Paddock's looking good!

As I hoped, overnight it's rained again softening up the paddock, so that I've been able to get in there with the roller and the mower today. Once the sun came out and the grass had dried off, I got in there with the Ransomes Ajax MKIV and lowered the blades to their lowest setting so far this year and gave it the once over at the batting end. I've taken to only cutting the batting end really short and I leave the other end with a lot more grass on it.

Once I'd mowed and gave it a good roll, Joe adjusted the blades even further (See below) and then gave it another going over (See above) virtually removing all the grass.

We then gave it another roll trying to flatten what grass there was left into the earth so as to give it a nice smooth sheen. (See below).

Some small repairs were done and some of the Plantain were dug out at the batting end. At the moment the Plantain isn't too bad and I do have the option of using some heavy duty weed-killer, but earlier experiences with the weed killer have shown that if you're not careful with the stuff it kills off the grass for the rest of the year. It looks like the only way that you could use it would be to get down on your knees and apply the weed-killer to the weed itself using a paint brush or some kind of drip applicator. Any excess weed-killer (Round-up) that falls on the grass causes big circular patches of grass to be killed.

So, now we're waiting for a little more rain - hopefully over-night to bed in the repairs, as the new dry 'Repair' earth is loose on top and it needs to integrate with the surface. Once that's happened I'm looking forward to get a net up and having Ben and Kieran and hopefully Joe to have a bowl. The weather report for tomorrow looks as though we may be lucky with the games in the morning, but come midday the rain is due and there might be a lot of it. If it does rain heavily, I may get back in there again and roll it some more and make it really smooth. Just need some adults to get involved and come along and have a bowl or some bigger teenagers who can bowl a bit.

Kieran News

I've had an update on Kieran's game a few days ago and Joe had got it all round his neck. The Billericay bowling attack saw the opposition off by the 15th over. The bowling icluded Kieran, Finlay and Harrison Birch from B&PCC. Finlay took 2 wickets bowling Leg Spin which is very good news as the under 13's could do with another Leg-Spinner aside from Frank, so to here that he was taking wickets and that the oppo was bowled out over 15 overs scoring something like 25 runs is good news. Kieran was put in as the opening Batsman by his captain Harrison Birch and they cruised through to 25 within 3 and a half overs.