Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

Top Contributors
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

Whenever I am playing backyard cricket we use a normal tennis ball with out the tape. (To be fair our dog would have taken the tape off the ball anyway because he always thinks that the ball is his.)
If I am with my family on Boxing Day we play it out the front of their place and we use a normal tennis ball. Only because there are some younger kids playing with us and they don't want to get hit on the top of the fingers when they catch the ball.
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

Jelly Beanz;260225 said:
Fair enough, I don't really know how popular tapeball is here in Scotland.

I'm under the impression that bowling that much would be detrimental and likely to lead to injury. I read an article by a physio specialising in cricket that basically said bowling 4 days out of 7 would be the absolute most and you shouldn't bowl on more than 2 days in a row.
Click to expand...

This is interesting, being new to cricket (Even though I'm old) I felt in my first year that I needed to bowl almost every hour and every day that I could in order to catch up on all that I'd missed out on. This caused physical problems with my rotator cuff to the point where I could even lift my arm first thing in the morning because it was so knackered. Fortunately Liz Ward on here sorted me out and I rested it for a month or so and it repaired itself and I took it a lot easier thereafter. This year I have bowled and practiced a lot less and have had no-where near the amount of soreness, which I suppose is obvious. But I like the idea of never bowling more than 2 days in a row. I might try this out.

I've also noticed that bowling less seems to have helped me bowl better?

On the main subject though - there's also those 'Cricket Tennis Balls' they look like tennis balls but are heavier, they seem quite good and if used by kids of equivalent ages I'm sure a 7 year old bowling a fast ball at another 7 year old wouldn't be able to bowl at a speed to inflict too much damage. My kids and the kids we all play backyard cricket with use Kookaburra Plastic balls, they're the right size and they're the heaviest of all these types of balls so have good flight and they swing when bowled by the faster kids. They've also got a nice seam. Only good on grass though as concrete etc rubs the string seam off and they fall apart.
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

which tennis ball (company/brand name), which we can buy in europe, provides a better bounce even after wrapping with tape? we have tried some of them e.g. different Dunlop balls but so far our experience has been disappointing.
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

stuttgartcricket;398026 said:
which tennis ball (company/brand name), which we can buy in europe, provides a better bounce even after wrapping with tape? we have tried some of them e.g. different Dunlop balls but so far our experience has been disappointing.
Click to expand...

What kind of bounce are you looking for? A consistent bounce, uneven or high/low?
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

high bounce, but with tape ball. Only tennis ball provides enough bounce on hard surface(what we have) but with tape on it and fast bowling it becomes really bad.
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

I've found that 'fluffly' tennis balls seem to work ok with tape. Likewise, ones that are very hard - not sure of brand but they're probably Slazenger ones.
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

We used to try to get the ball to bounce less on concrete by using older worn balls.. Any new Tennis ball should have more than enough bounce on concrete if you use the quality ones that come in tin, I think we used Dunlop or Slazengger balls after they were no longer any good for playing tennis.
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

there is a wide range of balls from Slazenger (Slazenger | tennis: balls). From Dunlop we have tried many different kinds but none is of our type...you cant even think of a bouncer with them, "without bouncer no thrill"



which specific one is best for high bounce?

thanks
 
Re: Backyard Ckt - Bowling with Tennis/Taped Ball

I found the easiest way to get as close as possible to cricket ball bounce out of a tennis ball is to buy the worst brand you can find.

I go to the local supermarket and in the pet toy section there are some crappy tennis balls used for playing fetch with dogs. These balls have no pressure inside of them and have a quite brittle outer layer.

They tend to break a lot quicker than the actual tennis ball, but the prices normally work out to about AU$0.20 per ball, rather than the usual anywhere from AU$1.50 upwards for half decent ones. Buy a pack of 20 and you have yourself a years worth of good cricket balls for those backyard occasions! One layer of tape barely affects their bounce either, so getting them to swing is easy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top