Check this out! I got in tonight turned on the internet and looked through my emails. The only email of the day was from a website that I subscribe to called www.harrowdrive.com the website has loads of useful links and articles relating to fitness, tactics, captaincy and all things cricket including psychology. So I was interested to see that tonights instalment was going to be about Cricket psychology and winning. I opened up the link, read the intro and then had to do a double take because they'd lifted a bit off our blog! Have a look...... http://www.harrowdrive.com/category/tactics/ how funny is that!
Dave
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Post practice analysis
Again disappointed with myself initially after the net practice I spent Sunday afternoon bowling on grass again trying to rectify my mistakes. This time bowling 51 overs back to back and again on grass doing so much better despite it being wet. But thinking about it, the practice in the nets although it was awful for the first 90 minutes because I couldn't get my length or placing right it did come together during the session where we were playing against each other. Yeah I bowled loads of wides, but the length and the variations worked. Okay I didn't bowl anyone out but almost everyone without exception was knocking short balls right up into the air and in a match would no doubt have been caught out. I also edged a few and a couple of people were caught behind, so in affect I did okay? You tell me - is that tr
ue?
I've also got a question for you experts out there. If I'm bowling against a RH batsman I am allowed to bowl down his leg side aren’t I with the intention of making the ball swing in round the back of his legs? (See the first diagram left). Does it then follow that if I was to bowl a straight ball fairly wide I'd get away with it as if the batsman was to try a hook, sweep or square cut shot the length of their arms and bat would extend quite some distance? (See image below).
ue?I've also got a question for you experts out there. If I'm bowling against a RH batsman I am allowed to bowl down his leg side aren’t I with the intention of making the ball swing in round the back of his legs? (See the first diagram left). Does it then follow that if I was to bowl a straight ball fairly wide I'd get away with it as if the batsman was to try a hook, sweep or square cut shot the length of their arms and bat would extend quite some distance? (See image below).
Friday, January 19, 2007
They've taken the bait
Sports science have taken the bait! I emailed Dean Wells today and reminded him of the challenge. He then obviously distributed the email to his blokes and then there ensued a bit of mild sledging across the team rooms. From what I could gather a few of them play a bit of cricket. Dean himself plays, so does the big bloke to his right - he played at county level as a kid and 'Yeah I throw a bit of spin' was his comment to me asking if anyone was a spin bowler. The funny bloke plays as well and they all said they were medium pace bowlers. Later in the day I spoke to the scouser and the big bloke on the way out and they were joking, but the sense I got was that they felt ill prepared and as though we'd got the jump on them....... "We'll have to get the dept to see if there's money in the budget to pay for a bowling machine down at Garrons". So they don't seem as though their bowlers are up to the grade to put their batsmen through thier paces! I reckon we've got the psycological edge on them already, they'll all be thinking now - 'that's why that twat walks around with a cricket ball all the time' then realise I've been doing so for months and that we might be serious about this!? The plan is coming together - I can smell victory already, we've already won the psycological battle, all we need to do is turn the screws a bit more......
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The New Venue
This is it brighter, cleaner - better! In fact better than I even realised. Look closer at the ceiling in the horizontal image and you'll see the rails along which the nets are supported. There's three of them which means the hall divides into 5 sections along the hall! All this for a paltry £70.I had a quick look at the nets and they seem fine, the runners appear to work, with the caretaker saying neither him or the other caretaker have ever known them to have been used!
I've arranged with the caretaker to be able to get in 10 or 15 minutes early and get rid of the 5 aside goals (push over to the sides) and pull the nets out so that when we all turn up we're ready to go.
Now there's five netted off areas we need five sets of stumps. I've run out of Wind Breaks to make stumps out of, so we need to get some money together to get more stumps (Wind breaks) or maybe even invest in some spring back stumps? They're about £30 a go from Argos. Homemade ones are fine by me - so if anyones got an old wind break kicking around in their garage or a load of dowelling - let me have it and I'll make two more sets of stumps.
We also need at least 4 more of the plastic Kookaburra practice balls. All the research that I've done suggests for indoors use on smooth concrete and wooden floors these are the ones that approximate the real thing most closely. They bounce ok and their weight considering they're plastic is the nearest to the real thing. If you/we buy them from www.newitts.com they're about £7.00 each with P&P.
Dave
Subs proposal
We’ve moved venues now to James Hornsby School, which on first impressions seems to have a purpose built hall. It features a wider and longer hall in that there’s probably space for a wicket keeper at one end and a run up for the bowlers at the other end. It also appears to have nets running the length of the hall dividing the hall up into three sections. Perfect for cricket practice and well worth the additional £20 split between us all. Here’s the state of play as it stands.
Currently I have a list of 19 people that have shown an interest in being involved (3 of them very tentatively) and the list of wannabe’s grows every week.
The fortnightly fee for the venue is £70 seemingly paid up front monthly (I’m in the process of doing this for the first time right now). At the moment it’s kind of out of necessity falling to me to pay it otherwise we’re not going to get in there for this weekend (20th Jan).
The situation I don’t want to face is one where we have a practice session and only 5 people turn up and we’re short on the £70.
I’ve given this a bit of thought and talked to a handful of people that seem really up for it and they’ve agreed that it may be an idea to set a fixed practice session fee of £10 for anyone that comes along to the practices.
We’re confident that for most sessions we’ll get the required minimum of 7 players but it looks like it may run to more than that most fortnights and therefore there’s the potential to accumulate cash – a kind of ‘subs’. At the moment there’s a lot of goodwill on both my part and Carl Hodgsons in that we’re supplying a lot of the gear – bats, balls, pads, gloves etc and it’s subject to wear and tear.
The extra cash generated by the subs could be put into an account to purchase ‘Pooled’ equipment – bats, balls, helmets.
At the end of the season if there is any surplus we could have an end of season Bar B Q over at Welstead gardens or something to celebrate our triumph over Sports Science?
The only foreseeable problem might be the ownership of the ‘Pooled’ equipment? My suggestion would be to EBAY it all and get shot of it and use the money for the end of season bash? Or just keep it here for future generations of MPA staff. Suggestions are requested.
So what’s the reckoning to the £10 practice session fee being set? If need be I’ll keep accounts so that every penny is accountable and every purchase is agreed by some form of committee agreement?
Don’t forget your £10 this Saturday! (If you know you’re going to be there the next session I’ll have £20 off you if you can stretch to it this month).
Cheers
Dave
Currently I have a list of 19 people that have shown an interest in being involved (3 of them very tentatively) and the list of wannabe’s grows every week.
The fortnightly fee for the venue is £70 seemingly paid up front monthly (I’m in the process of doing this for the first time right now). At the moment it’s kind of out of necessity falling to me to pay it otherwise we’re not going to get in there for this weekend (20th Jan).
The situation I don’t want to face is one where we have a practice session and only 5 people turn up and we’re short on the £70.
I’ve given this a bit of thought and talked to a handful of people that seem really up for it and they’ve agreed that it may be an idea to set a fixed practice session fee of £10 for anyone that comes along to the practices.
We’re confident that for most sessions we’ll get the required minimum of 7 players but it looks like it may run to more than that most fortnights and therefore there’s the potential to accumulate cash – a kind of ‘subs’. At the moment there’s a lot of goodwill on both my part and Carl Hodgsons in that we’re supplying a lot of the gear – bats, balls, pads, gloves etc and it’s subject to wear and tear.
The extra cash generated by the subs could be put into an account to purchase ‘Pooled’ equipment – bats, balls, helmets.
At the end of the season if there is any surplus we could have an end of season Bar B Q over at Welstead gardens or something to celebrate our triumph over Sports Science?
The only foreseeable problem might be the ownership of the ‘Pooled’ equipment? My suggestion would be to EBAY it all and get shot of it and use the money for the end of season bash? Or just keep it here for future generations of MPA staff. Suggestions are requested.
So what’s the reckoning to the £10 practice session fee being set? If need be I’ll keep accounts so that every penny is accountable and every purchase is agreed by some form of committee agreement?
Don’t forget your £10 this Saturday! (If you know you’re going to be there the next session I’ll have £20 off you if you can stretch to it this month).
Cheers
Dave
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Umpires
I’ve been bothered by the Umpire factor e.g. what the F**k do we do for umpires when we play? Apparently you umpire for each other e.g. The batting sides 11th Man or some other designated player umpires and you just play on an honesty basis. If there is an incident you just have to err towards the opposing side when having to make tricky decisions.
O ye of little faith
Oh ye of little faith
Like me I guess you spent quite a bit of the weekend practicing or training. You may have noticed the weather was dry for once with most of Sunday actually sunny. That meant as far as I was concerned it was cricket weather! Saturday ill prepared with only 10 balls I only managed to bowl the equivalent of 20 overs back to back with a lot of time spent walking from one end of the wicket to the other. Sunday I had 21 balls with me and bowled in excess of 33 overs back to back. Needless to say with that amount of practice (despite it being slippery underfoot) I got some stuff sorted.
Here’s a breakdown of my progress with each of my deliveries.....
Leg spin; I’ve made a big advance with this since the last indoor practice (Previously mentioned) in that my wrist is coming into play as well as the arm and fingers. Previously I’ve relied on the finger and arm action, but now the wrist is part of the action I think I’m going to be making some big advances. I also noted that The ball was coming out of my had more like a top spinner, so I’m working to rectify this and the majority of the balls thrown today and yesterday were my basic leg spin trying to get the ball to come out of my hand right, on target and turn when they hit the ground. I made some advances with the accuracy with about 80% on target. I spent the whole session both days almost throwing entirely long balls either Yorkers or full toss, but then laced that with some conventional 4 yards in front of leg. Overall I was pleased with the consistency but not with the spin. It may be that wet grass doesn’t allow it to spin as much as it should? It certainly was taking all of the bounce out of it that’s for sure.
Wrong-Un; Had a session of these as well last weekend and discovered I can do them easily. They seem to be easily done and turn into stumps from off with ease. Because they seemed so easy I’ve left them for a while. Had a go today and was surprised at how accurate they were, so Wrong-Un’s look promising for dryer weather.
Top Spin or Over Spinner; As above – seem really easy and accurate, but this one just goes straight, a faster ball.
Flipper; This is the one I like. Apparently it’s difficult to master. This is the reason I walk around with a ball in my hand 24-7 as I’m flipping it, building the strength and dexterity in my fingers to bowl it. Again this is one I’m confident about but acknowledge because it’s totally different to all the others I usually bowl a couple of lose ones till I get my line, but then I lose the element of surprise with it. It’s something I’ve got to work on with regards the line. The technique and length are all there, just the accuracy when it’s mixed in with other variations. The ‘Flipper’ element of it I reckon I’ve got cracked. Yesterday I threw a couple of overs and the back spin on it as they hit the deck was chucking up divots! These blokes turn as well on dry grass, it’s a nice ball to throw.
Slider; I’ve had a go at this and seem to be able to do something with it, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s like the wrong un and the over spinner in that it’s easily thrown on target, but my action felt wrong so I need someone at some point in the future to have a look at it for me one day.
In addition to this I’m training, doing all sorts of exercises to increase upper body strength. I’ve got a pull up bar jammed in the doorway of my office and I’m currently doing 15 – 20 a day in 5 at a time stints and then holding a chin tuck while I bring my knees up to my chin at least five times, that as well as others that I wont go in to. But needless to say I’m taking this seriously.
In the nets Saturday
In the nets this Saturday can I stake my claim to having a bowl a Thomas Slater and can I request Richard Sainsbury as the wicket keeper please as the F****r reckons he can knock me all over the park – we’ll see.
Back to the title of this entry in the blog.
I cannot imagine for a moment that any team we come up against at this stage what with playing friendlies is going to be any better than us – especially sports science. I reckon if we practice as we are, we’ll be okay and I’m supremely confident in that over the next few months my bowling for one is going to get so much better. I cannot wait for May so that I can go and watch some cricket teams playing on village greens to see if they’re doing what I’m doing and give myself a benchmark to work against.
I’ve had a couple of people already who have never faced me with a real ball in my hand, or have seen me recently say outright that I’m shit or that they can bat me all over the park, I can’t wait to face these people and see how they get on. Bring it on!
Finally pertaining to the title, I’ve just read an article from a website called www.harrowdrive.com on the website there’s a load of tactical stuff and ideas. In amongst that I came across the following…
It’s a little known fact that most club cricket games are won and lost with spinners. The reason is that most club batsmen tend to have a decent defence and not many shots while most club seamers tend to not be good enough to fire out the opposition.
That leaves the spinners to step in.
The great news is that club spinners don’t need to produce magic balls to rip through the opposition like seamers do.
They can do it with a decent level of accuracy, a confident captain who sets the right fields and an opposition who cannot resist having a go (and let’s face it, most club batsmen fancy themselves against spin).
You may have noticed a great big proviso in that last paragraph: Spinners need to be handled well enough to do their job. It’s very easy for a captain to think a spinner is bowling badly when he is buying wickets.
So how do the captain and spinner work together to do this?
The role of spin bowlers in club cricket
As we have discussed before, players need to know their role in the team. So what is the role of spinners?
Without a doubt the number one role of club spinners to take wickets.
While some spinners will be more stock bowlers and some wicket buyers, all are the key to bowling sides out in most conditions.
The quality of batsman is also a factor, with better players needing less flight and tail enders unable to resist loopier bowling.
Spot the difference
Although all spinners are wicket takers, almost all spinners are different too. Each spinner will have a unique style which will make a difference to the way they get wickets. These include:
Flight
Pace
Turn
Bounce
Crease Position
Variations (arm ball, googly, over or round the wicket)
Batters preferences need to be taken into account too. Batsman who use their feet to drive will need more in the covers than sweepers for example.
While all these are vital factors to take into account, the key difference is whether they are off spin, slow left arm or leg spin.
So there you go we are going to win - You must be trying to win even at the risk of losing.
Like me I guess you spent quite a bit of the weekend practicing or training. You may have noticed the weather was dry for once with most of Sunday actually sunny. That meant as far as I was concerned it was cricket weather! Saturday ill prepared with only 10 balls I only managed to bowl the equivalent of 20 overs back to back with a lot of time spent walking from one end of the wicket to the other. Sunday I had 21 balls with me and bowled in excess of 33 overs back to back. Needless to say with that amount of practice (despite it being slippery underfoot) I got some stuff sorted.
Here’s a breakdown of my progress with each of my deliveries.....
Leg spin; I’ve made a big advance with this since the last indoor practice (Previously mentioned) in that my wrist is coming into play as well as the arm and fingers. Previously I’ve relied on the finger and arm action, but now the wrist is part of the action I think I’m going to be making some big advances. I also noted that The ball was coming out of my had more like a top spinner, so I’m working to rectify this and the majority of the balls thrown today and yesterday were my basic leg spin trying to get the ball to come out of my hand right, on target and turn when they hit the ground. I made some advances with the accuracy with about 80% on target. I spent the whole session both days almost throwing entirely long balls either Yorkers or full toss, but then laced that with some conventional 4 yards in front of leg. Overall I was pleased with the consistency but not with the spin. It may be that wet grass doesn’t allow it to spin as much as it should? It certainly was taking all of the bounce out of it that’s for sure.
Wrong-Un; Had a session of these as well last weekend and discovered I can do them easily. They seem to be easily done and turn into stumps from off with ease. Because they seemed so easy I’ve left them for a while. Had a go today and was surprised at how accurate they were, so Wrong-Un’s look promising for dryer weather.
Top Spin or Over Spinner; As above – seem really easy and accurate, but this one just goes straight, a faster ball.
Flipper; This is the one I like. Apparently it’s difficult to master. This is the reason I walk around with a ball in my hand 24-7 as I’m flipping it, building the strength and dexterity in my fingers to bowl it. Again this is one I’m confident about but acknowledge because it’s totally different to all the others I usually bowl a couple of lose ones till I get my line, but then I lose the element of surprise with it. It’s something I’ve got to work on with regards the line. The technique and length are all there, just the accuracy when it’s mixed in with other variations. The ‘Flipper’ element of it I reckon I’ve got cracked. Yesterday I threw a couple of overs and the back spin on it as they hit the deck was chucking up divots! These blokes turn as well on dry grass, it’s a nice ball to throw.
Slider; I’ve had a go at this and seem to be able to do something with it, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s like the wrong un and the over spinner in that it’s easily thrown on target, but my action felt wrong so I need someone at some point in the future to have a look at it for me one day.
In addition to this I’m training, doing all sorts of exercises to increase upper body strength. I’ve got a pull up bar jammed in the doorway of my office and I’m currently doing 15 – 20 a day in 5 at a time stints and then holding a chin tuck while I bring my knees up to my chin at least five times, that as well as others that I wont go in to. But needless to say I’m taking this seriously.
In the nets Saturday
In the nets this Saturday can I stake my claim to having a bowl a Thomas Slater and can I request Richard Sainsbury as the wicket keeper please as the F****r reckons he can knock me all over the park – we’ll see.
Back to the title of this entry in the blog.
I cannot imagine for a moment that any team we come up against at this stage what with playing friendlies is going to be any better than us – especially sports science. I reckon if we practice as we are, we’ll be okay and I’m supremely confident in that over the next few months my bowling for one is going to get so much better. I cannot wait for May so that I can go and watch some cricket teams playing on village greens to see if they’re doing what I’m doing and give myself a benchmark to work against.
I’ve had a couple of people already who have never faced me with a real ball in my hand, or have seen me recently say outright that I’m shit or that they can bat me all over the park, I can’t wait to face these people and see how they get on. Bring it on!
Finally pertaining to the title, I’ve just read an article from a website called www.harrowdrive.com on the website there’s a load of tactical stuff and ideas. In amongst that I came across the following…
It’s a little known fact that most club cricket games are won and lost with spinners. The reason is that most club batsmen tend to have a decent defence and not many shots while most club seamers tend to not be good enough to fire out the opposition.
That leaves the spinners to step in.
The great news is that club spinners don’t need to produce magic balls to rip through the opposition like seamers do.
They can do it with a decent level of accuracy, a confident captain who sets the right fields and an opposition who cannot resist having a go (and let’s face it, most club batsmen fancy themselves against spin).
You may have noticed a great big proviso in that last paragraph: Spinners need to be handled well enough to do their job. It’s very easy for a captain to think a spinner is bowling badly when he is buying wickets.
So how do the captain and spinner work together to do this?
The role of spin bowlers in club cricket
As we have discussed before, players need to know their role in the team. So what is the role of spinners?
Without a doubt the number one role of club spinners to take wickets.
While some spinners will be more stock bowlers and some wicket buyers, all are the key to bowling sides out in most conditions.
The quality of batsman is also a factor, with better players needing less flight and tail enders unable to resist loopier bowling.
Spot the difference
Although all spinners are wicket takers, almost all spinners are different too. Each spinner will have a unique style which will make a difference to the way they get wickets. These include:
Flight
Pace
Turn
Bounce
Crease Position
Variations (arm ball, googly, over or round the wicket)
Batters preferences need to be taken into account too. Batsman who use their feet to drive will need more in the covers than sweepers for example.
While all these are vital factors to take into account, the key difference is whether they are off spin, slow left arm or leg spin.
So there you go we are going to win - You must be trying to win even at the risk of losing.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Training Ideas/videos
Have a look at this website for some good training ideas
www.cricinfo.com.au
This’ll take you to the cricinfo home page. If you look to the left there’s a link for ‘The Cricket show’. Click on this and you’ll then be presented with 3 years worth of cricket videos from Australia’s cricket show. Included among them are some good ‘Masterclass’ videos. One of the better ones recently that we should be looking at and adopting as a guide to our training is the ‘Fielding Master class’ in the 2006-2007 section.
Now have a look at www.bbc.co.uk/sport click on cricket and then choose skills and again there’s a series of master class videos that don’t quite have the same fun/enthusiasm feeling as the Aussie website does, but are still useful. You can se when you compare the two why they beat the fuck out of us in the ashes.
www.cricinfo.com.au
This’ll take you to the cricinfo home page. If you look to the left there’s a link for ‘The Cricket show’. Click on this and you’ll then be presented with 3 years worth of cricket videos from Australia’s cricket show. Included among them are some good ‘Masterclass’ videos. One of the better ones recently that we should be looking at and adopting as a guide to our training is the ‘Fielding Master class’ in the 2006-2007 section.
Now have a look at www.bbc.co.uk/sport click on cricket and then choose skills and again there’s a series of master class videos that don’t quite have the same fun/enthusiasm feeling as the Aussie website does, but are still useful. You can se when you compare the two why they beat the fuck out of us in the ashes.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Poster Idea
Here's an idea for a poster. I reckon we should get them up around the college or sent by email throughout the college to see if we entice anyone into a game. I'll email my brother in the next few days and see if he's up for it still (Dean Wells) but I reckon they'll be having second thoughts about it now!If anyone knows any other teams we could play as it says in the poster - Bring it on!
Dave
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
It just got so much better!
Laindon community centre was okay for a bunch of part time wannabe cricket players, but after seeing Alex, Simon and few others perform and Simon saying there wasn't enough room for a run up to bowl it was obvious this was a potential 'Team' in the making. We've got people going to the Gym and working out (Thomas and Nick Naughty). We had Naughty ditch his Pies and Lager diet for Lettuce, Raw carrots and diet coke -it was obvious something was going off. I therefore needed to respond and up the ante on the practicing facilities.
Gentlemen I now propose we ditch Laindon Community Centre for James Hornsby School.
James Hornsby school features
1. Bigger, brighter and better 39yrds x 25yrds approx long enough to accommodate a full length wicket space for a wicket keeper and a LONG run up for the bowlers!
2. Nets. 3 of them it looks like that run the length of the hall - this hall appears to have been designed with cricket practice in mind. It's the real deal!
4. Wooden floors.
5. And it's only £35 per hour
6. It's available every Saturday 12 - 2pm or 11 - 1pm.
I've got the forms and have provisionally booked it every two saturdays till May.
You wait till you see it - I think it's gonna be so much better!
Dave
Gentlemen I now propose we ditch Laindon Community Centre for James Hornsby School.
James Hornsby school features
1. Bigger, brighter and better 39yrds x 25yrds approx long enough to accommodate a full length wicket space for a wicket keeper and a LONG run up for the bowlers!
2. Nets. 3 of them it looks like that run the length of the hall - this hall appears to have been designed with cricket practice in mind. It's the real deal!
4. Wooden floors.
5. And it's only £35 per hour
6. It's available every Saturday 12 - 2pm or 11 - 1pm.
I've got the forms and have provisionally booked it every two saturdays till May.
You wait till you see it - I think it's gonna be so much better!
Dave
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