My Field modifications by Chaz Adams

Again another field. This time, this is the one that has been set by the captain and me when I've played this year, but slightly modified as per the recommendations of Chaz Adams on the http://www.bigcricket.com/ forum. His suggestion was that the field here be modified...........

Touching on this very briefly as I have a busy day today. I'd move the point to backward point, this is also a wicket taking position in many competitions if batters are hitting against the turn. And move the deep backward point to a sweeping cover. The Deep square leg should be in front of square. I would also suggest that the fine leg be moved into the circle and placed on the 45 degrees to save one, also again a catcher from sweep shots.

This then gives us a slightly different field which makes sense. The only thing is, as more experienced players will know, the field in part is set keeping in mind who you've got available to you - so it's not at all clear cut. One of the points that Chaz has made is that the bloke at Fine Leg should be brought up closer? I've thought this through a bit and initially I was sceptical - thinking that I don't ever intend on bowling legside and if I make a mistake and the ball does go legside, it's likely to go over the top of the bloke if he's in closer and that I'd rather the bloke run in off the boundary having more time to have a look at it and ensure that it only ever goes for two. Add to this that I don't play first or second team cricket, so it's unlikely there's going to be anyone that is super athletic in that position so having him on the boundary seemed to make sense? But then thinking it through, balls that do end up there are often inside edges or mis-hits where the batsman is trying to get the ball there and they rarely go all the way, so a bloke there half way or closer may be a better idea and is more threatening too?

I would also mention, that once I'm settled and if I've managed to gain ascendancy over the batsman I then bring up the mid on and mid off to at least half way. This was something I picked up off of G-Man.

Another point is that in the last couple of games I did lose runs to balls out to the deep cover point area and the bloke that was originally at 3rd man had to cover a lot of ground to get to the ball, so bringing him round to either deep cover or deep cover point seems like a good idea too.

Field Setting from Forum

The original comments and response were as follows - (See http://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/field-settings-for-leg-spinners.57045/page-3#post-412325 )


Hey Guys,
I am generally confused on where to place my fielders. I'm an okay legspinner. I can bowl the odd crap ball and I'm not the most accurate of bowlers. I'm playing in a league with 12, 13 and 14 year olds who aren't that confident at catching but throw well. The wicket keeper is reasonably inconsistent. What would you guys suggest as a good field placement?

If you require more info please ask?
Seeing as your fielders aren't much kop at catching, you need to try and get wickets by hitting the stumps. So pitch the ball right up there on middle and leg and tempt the batsmen into playing across the line and beat them with your turn. You should see the ball thumping into middle and off with reasonable regularity.

As you are attacking with your legspin, you can defend with the field. Kids tend to hit across the line so put three men back on the leg side boundary - deep backward square leg, deep midwicket, and long on. have everyone else on the single - 4 in a ring on the offside, and a couple of men on the one in the leg side.




Here's a field setting we've been discussing over at http://www.bigcricket.com/ on the thread that set up in response to the fact that there's very little out there by way of field settings. At the minute the discussion has picked up a bit and it's pretty productive, so if you've got any thoughts yourself on the matter join up and join in?

Batlow Cricket Pitch - New South Wales

Is this Batlow Cricket Pitch in New South Wales, Australia?

District League Final B&PCC v Orsett CC U13's

This is going to be a biggun, it'll take a few nights to get this typed up and the pictures loaded.

The night before all the weather reports, even those with some kind of commercial sponsorship agenda were indicating pretty much the same thing 07.00 - fine, 09.00 cloudy, 10.00 rain and 1pm Heavy rain. I'd gone to bed thinking that there wasn't much hope of a full game and wondered what the outcome would be if we awoke to rain at 08.00hrs? As it happened when we awoke it was dry and there were even a few blue patches and the cloud that there was didn't look too threatening - it looked promising.

We arrived just after 09.00 with the game scheduled to start at 09.30. The field our game was on was the one in the distance, the other side of the field adjacent to the club-house. You could tell it was ours as there were more people there already than you get at some county games. As the 12th man and knowing that everyone once again had indicated that they'd be playing, Ben didn't feel compelled to get his whites on and he left his gear in the car. We walked over and joined the B&P contingent and looked to see if there was any Orsett fans. There were a couple of people.

There was excitement and anticipation, the boys looked nervous and the coaches looked pretty much the same, the mantra was 'Go out there and enjoy yourselves, this is your day. Don't play silly shots, see yourself in and do the best you can, that's all we ask of you'.

The Orsett were on the far side of the pitch doing drills, our lads had got there early and possibly done there's already? The umpires made there way over from the clubhouse - independent umpires for the first time as it was the final. That was good to see, as there was the sense that there would be total impartiality. The captains Mitchell McLeod B&PCC and the Orsett lad were beckoned to the middle and the toss was done. McLeod won the toss and chose to field as far as I could make out and the final preparations and psyching up was done as the start of the game
drew near.

The back room staff wished all the boys good luck, Ben went round all his team mates wishing them good luck and encouraging them as they got ready to go out on to the pitch.

Let's just set the scene here a little. The opposition Orsett CC as far as I can make out are one of the most successful clubs at this age and level in the district if not the most successful and have been so over several years. Their club is so well resourced and patronised that the rumor is that they turn prospective kids away if they fail some kind of aptitude test. Even if kids get in the chances of them ever playing in the U13 League 1st XI is slim, as the team is so phenomenally strong. The strength of the side is such that in the semi - final last week the bowled out Leigh On Sea for 23 runs winning by 10 wickets. When our team faced them back in June we lost by 6 wickets.....

Match report(By Dave Ayres).......A bright and sunny Sunday morning was the backdrop to Basildon & Pitsea's latest away trip; this time to an Orsett team boasting 6 district/county level players, and who have scored runs aplenty for little or no wickets this year. Yes the gathered support knew this was a tough game; however our little warriors done the club proud with a battling display against such adversity.

The toss was lost, and the opposition skipper put B&P into bat. At the end of the first over we had amassed 6 runs, however Sonny Downes was back in the pavillion after being run out. Then the run rate fell into oblivion; between overs 2 and 8 only 12 runs were put on the score, with the loss of 2 more wickets; Mitchell McLeod being caught for 0 and Jack Green trapped LBW for 1, and the score just 19 for 3 from 8.

Anthony Ayres came to the crease, and between him and Regan Mead, plundered some runs off the next over; 14 to be precise as Mead decided singles were boring, fours being the preferred score. At the half way mark B&P were 34 for 3, and a short drink break gave some respite from the tight and measly bowling. After the break, some fortune with misfields, and some shot making from Mead and Ayres lead to Mead taking his now obligatory walk from the pitch after his latest retirement; at least 2 of the coaching staff now looking over their shoulders as he comes hunting the retirement record. Nathan Hubble joined Ayres in the middle, and some very opportunistic running of quick singles and 2's from 1's meant that by the time the stumps rattled to end Ayres innings, the score was a healthier at 64 in the 14th over.

Small cameo performances from Harrison Birch (6), Tom Hardy (2) and a little not out from Harry Davie (4) combined with Hubble's 18 not out to amount to B&P's score of 87 for 6 from 20 overs.

Tea in the marvellous clubhouse completed, it was time for B&P to field, and to try to stop the juggernaut that is Orsett's batting machines. The openers for Orsett started plundering runs left, right and centre, and after 4 overs were 28 for 0. However in the 5th over, Ryan Davies caught the number 2 out from Ben Thompson's bowling, and we had a wicket. More runs came however, and we had to wait 3 more over for the next wicket, the other opener for Orsett; who from the looks eats all his vegetables and stands in compost of an evening faced the walk back, a good catch from McLeod; although straight at him I think there wasn't an adult present that fancied getting in the way of it, from Harry Davie's bowling and we had rattled the machine.

The following over, a wicket maiden from Ryan Davies, as Thompson repaid the earlier catch to send the no 5 back to the clubhouse; him being clearly rattled as he thought there was a no ball. The wicket stood however and the run rate slowed a little. Next over the no 4, who had previously ducked from a ball that was starting to pop up off the pitch a little, waved at another one that popped up and edged it to keeper Hubble, McLeod bagging the wicket.

However, Orsett hadenough in reserve; the no 3 walking off with a not out 28, and no 6 & 7 seeing the game through with 12.5 overs bowled.

So, it was not to be for B&P, who now play Belhus next in the League.

Add to that the physique of the Orsett boys and the pool of players from which they can draw their team is such that they are bigger and no doubt on the cusp of being taken up to the next age group as many of our boys are. So, as you can possibly sense this was a big ask off the back of their annihilation of the Leigh On Sea team. Oh...... one last thing, in this whole process this season, they haven't lost a or drawn a single match.

To be continued.........

Another 'Not out'.

Played today in the 3rd XI's. I'm going to try and keep this short as I've mashed my finger fielding (Stabbed it into the ground) and it's making typing difficult. The game was away at Buckhurst Hill on the borders of Essex where it meets London. We didn't have to win or do anything special as we've secured a place in the same league next year, whereas the Buckhurst Hill blokes needed to win in order to move up to a higher league and by the end of the game they proved themselves to be more than worthy of it.

Batting

I batted at No.10 again with Neil Williams batting at 11. Initially I was batting with Dan Vanderputt, who had been hanging around for quite some time and was probably the best of our bats, but with him looking to strike the ball and make runs off of good balls he was eventually bowled. At the point that Neil joined the party they'd brought on an Off-spinner while I was on strike and miraculously I was able to see off about three balls and forced a couple of byes as well. I then faced the quick bowler and blocked him out for an over scoring no runs leaving Neil to face the Off-Spinner, Neil got him away for a boundary flicking it over Gully, but then perished either the next or third ball looking to strike it and get some runs.

So, that was another 'Not out' this time a 2 - not out

An exciting weekend ahead

We've had a pretty dull August here in the UK, as you may have noticed in the recent blogs about the games, most of which at some point or other have been delayed for periods because of the rain. But, this weekend is shaping up nicely with the exception I've just realised of the Big game with Orsett at the neutral ground of Benfleet.

Looking at the Surf charts on Magic Seaweed (pretty comprehensive weather data) http://magicseaweed.com/msw-surf-charts2.php?
chart=1&res=750&type=pressure&starttime= you'll see that a low is coming in off the Atlantic over-night on Saturday and it moves in and across the country on Sunday morning. The nature of the frontal system means that the weather might dissipate as the rain falls across the west country, so we may be lucky and either miss it or catch showers. It needs to be checked as it's pretty inconclusive at this point. This is the predicted outcome for 10.00hrs on Sunday.

Hopefully after the Rayleigh mess we're now all clear on how the game will be decided in the event that the rain does stop play!!

http://magicseaweed.com/msw-surf-charts2.php?chart=1&res=750&type=pressure&starttime=

Tomorrow though is a different story. Today the weather has been lovely with the temp when I got home from work at 26 degree centigrade, so I threw a few balls around and my bowling for the moment is coming along nicely and it's looking as though I'm maintaining the momentum that I've been blogging about over the last few weeks. A little note on how much my action has changed, my run in has completely changed now and has developed into a very short and possibly best described as balletic run in, so much so that Liam Rouse last night (wicket - keeping to me) as 'Twinkle toes'! So hopefully in the game tomorrow away at Buckhurst Hill I'll be able to continue the good form and get a wicket or two?

Taking Wickets

Had a text today from G-Man at the club saying that there would be a practice tonight over at Mopsies Park for the U13 squad in preparation for the league final against Orsett this coming Sunday. So we all went over Joe, Ben and me. Ben's the Twelth man again and it doesn't look like anyones going to be forfeiting their place, so he'll be watching and supporting again, but he trained with them in the event that he does get the call up at the last minute.

With autumn now just round the corner, there was only a short window of opportunity, but they got at least four pairs in to have a bat including Ben and Ben also got to bowl and over or two. Some tactics and weaknesses were discussed for instance, there is a need for the bowlers to be more aware of the fact that if the ball gets past the inner circle, the bowler needs to get back behind the stumps to back up if the fielder gets the ball into the bowlers end for a run out.

Generally they're looking like a good unit, on many ocassions when the ball came in there were at least 2 fielders backing up in order to eliminate extra runs in that scenario. So there isn't any reason why we can't win. Orsett are an arrogant bunch, full of themselves, mouthy in the field, aggressive and quick to capitalise on any weaknesses. They're more than willing to intimidate - the wicket keeper and the close in fielders very verbal, looking to under-mine the batsmen and make them feel isolated. The bowlers when they get the ball back quickly direct off the bat will then throw down the stumps when the batsman is still in his crease or at least make the action as if they are going to. They're generally physically big and tall lads as well for U13's, with only a handful of smaller boys. In addition the team is so popular and successful in part due to their location and the fact that they are a very well resourced team - lovely new and big pavillion, state of the art nets facilities and 3 or 4 of them to boot, that it means they're in a psoition where they turn lads away. The word is that any lads that want to play for the team have to do a test and prover that they are good enough to play for them and even then it could be years or months before they are deemed good enough to play in the first XI of each age group, so they are a pretty formidable bunch. But - the bigger they are, the harder they fall and they can be under-mined. In our match with them during the run up to these final where they beat us by about 6 wickets, there was a phase in the middle of the game where one or two of their players put down a couple of balls and B&P suddenly got the ascendancy with the bat for a few overs and they suddenly shut up and were very quiet and only resumed their confidence once a key wicket fell, but for a short period it looked like they'd run out of ideas.

In that game we lost several early key wickets, unusual wickets too the first 4 bats went for about 20 runs or so, putting us on the back foot, if those same blokes (and its very possible) could keep their wickets and survive the opening bowling attack, that would put our blokes in a very strong position and test the Orsett boys. The chances are our support is going to be far superior to theirs and if we're behind our boys and we're vocal it might get under their skin and they could easily falter. It's a mouth watering prospect, but the Orsett are on a high as they knocked their semi final opponents out easily bowling the whole team out for less than 33 runs!

Oh yeah on the theme of my own bowling I was asked to bowl an over by G-man and Liam Rouse and I took one of our lads wicket twice in the one over and he's normally one of our players that hoiks me quite easily, but he was un-done by all my new attriutes and he was bowled clean through the gate twice by balls pitched outside of leg.

Getting Wickets

I'm always wary about doing this - blowing my own trumpet or claiming that I've made some kind of magical break-through, but...... The last couple of practices and the last match I played in have looked promising, the slight adjustments and the suggestions that have been made over at siliconcoach.com seem to have produced very positive outcomes. I was going to say that the key outcome is that I'm getting the ball on target again after months of being very wayward, but its more than that. As well as the accuracy in the last couple of weeks I've cracked the whole speed, dip, spin and turn off the wicket combination and now I'm getting line and length chucked in for good measure, so at the moment I'm in a good place. All I need now is access to a couple of high speed video cameras and I'll update my youtube vids, but what with it now Sept 1st it's looking increasingly unlikely that I'm going to get this together yet again which is a shame.

What the hell?

On my way to work this morning I looked up and someone has nicked the bloody fence from the paddock over night on a Bank Holiday Monday. They've nicked the side which protects cover drives and balls bewteen there and backward of point from going in the road or onto the cars. WTF is that about, it had holes all over it as well, so you wouldn't be nicking it to put in your back yard? It doesn't make sense either from the point of view of your usual suspects nicking it either, they usually nick stuff to claim the scrap value, but this was a flimsy wire fence!

The paranoid part of me thinks this is stage 1 of a more malicious process. Will have to wait and see. It's bizarre, because they've done a really neat job of it and taken it away and left all the rest of the fence on all the other sides which in some ways might have been easier to nick and it's of a better qaulity. There's been a group of teenagers who've been in there playing football of late who are not from our estate, but why they'd do anythng is beyond me unless stage 2 is due to happen soon?

Controversy at the U13 semi final

So, today was the semi-final in the U13's league. The contenders for the title are us - (Basildon & Pitsea) our opponents for a place in the final - Rayleigh and the other match was between the favourites Orsett and their oppo's Leigh On Sea. As mentioned earlier this week my son Ben wasn't selected and was the 12th man, so we were up this morning with all the gear ready to support the team and Ben to take anyones place if they didn't show up or got a ball in the teeth during the game.

The weather looked iffy, bright and breezy, what photographers would call cloudy bright and what weather men would describe as having the potential for a heavy shower. Initially because of me we ended up at the wrong pitch, but a phone call to Neil soon sorted that out and we arrived at about 6 overs in and 1 wicket down and the score at about 30, so they were doing okay at this point.

We settled down to watch the game, as usual there was a big turn out of supporters for B&P despite the fact that we were the away team.

I reckon again like the Southend match earlier in the year we outnumbered the home support by three to one easily. The bowling was on the money generally and the fielding supported the bowlers efforts, Anthony Ayres and Ryan stopping a few balls between them that would have gone for at least two and possibly four. The Rayleigh batting looked okay and their scoring was steady with communication between the batsmen ensuring for the most part that risky runs weren’t made. Nothing un-toward happened throughout the game except for one contentious run out shout that everyone went up for – team and supporters and the Square Leg umpire didn’t give it. Some of our supporters were shouting from the boundary at the umpire and had to be reminded by Mike Blerkom that the umpires decision had to be respected, football fans I guess getting a little carried away? I’d shot a picture of the stumping and had a look at it on the camera screen and you can clearly see that the bails have been removed but on closer inspection see below, it's inconclusive, the shutter speed was so fast that it's frozen the ball in flight not leaving any blur-trail to indicate where the ball's come from. Added to that the Nathan isn't near the stumps either so the picture ends up offering no clarification at all.


Ryan Davies bowled well with three wickets off his spell which was 3 or 4 overs, and he didn’t concede that many runs either. Trying to take pictures it’s not that easy to keep track of what’s going on, but I got the sense that no-one else bowled out of their skin particularly, there were one or two mediocre performances, but generally the team bowled quite well as a unit and the job was done pretty well in that the oppo scored 101 off their 20 overs for 7 wickets.


During teas, the trainers and G-man had an inspirational chat with the lads ‘Don’t go made trying to smack the ball everywhere'. That kind of thing. They all sat there looking quite anxious and I don't think any of them went out and got any biscuits or drinks!!!

The game resumed under rain leaden clouds but huge expanses of blue sky either side of us. B&P batted well. Sonny Downes hitting a series of 4's in amongst some singles. Reagan Mead in support struck a couple of balls that they ran 2 on before being bowled by a small fair haired lad in the 2nd over, Reagan playing too early and hitting the ball straight to extra cover for an easy catch, you could see he wasn't happy with the way he was dismissed. Harrison Morris then took up the task of getting us on track for a win and he followed in the same vein as Sonny hitting a couple of boundaries. Sonny was next to fall to a catch made very low on the ground bowled by a bigger fair haired lad in the fifth over, but by this point our run rate in comparison to theirs at the same point in the game was better. Sonny fell with the score at 26 for 2.

Mitchell McLeod wasn't at the crease for long having replaced Sonny, he only faced one or two balls before swinging the bat and being bowled clean by the 1st bowler. By the 8th over we were half way almost, at 48 runs for 3. Around about this stage they brought on their Wrist Spinner, some of us had seen him last year and he was pretty tidy and took 2 or 3 wickets in just a couple of overs. John Bonnet passed me saying 'Watch this kid - he's pretty good', He finished his spell on 3-1-7-0 our lads had survived. Jack Green made his exit after being run out after getting 14 runs. Harrison Morris scored a steady 20 before being caught.

The score at this stage had us still in front and with Harrison Morris and Jack Green gone we were nearing the tail. Anthony Ayres made a quick exit via another run out which had always looked risky and it was his call to go for it, he only gained us another 1 run and all this under an ever darkening sky. The last of the recognised batsmen Harrison Birch and Nathan Hubble (Wicket Keeper) went in with a mission to maintain the lead and keep inching up the run rate difference to put the game safely in our hands. It was looking do-able we were in the leading and ball by ball extending that lead. There were 3 overs to go and Hubble and Birch looked to have it in the bag with just 12 runs needed, my heart was in my mouth 4 an over, yeah it could happen, but the next ball could be a wicket and then we're into the tail-enders and anything could happen, it looked like a bit of a nail biter ending and then it rained. The rain didn't stop either a big black strip of cloud coming in from the west ran west to east right over us. Everyone legged it to the pavillion. The score stood at 89 off of 16 overs.

Crammed under the canopy of the pavillion everyone peered out as the rain looked to be here for quite some time and it wasn't letting up. Even from more than 80 yards we could see that the already wet wicket wasn't looking to good. All around us people wondered what was going to happen with the game, had we won because of the rain? People were saying that their lads couldn't play next week, others were saying that there'd have to be a re-match, but the re-match would then be played with a different team?

Neil and some of the coaches were now getting agitated because a game that we had in the bag was now being potentially called off for a re-match with only 3 overs to go and us in a position where we'd have won all for the sake of another 10 - 15 minutes of play. Others were saying that we'd see what would happen if the rain would stop. Some people were grumbling about the fact that their lads were supposed to be at football, the atmosphere was one of simmering anger. G-Man was thumbing through the rule books looking to see what the ruling on rained off games was.


A crowd gathered peering over his shoulder looking for a solution that would see the correct outcome. The rain in the meantime had faltered slightly and was now only light. In the west a blue sky was moving in as the rain cloud petered out and the rain finally stopped. Both teams made their way out on to the pitch, people were getting annoyed. Clusters of people discussed what was happening, but no-one seemed to know, the feeling seemed to be that now the rain had stopped, we would all wait to see how the wicket would drain, but the wicket had standing water on it and it was already water-logged when the game had started.
Their annoyance was stepped up by the arrival of a bag of sawdust. At the start of the game because the wicket had been wet when B&P were bowling we'd requested sawdust for H&S reasons, but were told that there wasn't any and now with the prospect of their lads bowling on a wet wicket a large bag of sawdust suddenly appeared, it all seemed a bit fishy.

The sawdust was put down and we all waited for another 20 or 30 minutes, it looked as though the oppo was happy to play the last three overs, but then of course they would be, they had sawdust down, the ball wasn't going to bounce, all they really needed to do was bowl straight, but we were caught between a rock and a hard place, if we didn't bat, the other ideas were to have a bowl off which had been suggested by the district league manager or call it off and play again next week. All outcomes worked against us, the game was in the bag as far as we were concerned and all the alternative options levelled the playing field when it was in our favour half an hour earlier. Despite all the heated meetings in the back rooms of the pavillions it looked as though we were going to be stitched up and the best option looked to be to try and bat the three overs and get the 12 runs.

The bats were ready and the Rayleigh boys had taken the field and then the rain resumed again. It was the last straw, some of our officials were saying 'If they're that desperate to win and they want it so much that they'd go through by cheating - let them'. Shortly with nothing resolved and with the rain now completely rendering the pitch unsuable we all drifted home with a decision seemingly being placed back in the hands of the league manager.

One of the daftest rumors was that at a pre-match meeting the issue of a rained off match had been raised, but the Rayleigh contingent simply said 'It wont rain' and despite several attempts to get an answer on the rain issue, they'd simply come back with the same answer..... It wont rain.

later that day we all got a text saying in the end the situation was resolved by the use of the Duckworth Lewis method and that we'd won by 7 runs and justice was finally done. We were through to the final against the mighty Orsett. Meanwhile spies at the Orsett game were texting saying that Orsett had turned over their opposition (leigh on sea)for 23 runs winning by 10 wickets.

The next day was fun day and the lads were given their moment of celebration somewhat belatedly and subdued during the day, but the crowd cheered and celebrated their historic win.



See also Dave Ayres official response to the match