someblokecalleddave's Blog

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Blimey! That'd be good Mas - cheers! Let me know if you come up with something?

In the meantime here's todays installment....

Saturday, June 07, 2008
I've just watched the weather and it's going to be better than prviously predicted - 26 degrees, blue skies and back to back sunshine - real cricket weather and yes - the game is on! I checked my text this morning and I'd had a message from Neil the captain and I've got a game. Looking at the website though it indicates there's nothing set up other than a 1st Sunday team match - so maybe I'm playing with them? Who cares as long as I get a game!

This evening my kids wanted me to go over to "Local Field" as Ben is in a ball throwing competition and his mate who lives a few roads away who's also in the same comp wanted to do some practice, so off we went. I stopped off and picked up their bats, gloves, pads and the stumps and suggested that they might want to have a knock around and they didn't wholly reject the idea.

Once over there I put up the stumps and their mate was watching me bowling and you could see he was itching to have a go and it didn't take much before we were all having a bit of a game. Now, both my sons having done it a little bit (Cricket) love it when you introduce a new kid who when it comes to other sports (including the throwing comp) like football tend to be a lot better than they are. But when it comes to cricket because of the little bits they've done with me suddenly they're the stars of the show, it's them telling the new kid that they're bowling wides and that they're chucking the ball and that they need to get back into their crease etc. Suddenly their enthusiasm shoots up as they rule the roost and it ended up that we carried on playing through the drizzle and were playing for over an hour and half on my little practice wicket. That means all that hand shearing and mowing wasn't completely in vain!

The new kid despite being all over the place loved it and he's well up for it - asking Ben and Joe what time he can come round in the morning so that we can all have another game tomorrow. So that's really good as it's re-kindled Ben and Joe's enthusiasm and hopefully they'll be up for it more in the future?

That's it for now - match report tomorrow and I'll try and get some shots of our ground tomorrow as well. I'll also be able to report whether these two new variations are used and how they go - it might be interesting!
 
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Grays & Chadwell V's Sawbridge
So a game at short notice. They got this team off the cricket conference system whereby teams of similar calibre are matched up with each other on the basis of a vague description. But one mans good is another mans awful so there's room for a mismatch and this is by no means an exact science.

Read the rest and see the pictures at www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com
 
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The aftermath

Yep, I'm a bit disillusioned after yesterday and wondering what I can do about it? Super Dave was saying that he's been working with the Wizard (one of the other leg spin bowlers - there's him and Ross) and he's got him to bring his arm up and bowl differently and it's working and the Wizard is becoming a lot better especially with his accuracy. So that's good.

To be continued....

Right where was I? Oh yeah disillusion. Yep I came away from the match with my confidence in tatters having watched Ross take them apart and getting three wickets and Neil bowl well reducing the run rate. Unfortunately I'm never in a position on the field where I'm able to appreciate how much spin these blokes are getting and I'm always baffled by the fact that Neil always offers encouragement when you do get it right and yet he's nowhere near the bowling and certainly not behind the stumps. So that begs the question what is he looking at when I'm bowling and what is it he's commenting on when I get it right and he comments in a positive manner? I can only assume flight and length?

I have a problem in that I am slow and Super Dave was saying that if I just use my run up more affectively I'll get a bit more speed, but I have a problem in that my legs do this cross over thing that they all reckon is a bad move, but I bowl pretty much side on and the leg cross-over is the thing that gets my body into the sideways position for the delivery. In order that I get speed increase (1) I usually try and whip my arms round faster, but in doing this I then run the risk of becoming less accurate. I was watching Neil and he really whips his arms in his rotation but the ball seems to take a arching trajectory, whereas when I whip my arms and go for speed the ball then takes an 'easily seen' straight line that is very unlikely to deviate off it's line with spin. Or it goes for a full toss. The only way I seem to be able to get the arc is to bowl the ball a lot slower and then it just seems really slow and I keep getting comments relating to the fact that I'm too slow. BUt then reading Philpott yesterday he was saying that pace wasn't that much of an issue, placement and accuracy were far more vital and the threat that it might do something when it pitches and his advice was to ignore the advice to speed up. With him it'a all about the flick of the wrist and getting the ball to spin.

After the game I was so disillusioned that I went over to Local Field and tried to bowl leg spin, but that just made things worse as they ended up spinning to off. I tried to bowl leg spin on a shorter track just to see if I could get it to spin in the right direction - but nothing other than off spin. Eventually what with it being nearly dark I opted to go home and have a look tommorrow.
Tomorrow came and went and now it's Tuesday afternoon 17.35 and I'm on the train. Last night I did go out on the field and threw some balls with the intention of trying to see if I could stop the crossed over legs thing, but I couldn't. I feel like that's the way I bowl. I noticed that Neils run up is very short, but he does one of those hops that many Leg spinners do, but his non pivoting leg comes down in the way that the likes of Jenner and Warned indicate that you should and the leg on which he pivots needless to say does all the right kind of things as well. Having tried to look at the cross-over leg action and getting nowhere I've decided that it's here to stay in the short term and maybe it's something to look at under supervision from the rest of the team next winter if I can get to the net sessions? So next I decided I'd just see if I can speed up the walk-in with the cross over included and the outcome of that was that I can. So then I moved on to the whip action with the rotation of the arms using the leading arm in a really high starting point and the ball arm up level with my face and this worked as well, but this is something I'd looked at previously and knew would work. But yes the rotation of the arms can be increased along with the walk in and potentially I can speed the whole thing up.

In trying to do this I initially was still trying to get the ball to spin like a leg break, but it was doing the opposite so I changed tactics and bowled top-spinners, wrong uns and Zooters. Now these worked well (On rough grass) and all bounced nicely and were very accurate despite the relative increase in speed. Evaluating what was happening I reckon I need to practice more combining both the rotation and the run in with a view to increasing the speed. I think in game situations I'm worried that I'm going to bowl wides so I tend to bowl slower and more cautiously so it seems evident that I need to practice more with a much faster action with both of the aspects discussed and see how it works. Hopefully with the practice will come confidence in my ability to still bowl a good line and length. The other thing that was encouraging though was despite these increases in speed the ball was still spinning well with loads of bounce. I was also looking at the trajectory getting the ball up above the eye level of a potential batsman and still seemingly faster than I would normally bowl?

So now it looks like I've reverted back to being an off spinner (Googly bowler) which does bother me. So then I tried the gipper and it worked really well. As I bowled more of them though the less they then seemed to move towards off and became standard flipper back spinners. What's more some of them bounced up high in a weird way as well so that still needs loads of work. So overall a feeling of desparation still prevails.

The only good bit of news is that both my kids are up for a knock about on the little practice wicket because their mate is up for it and again we played tonight and they're both doing okay in their own little way.

10th June

Another amazingly nice day which means the ground is drying out along with the grass. Coming back from work I did a pitch inspection on the "local field" and it's looking okay - nice and short and relatively flat.

Again the boys were up for some cricket and we went and had a knock about and again they enjoyed it. I think part of the secret to maintaining their interest is that it's short, we all have a go at batting each and rotate fielding, wicket keeping and bowling and by the time we've all had a go it's time to go in.

Once they were tucked up in bed and asleep I went out with the mower and shears and cut the grass and tided it up a bit and it's looking okay. So much so that I took all the gear back to the garage and took the stumps and balls over and threw 36 balls. I had a plan - slightly faster off spin at the stumps. But once I'd thrown 6 balls I then decided to alternate between off - spin and Leg spin using the Gipper to get the turn. It went well - surprisingly well, so for the near future I'm going to work on bowling alternating off and leg spin concentrating on getting slightly faster and more accurate with line and length and see how that works out. So tonight I feel slightly more enthused.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

You always get bad days and good days, it's one of the joys of cricket. Just hang in there and hopefully it'll click and you'll notice the improvement.

I think I can picture your 'cross-leg' approach and have to say that I've seen a fair few other spinners do the same. They seem to have no major problems in doing what they want to do, so it shouldn't really hamper you either.

Just keep on it and the rewards will come!
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Mas, Since then the whole thing seems to have shaped up a bit and feel quite confident again - but there's a game tomorrow and all will be revealed? I'll up date here soon with what's been going on this week.
 
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Optimistic






Tomorrow we play Margaretting at home which'll be the first time I'll have played at home this year and as usual I'm optimistic about how it'll go! We'll see in 24 hours the reality?






Tonight I took Joe and Ben over to "Local Field" it's the one that I'm cutting the grass on this year (as you can see in the image) and it's just across the road from where I live so it's my place of practice most of the time. Even with the kids around I managed to throw a few balls doing the alternating between off spin and leg spin. I did the same thing as last night I stuck the stumps into the wicket where the batsman would stand and tried to bowl in front of the position that he'd take up. Again it all seemed to make sense, I'm accurate and able to bowl whatever length I want and make the ball turn in from either side and hit the stumps or even miss the stumps because it turns so sharp. The wrong uns and the zooters turn like the video here -



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnRbdfB2syw&feature=related"]YouTube - Muralitharan Massive Turn[/ame]




But it's just not something I'm normally able to replicate in a match situation. I noticed too that the way I bowl when I practice is so much more fluid and relaxed and the ball just spins loads. Maybe it didn't help that we were totally outclassed last week by the blokes in the other team, perhaps this week it may be more evenly matched?
Posted by MPA first eleven at Saturday, June 14, 2008 0 comments
Friday, June 13, 2008
Round the legs
I went over to "Local Field" tonight and had an hour bowling keeping with the strategy of bowling alternate off and legspin using my "Gipper" for the leg spin and either the Zooter or Wrong Un for the off-spin and the occassional Top Spinner. But after the spell of indoor bowling at the exhibition venue a couple of days ago where I was bowling round the students legs I decided to follow that up out on the field. So using only one stump at the bowlers end I placed the 2 spare stumps around about 5' in front of the stumps and draped a coat over them to represent the batsman.

Now I reckon that this is either going to be very detrimental to my bowling or good - I'll have to wait and see what other people say about it as a training technique? But my feelings are this -

I generally always practice on my own and I'm bowling directly at the stumps and therefore may have a tendency to bowl longer than neccesary? I feel that if I practice in this manner I'm going to bowl slightly shorter and I also noticed that Peter Philpott was saying that the primary intention is to get the ball past the batsman? What I did today was bowl slightly short of the batsmans position and get the ball turn round behind him into the stumps from either side and I was pretty good at doing so. But it seemed just the idea of bowling it at and around the position for a yorker made sense.

I was also mucking around with the flight and the speed of the delivery but getting it and around the same length and line bowling both the gipper and the wrong uns, it all seemed okay. I also noted that if I bowl the Gipper my run-up is different and possibly more orthodox?

We'll see what happens this Sunday? It looks like we've got a home match and I think our wicket is pretty grassy in which case I may be able to get it to turn some?
Posted by MPA first eleven at Friday, June 13, 2008 0 comments
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Peter Philpott
It wasn't a normal work day today. It's the end of year show when all our graduating students produce their best work and show it at the "Freerange student shows" http://www.free-range.org.uk/cgi-bin/exhibitor.pl?yearID=13&exhibitorID=387&option=members_alpha so I was there helping them get their work up and didn't get back home till 10pm.

The bummer was that Neil our captain had read the blog and this morning sent me a text saying "Come over the field (At G&CCC) and I'll bowl some balls back and forth with you and we'll look at what your doing" so a brilliant offer of help and I wasn't able to take it up - damn!

So on the train there and back I read Peter Philpotts book again going through the 8 stages of Wrist spin and again it sounds like it makes perfect sense and that I should stop bowling off spin and again concentrate on Leg Breaks?

Once I got to the venue for the exhibition though we had to wait for the display boards for over an hour. So I got out my trusty windball and bowled offspin using a student standing in front of some pipes as the batsman and bowled the ball around his legs several times with offspin.
 
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Sunday, June 15, 2008
Grays and Chadwell Vs Runwell commoners
The only contact I'd had from Neil aka 'Sammers' was a text that said "Swimming Pool at 12.30" so that kind of implied that it wasn't necessarily going to be a home match. It turned out that there was going to be three games (I think) and for some reason they were going to mix the 1st team blokes with the 2nds and 3rds and so on. I ended up in a team which was pretty much the usual 2nd team with the addition of "Cat" one of the first team blokes. Sorry Cat if you're reading this - I still don't know your real name!

The Wizard was there - first time I'd seen him in ages and I spoke to him briefly before we all headed off to our respective games, he seemed a bit peeved saying that he hadn't played for three weeks, but not saying why?

Once the teams had all be selected we all shot off and I'd been given a game near where I live in Basildon at "Lake Meadows", Billericay. WKF Rating 7.5


Which is just up the road, so close in fact I rang Michelle who needless to say had the hump about me playing today and suggested I pick them up on the way through and they could hang out at Lake Meadows for the day or watch me play some cricket. She asked the kids and the answer was that one was saying yes (Joe I'd imagine) and the other saying no. Eventually they said no. So that was that. 'Cat' the first team player was looking for a lift so I drove over to Billericay with him, boring him to tears with my story of how I got into cricket and fishing for clues as to how I can encourage my boys to get involved - but his entry into cricket was self motivated and happened around the time he was 14 so didn't give me any ideas.

Eventually got there and was surprised to find a pretty nice looking pitch and again like the other Basildon Council Cricket pitches quite well maintained - so well done Basildon Council and good use of our Council Tax - Cheers! Unfortunately I didn't take the camera which is a real shame because it looked like a real traditional cricket ground with the exception of the pavillion which was a bit 70's, but the field was nice surrounded by biggish Oak trees and other types.

Initially it didn't look as though there was going to be any opposition because there was just us and the green keeper, but eventually they turned up and they looked better than last weeks mob e.g. there were some old blokes and a few kids rather than 11 athletic youths as per last week.

I don't know who won the toss, but it sounded like they did and they put us in to bat. Neil asked me if I wanted to bat at 10 or 11 and I opted for 10 with him following my Duck no doubt, whereas if it was the other way round I'd never have got to bat? So out we all went to do battle in a 40 overs match.

If you're reading this and you're one of those blokes that's got an autistic fixation with cricket statistics and scores you're on the wrong blog. But if you want the real figures check out http://www.gandccc.webeden.co.uk/#/fixturesresults/4526674774 in a few days time if you're looking at this on the 16th June and you'll find a break down of the results/scores. In taking down notes for the blog I don't get the stats sorted and just aim to give a general feel of what happens.

So for the match report in order of appearance today with vague details of what happened -

The day was lovely and warm - a shirts off day with sunshine and blue skies with the occassional cloud. John and Nick Buckley to open (Father and Son respectively). A slow start with only 11 runs all made by Nick off of the first four overs. Apparently last year we beat this team and at this point no-one seemed at all bothered by the run rate and Neil was saying that Nick should be good for a 50 at some point soon as he was due one. More or less as soon as he's said that Nick then hits a ball out to square leg and the fielder fumbles it and drops it. The bowling at this point is in the hands of Oakes Snr and a young bloke - Williams and it's pretty neat and tidy seam bowling. Oakes Snr gets himself a maiden for the 5th over and eventually John Buckley gets some runs in the 6th over as the ball glances off his hand and flies off through slips into the outfield. 7th Over and Oakes Snr stamps his authority on the game with another maiden.

Eventually around the 8th over Nick Buckley batting from the "Tree end" glances a ball out towards backward square leg and gets 2 runs. The very next ball Williams bowls him top of of stump. Next player up to join John is "Cat" of the 1st XI. His innings starts off with a single and we're subjected to some athletic fielding by the oppositions younger players as the try and hold the Cat down.

Out on the boundary Neil reckons "Swiss Tony" AKA Danny Groves will get himself a 50 today with his new £25 bat that he's bought off a mate. Neils already offered him £50 for it but Danny's not up for selling it. In the meantime Chris Buckley and the outed Nephew Nick have been round the pitch to have a look and they reckon the bowlers are getting the ball to swing in the air a bit. In the meantime Cat is now hitting 4's off Oakes Snr. In the 12th over John actually gets his bat on the ball and goes for a sprint and it's fielded really quickly and has to return to his crease and only just makes it as we all sit there thinking he hadn't made it. Cat hits a couple of fours straight down the pitch past the bowler to long on where there's no-one fielding. Then Cat hits a couple they get twos off of by hitting lofty balls over the top of the fielder at Mid wicket. Eventually in his 20th over (obviously feeling settled) John hits a 4 from the pavillion end out to Long Off bring his total up to 15 having scored 6 in the 20th over. By the 24th over Cat has made his 50 and John is eventually bowled in the same over going for a big sweeping hit having scored 16 runs total. As he comes off the pitch to the derision of Neil et al -
"That was crap"!
"That wasn't even good enough to be called crap"! John comes back with. He then says seeing me taking notes "I hope you don't mention that in the Blog"! Thing is, I wouldn't have done until he mentioned it!

Next man in is 14 year old (Almost 15) Lee Downes, who generally plays with a really positive approach and gets the run rate up. Lee starts with a good positive attitude hitting the ball and looking confident in the 25th over he hits a 4 from the pavillion end out to cover point. By the 26th over we're on 126 so we're round about our usual run rate, so it's looking a lot better now with Cat and Lee in the centre. Neil's positive too looking for Lee to go on and score a 50 "Lee will score 50 if keeps playing like this".......

Cat is next to go bowled clean with the bails flying off all over the shop and stumps well and truly parted he leaves the field having scored 72. "Swiss Tony" makes his way on to the pitch with his £25.00 bat looking to make a big impact batting from the Tree end. The 2nd ball off of Oakes Jnr he hits nicely right out of the centre of the bat with the ball zinging down the ground like an exocet missile down to long on only to hit the ground just short of the boundary - it's looking pretty good! Neil says "Danny's been talking a good game out here - lets see him do it"! The 3rd ball he does pretty much the same thing again. His 3rd ball hits the edge of his bat and flies up into the sky heading off towards Mid on hanging in the air for an absolute age. The wicket keeper goes after it, mid on is after it along with Deep mid on and they all miss, the nearest still being 8' short of where it lands! On his 5th ball he's bowled and Neil makes the comment "Why does he pay £10 to go out and bat like that - that's just cost him £1.11 a run - that's what you call irresponsible batting"!

Fozzy's up next he's a bloke my age and he bats pretty well, I think I saw him bat a few 50's last year and he might have hit a 100 in one game? Next to go in is 13 year old Rhys as Chris Buckley gives up his place in the order to give Rhys a bat. In the meantime Fozzy gets to work along with Lee and we're 133 off of 28 overs. In the 30th over Lee hits a lofty shot out towards Long Off and is caught at deep mid off. Little Rhys makes his way out and is dispatched within a couple of balls bowled cleanly having made no runs at all and I get the nod to pad up as Chris Buckley makes his way out to the centre. While I'm getting padded up Fozzy's innings are cut short and his son Ross makes his way out to the crease to join Chris Buckers. Within a matter of seconds Ross is bowled clean too having made no runs? And it's my turn to repeat last weeks pile of crap. Having done what I did last week, this week I kept that in mind and was again optimistic and was hoping to stay for at least an over? So concentrating on not stepping out of my wicket I set about at least staying there a while. Fortunately the bowler was fairly crap and kept bowling wides down the off side so to counteract that he bowled over the wicket instead and I managed to hit one down to long on and scored my first 4!!!! I then defended a couple off the other bowler and hit another where we were able to score a couple of runs. Then in my 3rd over the wide bloke bowled me clean coming over the wicket again. But at 6 runs that is now my record for Grays and Chadwell.

Sammers makes his way out as the last man in at 143 at 36 overs. Taking my pads off and taking notes I didn't manage to keep an eye on what was going on till the last over when everyone was clamouring for a final flourish from the last two. So into the last over with Sammers on strike. First ball is a yorker that Neil stops dead almost under his bats toe. The second ball Neil dispatches with aplomb for a 4 down to Long On. The 3rd ball the same as the 2nd and finally with the 4th ball the match is finished with Neil being bowled. 176 all out. Having no idea what these blokes are like with the bat 176 didn't sound that good to me - with a split of 50/50 between a bunch of old blokes which means potentially they've got experience on their side and the other half being young blokes and memories still fresh from last week I wasn't that confident that we'd have it easy.

The teas were nice - salmon and cucumber, Cheese and onion, Ham, Cheese and tomato sandwhiches. Fruit including strawberries and grapes and some other posh looking fruit like melon or mango - after all it is Billericay and it's north of the A127 and I'm from Tilbury! It looked posh to me! Why have you got to have all that poncy stuff when there's oranges, strawberries, raspberries and 80 or so different varieties of English Apples and we're mincing around with bloody mangoes!!! I don't know! Anyway - a lovely cup of tea, pork pies, quiche and a rich chocolate cake it all went down very well.

So out onto the pitch with the prospect of a few more overs than normal as we were short on bowlers. The bowling line up looked like Neil and Ross bowling wrist spin along with me trying to do the same and little 2'9" 13 year old Rhys/Rees our single pace bowler. Ross and Neil were to open and they got on well with the job taking wickets pretty early on, I think Rhys/Rees took the first few (You'll have to check the stats on the link further up the page). Neil had them on their toes with his off spin and he was looking to get two wickets to bring his seasons total up to 25 (It's obvious I've got s**t loads to learn at this game)! Next up was Ross Fulbrook again a young'un - probably 13 or 14 years old but normally bowls a pretty mean and consistent RH leg break. But he's a bit sensitive and moody and takes it to heart when things go a bit tits up. Earlier I'd seen him bowling short balls to Rhys/Rees and they were turning but it seems that sometime in the last few weeks he'd had a good innings with the bat and racked up his highest run score in a match and today he'd gone out there full of confidence expecting to stamp his authority on the match and went for a duck. It seems he didn't take it well. With his confidence shot he was now giving it "I'm s**t at batting and I can't bowl either" as he took to the track as one of our key bowlers. In that state of mind it wasn't surprising that he then went to pieces in comparison with his usual performance and it was down hill all the way it seemed with him getting more and more frustrated. Everyone was trying to buoy him up with positive comments but he got hit over the boundary for some fours and a couple of sixes later on just prior to Sammers changing his strategy.

The fielding was okay. Lee was having a bit of a duff game with some dives that were well short of his target with everyone taking the mick. Cat was fielding at Mid wicket (I think) and he had a ball go straight at him at a normally easily caught speed and height and he dropped it early in their innings and everyone took the mick out of him as well what with being in the first team. Maybe his name 'Cat' has something to do with him having cat-like reactions and agility? If so it wasn't on show today. Rees/Rhys got a few wickets and Neil had a similar number if not more? I bowled better than normal producing some balls that turned (off-spin) quite nicely causing the batsmen to comment. One nice one that pitched well outside off stump spun off just missing the top of leg stump having passed right across the front of the batsman. Some of the overs I was getting the line and length right and Neil was encouraging as usual as was Cat. I even bowled a maiden over and again I think that was a first for me. The fielders all done pretty well stopping some of the big hits from going for fours, but nothing was in the air particularly.

Neil was trying to coach me, suggesting different things I should be doing - primarily the length I was bowling. Too many times I was bowling so short so that the batsmen could just step back and have time to line up the shot and hit it miles. Looking back I kind of get what I should have been trying to do, but I think I need to have it explained in a practice situation - I'm the sort learner that needs to have it very clearly set out what I should be doing - more a visual learner than an auditory learner, so to have the thing explained in verbal terms doesn't quite do it in the same way as visual teaching does. I recalled that an Asian bloke over at Gloucester Park explained where I should be bowling the ball - what he basically demonstrated was irrespective of where the stumps are, you bowl to a zone in front of the batsman and he stretched out his bat and drew an arc round himself saying "That's where you want to be bowling - not any pre-determined length a flexible length just short of the batsman so that you tempt him to come forward". I think this is what Neil was trying to say? He's offered to do one to one coaching and I reckon it'll be beneficial, but as yet it hasn't come together so that I can take his offer up. But I reckon it's what I need. He also said that when he's training the colts he puts a hankie down and gets them to spot bowl, so keeping that in mind what I'll try and do is spot bowl over the next few weeks and move the spot back and forth and see if I can contol the length affectively?

The only other gripe I had with myself was that I wasn't trying to spin the ball up and bowl it faster as I have been doing recently in practice. The spinning the ball up tactic became evident later on when Neil changed tactics and it does seem to be something that works. I was remembering to reach higher with my leading arm which seems to help and I was keeping the variations simple - Top Spinners and Wrong Uns. I did use two balls that were Gippers and the batsman did notice as they were straight and both just missed the leg stump but neither turned in, but they skidded low. So I think what I'll do is keep practicing them alongside the wrong uns alternating each ball but concentrating on the spot bowling as mentioned earlier.

So my practice agenda for the next 2 weeks whilst I'm not playing in matches is -

Gippers and Wrong uns. Spot bowling whilst trying to spin the ball up above the eye-level and increase the speed a bit.

I think as a learner of this speciality and this goes for the likes of Ross and the Wizard we're lucky I reckon in that the captain of the team is himself a wrist spin bowler? Because I can't imagine that any seam bowler who doubled up as the captain would have the patience and understanding that is required to allow us into the game to then watch us be smashed all over the park for 4's and 6's. I often feel the same applies for the all the blokes that don't bowl. It sometimes seems that we're doing okay with the seam bowlers they keeping the run rates down and it looks impressive - they look like they're affective simply by virtue of appearing to chuck the ball fast and hard. Whereas on I come and I start throwing balls that look as though a Granny could clobber for 4 with a handbag without wearing any pads! As Shane Warne says in this video clip at the end - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfZgFi9Q9gc"]YouTube - Shane Warne[/ame]

"You need to be best friends with the captain cos he's the one that's going to try and keep you on and you need a lot of love from everybody because it's hard and it can be embarrasing sometimes. You also need to have a bit of courage - no matter what's happening you've got to throw it up and getting hit for six sometimes can be fun - you might not like it, but no matter how far it goes you get another chance to bowl the next ball and it might be a different ball or what have you - so"?

I think it's either very good captain or a captain that bowls spin himself that would understand those sentiments properly. So cheers to everyone that has to endure the agony of watching us bowl 3 wides consecutively and still manages to come up with encouraging words the next time one is on target and flies over the boundary! Even Neil this week had an over where he threw a bunch of wides and full tosses, so it happens to all of us sometimes.

At which point at 32 overs and still quite some way off of a win Neil decides to go for a radical approach - bring on the secondary wave of bowlers -

Fozzy
Chris Buckley
John Buckley
Cat

And for the very final over - Lee.

Now this was really interesting from my point of view because apart from Lee I'd never seen any of these blokes bowl. Lee I'd seen bowl before and take wickets - he bowls slowish straight balls and I think gets the wickets on the basis of accuracy and the fact that the pace at which he bowls is unusual and catches out the batsman. I wish it was something I could incorporate into my bowling! First up was Chris. A couple of weeks ago I'd thrown balls back and forth with him on a wicket where I couldn't get it to turn, but he was bowling off spin that was deviating off it's line. I think his first over was okay, fairly tight keeping the run rate down. At this point they were about 35 - 40 runs behind so only needed around 5 runs off of each over, so Chris did okay. Then on came Fozzy from the tree end, I've never seen or heard of Fozzy bowling so wasn't surprised when he bowled that the ball took an arc that at it's highest point was around 20'! But the batsman was completely bamboozled by the delivery that he did nothing with it. The rest of the balls were pretty much the same and each time the batsman wasn't able to dispatch the ball in the way that it should have been (I think at this point they were both youngsters) allowing Fozzy to pull Ross's leg "See Ross - see what I mean - pitch it up and they can't do anything with it if it's above their eye-line"! Ross wasn't impressed - probably mortified that his old man was bowling pies. Then off of one of Fozzy's the bat hit one straight down Cats throat and Cat dived forward but it didn't carry "See they should have had me on earlier"! Shouted Fozzy. Ross managed a smile at this point. Fozzy continued and I think he may have been clobbered once or twice with one of them getting past me for a 4 and then Neil more or less put everyone out on the boundary. Suddenly the Runwell boys sensed a chance of victory with their team shouting encouragement from the boundary. I looked at the field placings and thought that if they were clever they'd change tactics and go for singles at this stage and just get the runs ticking over.

Cat came on and he bowled an over with his own unique style and again it was 50/50 some of it was affective and others were hit but everyone fielded okay and they were kept just short of the required run rate. The crowd at the pavillion were getting really animated now. Chris came back on for his 2nd over and went to pieces in comparison with his first over and the run rate went up and it looked like they were now in a position to win and their team were now reaching a frenzy on the boundary line. Then Chris bowled a ball from the pavillion end that went up and out to somewhere between mid wicket and Mid on and Fozzy was there with the sun on his back in a position to make a safe and easy catch, the ball floated out of the sky and safely into his hands as I've seen his do so many times.

The kid took the walk back and out strolled their white version of Inzimam ul Haq who'd been slow in the field and average with his bowling, so may have been a half decent batsman what with his age and potential experience? Suddenly it looked like we may have blown it. He stood with the younger bat in the centre talking for quite some while discussing what they were going to do, it was obvious that they sensed victory and from my perspective I was thinking that we were definitely on a knife edge, but realised that Neil was manufacturing the end of the game to be like this just to make it so much more lively and exciting.

The next few overs seemed to be a blur, I just remember the crowd on the boundary clapping and cheering every time they got a run or a four and suddenly the kid hit a six off of someone, one of the blokes I heard say that it was his first six, this was soon followed up by the kids hitting another 4 and then here we were looking at losing the game in the last over. Neil was shouting "Lets make it a draw - lets manufacture a draw - I've never had a draw before"? I don't think anyone else was sharing his sentiment. So into the last over and they needed something like 5 runs for a draw and 6 to win. "Come on Lee". Called Neil and poor Lee Downes was given the job of either winning the match for us or letting it slip - no pressure at all!!! Lee stepped up to the role without moaning or anything and got on with it. The crowd was shouting "Go all out for it! Don't hold back smash it"! Each ball that was bowled made contact with the bat as they swung at it trying to get it over the boundary and each time it either connected wrong or went straight to the fielders only allowing a single or a dot ball. It came down to the last ball and they were one behind us and Neil was still shouting "Come on make it a draw - I want it to be a draw"! Their mob were screaming and shouting at the kid who was on strike and had been hitting fours and his first six. Lee ran up to the crease swung his arm over and the ball flew down the pitch and the bat swung at it hard and the ball sneaked past into Nicks safe gloves (My gloves actually) and we'd won by one run.

As we walked off Neil said that was one of his best games ever in a friendly situation and I've got to say the way he engineered it at the end bringing on all the other blokes to bowl had injected some real fun into the game and turned what was going to be an easy win into something a bit special at the end. The opposition seemed okay with it and we're playing them again by the sounds of it in July, so that should be fun too as they'll no doubt be looking for a victory and we may not have Cat next time?

I'll take a camera next time and do some pictures as the pitch is quite a pretty little pitch.

Just as we were leaving one of the oppo's came in and said....
"There's a T-shirt out here someone's left behind, none of ours have claimed it, so it must be one of yours"? No-one answered.
"Who's lost a T-shirt"? One of ours re-asked. Still no answer. Swiss Tony then asked.
"What's it like - is there a label on it"?
"Yeah - it's white..... Primark Basics it says".
"Ha ha no **** is going to own up to that, you'd be better off losing the two quid it costs than owning up to that"!
"Yeah - actually that's mine" I said "I can't afford not to buy Primark stuff - so cheers"!

Here's a new feature Wife and Kids user friendly or a WKF rating. Based on a 1 to 10 rating - 10 being good 1 being bad on how user friendly is the cricket pitch and surrounding countryside if your wife and kids decide to join you for the 6 - 8 hours your there. The premise is they load up there bikes on a bike rack on the back of the car and have the flexibility to ride out and away from the pitch to go and look at other features and stuff nearby. Horton Kirby in Kent for instance was really good - 9. I reckon that Lake meadows with it's Lake, fields, trees, swimming pool and skatepark is a 7.5


After my dinner I went over local field with the mower and cut the wicket a bit more and it's now getting to the point where it's moving towards being a full on cricket pitch (Slightly narrower). I've also noticed that the grass seems to be growing a lot slower - possibly due to the weather being dryer?
 
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Practice on local field
Tonight I went over to Local Field and started to put into practice the new objectives -


Bowl faster (use a run up).
Flight the ball - spin it up above the eye line.
Spot bowling (I'm using a 20" innertube).
Bowl alternate Gipper-Wrong Un- Top spinner and Doosra.
I may change my mind on the Doosra as it involves a particularly vicious flick which is wearing on the muscles and joints? The first impression was that all of this looks pretty attainable - I think one of the issues that I have is judging the distance in front of the batsman as to where I need to pitch the ball. It's easy bowling into a tyre because it's so visible, take the tyre away and it's a lot more trickier. The other issue is the concentration factor - one of the things I've adopted recently is the awareness of the need to have the leading arm high at the point of starting the rotation, but I have to concentrate on doing this, which means concentration then lacks elsewhere in the short term until this becomes second nature. I'm now thinking in terms of - if the batsman adapts to my bowling in that he adopts the tactic of not trying to go for the short balls and instead steps back and hits it off the back foot, do I then need to bowl it a lot fuller and faster? This is where the Gipper would be good I reckon, but it requires that I'm aware that this is happening and adapt to it - I don't think I'm up to it yet?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Practicing
I haven't made that many entries of late because I've just been trying to practice the spot bowling. I've been out every evening and probably managed to bowl between 75-100 balls each time. It's difficult to assess how good it's going and I'm beginning to think that I'm getting into a rut where I'm not going forward with it that much and I may give it a break for a couple of days before returning to it again. I've noticed that I've changed my run-up slightly and it may be for the better. I can also now probably switch to bowling faster and I've been working on delivering the ball on a higher trajectory above the bats eye-line. The amount of spin differs from day to day and the Gipper ball has morphed into something that is usable but is far less radical than when I first come up with the idea, but on the odd occasion it does spin and turn like a big leg break. I'm still sticking with the training regime of alternate offspin (Wrong un) and leg-spin (Gipper).

Additionally I've resumed exercising my shoulders - rotational press ups, pull ups on a bar and stretching those bands behind the head. Whether this is all going to make a difference in a game situation I'm reserving judgement. I think that I need to be more aware of what the bat is trying to do in future and try and force the bat to produce certain shots. Another Sunday yet to come without a game and my first game will be an away match in July if I get the call up for it? That's a lot of practice still to come.

Ben and Joe news.

I've now cut the grass on the local field to create a 17 yard wicket so that my boys can play and bit by bit more of the local kids are getting involved and there's real potential for the summer holidays for a fair crowd of kids to get involved and maybe even play with several fielders, a bowler, 2 bats and a wicket keeper? Some of the kids that have joined in have never picked up a bat in their lives and most of them have no idea about the neccessity to have a straight arm to bowl. One or two at the minute just can't do it but some of the others including kids who's Dads never do anything with them and seemingly never get any praise for anything in thier lives are bowling really well and you can see they're well chuffed when you say to them "Well done mate - really good bowling". So every night now I have a gang of boys from about 6 through to 13 years old knocking on my door asking "Are Ben and Joe going over the field to play cricket"? It's brilliant! I don't feel like such a mental case now for rolling the field under the cover of darkness in the middle of the winter and taking my shears and lawn-mower over there and cutting the grass!

The added bonus is that both my boys are gradually getting better and they love it because they're obviously the better players what with having been doing it some time now (reluctantly on occassions). Tonight at the end of the game I swapped the windball for a 41/4 oz cricket ball and got my older son to bat against that and he hit every ball and seemed to appreciate the increased ping off the bat and the fact that it went further. There's another little kid about 7 who can throw down balls and hit the stumps from a good distance who's also looking promising as a wicket keeper, so it's looking good for the summer holidays.

The wicket itself is wearing out and is becoming bare earth now around where the bats stand and it's pretty even. God knows what the groundsman makes of it when he comes and cuts the grass, I don't know what they'd say if they turned up and we were all there playing?
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

haha good stuff - it could all be down to you creating the future 2017 ashes team onwards..all from the same village/town
 
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We had 9 of us on the field tonight and it's not even school holidays yet - must admit it did get a bit manic controlling 8 boys all wanting to bat/bowl but not field!!! Gotta think of a way of keeping them all engaged and interested otherwise they'll lose interest.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

It's a nightmare at times, trust me. I can have up to 50 under 9's at any one training session. It's fine when they are active but as soon as you lose their attention, all hell breaks loose!

Way to do it (with 8) is to break them into 4 pairs. Each pair bats for a set number of overs (regardless of how many times they get out) and everyone must bowl and keep wicket (so just rotate them round). That way you only have '4' fielders at worst (I find it's the fielding that bores them most).

Failing that try a game of continuous cricket (try this link for an explanation and also some other ideas - ECB lesson plans). Use a stump if you haven't got any cones. This tends to be a manic at times but it at least gets a few of them involved.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

I like the idea of the pairs for a series of specified number of overs, but I've noticed that some of them have sussed out that they can occupy the strike position if they're a bit clever with when they run! I'll give it a go though and see how it works out - cheers!

50 kids though - that sounds mental!
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Rotate the strike at the end of every over, stops them batting by numbers. The thing is to get hold of some incrediballs (if you haven't got any already). They're hard enough to feel like a cricket ball but soft enough to do without pads. Makes things a bit quicker when changing the batting pair.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Tonight we had it so that whoever was on strike was allowed to face 2 overs but within the 2 overs that had to hit the ball and make runs. Failure to make runs meant the next bloke then took over the batting ensuring that any potential Boycotts were forced to try and hit the ball. It seemed to work and went quite smoothly with them all accepting the system. With regards the balls yeah we use windballs/Kookaburra plastic training balls, they're quite heavy so actually come off the bat quite nicely.

Anyway other than that here's some updates from my primary blog at www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com (With images)............

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Pitch progress
Cut some more pitch tonight and I've probably done 3 yards of the 17 required, I'll try and take some pictures soon before it becomes too obvious as to what it is. At the moment it looks quite intruiging as a photograph and people have commented regarding previous pictures I've got on my facebook page that have no explanation as to what the weird short bits of grass are in the middle of a field. No cricket in any form tonight other than watching the Kiwis beat us by a 1 run on channel 5's highlight program.


Pitch progress #2
Cut some more this evening at both ends and also cut the previously cut with shears sections with the mower, so it's shaping up. Another boy was added to the potential cricket team - a slightly older lad about 12. Some of the younger lads look like they're really getting into it and appear to have been practicing! Currently we're up to 9 boys and me and if can get another 3 we can have a full fielding team and 2 batting! I can then start to teach them their fielding positions (Which'll be useful as it means I'll have to learn them as I go along)!

They'll have to have a name soon at this rate! I suppose it follows that they're called "MPA 2nd XI"? Or maybe Great Berry Boys 1st XI after the boys club that uses the boxing facilities and football pitch in the winter!

The groundsman had also started to cut the field again today and he's been all round the outsides so far, so maybe if it doesn't rain over-night the field will have been cut all over which will enable me to cut it quicker perhaps?
Posted by MPA first eleven at Thursday, June 26, 2008 0 comments
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Check out the updates with images here - http://www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com/

There's not a lot of text so seems a bit pointless putting the text in without the images here.

Now we've made our wicket I've now got to devise a format of the game which will keep all these kids on-side with the game, so that they learn to love it. Looks like our local school in a couple of years might end up winning the local schools championship if all these kids stick at it!
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Nice work Dave :)
Ur hard work will be fruitful.
It seems ur sons are also taking interest..the 2nd photo is my guess.
Nice place to practice.
We have such green outfiled only in moonsoon.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Virender I've looked at your Google maps links before and it looks really dusty! I don't suppose your grass lasts that long once the moonsoon passes?
I didn't play today as I had to work - shooting pictures at a wedding, but my sons played cricket with their Grandad which is a good sign as they instigated the game and the younger one hit the ball across 3 gardens so he was well chuffed and couldn't wait to tell me how hard he'd hit it!
I don't know how dry our summer's going to be but down here in SE England (It's about 28 miles from London) we've had a really nice and relatively dry June. July is like our moonsoon season as statistically the rain through July increases because of the heat and humidity. Last year my holiday was in July and we had 9 days of rain through our 18 day holiday. I'm off on holdiay again in July and I'm hoping it wont be as wet!
But if it is dry all the grass dries out and goes yellow and stops growing. I'm not sure what the owners of this field have planned for it over the summer - I'm hoping they'll continue to cut it and that it'll stay relatively short and all the kids on the estate will spend a whole summer playing cricket on my wicket!? Hopefully at least one of them will go on to play cricket for the rest of their lives!
 
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