Again was able to get on the field today for a practice. The bloke had mowed the grass and the outfield now resembles the wicket, you can still see both the wickets because the grass is lusher after my worries yesterday I was quite glad to see that. The practice was Leg Break focussed and didn't really move forward see http://thegooglysyndrome.blogspot.com/2008/09/diary.html
for more details. One of the things I've been intending to address quickly is where to practice this winter. I need somewhere I can practice at night and not get hassled by the Old Bill, security men or Chav's and the obvious solution did seem to be specified sports areas with floodlighting. I realised that the skatepark over at 5 tree field might be an option so I went over there tonight at 9pm and checked it out and it is perfect. Flat tarmac, a fence behind where I'd place the stumps and bright floodlights so bright you see the ball in the air. There is only one downside it's in town so it's a car drive away and that p*****s me off because of the cost factor and time getting there and back. But it is secluded and desolate. Coming back I thought I'd check out the basketball court/playground near where I live the one we call the chav park. Again it's floodlit but for some reason the floodlight wasn't on, but it's in a residential area so there's a few street lights nearby enabling it to be used despite the floodlights not being on. I did wonder whether the floodlights were movement activated so went in and threw some balls around and they didn't come on. The Chav Park has it's pro's and con's too. The positives are the stumps would be hung on a fence and therefore don't fall down ever and the balls all end up at the foot of the fence and it's a 4 minute walk from my house. The downside is that the surface slants away from you as you bowl and away to the left assisting the spin possibly?
But I have got options for night practice. I may also go and look at the artificial wicket at Gloucester Park as that's right next to a very well lit 5 aside football pitch and may be usable at night too? The good thing is I've got options.
I shot a wedding today as the informal photographer and the shots were done at a golf course and I was looking at the grass there on one of the holes. Man that grass is good and short - how do you do that? Off topic Barbara Windsor was at this wedding and she spoke to me - seems like a nice lady, pretty normal. I hate her character in East Enders but the real person (obviously I suppose) was quite nice.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Friday, October 03, 2008
3rd October
It's got suddenly colder here in the UK. Last Friday was very warm, but tonight they're talking Frost on the weather reports. I've noticed coming across the field that I practice on and cut during the summer that the grass on the wicket is still shorter than the grass around it. I'm beginning to think that the last cut that I did with the new mower was a bit radical at that late in the year? Fortunately the field doesn't get played on that much so I hope that it grows a bit over the winter/spring and recovers fully?
I'm still on the lookout for somewhere to practice at night under floodlights on concrete using the Hockey balls. Hopefully I'll find somewhere tomorrow and get some practice in. I've noticed that already I'm beginning to feel unfit, the practice I had a couple of days ago felt as though my arm had already began to lose it's strength!
I'm still on the lookout for somewhere to practice at night under floodlights on concrete using the Hockey balls. Hopefully I'll find somewhere tomorrow and get some practice in. I've noticed that already I'm beginning to feel unfit, the practice I had a couple of days ago felt as though my arm had already began to lose it's strength!
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
October 1st
At last they've got more staff in at work and tonight I was able to come home at a reasonable time! Which meant that what with it being sunny and bright although a bit windy I was able to get out on the field with a couple of stumps and give the Leg Breaks a try out - could I still do it?
I came home via the field and found that the gate had been locked up using a couple of bike locks. Now I don't really know what had prompted that - because it's obviously not meant to deter people from going over there because the fence has got something like 6 - 8 holes in it on three sides of the field and there's been no attempt as yet to fix that problem. Initially I thought that maybe it was a reaction against my mowing exploits and that by locking the gate maybe it was deemed that I might not be able to get the mower onto the field? Maybe they know about this blog and they're aware that I've got a roller and they don't want me rolling the field? Where the roller is concerned they have virtually made that impossible, but I can't see that the lock will be there that long - this is Essex not Surrey! But the other probable reason is that they want to stop Motorbikes from getting on there? Towards the end of the summer on a couple of ocassions there were a couple of kids that turned up with a motorbike and road around the field on it - hopefully that's the rationale?
Anyway getting home early meant that I was able to get over there and have half an hour. So just using a single stump at each end I bowled at that. Unfortunately within a matter of seconds of starting a van pulled into the field and for a moment the bloke pulled up against the edge of the field and seemed to just sit there watching me. What with the sudden locking of the gate I felt uneasy about being there and kind of felt that I might be looking at a confrontation with this bloke along the lines of "Can't you see we don't want you on the field practicing and playing cricket & what do you know about the grass being cut - have you got anything to do with it"? Kind of thing. It didn't happen as it was the boxing crowd, but I kind of felt a bit paranoid as each one turned up in their cars and what with my mind being focussed on that it may have affected my bowling?
So not being able to focus 100% as advised by Peter Philpott the session was nowhere near as productive as the one on Saturday. I suppose I should be happy because the majority of the balls were either straight or small Leg Breaks with the rare one that I did manage to rip properly and they obviously turned wider. What I did notice was that in the 90 or so balls that I did throw several of them did the thing that I hear so many people talking about - I dragged it down trying really hard to impart the spin. After doing this a few times I stood back and took stock of what I was doing and it was the fact that I wasn't concentrating. I wasn't leading with the high arm, I wasn't following through with step over action and none of it was relaxed, as soon as I adopted this approach all aspects came together - line, length and spin, but it does require the total concentration. So all in all despite being nowhere near as good as the Saturday experience - I was bowling Leg Breaks - 80% of them turned albeit in a very small way, but this is only Oct 1st and I've got all of Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb and March to get it right, so I just need to be patient.
I came home via the field and found that the gate had been locked up using a couple of bike locks. Now I don't really know what had prompted that - because it's obviously not meant to deter people from going over there because the fence has got something like 6 - 8 holes in it on three sides of the field and there's been no attempt as yet to fix that problem. Initially I thought that maybe it was a reaction against my mowing exploits and that by locking the gate maybe it was deemed that I might not be able to get the mower onto the field? Maybe they know about this blog and they're aware that I've got a roller and they don't want me rolling the field? Where the roller is concerned they have virtually made that impossible, but I can't see that the lock will be there that long - this is Essex not Surrey! But the other probable reason is that they want to stop Motorbikes from getting on there? Towards the end of the summer on a couple of ocassions there were a couple of kids that turned up with a motorbike and road around the field on it - hopefully that's the rationale?
Anyway getting home early meant that I was able to get over there and have half an hour. So just using a single stump at each end I bowled at that. Unfortunately within a matter of seconds of starting a van pulled into the field and for a moment the bloke pulled up against the edge of the field and seemed to just sit there watching me. What with the sudden locking of the gate I felt uneasy about being there and kind of felt that I might be looking at a confrontation with this bloke along the lines of "Can't you see we don't want you on the field practicing and playing cricket & what do you know about the grass being cut - have you got anything to do with it"? Kind of thing. It didn't happen as it was the boxing crowd, but I kind of felt a bit paranoid as each one turned up in their cars and what with my mind being focussed on that it may have affected my bowling?
So not being able to focus 100% as advised by Peter Philpott the session was nowhere near as productive as the one on Saturday. I suppose I should be happy because the majority of the balls were either straight or small Leg Breaks with the rare one that I did manage to rip properly and they obviously turned wider. What I did notice was that in the 90 or so balls that I did throw several of them did the thing that I hear so many people talking about - I dragged it down trying really hard to impart the spin. After doing this a few times I stood back and took stock of what I was doing and it was the fact that I wasn't concentrating. I wasn't leading with the high arm, I wasn't following through with step over action and none of it was relaxed, as soon as I adopted this approach all aspects came together - line, length and spin, but it does require the total concentration. So all in all despite being nowhere near as good as the Saturday experience - I was bowling Leg Breaks - 80% of them turned albeit in a very small way, but this is only Oct 1st and I've got all of Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb and March to get it right, so I just need to be patient.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Season Review
You can't teach and old dog new tricks. Well I'm an old dog and I reckon this season despite my sporadic appearance I've learned some new tricks.
Just to recap; I'd never played cricket till August 2006, my only prior experience was probably bowling a tennis ball up against a wall with stumps drawn on it and even that's a lost memory. With regards watching cricket and having some idea of the rules - again a similar experience. When I came to the game two years ago my understanding of the rules was very limited.
So having mucked about with the game and forming my own team at work with a bunch of similarly clueless blokes on the whole for 11 months and having played 2 games where we'd been thrashed I joined Grays and Chadwell Cricket Club with a view to playing the game properly. I joined in July 2007 and played in a handful of games which was great but traumatic. Winter 2007-2008 saw me practicing continuously in order to try and make some kind of valuable contribution to the team and here we are at the end of the 2008 season and it's time to reflect.
At the end of last season I'd watched in awe at the likes of Ross Fulbrook and Neil our captain bowling seemingly flawless overs getting maidens and taking wickets. I was amazed at the bowling of an old bloke older than me in one of our last games against us, he'd bowled 12 overs and had got 5 maidens or something in that region totally dominating our batsmen and all he appeared to have done was bowled straight balls 95% of the time on a line and length. So I'd started the closed season with the intention of learning how to do that - bowl line and length and also look at the possibility of re-learning the Leg Break as I'd lost it over the summer of 2007. By around the end of October I'd given up on the Leg Break it was lost. Even my Top Spinner was more like a Googly than most peoples googly's. My Leg Break more often than not ended up looking more like a Big Googly than a small googly and despite the cries of You must be able to bowl the stock ball Leg Break to be a wrist spinner on many a forum page on the internet I threw the towl in and gave up concentrating on Bowling Top Spinners and Googly's.
By the end of the winter I was happy. In the games I'd had with G&CCC through July, Aug and Sept 2007 it was pretty usual to have bowled 3 maybe for 4 wide balls per over. Once I'd bowled one I'd then go to pieces, the panic would set in with the sense that I'd let everyone down and my bowling would fall apart and if I then got through the over not bowling another wide after the initial one that would be abnormal and accidental. Once my confidence was shot I just went to pieces. This season having spent the whole winter spot bowling I went into the new season with a new sense of confidence and in my first game against Loughborough in the pouring rain not only did I catch a ball that was a foregone conlclusion drop but I took a wicket whilst Neil our captian dropped 3 easy balls and failed to take a wicket?
The season then carried on pretty much the same - a massive improvement on the first season and all this with only 2 sessions in the nets as our net sessions fell on the same night I have to work late which i was devastated about. Looking back I think one of the key points is the wides issue. Simply not bowling shed loads of wides has made so much of a difference. Last year when I used to get the nod to bowl a spell I'd have been s******g myself leading up to it primarily because of the wides. This year I've been able to enjoy my bowling a lot more and have been nowhere near as apprehensive as I was last year.
So last year I was aware that the wides was the main issue and over the winter I was able to address this. There were other things that were mentioned but I simply didn't understand why they were and what people like Fozzy and Neil were driving at. Through the 2008 season I've now grasped concepts like the neccessity to bowl at the off-stump. Last season thinking I was Shane Warne I was bowling down the leg side trying to get the ball to turn into the stumps. Needless to say that approach tied in with the wides didn't work too well! I've also realised that bowling Googly's all the time is fairly flawed, I know this from playing with my sons, they know exactly what to do with them - they just step back and play the ball off the back foot knowing it's going to turn into their bodies.
The other realisation that I've come to terms with is that where I practice
The Leg Break
Just to recap; I'd never played cricket till August 2006, my only prior experience was probably bowling a tennis ball up against a wall with stumps drawn on it and even that's a lost memory. With regards watching cricket and having some idea of the rules - again a similar experience. When I came to the game two years ago my understanding of the rules was very limited.
So having mucked about with the game and forming my own team at work with a bunch of similarly clueless blokes on the whole for 11 months and having played 2 games where we'd been thrashed I joined Grays and Chadwell Cricket Club with a view to playing the game properly. I joined in July 2007 and played in a handful of games which was great but traumatic. Winter 2007-2008 saw me practicing continuously in order to try and make some kind of valuable contribution to the team and here we are at the end of the 2008 season and it's time to reflect.
At the end of last season I'd watched in awe at the likes of Ross Fulbrook and Neil our captain bowling seemingly flawless overs getting maidens and taking wickets. I was amazed at the bowling of an old bloke older than me in one of our last games against us, he'd bowled 12 overs and had got 5 maidens or something in that region totally dominating our batsmen and all he appeared to have done was bowled straight balls 95% of the time on a line and length. So I'd started the closed season with the intention of learning how to do that - bowl line and length and also look at the possibility of re-learning the Leg Break as I'd lost it over the summer of 2007. By around the end of October I'd given up on the Leg Break it was lost. Even my Top Spinner was more like a Googly than most peoples googly's. My Leg Break more often than not ended up looking more like a Big Googly than a small googly and despite the cries of You must be able to bowl the stock ball Leg Break to be a wrist spinner on many a forum page on the internet I threw the towl in and gave up concentrating on Bowling Top Spinners and Googly's.
By the end of the winter I was happy. In the games I'd had with G&CCC through July, Aug and Sept 2007 it was pretty usual to have bowled 3 maybe for 4 wide balls per over. Once I'd bowled one I'd then go to pieces, the panic would set in with the sense that I'd let everyone down and my bowling would fall apart and if I then got through the over not bowling another wide after the initial one that would be abnormal and accidental. Once my confidence was shot I just went to pieces. This season having spent the whole winter spot bowling I went into the new season with a new sense of confidence and in my first game against Loughborough in the pouring rain not only did I catch a ball that was a foregone conlclusion drop but I took a wicket whilst Neil our captian dropped 3 easy balls and failed to take a wicket?
The season then carried on pretty much the same - a massive improvement on the first season and all this with only 2 sessions in the nets as our net sessions fell on the same night I have to work late which i was devastated about. Looking back I think one of the key points is the wides issue. Simply not bowling shed loads of wides has made so much of a difference. Last year when I used to get the nod to bowl a spell I'd have been s******g myself leading up to it primarily because of the wides. This year I've been able to enjoy my bowling a lot more and have been nowhere near as apprehensive as I was last year.
So last year I was aware that the wides was the main issue and over the winter I was able to address this. There were other things that were mentioned but I simply didn't understand why they were and what people like Fozzy and Neil were driving at. Through the 2008 season I've now grasped concepts like the neccessity to bowl at the off-stump. Last season thinking I was Shane Warne I was bowling down the leg side trying to get the ball to turn into the stumps. Needless to say that approach tied in with the wides didn't work too well! I've also realised that bowling Googly's all the time is fairly flawed, I know this from playing with my sons, they know exactly what to do with them - they just step back and play the ball off the back foot knowing it's going to turn into their bodies.
The other realisation that I've come to terms with is that where I practice
- On concrete with Hockey Balls
- On football pitches with long grass
I get a lot more turn than I do on a cricket pitch. This means that it's even more important to bowl a good line and length at the off stump. Not one of the wickets that I've taken this year has resembled the kind of turn I get during practice, so it's pointless bowling wide of off with the intention that the ball will turn massively - it's been far more affective to bowl at the off-stump as this then causes the batsman to play a lot more defensively and the net result is that the run rate is massively reduced. Then on the odd ocassion when the ball has snuck through the turn off the pitch has meant that it has turned in and hit middle and leg ocassionally and that in itself is satisfying.
I've also become aware of the fielding in relation to my bowling - my Captain sets my field and because I now bowl down the offside he has players on the off-side ready to take any balls, but the reality of this is that unless he or some of the more experienced players are there, the likelyhood of anyone catching a ball on the off-side is pretty slim. So I've realised that bowling a ball slightly wider trying to entice the bat to play a square cut or a front foot drive into that area off a safe looking ball that's not threatening the stumps is usually pretty fruitless. So the last few games the intention has been straight balls down the wicket at the off-stump and it's been working. Again these revelations have come about not through people explaining the theory but me just analysing and reflecting on the games.
One of the last realisations is that it's useful to look at your bowling figures. Again this is obvious but it's not been that much of a concern to me because I just want to bowl straight and on a length and to start looking at my stats so early would have been demoralising. But I reckon next season I may feel confident enough to look at them and to be honest I wouldn't have known where to look and what I was looking at! But my second from last game I bowled 10 overs, took two wickets, 1 maiden and went for 45 runs which is my best performance ever and I knew it was as I was going through the spell. So next season I'll be tracking that closely looking at things such as economy and strike rates (Is that right)? I'll also be looking at my figures in comparison with my contemporaries - The Wizard and Ross Fullbrook. I'm not even going to imagine I'll get anywhere near Neil.
Batting
Well - towards the end of the season I started to get my head round the idea of supporting the other bloke at the other end e.g. make sure he gets on strike. But I still need to be able to hit the ball and not feel so intimidated by the whole thing. I'm just hoping that I get some net practice this year? The upside though is that although I didn't beat my all time highest score of 9 with the MPA team I have hit 2 or 3 fours this season.
The Leg Break
Bowling Googly's all season it's obvious that I need to bowl the Leg Break, but there has been a break-through in that I bought and read Peter Philpotts book The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling in amongst the chapters he writes about something I call The Googly Syndrome which I'd come across before. It's the process of losing the ability to bowl the Leg Break simply because you bowl too many Googly's and it's what has happened to me. But since reading the book and understanding what has happened I've comitted myself to re-learning the leg break as of Sept 30th. But this weekend not getting a game I've already started and have made a massive turn round in bowling the Leg Break see http://thegooglysyndrome.blogspot.com/ so it looks like I may be onto something that will lead to a better season next year?
Goals for 2009
- Be able to bowl the Leg Break - good line and length
- Be able to bowl my Gipper on a good line and length
- Increase my speed with my bowling
- Get better bowling figures than The Wizard and Ross Fullbrook
- Maybe look at bowling the Doosra if the others come together
- Attend the nets sessions and get better at batting
- Score more than 9 in match next season
- Keep fit
- Try and get my kids playing for G&CCC colts
- Try and play more games next season
- Get all the local kids playing cricket right from the start of the season
- Learn as much as possible about the game
- Try and see at least one of the Ashes matches live
I don't know how well Ross Fullbrook did this season, but I know his attitude is erratic so I'm not sure whether that goal is realistic or not? I may have to back track on that if his economy is ridiculously good.
So all in all I reckon that I've done okay. I think I may have been less positive about this if it wasn't for 'Super Dave Gaylor' as I'd said to him in a match something about how good Ross Fulbrook was bowling and he said something along the lines of 'Yeah but you've only been playing for 18 months whereas he's been playing and getting coached for the last 4 years'. So maybe I'm doing alright for an Old Dog?
The Leg Break
Monday, September 22, 2008
Grays & Chadwell CC v Wigan team
Grays & Chadwell CC v Winstanley Park XI (Wigan)
A lovely Saturday morning blue skies a bit of an Easterly breeze and the prospect of some cricket after last weeks PB on the bowling front. The only thing was I hadn't heard from Neil whether I was playing at home or away or in fact whether I even had a game. My phone had run out of credit last week and I was avoiding paying for some new credit whist at the same time I didn't have any computer access other than at work and the last two weeks have been hell with very little time. I'd called Neil a couple of times and had got his answer phone and left a message but none of the messages had been returned so I was beginning to think it was either the wrong number or he only does text messages? So I was forced to go and top up my phone credits which I didn't mind too much as I was killing two birds with one stone in that I also sorted my subs money out e.g. I got it out of the cash machine outside the shop where I did the top up.
In fact at this point good fortune so far was smiling on me - as I'd cycled up the shop and crossed the road my glasses fell out of my pocket and into the middle of the road, I was up on the path before I realised what had happened only to notice that a VW golf was bearing down on them and they were right where the wheels would pass. I got the drivers attention and pointed to them and he slowed down and purposely avoided them and I was able to retrieve them.
Once home I sent Neil a text and within a matter of seconds he'd answered saying yes I'd got a game. I replied asking when we'd be kicking off and again within seconds he replied "We're here now setting up - it's a 12.30 start". I looked around at my family, they were right in the middle of doing homework, even Joe was settled and working well and they were all expecting me to join in and help.
"Any chance of a lift it's an earlier start today"? Strewth the reaction from Michelle was more akin to me having asked "Any chance I can have a divorce so I can run off with 20 year old page 3 model"?
The drive to Blackshots was conducted in silence with everyone looking as though we'd just had our dog put down or something. But I got there before the opposition and helped set up. Neil put me on sweeping up duty as I'd turned up late and I had to sweep up some piles of rubbish that had been swept out of the changing rooms. I mentioned to some of the blokes about how much grief playing cricket gets me in and one of them suggested that it might be an idea to try and get tickets for all of us to go and see one of the test match games in the summer next year as his wife was pretty much the same but having seen a test match suddenly came round to the idea of cricket being a positive force in life. It may be worth a punt?
The Wizard was there and we soon got down to some bowling practice while the others all looked on taking the Michael. There were a couple of blokes hanging around who looked like they were on our side who I didn't know but most of the faces were familiar but we were looking as though we were short on bowlers. The opposition soon arrived and they were all older big geezers in their mid 30's and older, the sort of blokes that looked as though they new what they were about. I heard Neil say he was worried about them as they might be exceptionally good. I was expecting a team from Hornchurch but it sounded to me like they were all Northerners? It turmed out that they were - they were from somewhere outside the M25, somewhere called Wigan, but strangely they didn't have moustache's like most of those northern types do, but they did look like those blokes that play that strange game that poshies play round this way - Rugby?
We were fielding first and the team was as follows - (Batting order)
Nick Buckley (Wkt Keeper)
Super Dave Gaylor
Phil No.2
Phil Downes
Lee Downes
Chris Buckley
Cameron the Kid Daly
Roy Gant
Alex McClellan (The Wizard)
Me (Dave Thompson)
Neil (Capt)
The blokes that were new to me were Phil No.2 and Roy who I've seen around the club spectating and drinking but have never played in a game with them and the kid Cameron who looked about 13.
There first bat was Billy Hunt who could show Steve Austin a thing or two and Super Dave was up to prove that he wasn't such a superman. Super's first few overs were blinding with appreciative oohs and aaahs coming from Neil and those that could see what was going on and our start looked very good because they simply were not making any runs. 13 minutes in and Super put an end to Billy Hunts attempt at world domination and had him out for 0. Maybe this was Karma for having Super entered as 'Gaylord' in the scorebook. Meanwhile bowling from the estate end we had (as described in the scorebook) Benwell AKA Samwell. How Samwell ended up as Benwell I don't know but it may have something to do with our Cockeney accents depsite the fact that we've all got South Essex accents (Well I have)? Anyway Neil was bowling well and maintaining an extremely low run rate along with Gaylord. At this point the run rate was less than 1 an over and we'd already taken a wicket and I was wondering whether this was going to be a repeat of last weeks game where at no point did the oppo make any real attempt at scoring runs. I beginning to think is this usual and something to do with fatigue at the end of the season and other shite excuses usually offered up by lamo footballers?
Both Neil and Dave bowled really well and by the 10th over the Wigan boys had only just reached double figures with it being less than 2 per over. The new bloke that had replaced Billy Hunt was at this point playing a really cautious innings too. It looked as though soon there'd be a bowling change and looking around at our side it looked as though it would be the much derided right arm spin coupling of me and the Wizard.
But before that just a comment or two on the fielding. Earlier on off of Neils bowling while I was fielding at Mid on or thereabouts one of their blokes hit a ball out my way to my right and I went after it knowing that I could get there if I got a lot of body behind it but it would require going to ground and I didn't want to go diving right, so I went beyond it to then fall on my left side thus blocking the ball. I mistimed it and it passed under me going for 4 screwing up Neils impeccable bowling figures up to that point. That was my only cock up of the whole day in the field. One of the new blokes Phil the 2nd looked a bit jaded and had something of a decoy player about him, he missed a few chances that went straight his way, but at this point it didn't look to worrying as their run rate was exceedingly poor and Neil had been so concerned about this teams potential. Me and the Wizard would soon be at hand to help them out!
The change over saw me and the Wizard bowling from opposing ends. The wizard was bowling from the Flats end and I was at the bowling end. I think both of us had opportunites to get wickets denied from dropped catches and the like, I don't generally dwell on these too much because as with the incident during Neils spell I screw up and so does everyone else at times. The only one I can recall was a little edge off the bat that Nick should have had as it hardly deviated off it's line and yet Nick was nowhere near it and it and it went past him down the offside. The thrid man in was some bloke called Hetherington who did start to make runs but I put a stop to him with Wrong Un that was a lot slower than the previous balls and he went after it far too early and it went past him and turned in and hit the off stump. So that was nice to have hit the stumps rather than have it caught. I kind of like the idea of being able to draw them out of their crease so that the wicket keeper has their bails off, maybe next year? Both The Wizard (Who's was named as "Merlin" in their scorebook) and I bowled 6 overs each I was hit for 43 and took one wicket. The wizard was hit for 42 but no wicket so in the Super Dave's Thompson v The Wizard battle I think I won that one? The wizard bowled a bunch of wides as well including 3 in his last over and I think looking at the scorebook I only threw 1 wide? But then you look at Neils stats 21 runs off of 12 overs and a wicket and you can see how much better he is then us!
Roy Gant was up next and bowled 3 overs and went for 21 runs with no wicket. Cameron Daly was pretty good he bowled 3 overs and went for 14 with no wicket. Supposedly he was bowling leg spin, Neil had said something along the lines of "Here we go then - we're going to see how you should bowl RH Leg spin now" with reference to the Wizards and my bowling. He did well as the figures suggest, but it looked a bit unorthodox and I couldn't see if he was getting the ball to turn. Chris Buckers had two overs and went for 21. Lee Downes had an over went for 5 and bowled the bloke clean and then Neil and Super came on and had a few overs each. Super was running out of steam by the time he was retired from bowling but he had taken another wicket and Neil bowled the last. From a ridiculously slow start they'd ended up getting 222 for 6. There were a couple of blokes that did well Darbyshire looked very impressive during his time at the crease he brimmed confidence and technique and scored shed loads of runs really quickly including a 6. He was an older bloke - late 40's early 50's maybe obviously got a few years of cricket under his belt looking at the way he played.
Have a look at the score sheets for more details.
Then it was teas. Teas included fish, chips and beans which went down well with some nice cheese cake. There was some lovely Salmon sandwhiches as well - we were spoilt for choice, the only crticism might be that there wasn't enough chocolate for my liking, other than that it was very commendable. Such a civilised game cricket.
Then it was our turn to bat and see if we could match their performance. It was generally agreed that it was some ask as the side we were playing had been subjected to some last minute poaching by the 1st team who were playing away. Phil Downes and Nick Buckley it seems have been dogged by bad form of late and someone else said that Chris Buckley was half the man he'd been last year and all season had been playing with a lack of confidence, so it looked like it was down to ton up boy of the moment Lee Downes and Super Dave.
Nick out of form Buckley faced the first over from the flats end the bowling was slow straight from the outset and Nick survived poking one ball over the top of the close in fielders with big looping ball that seemed to be in the air for an age inviting a catch from anyone who might have had a bit of spark about them, but fortunately being older blokes they were lacking spark. Super faced the next over and survived seemingly quite comfortably. Nick in the 3rd over hit another ball in exactly the same area in exactly the same manner out to Extra Cover but having seen it once their only sprightly fielder who had the look of Herschel Gibbs about him and was younger than the rest came racing in while the ball was in the air for about 10 seconds and slid in only to fumble it after covering about 50' to get there having passed about 2 or 3 of their more pedestrian players who I think were using zimmer frames. So Nick survived again.
At this point we were in front of their score 6 runs off of 4 overs but Nick's luck didn't hold out much longer he edged a ball that went straight up in the air above him meaning the wicket keeper had to take 2 paces and caught it easily. Super Dave hit our first four out to long on after being joined by the Decoy player Phil G (Sorry Phil can't read your name off of the scorebook). But this is where Phil the Decoy comes into his own. Phil's one of those blokes that hasn't played cricket since he was a kid 20 - 25 years ago and this is his first ever real match. He'd walked out to the wicket suggesting that he'd be back in the next few seconds but straight from the outset he was hitting the ball, then came the fours, not one, not two but four fours! Buy the time Phil made his way back to the pavillion having been run out, he'd hit the ball and it had gone straight up the wicket and been heading for a bloke at 1st slips. All through his innings Phil had been riding his luck having been mis-fielded and dropped time and time again. Having hit the ball hard and seeing it heading off to this bloke he's assumed that it would be another mis-field and shouted 'Yes' to Super. But the bloke stopped it, dropped it and picked it up, the law of averages was on Phil's side (So he thought) Phil was barely past the half way point on the wicket and the bloke took aim and threw it directly at the stumps and he was gone. He'd made 30 runs! Which just confirms my belief that some people can bat and it's a natural ability, maybe these are the people that with a bit of guidance and coaching can go on to be really good batsmen, whereas others like me will probably always be crap at it?
With Phil on 30 all of the players on the boundary line and doing the scoring were half hoping that Super wouldn't make it to level and go past Phil just so they could have a pop at him. At 16 overs we were on 61 thanks to Phil's impressive innings. He'd now been replaced by Phil Downes and Super was next to go
Whilst waiting to bat or do umpiring duties I threw some balls at Phil and Cameron the Kid and during the warm up with Cameron I threw a few balls that were an attempt at small leg breaks and again like other forays into the art of Leg Break they worked. Needless to say there's lots of work to be done on line and length, but just to get the ball to go towards the off-side is a good start and makes me feel optimistic about the prospects of Sept 30th when the commitment to full time Leg Break training kicks in. Another promising thing happened when I was bowling at Phil. I bowled a few Gippers at him and they were okay with the line and length but not much spin, but Phil said that one of them had some good drift? If I could repeat that at will that'd be interesting?
Sunday Michelle had arranged to drive to Frinton - a beach-side town up Clacton way. All I knew of it was that it was known for not having a pub or arcades or things like chip shops, which sounded alright as it might mean there'd be no riff raff - blokes with DA haircuts in thier 50's and 60's walking around in leather jackets with tassles on humming Elvis songs - you know the sorts. I wasn't particularly up for it as there's a field 100 foot from my house and only so many dry weekends in which to play cricket in, but I tried to be of a cheery disposition. But I've got to say it was a result. If there was a beach on which you could play cricket - this is it. The sand is flat and dense, none of that undulating rubbish you get at places like Camber Sands, this is smooth and firm and takes a bit of a pounding before you have to move the stumps over because of the bowlers foot holes. Then when the tide comes in there's a nice bit of grass at the top of the grassy cliff where you park your car. For a cricket/beach day I reckon if you took your own beer it gets a 8 out of 10.
A lovely Saturday morning blue skies a bit of an Easterly breeze and the prospect of some cricket after last weeks PB on the bowling front. The only thing was I hadn't heard from Neil whether I was playing at home or away or in fact whether I even had a game. My phone had run out of credit last week and I was avoiding paying for some new credit whist at the same time I didn't have any computer access other than at work and the last two weeks have been hell with very little time. I'd called Neil a couple of times and had got his answer phone and left a message but none of the messages had been returned so I was beginning to think it was either the wrong number or he only does text messages? So I was forced to go and top up my phone credits which I didn't mind too much as I was killing two birds with one stone in that I also sorted my subs money out e.g. I got it out of the cash machine outside the shop where I did the top up.
In fact at this point good fortune so far was smiling on me - as I'd cycled up the shop and crossed the road my glasses fell out of my pocket and into the middle of the road, I was up on the path before I realised what had happened only to notice that a VW golf was bearing down on them and they were right where the wheels would pass. I got the drivers attention and pointed to them and he slowed down and purposely avoided them and I was able to retrieve them.
Once home I sent Neil a text and within a matter of seconds he'd answered saying yes I'd got a game. I replied asking when we'd be kicking off and again within seconds he replied "We're here now setting up - it's a 12.30 start". I looked around at my family, they were right in the middle of doing homework, even Joe was settled and working well and they were all expecting me to join in and help.
"Any chance of a lift it's an earlier start today"? Strewth the reaction from Michelle was more akin to me having asked "Any chance I can have a divorce so I can run off with 20 year old page 3 model"?
The drive to Blackshots was conducted in silence with everyone looking as though we'd just had our dog put down or something. But I got there before the opposition and helped set up. Neil put me on sweeping up duty as I'd turned up late and I had to sweep up some piles of rubbish that had been swept out of the changing rooms. I mentioned to some of the blokes about how much grief playing cricket gets me in and one of them suggested that it might be an idea to try and get tickets for all of us to go and see one of the test match games in the summer next year as his wife was pretty much the same but having seen a test match suddenly came round to the idea of cricket being a positive force in life. It may be worth a punt?
The Wizard was there and we soon got down to some bowling practice while the others all looked on taking the Michael. There were a couple of blokes hanging around who looked like they were on our side who I didn't know but most of the faces were familiar but we were looking as though we were short on bowlers. The opposition soon arrived and they were all older big geezers in their mid 30's and older, the sort of blokes that looked as though they new what they were about. I heard Neil say he was worried about them as they might be exceptionally good. I was expecting a team from Hornchurch but it sounded to me like they were all Northerners? It turmed out that they were - they were from somewhere outside the M25, somewhere called Wigan, but strangely they didn't have moustache's like most of those northern types do, but they did look like those blokes that play that strange game that poshies play round this way - Rugby?
We were fielding first and the team was as follows - (Batting order)
Nick Buckley (Wkt Keeper)
Super Dave Gaylor
Phil No.2
Phil Downes
Lee Downes
Chris Buckley
Cameron the Kid Daly
Roy Gant
Alex McClellan (The Wizard)
Me (Dave Thompson)
Neil (Capt)
The blokes that were new to me were Phil No.2 and Roy who I've seen around the club spectating and drinking but have never played in a game with them and the kid Cameron who looked about 13.
There first bat was Billy Hunt who could show Steve Austin a thing or two and Super Dave was up to prove that he wasn't such a superman. Super's first few overs were blinding with appreciative oohs and aaahs coming from Neil and those that could see what was going on and our start looked very good because they simply were not making any runs. 13 minutes in and Super put an end to Billy Hunts attempt at world domination and had him out for 0. Maybe this was Karma for having Super entered as 'Gaylord' in the scorebook. Meanwhile bowling from the estate end we had (as described in the scorebook) Benwell AKA Samwell. How Samwell ended up as Benwell I don't know but it may have something to do with our Cockeney accents depsite the fact that we've all got South Essex accents (Well I have)? Anyway Neil was bowling well and maintaining an extremely low run rate along with Gaylord. At this point the run rate was less than 1 an over and we'd already taken a wicket and I was wondering whether this was going to be a repeat of last weeks game where at no point did the oppo make any real attempt at scoring runs. I beginning to think is this usual and something to do with fatigue at the end of the season and other shite excuses usually offered up by lamo footballers?
Both Neil and Dave bowled really well and by the 10th over the Wigan boys had only just reached double figures with it being less than 2 per over. The new bloke that had replaced Billy Hunt was at this point playing a really cautious innings too. It looked as though soon there'd be a bowling change and looking around at our side it looked as though it would be the much derided right arm spin coupling of me and the Wizard.
But before that just a comment or two on the fielding. Earlier on off of Neils bowling while I was fielding at Mid on or thereabouts one of their blokes hit a ball out my way to my right and I went after it knowing that I could get there if I got a lot of body behind it but it would require going to ground and I didn't want to go diving right, so I went beyond it to then fall on my left side thus blocking the ball. I mistimed it and it passed under me going for 4 screwing up Neils impeccable bowling figures up to that point. That was my only cock up of the whole day in the field. One of the new blokes Phil the 2nd looked a bit jaded and had something of a decoy player about him, he missed a few chances that went straight his way, but at this point it didn't look to worrying as their run rate was exceedingly poor and Neil had been so concerned about this teams potential. Me and the Wizard would soon be at hand to help them out!
The change over saw me and the Wizard bowling from opposing ends. The wizard was bowling from the Flats end and I was at the bowling end. I think both of us had opportunites to get wickets denied from dropped catches and the like, I don't generally dwell on these too much because as with the incident during Neils spell I screw up and so does everyone else at times. The only one I can recall was a little edge off the bat that Nick should have had as it hardly deviated off it's line and yet Nick was nowhere near it and it and it went past him down the offside. The thrid man in was some bloke called Hetherington who did start to make runs but I put a stop to him with Wrong Un that was a lot slower than the previous balls and he went after it far too early and it went past him and turned in and hit the off stump. So that was nice to have hit the stumps rather than have it caught. I kind of like the idea of being able to draw them out of their crease so that the wicket keeper has their bails off, maybe next year? Both The Wizard (Who's was named as "Merlin" in their scorebook) and I bowled 6 overs each I was hit for 43 and took one wicket. The wizard was hit for 42 but no wicket so in the Super Dave's Thompson v The Wizard battle I think I won that one? The wizard bowled a bunch of wides as well including 3 in his last over and I think looking at the scorebook I only threw 1 wide? But then you look at Neils stats 21 runs off of 12 overs and a wicket and you can see how much better he is then us!
Roy Gant was up next and bowled 3 overs and went for 21 runs with no wicket. Cameron Daly was pretty good he bowled 3 overs and went for 14 with no wicket. Supposedly he was bowling leg spin, Neil had said something along the lines of "Here we go then - we're going to see how you should bowl RH Leg spin now" with reference to the Wizards and my bowling. He did well as the figures suggest, but it looked a bit unorthodox and I couldn't see if he was getting the ball to turn. Chris Buckers had two overs and went for 21. Lee Downes had an over went for 5 and bowled the bloke clean and then Neil and Super came on and had a few overs each. Super was running out of steam by the time he was retired from bowling but he had taken another wicket and Neil bowled the last. From a ridiculously slow start they'd ended up getting 222 for 6. There were a couple of blokes that did well Darbyshire looked very impressive during his time at the crease he brimmed confidence and technique and scored shed loads of runs really quickly including a 6. He was an older bloke - late 40's early 50's maybe obviously got a few years of cricket under his belt looking at the way he played.
Have a look at the score sheets for more details.
Then it was teas. Teas included fish, chips and beans which went down well with some nice cheese cake. There was some lovely Salmon sandwhiches as well - we were spoilt for choice, the only crticism might be that there wasn't enough chocolate for my liking, other than that it was very commendable. Such a civilised game cricket.
Then it was our turn to bat and see if we could match their performance. It was generally agreed that it was some ask as the side we were playing had been subjected to some last minute poaching by the 1st team who were playing away. Phil Downes and Nick Buckley it seems have been dogged by bad form of late and someone else said that Chris Buckley was half the man he'd been last year and all season had been playing with a lack of confidence, so it looked like it was down to ton up boy of the moment Lee Downes and Super Dave.
Nick out of form Buckley faced the first over from the flats end the bowling was slow straight from the outset and Nick survived poking one ball over the top of the close in fielders with big looping ball that seemed to be in the air for an age inviting a catch from anyone who might have had a bit of spark about them, but fortunately being older blokes they were lacking spark. Super faced the next over and survived seemingly quite comfortably. Nick in the 3rd over hit another ball in exactly the same area in exactly the same manner out to Extra Cover but having seen it once their only sprightly fielder who had the look of Herschel Gibbs about him and was younger than the rest came racing in while the ball was in the air for about 10 seconds and slid in only to fumble it after covering about 50' to get there having passed about 2 or 3 of their more pedestrian players who I think were using zimmer frames. So Nick survived again.
At this point we were in front of their score 6 runs off of 4 overs but Nick's luck didn't hold out much longer he edged a ball that went straight up in the air above him meaning the wicket keeper had to take 2 paces and caught it easily. Super Dave hit our first four out to long on after being joined by the Decoy player Phil G (Sorry Phil can't read your name off of the scorebook). But this is where Phil the Decoy comes into his own. Phil's one of those blokes that hasn't played cricket since he was a kid 20 - 25 years ago and this is his first ever real match. He'd walked out to the wicket suggesting that he'd be back in the next few seconds but straight from the outset he was hitting the ball, then came the fours, not one, not two but four fours! Buy the time Phil made his way back to the pavillion having been run out, he'd hit the ball and it had gone straight up the wicket and been heading for a bloke at 1st slips. All through his innings Phil had been riding his luck having been mis-fielded and dropped time and time again. Having hit the ball hard and seeing it heading off to this bloke he's assumed that it would be another mis-field and shouted 'Yes' to Super. But the bloke stopped it, dropped it and picked it up, the law of averages was on Phil's side (So he thought) Phil was barely past the half way point on the wicket and the bloke took aim and threw it directly at the stumps and he was gone. He'd made 30 runs! Which just confirms my belief that some people can bat and it's a natural ability, maybe these are the people that with a bit of guidance and coaching can go on to be really good batsmen, whereas others like me will probably always be crap at it?
With Phil on 30 all of the players on the boundary line and doing the scoring were half hoping that Super wouldn't make it to level and go past Phil just so they could have a pop at him. At 16 overs we were on 61 thanks to Phil's impressive innings. He'd now been replaced by Phil Downes and Super was next to go
Whilst waiting to bat or do umpiring duties I threw some balls at Phil and Cameron the Kid and during the warm up with Cameron I threw a few balls that were an attempt at small leg breaks and again like other forays into the art of Leg Break they worked. Needless to say there's lots of work to be done on line and length, but just to get the ball to go towards the off-side is a good start and makes me feel optimistic about the prospects of Sept 30th when the commitment to full time Leg Break training kicks in. Another promising thing happened when I was bowling at Phil. I bowled a few Gippers at him and they were okay with the line and length but not much spin, but Phil said that one of them had some good drift? If I could repeat that at will that'd be interesting?
Sunday Michelle had arranged to drive to Frinton - a beach-side town up Clacton way. All I knew of it was that it was known for not having a pub or arcades or things like chip shops, which sounded alright as it might mean there'd be no riff raff - blokes with DA haircuts in thier 50's and 60's walking around in leather jackets with tassles on humming Elvis songs - you know the sorts. I wasn't particularly up for it as there's a field 100 foot from my house and only so many dry weekends in which to play cricket in, but I tried to be of a cheery disposition. But I've got to say it was a result. If there was a beach on which you could play cricket - this is it. The sand is flat and dense, none of that undulating rubbish you get at places like Camber Sands, this is smooth and firm and takes a bit of a pounding before you have to move the stumps over because of the bowlers foot holes. Then when the tide comes in there's a nice bit of grass at the top of the grassy cliff where you park your car. For a cricket/beach day I reckon if you took your own beer it gets a 8 out of 10.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Game tomorrow!
Another lovely September evening sweating my nads off coming home in a coat having gone to work on crisps and chilly morning – but equally sunny and autumnal. I asked both Ben and Joe whether they were interested in going over the field for a bit of a knock about, Joe almost did but then chose to go and play with his mates, so I ended up going over on my own and having a bowling practice which I wasn’t fussed about. You can still distinguish where the cricket pitch is so put down more markers so that I can keep and eye on it over the winter.
Bowled mostly flippers because they’ve been going really well and again tonight was no different. I was trying to bowl them all at a certain length at the off stump at varying speeds and for most part it went as planned. Using 10 balls (My white ones) I probably bowled 70-80 balls and only bowled three down the legside. Generally I bowled very well with a similar kind of accuracy as I did last Saturday which kind of makes me feel really optimistic about bowling and quite confident. The only worry is that last game was odd in that the players were not coming after the ball, but then maybe if they did maybe they’d be more likely to make mistakes. What I can’t believe retrospectively is the off-side/legside theory. Because this year I’ve committed myself to bowling wrong uns I’ve gradually got more and more accurate and bowl far fewer down the legside. But because I do bowl fewer down the legside I’ve now noticed that most RH bats love a ball that goes down the legside and they easily get onto it and hit it with a degree of pleasure and assuredness. Looking at the way Neil sets offside fields when I bowl there’s obviously less chance that they’ll be caught if they hit the ball to the legside? What I’ve now noticed is that if I bowl down the offside they’re a lot less reluctant to go after the ball and if you’re accurate and bowl at the off stump they’re really tied down and will normally play defensive shots. A lot of you reading this may think Duh! That’s obvious, but then as Super Dave reminded me on Saturday when I commented on how well Ross Fulbrook bowled he said “You got to remember he’s been playing cricket for 5 years whereas you’ve only been playing for 2”. But it’d be nice if I could bowl ten overs or more again this weekend and display the same amount of accuracy and put these theories into practice. I loved the way the flippers were going tonight and if the same accuracy could be applied to the game combined with the variation in pace and ball (Googly/Top spinner) I may be onto something?
Again I’ve been going over the principles of batting as a tail ender so hopefully this time I’ll be a little more alert and less inclined to ball watch with my ears turned off! Maybe I’ll get the elusive 12 runs that I’m after to set my PB. Okay let’s go for it let’s try and get 3 wickets as well and make it a bowling PB with a low run total as well!
Bowled mostly flippers because they’ve been going really well and again tonight was no different. I was trying to bowl them all at a certain length at the off stump at varying speeds and for most part it went as planned. Using 10 balls (My white ones) I probably bowled 70-80 balls and only bowled three down the legside. Generally I bowled very well with a similar kind of accuracy as I did last Saturday which kind of makes me feel really optimistic about bowling and quite confident. The only worry is that last game was odd in that the players were not coming after the ball, but then maybe if they did maybe they’d be more likely to make mistakes. What I can’t believe retrospectively is the off-side/legside theory. Because this year I’ve committed myself to bowling wrong uns I’ve gradually got more and more accurate and bowl far fewer down the legside. But because I do bowl fewer down the legside I’ve now noticed that most RH bats love a ball that goes down the legside and they easily get onto it and hit it with a degree of pleasure and assuredness. Looking at the way Neil sets offside fields when I bowl there’s obviously less chance that they’ll be caught if they hit the ball to the legside? What I’ve now noticed is that if I bowl down the offside they’re a lot less reluctant to go after the ball and if you’re accurate and bowl at the off stump they’re really tied down and will normally play defensive shots. A lot of you reading this may think Duh! That’s obvious, but then as Super Dave reminded me on Saturday when I commented on how well Ross Fulbrook bowled he said “You got to remember he’s been playing cricket for 5 years whereas you’ve only been playing for 2”. But it’d be nice if I could bowl ten overs or more again this weekend and display the same amount of accuracy and put these theories into practice. I loved the way the flippers were going tonight and if the same accuracy could be applied to the game combined with the variation in pace and ball (Googly/Top spinner) I may be onto something?
Again I’ve been going over the principles of batting as a tail ender so hopefully this time I’ll be a little more alert and less inclined to ball watch with my ears turned off! Maybe I’ll get the elusive 12 runs that I’m after to set my PB. Okay let’s go for it let’s try and get 3 wickets as well and make it a bowling PB with a low run total as well!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
17th September
September is looking pretty good so far – fairly warm and sunny and it looks like it’s going to continue into this coming weekend, so that’ll be nice for the cricket. My time table at work has been sorted and again this year I’ve been lumbered with the late shift, so I do 2 lates per week Tuesday and Thursday. The reason I mention this is because after Christmas G&CCC will be going into the nets and I bet you it’ll be Tuesday night as that’s the night that’ll continue all year.
Looked at the wicket over at Valence Way tonight and it’s now growing out. You can still see it at the moment as the grass is still shorter than the outfield grass. I’ll need to mark it in some way so that it can be reinstated in the spring. At each end of the pitch and at the sides there are markers that will enable me to find the centre, but there is a chance some of these may get moved so I’ll have to think how I mark the pitch more permanently.
Ben was at Cubs tonight and Joe has decided he no longer wants to go to Beavers, so instead we gave the option – Beavers or stay in and do homework and it seems that he chose homework so it does seem that he really doesn’t like Beavers because he’s not a big fan of homework either! By the time I got in he’d done his homework so we went out for a bike ride and then we ended up on the Valence Way wicket for some practice. When he’s on his own in a one to one situation Joe does really well, he knew what a front foot drive was and said as soon as we got there “Do you want me to do front foot drives”? So it’s obvious that he does listen, but he will only put things into action on his terms it seems? So I threw some balls to him and he did really well and like Ben last Sunday it seemed to boost his confidence. He also bowled some slow stuff and produced balls that spun both ways and then it got too dark and we had to call it a day. It’s now dark by 8pm and it’s getting dismal in the evenings.
I held out from throwing googly’s and tried to bowl Leg Breaks – it went okay, not too bad, it feels like I just need to practice so much that I get used to my hand being in that position to bowl the leg break. I’ve had the call up to play at the weekend and I’m going to play again on Saturday, so I’m looking forward to that. I just hope that in addition to bowling I may get the chance to bat and advance my run rate a bit and perhaps do a lot better at the communication aspect when I’m out there. 11 is still my all time highest run rate and it’d be nice to beat that in the next game or so. It’ll also be interesting to see if my bowling will be as good as last week especially if the bats play with some intent.
Looked at the wicket over at Valence Way tonight and it’s now growing out. You can still see it at the moment as the grass is still shorter than the outfield grass. I’ll need to mark it in some way so that it can be reinstated in the spring. At each end of the pitch and at the sides there are markers that will enable me to find the centre, but there is a chance some of these may get moved so I’ll have to think how I mark the pitch more permanently.
Ben was at Cubs tonight and Joe has decided he no longer wants to go to Beavers, so instead we gave the option – Beavers or stay in and do homework and it seems that he chose homework so it does seem that he really doesn’t like Beavers because he’s not a big fan of homework either! By the time I got in he’d done his homework so we went out for a bike ride and then we ended up on the Valence Way wicket for some practice. When he’s on his own in a one to one situation Joe does really well, he knew what a front foot drive was and said as soon as we got there “Do you want me to do front foot drives”? So it’s obvious that he does listen, but he will only put things into action on his terms it seems? So I threw some balls to him and he did really well and like Ben last Sunday it seemed to boost his confidence. He also bowled some slow stuff and produced balls that spun both ways and then it got too dark and we had to call it a day. It’s now dark by 8pm and it’s getting dismal in the evenings.
I held out from throwing googly’s and tried to bowl Leg Breaks – it went okay, not too bad, it feels like I just need to practice so much that I get used to my hand being in that position to bowl the leg break. I’ve had the call up to play at the weekend and I’m going to play again on Saturday, so I’m looking forward to that. I just hope that in addition to bowling I may get the chance to bat and advance my run rate a bit and perhaps do a lot better at the communication aspect when I’m out there. 11 is still my all time highest run rate and it’d be nice to beat that in the next game or so. It’ll also be interesting to see if my bowling will be as good as last week especially if the bats play with some intent.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Not a lot going on
Sorry not a lot going on at the moment on the blog as my computer at home has been inundated with viruses 208 in one hit and it looks like I may have to simply throw the thing away? A bloke at work has said to take everything off it and re-load windows xp and then the other programs - is it really that easy?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sidcup v Grays and Chadwell
Sat 13th Sept home
Lovely sunny day – cloudy bright 17 degrees centigrade with a negligible breeze. The opposition were a bunch of older blokes and some young uns – 16 year old and thereabouts. After the toss it came to pass that we’d bat first. The team despite being a Saturday match was pretty familiar –
1. Wayne Simmonds
2.Chris Buckley (WKT)
3. Lee Downes
4. Matt
5.Reece Downes
6.Ross
7. Imran (He’s new to me)
8. Me
9. Super Dave Gaylor
10. Charlie? Blonde kid
11. Neil (Captain)
I think this is roughly the order in which we batted although I seem to be a long way up the list and it maybe that the blonde kid at 10 had batted and I’d not noticed? To tell the truth I didn’t take that much notice of the game once I’d discovered that I’d forgotten to pack a battery for my camera and therefore couldn’t take pictures. The game was decided to be a timed game, Neil did try and explain how it works but I didn’t have a clue what he was saying.
Recently there’s been loads of rain and loads of cancelled matches and today there was only one pitch being used. Lee rolled the wicket before the match but it soon became apparent that there wasn’t a lot of bounce in the wicket. They led their bowling attack with the young kids and right from the start they looked pretty slow and what with the soggyness of the wicket all our bats were having trouble swinging their bats at balls that weren’t there yet and this soon had the Sidcup boys on a roll with a few wickets quite quickly but we were getting runs in between. The game then settled down with the middle order it seems and we piled on the runs. I wasn’t watching as I was bowling at people warming up and practicing. Then I seemed to get the call fairly early seemingly a lot further down the order than I’d normally play, but I know that all through the earlier overs Super Dave had been moaning about he didn’t want to play and there was a bit of argey bargey going on between him and Neil. Next thing I knew it seemed that the lower order bats were falling like flies and I was up and as I walked out one of the umpires said that I had 20 minutes of batting left.
I’ve been reading about batting down the order as a tail ender and watching it on the tele/DVD’s so went out there probably more aware of what my role was and better planned strategy than before. I think I joined Ross and he was on strike and the first ball that went to him he hit it and it flew in slow arc towards short of Mid on and someone caught it easily. We had to wait ages then as Super Dave had to get all of his gear on while we all waited – he’d obviously had no intention of playing still but was forced into doing so or had a change of heart – but whatever happened he wasn’t ready.
I still hadn’t faced any balls at this point and was concentrating on not trying to hit it particularly but just to stay in and go after the easier balls that were not on target and just get Dave on strike so that he could play properly and score the runs. The bowlers alternated between a bloke who was bowling short balls that were wrong uns turning into the stumps from the off-side, but they were fast and flat. The other bloke was a seam bowler and relatively slow. Because my mind was in a concentration mode trying to think of all the things I needed to be doing there were a few farcical calls to run from Dave were I didn’t even notice him shouting YES! At the top of his voice to run. One was off a Bye where the spinner had got the ball to turn massively outside of off and I swung at it realizing that it had turned in towards my stumps. I looked round to see that it must have just missed the stumps and the wicket keep had missed it as it was now legside and I stood there watching it run off towards the boundary whilst Super Dave was shouting YES! YES! And the wicket keeper then said (As I was still facing the wrong way).
“I think he wants you to run”. I turned round to see Super about 5’ from me still shouting “YES”! I did eventually run, but still did similar things at least twice more but not quite as bad as that first instance.
I managed to stay in and I scored 5 runs whilst super scored 14 (I think)? And the game come to an end with both of us still in. In 42 overs we’d scored 211 which is pretty good. The weather was still holding out and had improved it was sunny and warm now with primarily blue skies and I’d been sun-bathing earlier as it was that warm.
So to the better bit – fielding and bowling. For the most part I was fielding at what Neil calls “Round the corner” (which looks like extra cover)? Mid off and a short spell at cover. The good thing was it looked like everyone was up for it, there was none of this sitting down lark or standing around with your hands in your pockets malarkey, everyone looked pretty alert and all of them were walking in each time the bowlers bowled. Most people were backing up and Chris Buckers who was being ribbed about the fact that he was wicket keeping did pretty well too.
Their batting was the reverse of their bowling. Where they’d started with the young uns for the bowling they came out with the adults first in the batting with the more likely looking candidates taking the earlier order positions. Super Dave and Imran led the way with the bowling both doing really well and the overs initially ticked over at about 2 runs an over while they got their eye in. 10 overs in and they were still trying to get their eye in as the scoreboard was showing 22 runs having been made. They looked like they knew what they were doing – their strokes looked okay and the impression I got was that they would suddenly unleash their skills and start playing with some intent. More overs passed and it was pretty much the same situation. Maybe they know we field a lot of spinners and that they specialize in taking the spinners to task? Neil at this point is calling for wickets to be taken as the game seems to be stagnating and it needs a change of pace in someway, but these two bats seem to be in intent on occupying the crease at the expense of making any runs?
Then I get the nod and I join Neil as we do our stuff. The run rate climbs slightly as I get into a rythymn and concede some runs, but it’s not as bad as I usually do and most of it is down to some shoddy fielding where the ball passes between the fielders legs having had the ball batted straight at them. The game settles down again and the runs revert back to about 2 per over (4 off mine, maidens off Neils). Then I bowl one unintentionally wide and the bloke square cuts it straight out towards Neil but wide of him Neils does a spectacular dive with one hand reaching for the ball and it sticks and he hangs onto it as he comes crashing down to the ground and the bloke is gone and we get the break-through care of me.
The next bloke makes his way his way to the crease and I’m thinking – maybe the nature of the game will change with this bloke coming to the crease? No chance, despite the fact that we’re rattling through the overs because unlike the seamers these blokes are simply not hitting the ball so there’s no fielding going on so the over rate is fast and their score rate slow. Surely one of them has got to try something different. Meanwhile the younger lads on their team are walking round the pitch lurking, waiting for their chance. Bat No. 3 comes from the same mould as 1 and 2 e.g. he’s happy with the run rate being 1.8 an over or whatever it is. Ross comes on and there’s a slight change bat 3 seems to perk up slightly and has a few swings at the ball with some intent, still no change and then the wickets start to fall with Neil taking one or two. I take another with a Googlie pitched down the offside, he swipes at it misses it and it turns and hits middle and leg – one of my better balls as it did what it was meant to have done. There after the wickets come thick and fast, the older blokes make way for the younger blokes. One of the first out looks really sure of himself and confident, but he still doesn’t try and take us on and is eventually taken out. The next batch only last a few balls each, but they’re swinging at it and missing it and it soon becomes apparent that they lack the experience to bat against the likes of Neil, Ross and Wayne. But we’re still all baffled why the older blokes didn’t have a go? There was so many runs to make up and yet they didn’t address this fact with the batting. Towards the end of the game on the last 4 bats Neil found himself on a hat-trick and on the hat trick ball Buckers missed a nicked edge!
The last few overs saw us all crowding round the bats some of us only 10 – 15 feet away. The game finished after 51 overs from us and they’d scored 117.
My bowling figures were –
10 overs; 2 wickets; 1 maiden and 45 runs conceded. My best performance todate. I was well chuffed especially as I didn’t bowl a single wide or no ball and very few went down the legside. Some of those that did had been slower straight balls that turned and ended up down the legside and could have been caught if there’s been a short leg fielder? But what was satisfying was that as some of the oppo came off one of them said “Well done mate – good bowling” and another had said “Good fielding mate”, which was nice. I also had one “Strewth moment” where one of my googlies pitched and went between the bats legs and then only just missed the outside of leg stump by 5cm totally bamboozling Chris and went for byes.
Day ended up lovely and sunny and warm a perfect way to spend a Saturday in September.
Sunday 14th September
Another fantastic day – sunny, blue skies and warm with no wind. Checked the field and sure enough there was a bunch of boys playing football on there using the whole pitch, so during the morning I designed some markers to mark out where the cricket pitch is over the winter as the grass grows and it recovers and disappears. Because that patch of grass we know is relatively flat we’ll use the exact same bit again next year. So what I’ve done is tied a cable tie and a bit of string onto a stake and banged the stake into the ground so that it’s about 2” below the surface so all you can see is a bit of blue string and a cable tie coming out of the ground. The theory is if anyone notices it they’ll not be able to pull it out of the ground and it should be able to survive any cutting that occurs between now and April or whenever it is that they start cutting it again. I’ve also done the same as last year in that I’ve pressed into the ground plastic lucozade bottle tops along the length of the wicket down the centre. Generally no-one notices these either and it’s easy to locate them making it easy to figure out where the wicket is.
Around about 2pm the footballers went home leaving it free to use. Despite the fact that I haven’t cut it for nearly 2 weeks it is still pretty short (Remember the last cut was about 5mm) . I went over and hammered in the stake/marker and some of the cricket boys were there and they asked if we’d be playing and I thought to myself – Is the Pope Catholic? So I went back home and got all the gear. 3pm lovely and sunny and we had 9 of us over there, so it was pretty good.
The nine that were there for the best part took it pretty seriously and I’ve also heard that some of them are asking for Cricket Bats for Christmas! So who knows next year they all might take the whole thing a lot more seriously? Most of them have only one interest – batting, but bit by bit some of them are realizing that their strength is in their bowling and are slowly beginning to enjoy their bowling more. Today despite being at the end of the season seemed as though it might have been a pivotal point, because some of them at last seemed to grasp that fielding can be fun and is equally as important as batting and bowling. This came about because of the fact that my son Ben was bowling phenomenally well – almost every ball on a perfect length and line – all down the offside, all just missing the off stump or hitting it, but he was getting edges as well and getting wickets because I was catching the ball as the wicket keeper. That combined with my overs where I was bowling top spinners and wrong uns and forcing edges, it meant that everyone was in proper fielding positions and wickets were being taken through catches rather than me bowling at the stumps, this involvement of the fielders via both mine and Ben’s bowling meant that a penny dropped and it went on to be the longest game over there and we managed to maintain good attention levels of all the players.
It meant that a handful of them didn’t want to go home and get their dinner they were enjoying it so much! But the highlight of the day was Ben’s bowling. His bowling was amazing. On the 17 yard wicket he didn’t do so well, but with the mowing I’ve been extending the length of the wicket and I think it’s probably up in the 19-20 yards zone now and suits his bowling. We’ve got one bloke who plays over there with us who is 14 and he’s a natural sports type kid – plays football well and is just naturally sporty and enjoys sports. The highest run total till today was 34 and he was after that total. He reached it easily and was looking to go a lot further, but instead of rotating the overs between all the bowlers one by one I realized that I needed to put him under pressure and this is where the kids that were fielding suddenly realized that they had a part to play in restricting his run rate and making sure he was out, so me and Ben bowled alternate overs putting him under pressure. Ben’s first over was a maiden with several very near misses. His second was pretty much the same and a nicked edge that fell short of me – which he wasn’t happy about – in fact he was really upset. I had to say – look use your anger to get him out next time and he understood and composed himself to then wicket keep. My previous overs had created loads of catching chances that no-one had managed to capitalize on – but in my over following Ben’s nicked edge I got a dirty edge off the top of the bat and Ben (Who’s not that good at catching) had the gloves on and gloved it so was well chuffed that we’d got the top batsman out. All the other kids were jumping up and down high fiving it and cheering.
I reckon that next year with another years worth of growth, a bit more sure of themselves, having their own bats and stuff and remembering how much fun they had this year – they’re going to come on loads as a team. Ben especially – he’s only 9 and I reckon he can bowl as effectively as the 14 year old Andy. A bit more size, strength and speed and he’s going to be pretty formidable, already all of the other kids don’t like facing him because of his speed and accuracy and he’s beginning to take notice of the things that I suggest to him. He’s picked up the idea of bowling down the off-side to right handed bats and he knows that if he doesn’t hit the stumps he can force a catch off an edge. Tonight I introduced the concept of bowling a bit shorter to make the ball bounce up into the bats face and increase the chance of forcing mistakes, so I’m well proud of him. I told him after that his bowling was really good and he then said – “What good enough to play for Grays and Chadwell”? So maybe next summer I’ll see if I can get him involved maybe even over the winter?
Other things of note; Man was I knackered after yesterday’s game. Because I haven’t played in a while I haven’t been practicing or running around much and after I’d got home and watched a bit of cricket on the tele I got up and I was as stiff as a board! The same all day today.
Now here’s a point. I bowled my best ever spell yesterday and Neil let me bowl ten overs, which is a lot for me as I usually get taken off for bowling wides and being expensive which is understandable. But I’ve not practiced at all of late – and I’m wondering if this is like other things that I do. Guitar playing for instance if I do it all the time I seem to repeat what I’m doing and go round in circles never seemingly able to break the circle. Whereas if don’t do it for a while and then pick up the guitar – something fresh always happens. Perhaps this is the same with cricket? Maybe I should have phases where I don’t practice so intensely? Maybe this is what has happened here?
Furthermore – today and the last few days I’ve been trying to bowl Leg Breaks – twisting my hand all the way round and really concentrating on not bowling out of the back of my hand and it’s working. I’ve bowled one or two leg breaks in the games where I’m playing with the kids and they’ve turned quite well. There’s a tendency for the flight to be really flat, but the turn off the pitch and the speed seems to be okay. So this bodes really well for Sept 30th when I stop bowling wrong uns. Thinking about it I may try and bowl this coming week primarily Leg breaks, say for instance each over I bowl 5 Leg Breaks and one wrong un at the end and see how that pans out? Let’s hope the weather holds out and I get the chance to try this out.
Sat 13th Sept home
Lovely sunny day – cloudy bright 17 degrees centigrade with a negligible breeze. The opposition were a bunch of older blokes and some young uns – 16 year old and thereabouts. After the toss it came to pass that we’d bat first. The team despite being a Saturday match was pretty familiar –
1. Wayne Simmonds
2.Chris Buckley (WKT)
3. Lee Downes
4. Matt
5.Reece Downes
6.Ross
7. Imran (He’s new to me)
8. Me
9. Super Dave Gaylor
10. Charlie? Blonde kid
11. Neil (Captain)
I think this is roughly the order in which we batted although I seem to be a long way up the list and it maybe that the blonde kid at 10 had batted and I’d not noticed? To tell the truth I didn’t take that much notice of the game once I’d discovered that I’d forgotten to pack a battery for my camera and therefore couldn’t take pictures. The game was decided to be a timed game, Neil did try and explain how it works but I didn’t have a clue what he was saying.
Recently there’s been loads of rain and loads of cancelled matches and today there was only one pitch being used. Lee rolled the wicket before the match but it soon became apparent that there wasn’t a lot of bounce in the wicket. They led their bowling attack with the young kids and right from the start they looked pretty slow and what with the soggyness of the wicket all our bats were having trouble swinging their bats at balls that weren’t there yet and this soon had the Sidcup boys on a roll with a few wickets quite quickly but we were getting runs in between. The game then settled down with the middle order it seems and we piled on the runs. I wasn’t watching as I was bowling at people warming up and practicing. Then I seemed to get the call fairly early seemingly a lot further down the order than I’d normally play, but I know that all through the earlier overs Super Dave had been moaning about he didn’t want to play and there was a bit of argey bargey going on between him and Neil. Next thing I knew it seemed that the lower order bats were falling like flies and I was up and as I walked out one of the umpires said that I had 20 minutes of batting left.
I’ve been reading about batting down the order as a tail ender and watching it on the tele/DVD’s so went out there probably more aware of what my role was and better planned strategy than before. I think I joined Ross and he was on strike and the first ball that went to him he hit it and it flew in slow arc towards short of Mid on and someone caught it easily. We had to wait ages then as Super Dave had to get all of his gear on while we all waited – he’d obviously had no intention of playing still but was forced into doing so or had a change of heart – but whatever happened he wasn’t ready.
I still hadn’t faced any balls at this point and was concentrating on not trying to hit it particularly but just to stay in and go after the easier balls that were not on target and just get Dave on strike so that he could play properly and score the runs. The bowlers alternated between a bloke who was bowling short balls that were wrong uns turning into the stumps from the off-side, but they were fast and flat. The other bloke was a seam bowler and relatively slow. Because my mind was in a concentration mode trying to think of all the things I needed to be doing there were a few farcical calls to run from Dave were I didn’t even notice him shouting YES! At the top of his voice to run. One was off a Bye where the spinner had got the ball to turn massively outside of off and I swung at it realizing that it had turned in towards my stumps. I looked round to see that it must have just missed the stumps and the wicket keep had missed it as it was now legside and I stood there watching it run off towards the boundary whilst Super Dave was shouting YES! YES! And the wicket keeper then said (As I was still facing the wrong way).
“I think he wants you to run”. I turned round to see Super about 5’ from me still shouting “YES”! I did eventually run, but still did similar things at least twice more but not quite as bad as that first instance.
I managed to stay in and I scored 5 runs whilst super scored 14 (I think)? And the game come to an end with both of us still in. In 42 overs we’d scored 211 which is pretty good. The weather was still holding out and had improved it was sunny and warm now with primarily blue skies and I’d been sun-bathing earlier as it was that warm.
So to the better bit – fielding and bowling. For the most part I was fielding at what Neil calls “Round the corner” (which looks like extra cover)? Mid off and a short spell at cover. The good thing was it looked like everyone was up for it, there was none of this sitting down lark or standing around with your hands in your pockets malarkey, everyone looked pretty alert and all of them were walking in each time the bowlers bowled. Most people were backing up and Chris Buckers who was being ribbed about the fact that he was wicket keeping did pretty well too.
Their batting was the reverse of their bowling. Where they’d started with the young uns for the bowling they came out with the adults first in the batting with the more likely looking candidates taking the earlier order positions. Super Dave and Imran led the way with the bowling both doing really well and the overs initially ticked over at about 2 runs an over while they got their eye in. 10 overs in and they were still trying to get their eye in as the scoreboard was showing 22 runs having been made. They looked like they knew what they were doing – their strokes looked okay and the impression I got was that they would suddenly unleash their skills and start playing with some intent. More overs passed and it was pretty much the same situation. Maybe they know we field a lot of spinners and that they specialize in taking the spinners to task? Neil at this point is calling for wickets to be taken as the game seems to be stagnating and it needs a change of pace in someway, but these two bats seem to be in intent on occupying the crease at the expense of making any runs?
Then I get the nod and I join Neil as we do our stuff. The run rate climbs slightly as I get into a rythymn and concede some runs, but it’s not as bad as I usually do and most of it is down to some shoddy fielding where the ball passes between the fielders legs having had the ball batted straight at them. The game settles down again and the runs revert back to about 2 per over (4 off mine, maidens off Neils). Then I bowl one unintentionally wide and the bloke square cuts it straight out towards Neil but wide of him Neils does a spectacular dive with one hand reaching for the ball and it sticks and he hangs onto it as he comes crashing down to the ground and the bloke is gone and we get the break-through care of me.
The next bloke makes his way his way to the crease and I’m thinking – maybe the nature of the game will change with this bloke coming to the crease? No chance, despite the fact that we’re rattling through the overs because unlike the seamers these blokes are simply not hitting the ball so there’s no fielding going on so the over rate is fast and their score rate slow. Surely one of them has got to try something different. Meanwhile the younger lads on their team are walking round the pitch lurking, waiting for their chance. Bat No. 3 comes from the same mould as 1 and 2 e.g. he’s happy with the run rate being 1.8 an over or whatever it is. Ross comes on and there’s a slight change bat 3 seems to perk up slightly and has a few swings at the ball with some intent, still no change and then the wickets start to fall with Neil taking one or two. I take another with a Googlie pitched down the offside, he swipes at it misses it and it turns and hits middle and leg – one of my better balls as it did what it was meant to have done. There after the wickets come thick and fast, the older blokes make way for the younger blokes. One of the first out looks really sure of himself and confident, but he still doesn’t try and take us on and is eventually taken out. The next batch only last a few balls each, but they’re swinging at it and missing it and it soon becomes apparent that they lack the experience to bat against the likes of Neil, Ross and Wayne. But we’re still all baffled why the older blokes didn’t have a go? There was so many runs to make up and yet they didn’t address this fact with the batting. Towards the end of the game on the last 4 bats Neil found himself on a hat-trick and on the hat trick ball Buckers missed a nicked edge!
The last few overs saw us all crowding round the bats some of us only 10 – 15 feet away. The game finished after 51 overs from us and they’d scored 117.
My bowling figures were –
10 overs; 2 wickets; 1 maiden and 45 runs conceded. My best performance todate. I was well chuffed especially as I didn’t bowl a single wide or no ball and very few went down the legside. Some of those that did had been slower straight balls that turned and ended up down the legside and could have been caught if there’s been a short leg fielder? But what was satisfying was that as some of the oppo came off one of them said “Well done mate – good bowling” and another had said “Good fielding mate”, which was nice. I also had one “Strewth moment” where one of my googlies pitched and went between the bats legs and then only just missed the outside of leg stump by 5cm totally bamboozling Chris and went for byes.
Day ended up lovely and sunny and warm a perfect way to spend a Saturday in September.
Sunday 14th September
Another fantastic day – sunny, blue skies and warm with no wind. Checked the field and sure enough there was a bunch of boys playing football on there using the whole pitch, so during the morning I designed some markers to mark out where the cricket pitch is over the winter as the grass grows and it recovers and disappears. Because that patch of grass we know is relatively flat we’ll use the exact same bit again next year. So what I’ve done is tied a cable tie and a bit of string onto a stake and banged the stake into the ground so that it’s about 2” below the surface so all you can see is a bit of blue string and a cable tie coming out of the ground. The theory is if anyone notices it they’ll not be able to pull it out of the ground and it should be able to survive any cutting that occurs between now and April or whenever it is that they start cutting it again. I’ve also done the same as last year in that I’ve pressed into the ground plastic lucozade bottle tops along the length of the wicket down the centre. Generally no-one notices these either and it’s easy to locate them making it easy to figure out where the wicket is.
Around about 2pm the footballers went home leaving it free to use. Despite the fact that I haven’t cut it for nearly 2 weeks it is still pretty short (Remember the last cut was about 5mm) . I went over and hammered in the stake/marker and some of the cricket boys were there and they asked if we’d be playing and I thought to myself – Is the Pope Catholic? So I went back home and got all the gear. 3pm lovely and sunny and we had 9 of us over there, so it was pretty good.
The nine that were there for the best part took it pretty seriously and I’ve also heard that some of them are asking for Cricket Bats for Christmas! So who knows next year they all might take the whole thing a lot more seriously? Most of them have only one interest – batting, but bit by bit some of them are realizing that their strength is in their bowling and are slowly beginning to enjoy their bowling more. Today despite being at the end of the season seemed as though it might have been a pivotal point, because some of them at last seemed to grasp that fielding can be fun and is equally as important as batting and bowling. This came about because of the fact that my son Ben was bowling phenomenally well – almost every ball on a perfect length and line – all down the offside, all just missing the off stump or hitting it, but he was getting edges as well and getting wickets because I was catching the ball as the wicket keeper. That combined with my overs where I was bowling top spinners and wrong uns and forcing edges, it meant that everyone was in proper fielding positions and wickets were being taken through catches rather than me bowling at the stumps, this involvement of the fielders via both mine and Ben’s bowling meant that a penny dropped and it went on to be the longest game over there and we managed to maintain good attention levels of all the players.
It meant that a handful of them didn’t want to go home and get their dinner they were enjoying it so much! But the highlight of the day was Ben’s bowling. His bowling was amazing. On the 17 yard wicket he didn’t do so well, but with the mowing I’ve been extending the length of the wicket and I think it’s probably up in the 19-20 yards zone now and suits his bowling. We’ve got one bloke who plays over there with us who is 14 and he’s a natural sports type kid – plays football well and is just naturally sporty and enjoys sports. The highest run total till today was 34 and he was after that total. He reached it easily and was looking to go a lot further, but instead of rotating the overs between all the bowlers one by one I realized that I needed to put him under pressure and this is where the kids that were fielding suddenly realized that they had a part to play in restricting his run rate and making sure he was out, so me and Ben bowled alternate overs putting him under pressure. Ben’s first over was a maiden with several very near misses. His second was pretty much the same and a nicked edge that fell short of me – which he wasn’t happy about – in fact he was really upset. I had to say – look use your anger to get him out next time and he understood and composed himself to then wicket keep. My previous overs had created loads of catching chances that no-one had managed to capitalize on – but in my over following Ben’s nicked edge I got a dirty edge off the top of the bat and Ben (Who’s not that good at catching) had the gloves on and gloved it so was well chuffed that we’d got the top batsman out. All the other kids were jumping up and down high fiving it and cheering.
I reckon that next year with another years worth of growth, a bit more sure of themselves, having their own bats and stuff and remembering how much fun they had this year – they’re going to come on loads as a team. Ben especially – he’s only 9 and I reckon he can bowl as effectively as the 14 year old Andy. A bit more size, strength and speed and he’s going to be pretty formidable, already all of the other kids don’t like facing him because of his speed and accuracy and he’s beginning to take notice of the things that I suggest to him. He’s picked up the idea of bowling down the off-side to right handed bats and he knows that if he doesn’t hit the stumps he can force a catch off an edge. Tonight I introduced the concept of bowling a bit shorter to make the ball bounce up into the bats face and increase the chance of forcing mistakes, so I’m well proud of him. I told him after that his bowling was really good and he then said – “What good enough to play for Grays and Chadwell”? So maybe next summer I’ll see if I can get him involved maybe even over the winter?
Other things of note; Man was I knackered after yesterday’s game. Because I haven’t played in a while I haven’t been practicing or running around much and after I’d got home and watched a bit of cricket on the tele I got up and I was as stiff as a board! The same all day today.
Now here’s a point. I bowled my best ever spell yesterday and Neil let me bowl ten overs, which is a lot for me as I usually get taken off for bowling wides and being expensive which is understandable. But I’ve not practiced at all of late – and I’m wondering if this is like other things that I do. Guitar playing for instance if I do it all the time I seem to repeat what I’m doing and go round in circles never seemingly able to break the circle. Whereas if don’t do it for a while and then pick up the guitar – something fresh always happens. Perhaps this is the same with cricket? Maybe I should have phases where I don’t practice so intensely? Maybe this is what has happened here?
Furthermore – today and the last few days I’ve been trying to bowl Leg Breaks – twisting my hand all the way round and really concentrating on not bowling out of the back of my hand and it’s working. I’ve bowled one or two leg breaks in the games where I’m playing with the kids and they’ve turned quite well. There’s a tendency for the flight to be really flat, but the turn off the pitch and the speed seems to be okay. So this bodes really well for Sept 30th when I stop bowling wrong uns. Thinking about it I may try and bowl this coming week primarily Leg breaks, say for instance each over I bowl 5 Leg Breaks and one wrong un at the end and see how that pans out? Let’s hope the weather holds out and I get the chance to try this out.
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