someblokecalleddave's Blog

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Jonesy said:
If you lived in Australia you'd be Davo.

I don't really get nicknames, which kinda pisses me off,, I just get "lachie". Very creative! I got Jonesy because I used to have the bowling action of Simon Jones apparently, oh yeh and I got Fraiser and Frase by 2 people and Fray by 2 other people but yeh not much.
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Jonesy - what's your real name? I'll let you know what we'd have probably called you just on the basis of your name.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Bank Holiday

The weather's been okay so far - warm verging on very warm wth diffuse sunlight. So the ground is drying out. Last night was the big party (My Mum -in - laws 60th) and they took us all out today, so virtually no cricket - certainly no chance of a game with Grays & Chadwell and looking at the calender I'm away Whitsun Bank holiday as well with Joe on a "Beaver" camping trip so I'll miss a game then too. The only chance of a real game will be this coming weekend and Sods law will mean that it'll probably rain.


Despite the family commitments I've managed to throw a ball around outside of the house and had half hour over on the football field this afternoon and threw 9 balls this evening over there as well! The Leg break is coming together though, anytime I'm in the house or anywhere I do the throwing the ball from hand to hand in a range of diferent ways perfecting the spin and flick of the wrist and today I've been getting it to really rip with a very snappy wrist action that looks promising. Over a short distance it works quite well and sometimes when both the spin and the wrist flick come together it does turn a long way. One thing that is very satisfying is the line. Even though I don't always get the flick right and this then manifests itself as a top spinner the line has been spot on, this evening for instance the 9 random balls I bowled all went down the leg side several missing the leg stump by half inch and the other bouncing over the top with 2 balls that were crap that were dragged down and bounced 4 or five times. But my line is getting better and better.


The main thing I need to work on is just to keep with the Leg break and I'm convincing myself more and more that as the thumb gets better I ignore it and carry on with the leg break and leave the flippers and wrong uns till I'm happy with the Leg break. I feel like if I keep at it - it is going to come good, as I said I can bowl it fairly well over 17 yards and get it to turn most of the time, when it doesn't turn it's not a problem as it's straight and the line is good. Over 22 yards this morning I bowled several overs and some of them were turning but I have to be honest this is on a football pitch so whether the turn was dues to spin or bouncing off the side of a tuft of grass I'm not sure. But this morning the wrist flick was looking very affective, so just a bit more and I may have something that looks like a fair leg break ball.



As it was so dry today on the football pitch I've begun to work on cutting the wicket. The grass over there at this time of year is lush and thick, so using hand shears I cut the grass dead short into yards squares where I pitch the ball at both ends. Then this evening I've started to cut a strip 2' wide from stumps to stumps again using the shears and I'm half way. Once that's cut that then works as a starting point with the mower and I'll be able to cut the wicket the 66' x 6' wide (A bit narrow) if the weather holds out and is dry again tomorrow. Once it's cut because it's so short it then dries out nicely and is fairly easy to keep on top of, it's just a case of whether I get over there and use it enough to justify keeping it cut. I'm not right am I? I'm obviously completely mental!
 
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someblokecalleddave said:
Jonesy - what's your real name? I'll let you know what we'd have probably called you just on the basis of your name.
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Lachlan Fraser
 
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No - that's a tricky one. Was you born in Scotland and do you have the accent? If so you'd probably end up with one of the usual ones!
 
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Care in the community.......

(See the full account with images at www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com

I couldn't resist it, this afternoon I went over to GBOS and bowled a bit - 2 hours, but it was with my sons in attendance, so they were involved - batting, bowling, fielding in between playing football and throwing frisbees and stuff, so I never really had a spell where I was able to really focus on what I was doing and concentrate. Despite that I am getting the ball to turn into off from outside leg and it happens in varying degrees. Peter Philpott reckons you should be able to decide whether you're going to bowl a "Big Legbreak" or a "Small Legbreak" and it happens when you decide - not every now and then when somehow you get it to spin! I'm still I mile away from that happening - but bit by bit it is coming together. I am managing now to get it up the full 22yards and get spin on it but varies from top spin to a weak Legbreak. It's a massive move forward from a month ago and I still need to keep plugging away at it and I'm optimistic that it will come together.



This evening I was itching to get out again, but what with it being a school day tomorrow that meant getting the kids off to bed. Last year being a year younger it wasn't such a problem as the rule was they were in bed during school days around about 7pm - 7.30pm , but now they're a bit older they're up that bit later and I'm involved in getting them off to bed - reading stories, getting them showered etc. Luckily because of the party and the social activities and being out and about today they were pretty knackered so they were in bed by 7.30. The easiest option therefore for a practice is our local field 200 yards away.



This morning I noticed that the groundsman was out there mowing it again and this afternoon I'd gone across and he'd finished it off after 3/4 doing it on Friday. So today before getting the kids ready for bed I went over with my mower and had a go at mowing it. The bits I'd already done with hand shears were fine, but the main parts that had only been cut with the sit-on mower were still too long for my little barrel mower to handle. So what to do? So many practice places and they all need attention.



GBOS has just been cut and the grass there is a fairly thin variety which my mower can deal with, but it's a car drive away and if you go over there it means taking a full bag of it in the event that anyone who wants to can join in. The advantage is - people do join in - including Suhail.



FTF - Similar grass quality - very public and the trees - but rival groups of blokes for the space and is 2 miles away and you have to pay for parking and mowing it publicly might be an issue.



Local Field - 200 yards away thick dense grass. Private no one goes there but needs some attention (Serious cutting).



Weighing it all up for ease of use - kids can walk home if they get bored etc, you only need your stumps and 12 balls and you're away I decided that I'll prepare the local field so having given it a go with the mower the only answer is to do it with shears (Call the men in white coats)! Over the last few days I'd cut a rectangle shape at both ends around the area where the ball lands and then yesterday cut that further at one end so that it was short from about 4 yards out back to the stumps. So this evening when I went over there and bowled I took the shears and in between every few overs cut a bit more so now I'm at this stage -

The light green areas representing the bits that have been cut with a pair of shears and from now on will be easily mown with the lawn mower. So every four or five days I'll keep the short stuff trimmed and bit by bit cut my way down the wicket. But to be honest as long as one end is short as the diagram shows It's okay for bowling - I just have to retrieve the balls and go back to the other end each time. Looking at the short bit though it's not that bad for a football pitch and I can't say that I noticed a lot of football going on over there this year, but I did notice the bloke mow it back in may and use a roller at the same time albeit small, so what with my rolling a couple of years ago it's quite flat.

So anyway - bowling progress.

Yeah I'm fairly happy with what happened today and tonight over at local Field I must have thrown 10 overs worth of balls between getting the shears out and cutting another foot down the wicket each time. The one thing I'm enjoying is my accuracy again tonight so few wide balls, the thing that seems to be happening which I think is to be expected is dragging the ball down and bowling it ridiculously short - that happens more frequently than bowling wide. It tends to happen when I try and put extra oomph into the bowling, which I think is a case of trying to move forward too fast with the bowling. Tonight I was thinking that what I may do which is recommended in Peter Philpotts book is to start over again. Go back to the beginning and do all the things he advises and see if it makes any difference by the time I reach the point I'm at now.

Thumb News - It still hurts, it still feels tender and there's no way that I'm going to be able to bowl flippers in the near future and I'm expecting that this coming weekend I'll still be in the same situation.

Cricket - Game Psychology

Last night on www.simplycricket.net there was a bloke who was asking what is your celebration when you take a wicket? I haven't really got one and I remember last year that when I did get the couple of wickets that I did I didn't do anything and I'm likely not to this year. Then thinking about it - the kind of approach I have is that I'm trying so hard and the objective is that I'm trying to get the other bloke out so if I succeed it's not really a surprise it's what I'm supposed to do? Also I'm kind of arrogant in these situations and when people say "Well done you did it - I often answer with 'yeah of course I did - that's what I'm here for'? Dismissing their surprise and jubilation.

Yesterday I was really concentrating a la the advice of Peter Philpott and was totally focussed on the stumps and what I was intending on doing where the ball was going to pitch and how my wrist and fingers where going to combine to put the rotations on the ball and I thought - the batsman doesn't come into this equation at all, irrespective who he is and what he may do I'm going to do this..... So in a way I'm already within the game being really dismissive of the batsman. I realise that if then he starts to get the upper-hand alternative tactics may have to be deployed, but I'm hoping in those situations I'll then be able to revert back to the same state of mind where he again becomes a small part of the equation?

But a part of this whole dismissive approach might be to never look him in the eyes, I'm fairly certain he's going to want to make eye contact so he might play his own mind games, but I'd go for denying him that by totally focusing on the stumps or the blade of grass/daisy that I'm aiming to pitch the ball onto. My team mate "Super Dave" who mentioned my Warnesque pre-bowl idiosyncrasies might have touched on another element to the whole scenario. That in itself may give the impression that I know what I'm doing, the measured approach, the repetition of spinning the ball from hand to hand - taking my time I could even take it as far as placing a marker down from where the run up starts and at know time ever acknowledge the batsman - total focus, total concentration. Again I have to go back to the game two weeks ago now where it did seem as though the 2 batsmen were quaking in thier boots at the fact that they had to face a two pronged attack from the spin bowlers?

How good must it be when you're so knowledgeable and confident that you're able to move your fielders around with your captains say so - man that must be good!

So that's something to think about - a kind of "Ice man" approach to my bowling, no emotion no eye contact and the appearance of total focus and concentration.
 
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Chav Attack
Oh yeah I forgot to mention this..... GBOS is in a nice part of town just about half a mile from where I live in Langdon Hills, Essex. Have a look at the link below which'll take you to multimap.com this is my road and if you zoom in you'll see the football field next to the woods where I live and that's Local Field. But if you move to the left of where I live about half a mile looking out for "Forest Glade" you'll see another field and that the one I refer to as GBOS Great Berry Open Space and you'll notice it's slap bang in the middle of a new private estate that we call "Stepford" because all the women look like Stepford Wives or as if they've just stepped off of the set of that program on Channel 4 about Californian Wives.

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=...56&loc=GB:51.56444:0.42531:16ss16 5ueSS16 5UE

So - it's quite nice in an Essex kind of way, slightly red around the neck but not too bad and they all think they're a cut above the rest of the people in the area, but to be honest they're mostly Noveau Riche East End diaspora that got rich off of the back of Thatcher, so not really kind of my people. But they like their semi detached suburbia and at the moment it's all very white and West Ham Football club so things tick along nicely.

Trouble is some of them get it all wrong and forget where they are now and revert back to type and so today one of these gormless idiots turned up on GBOS with a Farmers motorbike thing - you know a motorbike with four chunky wheels. No helmet and his leg in plaster and his stupid blonde wife/girlfriend on the back. The peaceful scene - Oak trees and spring - song thrushes singing in the bushes suddenly disturbed by a 400cc bike thing revving and roaring away. Everyone on the field stops as he gets their attention. His girlfriend gets off the back and then he pulls a few doughnuts tearing the field to shreds as he does so. Then he revs it up again and wheel spins away - grass and turf flying out the back and by now - I'm in Victor Meldew mode reaching for my phone and cursing because it's not charged and I've left it at home! I have visions of this berk flying round the field onto my square tearing it up ruining the whole place that the council look after so well. Then he roars off again having just pulled a big broadside skid in the corner of the field that gets very wet and is obviously still sticky. But now he heads out into the middle of the field which has dried out and is obviously faster to drain, he turns the handle bars breaks and tries to pull another big but faster broadside. The tyres don't skid instead they grip and catapault this idiot through the air with the bike thing spinning through the air tumbling over and over just behind him. He hits the ground crunch at high speed and the bike only just stops almost landing on him (I was gutted). But then he lays there and says something bravado in front of a bunch of young blokes that he was heading towards who were playing football. His dozy bird runs over to him and stays on the ground. Eventually he sits up obviously in shock and I then see that his collar bone is sticking out of his shoulder - but not having broken the skin. His elbow is shredded having hit the ground so hard and fast and a lovely warm feeling comes over me - there is justice sometimes on very rare occasions.
 
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someblokecalleddave said:
No - that's a tricky one. Was you born in Scotland and do you have the accent? If so you'd probably end up with one of the usual ones!
Click to expand...

Never been near Scotland let alone have an accent :p
 
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He had it coming to him! No helmet, leg in plaster girlfriend on the back tearing up and down footpaths where you've got little kids walking and playing with their Mum's and Dad's. Obviously no road tax or insurance and certainly no right whatsoever to tear up a council playing field and now we're all paying tax in order that the ******** has his arm fixed in hospital! The quad bike (That's what they're called)! as I said turned over a couple of times at least, but some bloke kick started it and the idiot drove it away himself before the police turned up or the ambulance.

These quad bikes are for farmers surely, they're not leisure items for people with more money than sense. Do you remember this from Christmas - Essex again just down the road from me!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/7161165.stm
 
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Jonesy - I reckon because of the fact that you live in OZ but have a name like that you'd have to be called either "Strap" or "Sweat". :laugh:
 
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Dave,

I think ATV (All terrain Vehicles) Or quads have their place. Personally i think they are great fun. But i would certainly not use one on a public place or park. They are able to be road registered now but i doubt this particular person had done so!

they are more suited to fields and tracks.

As for that incident, i remember seeing it on the news as its not far from me. But having said that what self respecting parent lets their youngster ride a unauthorised Quad down a small country lane with no lights near night time.

Quote: "It is illegal to ride such machines on public roads without a licence and insurance.

Some junior quad bikes are capable of speeds of up to 40mph (64km/h).

A spokesman for road safety charity Brake said: "Even with permission to use the machines on private land, children should not be put in control of them - the sheer power and speed of them is dangerous wherever they are used."

and consequently the lady was cleared of the charges!
 
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All true but they were fantastic for getting through the forrests of Brazil, especially when chased by machete wielding youths :D
 
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what you did'nt stop and fight them

hardnut.gif
 
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It's a case of knowing one's limitations. One on one, or even one on two I can manage. Besides, I left my numb chucks at home :D

He who runs away, lives to fight another day :laugh:
 
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well i will stick to my shooting thanks!

which reminds me, but i will stick this in my other post about knots!
 
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Remember I initially referred to them as "farmers" vehicles as they clearly have an intended purpose and I'm sure that if you live in OZ there's plenty of space to ride around on them. But here in Essex with with 3000 people per square mile or what have you and any public space protected by laws - the only way you're going to get out and about on a quad is if you've got a mate who's a land owner or a farmer! So why buy one - it's bloody stupid.

Nickname - Jonesy your real name is so Scottish it's unreal - I'm assuming that your Fathers from this way or maybe your Grandad?

Sweat - as in "Sweaty Sock" as in Jock
Strap - as in "Jock Strap"

See?
 
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Lol, I'm not a Jock!

Yeh my great grand dad or someone was scottish I think.
 
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