - another wicket... A right hander having seen a couple leg breaks wasn't ready for a big turning wrong-un - again virtually the same thing, cramped him up and came off the top edge and went straight up in the air for Mike Blerkom (Wicket keeper) to safely catch. 2-0-13-2. Somewhere in there I'd bowled another 2 wrong-uns and they'd both turned a lot and none of the batsmen had played a successful shot to them.

Batting didn't go well for any of us. I didn't get a shot of the score book, but I think we took 8 wickets for 192 off of 40 overs and batting we fell short of 100. Chris Debond and Luke Daw making the biggest contribution with the bat. I batted at 8 with Luke and was bowled by a slow ball, played through it about 30 seconds to early. Luke at the other end said as I walked off,  I was just thinking, I need to tell you about this blokes slower ball...

We lost by having all been bowled out for 93.

Spinner check

Our team... 2 x wrist-spinners, 5 x finger spinners
Their team... 1 x Wrist Spinner. We were bowled out cheaply so we probably didn't get to see any of the finger spinners.

Their spinner was interesting, he was getting the ball to drift miles. Watching him it was apparent that he had a very low arm at the release point. Those that faced him said he was relatively easy to play because of this - you knew he wasn't going to bowl anything in the way of variations. He had a long run-up which he came in at an angle from.

As he went through his action he seemed to be really low - either a massive delivery stride or his front leg was collapsing. He also veered all over the shop as he ran in and then over-rotated in the action and stopped abruptly in the follow through. That aside he seemed to be bowling pretty well. Unfortunately I didn't photograph their scorebook, so can't say how well he did do or whether he took any wickets.

Click the image above for a video of the bloke bowling

Some photos from the match...

 Chelmsford CC pavilion

 Galleywood CC pavilion

 Joe dispensing the drinks to the Wrist Spinner

 Joe waiting to bat alongside the scoreboard and a cherry tree in blossom

 Spring cherry blossom

 G-man all wrapped up for an early season cricket game.

 G-Man on his way to bat with warm headgear.

 Mike Blerkom scoring.

This blog is no longer updated. New content can be found on the blogs listed here below...

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

Joe's leg update.

I haven't posted anything about this for a while as it was going through the process of a court case. If you know about it and have been a follower for some years you'll remember it was around this time 4 years ago my younger son was run down on a pelican crossing by a young girl in a Ford KA. See the link below for the horrific injuries he sustained along with the Xrays.

http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/joes-progress-5-pictures.html

Joe was 10 at the time.

 This is the side of the leg that wasn't hit. The big scar at the bottom is where his leg bent so much before snapping, that the skin at this point stretched to the point where it split open. This was the gaping great hole in Joe's leg you'll see in the post above. The 2nd scar mid way up his lower leg is where the bone once it had snapped came through his skin was scraped along the road. The two small scars up near his knee are where the metal pins where put in and removed. The bulge on his shin may be due to the additional calcium growing where the bone grew back.

Remarkably this is the impact side, the scar is barley visible in this light, but it's there at the base of his calf muscle. Again the small scar at the top is where the pins came in and were taken out. 

Pre-season bowling development.

Bowling development. 5 weeks to go till the first proper game of the season, 3 weeks till the chance of a friendly match. Not long to work on the new bowling action that I've been developing since last September. Quick re-cap, last season went really well at the start because of the input and feedback from a wicket keeper we had play with us for a number of weeks (Mike Blerkom). He made some observations about my bowling in that I had a couple of basic run-ups... (1) A Terry Jenner-esque walk to the crease and bowl off of 2 steps or (2).  A longer run-up albeit all over the place and inconsistent. He advised me to stick with the longer version and I took notice as he's a current 2nd XI player and has in the past played in the 1st XI and knows a bit about cricket.

Up until I strained my Achilles tendon batting I'd bowled better than I have done for years and on reflection at the end of the season made the decision to work on the longer run-up. This was also influenced by watching a video featuring Glenn McGrath on how to work out your optimum run-up. See here.

So, in September I made a start... see my Youtube channel here. A big turning point came when Tony M a coach and contributor on Big Cricket contacted me directly and gave me some pointers and advice. My bowling then started to come together and by the end of November when winter set in properly it was looking very promising. Winter put a stop to the development and now I'm trying to play catch-up a little, slightly thwarted by the fact that so far the Easter break here in the UK has been crap as its a lot earlier in the year than usual. Fingers crossed the forecast from tomorrow onwards is for an improvement and I'll be able to work on some of the things I've made observations of in the video below. Double click on the image below to watch the video.

In my usual lecturer style and advocating what I teach, I'll reflect on the bowling using the Gibbs reflective method...

What Happened. Primarily we were at Writtle to work on our batting see here but with three of us it meant while two were in the batting net there was an opportunity to have a bowl so I spent 10 minutes or so bowling. I mixed up bowling with and without a ball.

Feeelings. Initially I didn't think it went that well, it felt as though there were a number of problems with the bowling action and the outcome at the other end wasn't that special either.

Evaluation (Good and  bad). Good was the fact that I actually took the time out to bowl when that wasn't the key objective of the Writtle visit and the fact that I had the camera to record myself. Other good things included the speed that I was bowling and my overall fitness. It was commented at the last net session at the club that my bowling speed has gone up and this was one of the key things that Mike Blerkom thought was a key thing I needed to work on. Bad stuff, despite the fact that it looked fast it didn't feel as correct as it had been back in November when I was spending more time working on the action. Also the percentage of good balls versus bad balls at the business end wasn't good.

Analysis. Without going into to technical stuff straight away, watching the video back there's obvious things going on. One that I noticed is that I kind of waver as I approach the crease. The other thing which is a throwback to the old days, is the observed over-rotation. Other key observations are the hip and knee thrust aspect, the hip and knee don't drive through properly in most of the footage in the original 10 minute version of the video. When bowling without the ball it's a lot better, but in this session I wasn't able to bring that aspect of the action with the ball in my hand, so that needs some work.

I think  the main thing is the lack of time at the moment given over to bowling practice. Conventional club nets sessions are useless because of the period of time between balls, so I need to set aside bowling time amongst all of the being put into developing my batting. I think if the time is given over to bowling, the changes will come along with improvements quite quickly. Looking at the video, there's a couple of things I know I should work on straight away... (1). The hip-drive and (2). The over rotation. I think with the hip drive, the over-rotation might come together as a consequence of working on the hip-drive.

At the start of the bowling action in the first phase PDS, I note in the video that my head turns to the side during the gather, I'm not sure if this is an issue or not, but it's something I'll keep an eye on though in the next sequence of videos which hopefully I'll shoot tomorrow. There are other issues such as not getting right up on the toes at FFC, but I'll leave that for the end of the coming week.

Conclusion. It seems okay, the few problems I think will be fairly easy to iron out, and possibly the key thing to do is bowl more so that the action is grooved and increases in consistency.

Action plan. Work on the hip drive tomorrow and the over-rotation.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

Readers Windballs

Reader Windballs We were down to our last one of these, so needed to get some more of them. We use these all the time for training and practice and they're great; a decent weight, good bounce properties, hard-wearing and because of the colour easy to find if they get lost in the bush/trees. Buy them in bulk and you'll get them at a decent price. Look out for the postage as that normally hikes up the price loads.

Double click on the image for video

I got these from   http://www.notonlybowls.com/ and paid £17.94 with free postage as long as I picked them up from my local Argos. Once they were ready I got a text/email with a code that I then presented to the staff at Argos and they handed them over.

This blog is no longer updated and new content can be found via the blogs below.

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

More pre-season nets

As the start of the season approaches... 2 potential friendlies on 23rd and 30th April, we're looking to have a few nets sessions with the bowling machine and today saw the first of three we've got planned. If you're a regular on the blog or the big cricket forum you'll know that I can't bat and that my highest score ever is 16 against Orsett two years ago. There's been no improvement, as that year we were promoted up to a far better league and our team struggled. I had a couple of promising starts with scores of 11 and 14 that came far more fluently than my 16, but I was always let down by the bloke at the other end as I bat at either 10 or 11.

With those two double figure scores being thwarted in the usual no.10/11 way I sensed that the more positive approach to my batting that I'd adopted seemed to be paying off. It seemed to have come about by virtue of more practice with a more positive mind-set. The practice aspect was interesting as coming to the game so late in life, the chances to practice for instance with a bowling machine was non-existent and I figured that if I was able to have someone or something to put the ball in a specific area consistently I might have the chance to improve? I can't remember how it happened, but looking around I found a venue with a bowling machine that in late October was (1) empty and (2) relatively cheap and decided that I'd give it a go. In the worst case scenario, I might come away from a handful of sessions being less fearful of the ball I figured?

Better, still what I wanted was to move up the order a little... (8)? so that I had the chance to make a contribution with the bat. So back in October and through November and December Joe and I started to go to Writtle Cricket centre for an hour or two every fortnight with specific aims. On the first visit it soon became very apparent that this was the potential answer to the problem, the more balls you face the more likely you're going to be able to figure things out and make a fist of staying in and scoring a few runs. So over that period we've been working on playing with a straight bat and I've definitely made some advances which numerous people at the club have commented on having either seen the videos or my batting at pre-season nets at the club.

Recently I videoed my batting over at Mopsies and posted it on Youtube (Double click the image).

Off the back of that, one of the coaches on Bigcricket commented on it privately, pointing out the fact that I'm jumping away from the ball when it's on my leg and offered me some drills and guidance. Yesterday I spent 3 x 20 minute sessions working specifically on this aspect of my batting and the results are here (Double click the image for the video).

Although there seems to be a significant improvement whilst I know the balls coming into the legs, I found it a lot harder to maintain the discipline when the bowling was mixed up - different lengths, offside. legside and on the stumps, so there's still some work to do.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

Kashmir bat update

Following on from the previous posts...

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/2017/10/kashmir-bats-and-knocking-them-in.html


This is how the 3 bats that are currently being tested are doing. If you read back through the previous posts you'll see the details about how they were knocked in and prepared. They didn't knock in that well and seemed to be falling apart after a few hours, the Indian bat being the worse of the 3 (Plain bat - red handle). You'll see via the link that the Indian bat was also damaged during one of the net sessions using plastic balls. The bat was repaired using wood glue and then covered in Extratec tape and this does seem to have done the job. My younger son Joe is using it and it's holding up fine, showing no further damage at all.
Jan 2019 - this bats is still holding up and Joe's still using it in the nets and in the 2nd XI games he played in last summer. It is starting to de-laminate now, but it still has a middle and he scores 4's and 6's with it quite easily. Not bad for a bat that cost £1.00 + postage!

The oldest of the 3 Kashmir bats is the original Slazenger V1200, which is now approaching it's 2nd season. This has been used all last summer, over the winter (Sept-Dec) in the nets against bowling machine balls and cricket balls and then over the last 6 weeks in this seasons pre-season nets. This one had the least amount of knocking in and is doing okay. Remember this is a £12.00 bat, so it's not doing too bad.

2019 - this bats is still around, but is rarely used, primarily because it just doesn't really have a middle to it and no real ping. In comparison with the £1.00 bat imported direct from India its the far lesser bat. 

This below is the newest of the two V1200's, bought in September, so used over the winter in the nets against plastic balls and at pre-season nets against cricket balls. We were considering buying a couple of English Willow bats which are several times more expensive (Grade 3 cheap ones), but these Kashmir bats so far are doing okay and I reckon these will see us through this season easily.

As above... 2019 - this bats is still around, but is rarely used, primarily because it just doesn't really have a middle to it and no real ping. In comparison with the £1.00 bat imported direct from India its the far lesser bat. 

I think one of the key factors is the use of the Extratec tape and the fibre glass edging tape. One of the reasons I embarked on this exercise of testing the bats was because we had a really old Kashmir V1200 bat that had lasted years maybe 10 or more years old and three of us had used it on and off for 5 seasons and we'd bought it 2nd hand. It was eventually killed off by a Yorker right on the toe on the corner of the bat and the willow cracked along the grain right through the bat. That bat, was covered with protective tape and may have been a contributory factor to its longevity?

So, in conclusion after my fairly dim assessment a couple of months ago when I'd first started to use these bats, I'm going to have to back-track a bit and suggest that if the bats are knocked in fairly well (See previous posts - links above) and then covered with edge and surface tape, this gives what seems to be a fairly good level of protection. So, if you are someone who doesn't bat that often or well - tail-ender, these cheap Kashmir bats might be worth considering?

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s









Pre-season practice and fitness at Mopsies and the Rec

Weather was fine today, a little cold at 10 degrees but dry and bright following a week of cold but generally dry weather. Not wanting to have a weekend with no cricket at all, Joe and I opted to go and have a look at Mopsies as an option for a practice, realising it probably was going to be dry enough. Normally we might have gone over to Gloucester Park, but since the 'Sporting Village' has taken it over they don't let anyone participate in sport unless you're ready to pay a premium for it and they want £70 for something that was free to all of the community a few years ago and had been for decades. Again, something I find incredulous, given that the levels obesity and the fall in sports participation in this country and the fact that the government pays lip service to the idea that it supports sports participation.

Anyway enough of a moan, at least we can drive right across town spewing hydro-carbons into the air and use Mopsies. It's a lot of aggro, but once there and setting all the stuff up it always goes quite well and ends up being worth it.

 Joe getting all the gear out of the car.

 All set up and ready to go. With no wicket keeper we put up a piece of scaffold net to prevent the majority of the balls from ending up on the boundary.

As we were packing up the sun came out, still looks nothing like spring - the trees still bare with no leaves.

We took 50 balls, Joe bowled two lots of 50 and I had one bag of 50 as Joe didn't want to bat the second time (Wanted to get home and watch Youtube or play Black Ops). He bowled really well for the most part, Joe targeted my leg-stump as he knows that's my weak zone. Looking at the video below, this is very different to facing a bowling machine and there's a few obvious things I reckon I need to do. In comparison to batting against the machine, there's very little in the way of forward movement? I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

I reckon more work in the nets over the Easter Break trying to get forwards, maybe speed the bowling machine up, we've been working with it at 68mph at the most, maybe we should look to use it at 70mph? Maybe if I'm able to get used to that and still hit the ball, it'll be easier when it's a real bowler? It does seem to be very much a confidence thing, I've been batting so much better in the nets, hitting full tosses and generally just hitting the ball cleaner and this must be a consequence of the work done in the nets over the winter?

Double click the image below for the video.

My bowling...

What happened - The camera was set up behind the batsman and to the side at the other end to record the approach to the crease, action and follow through. I managed to get some footage of both before the battery died in the cold. I bowled 50 balls coming off of a 14’ run-up. I then got home and played the footage back through software that enabled me to view the action in slow motion. In relation to the last action plan (see here) I’ve implemented very little because of the weather and a reluctance to spend money on hiring indoor venues to practice the action. Bowled in the nets on Tuesday night, too a good wicket.

Feelings – The actual bowling seemed to go quite well and I would have had Joe bowled around his legs, caught behind wicket keeper and stumped a number of times. So that seemed okay, but felt wrong. The video once played back and looked at… That made me a little depressed as there seems to have been a big backwards step. But whilst feeling down about the current action I do feel as though it is recoverable if I’m given the chance to correct it. I reckon a couple of tweaks and I’ll be back on track.

What was good/bad – Length was too full on Sunday, took some getting used to in order to pull it back, would have been hit for plenty and in a 40 over game might have been taken off after two overs? Once settled too plenty of wicket especially stumping off of Joe trying to charge me and hit the ball before it bounced. Joe was very successful at this in the nets on Tuesday night – batted really well, but would have fallen eventually. Bad – the action; the bound looks bad, BFC was angled so bowling action was very front on with little pivot. The stride was short and the front leg collapsed at FFC.

Analysis – As alluded to above, I think the whole thing can be recovered given some proper time to practice without the use of a ball, just focusing on the bowling action. Looking at the video footage there are some glaring deficiencies. As I go into the bound there seems to be a lack of setting up in order to facilitate the getting side on aspect. Which means as I land out of the bound BFC is angled and my body is too front on and lacks the side on attributes that I should be aiming for. The stride is then pretty weak e.g. short. The rest of the action looks fairly okay other than occasionally there’s a fade to the left through the follow-through like Mushatq Ahmed. The whole thing looks as though it lacks oomph and dynamism, but I reckon it wouldn’t take a lot of work to correct it. As mentioned previously, fitness is currently an issue, the weather hasn’t been that conducive with getting out and about. In addition the last two weeks I’ve felt as though I’m on the verge of coming down with a cold or something, if you believe in biorhythms I’d say that it may be something to do with that?

All that aside, it is Easter and I’ve got two weeks off now to work on all of these aspects and if the last 2 weeks was the down-side of the biorhythmic pattern, the coming days should see an improvement of all things physical? One note of caution I’ve got to do some digging and labouring in the next few days, so that’s going to kill me unless I’m fitter than think, but at 56 I reckon I’ll be a bit sore after a few days of lugging around paving stones and pebbles.

Conclusion – Fitness needs to be improved, more likely if the weather gets better and enable me to get out in it. Bowling action needs to be worked on – particularly and foremost - getting side-on coming out of the bound.

Action plan – Try and practice with Joe as much as possible over the coming two weeks especially at Mopsies. Set aside specific time to work on the bowling action without the use of the ball. Film the bowling action without the ball. Start to do cardio work and leg work to build up strength and stamina with lower body specificity. Get back on the upper body work too. Reflect on progress mid-week (30^th March)?

Today 28th March after a crappy Easter weekend, the wind and rain stopped for long enough to get out and have a knock about in the street and then do some work on fitness. Joe and I took a 20 minute run/walk over to The Rec which took in the Rec hill which I negotiated with far more ease than I'd expected...

It's not all running especially at this point in the season, power-walking mixed with sprinting and running... getting the heart going and getting some strength back in my legs is the priority for me.

Short rest at the square at Langdon Hills Rec. 

Then up the hill and back home.

Our house to the Rec, up the hill and back... 20 minutes, as I get fitter I may have to go right around the field to make it a 20 minute exercise.

My other active blogs include…

https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/

http://theoldwristspinner.blogspot.com/

http://wristspinbowling.blogspot.com/

This is an example of some of the bowling vids on my Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBodRls5i80&t=21s

.

The Paddock 2016?

At the end of last year possibly because of the involvement of the estate association who are looking to improve the estate, the paddock fence was completely removed (See link here for over-view and images) rendering it totally useless virtually. We can't bat on it anymore as 3 sides to the paddock are woods and the balls will just disappear into the trees and be lost at £5 a go. The local kids can't play football in there for the same reason, so they're screwed as well. All of which completely baffles me when - 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/05/obesity-crisis-projections-uk-2030-men-women 
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/statistics-and-causes-of-the-obesity-epidemic-in-the-UK.aspx

So, the question is do we bother to use it this year and could we use it in any useful way given that there seems to be a massive concerted effort to prevent anyone using it in useful way other than as somewhere they can let their dogs s**t?

I did bowl in there a couple of times for a few minutes having strung the blue scaffold netting between some trees, but the blue nets mesh is so tight it catches the wind too easily. So the answer would be to buy some proper cricket netting. But that would mean we'd have to spend almost 15-20 minutes setting the bloody thing up. One option would be to put a couple of posts in... Dig a couple of big holes and cement two poles in so that we could just go over there and string the net up? Aggro and expense, but possibly worthwhile as we'd at least be able to bowl in there?

That would mean that with the proper cricket net and the blue scaffold net we could practice shots like leg-side paddle sweeps, slog sweeps etc. I'll have to give it some thought as it'll cost me in the region of about £100 and the posts could easily be pulled over and vandalised. 

Double click the image for the supplier of this product. 

Pre-season practice/training

The wind, rain and cold weather has abated for the weekend meaning we could get out at last and have a knock about. Last week club nets was cancelled because the school were using the nets for exams and Joe's not scheduled to have his last South Essex District training till this coming Thursday. So we've been short on cricket. With the temperature at 11 degrees and the sun trying to shin through a thin veil of haze we made our way over to the Markham's Chase cage just in case it was empty. As per usual it wasn't, but to be fair we could have used it batting at the 'House' end hitting the ball towards the fields, but Joe's always reluctant to for some reason if there's people in there so we moved on to The Rec and practiced there instead.

Markham's Chase Cage, Basildon.

 Markham's Chase Cage, Basildon.

Joe trying to retrieve another lost ball from the impenetrable bushes that surround the tennis courts at the Rec.

Joe as per usual wasn't that up for it, but he came along and initially bowled, but had to do so off of a short run-up so bowled off-breaks (Finger spin). My batting seemed okay and we used a couple of balls - bouncy ones and rock-hard hockey balls which hardly bounce at all, did okay against both. I'm hitting the ball far cleaner this year, I just seem to see it these days and I noticed that I hit almost every full toss whereas full tosses previously I've struggled with. So again I have to say I'm quite optimistic about the idea of batting further up the order this season and beating my all time best score which is a paltry 16!

Then there was the bowling...

What happened - after the ropey performance at nets last week (previous post) and the comments about the run-up and movement through the crease feeling a bit odd, I committed to reinstating the run-up that I'd developed through November last year. 

Feelings - it felt promising and fairly rhythmical and as though given only a little bit of effort I felt that I'd got it pretty close to how it was going in November.

Good/Bad (Evaluation) -  Bad... There was some leg-side rubbish towards the end, where I was trying to bowl top-spinners. Good stuff, generally as mentioned before it came together fairly quickly and felt good and was obviously much faster than I was bowling last year. When the top-spinners did come out right they caused Joe some real problems with the extra bounce. 

Analysis - I definitely need to do a couple of things. During this session I wasn't consciously thinking about getting up on my toes, so I'm not sure how well I was doing that at BR (Ball release), the other aspect that may need to be looked at is the delivery stride? Other than it all felt really good and the ball was turning off the surface and was on a nice length, Joe was having to come down the crease to hit on the full and in doing so if it turned or he timed it wrong he'd have been stumped numerous times, so in a way a big improvement over the club net session where he was coming down the wicket and smashing it while it was still in the air. Legs feel (as I suspected) as if they need some work on them, upper body strength is good, press-ups and planks are seeing to that along with some other stuff I'm doing that I picked up from Cricket Strengths website. 

Conclusion - things look to be on track with Easter break coming up and two weeks off. I need to start working on leg strength and stamina, although stamina-wise I'm pretty good usually, but I definitely need to do aerobic work as my recovery rate at the minute is probably not that good. 

Action Plan - Try and have another session tomorrow, take a camera and record the bowling action and have a look at how it's coming together. Start  incorporating leg strengthening exercises and start doing some power-walking/running training for 20 minutes a day if the weather permits or every other day at the start to allow recovery. 


So, hopefully we'll have another fine early spring day tomorrow and with a bit of luck we might get out early and perhaps get in the cage at Markham's Chase for a session?