Wrist Spin Bowling (part Five)

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TonyM said:
Pass on congrats to Ben, best of luck to Joe and yourself today
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Not so clever this week for me, 3-0-23-0, at the ground were I had my worst days bowling ever and that too was at the start of the season last year with a similar kind of story. Last year it knocked me off my feet psychologically and I didn't recover till much later in the year, but I went for 10 + an over in that match, 7.66 economy is better this year. Very similar story as last year...... (1). Opening batsman completely dominating all of the bowling and staying the duration. (2). Cobbled together side for us with many blokes just not up to the fielding. (3). Not much in the way of a pace attack, this year just one bloke.

Watching today kind of made me more aware of the difficulty that Spin bowlers face in these situations. There's another wrist spinner in my side that they rip the mickey out of because he's so way-ward with his bowling.... Full tosses, drag downs and balls that end up off the strip they're so wide all being frequent features of his bowling. Another feature is the speed, or rather lack of it and the fact that many of his balls would bounce twice if the batsman didn't get to them. But I think this is all an outcome of the fact that he really does put revs on the ball when he gets it right and over the year he takes wickets. But watching him today made me realise that if the fielders were agile and adept at catching he'd have had a couple off of his two overs. But looking round the field at us all there were.........

1.Me 50 - bad knee
2. Graham - Nearly 50, but fit and very committed, but still in his late 40's
3. Reg - about 40?
4. Ray - 40 + limping and carrying a few pounds of weight more than he needs to, not what you'd describe as agile
5. Dave - 40 carrying a few pounds of weight more than he needs to, not what you'd describe as agile
6. Edwin - 45 + Limping and 1st match with us
7. Liam - 26-28 fit and young first team player
8. Azeel - 35+ Pulled up lame with thigh muscle injury - limping
9. Jodie - Wicket Keeper 5' tall and 12 years old, doesn't normally keep!
10. Old bloke - 55-60, just old, so never going to be that fast, but he was okay
11. Pinno - He has cats at home and posts pic's of himself with his cat on Facebook, so that kind of tells you all you need to know about him, yeah, he's not Paul Collingwood or Herschell Gibbs.

So where the batsmen do go after him, they run a fairly good chance of making a mistake and if he was bowling in a team of committed athletes who could charge across a fair bit of pitch and pull off diving catches he'd do fairly well. But cos we're all older blokes and cat loving couch loafers, that isn't going to happen, so you've just got to be philosophical about these Sunday friendlies and commit yourself to practicing more if you want wickets and not let it get to you, otherwise it becomes depressing.
 
I had a strange weekend bowling-wise, it seems some days I'm hot and other days not. Saturday I was hot and as I was bowling a few pre-match bagfuls in our nets the opposition team arrived and started practising in the next-door net. I made sure everything I bowled thereafter turned as much as I could muster, some really good bowling, and they seemed to notice, but then in the game we only used the three seamers to get them all out for 97 I think so I didn't get a bowl. On Sunday I was decidedly not hot, the wind was unhelpful and the ball was only vaguely round, and I got hit for 22 off two overs, albeit that I had a relatively straightforward catch dropped at deep mid-off early in my first over and a few other aerial shots went to empty field. I know when I'm bowling well and today was pretty rubbish if I'm honest, I'll take any wicket I can but I wouldn't have deserved one.

It's probably a good thing as after Saturday's game I was pretty upset not to get a bowl but those two overs reminded me that despite all the work I've put in I'm still pretty poor by any impartial yardstick, a lot like the guy Dave describes above - slow, loopy, occasionally pretty wayward but with the ability to get good turn when it lands. I do struggle to remember the dozen or so aspects of my action that are likely to cause problems and get them all working simultaneously, but in general terms my concentration is pretty good. When I bowl a bad ball or get hit my team-mates seem to feel the need to pick me up but I really don't need it, if anything it slightly puts me off. I'm also starting to show signs of the first lesions on my spinning finger and while I'm sure there'll come a time when I'm cursing the things and trying to find esoteric ways to treat it, for the moment I'm actually quite encouraged!

On the non-bowling side my fielding has been pretty good of late and today I was involved in an epic final over on Sunday as we were chasing down a decent total. I'd umpired the whole innings when on the first ball of the last over the 7th wicket went down and I had to swap over so I could pad up to go in at 11. When I got back I was told that due to another player having an injury I was next in and before I'd even found my bag the guy who'd gone in as I came off was out first ball! I rushed to get my pads on and was over the boundary rope before I'd even got my box on, then took the time to take a guard (not because I need one, just to buy a few seconds to get my heart-rate down) and with four balls left I was facing and we needed 3 to win. I could only block the first but nudged the second back with a bit more firmness and my partner obligingly deflected the ball away so we could run a single. He then played and missed the penultimate ball and off the last ball we squeaked a single to tie the match. As you can imagine it took me a good ten minutes to calm down afterwards!
 
Spider, the finger injuries indicates you must be getting that part of it right at least surely and that if the other stuff was to come together, there would be a massive increase in potential? Our loopy bowler simpy doesn't practice enough by my reckoning and he's got to be pretty tough and determined to take all the mickey taking that goes on behind his back and openly a lot of the time. Personally if I was bowling in the manner that he does, I would be practicing a whole lot more.
 
Before you read my usual waffle about my weekend, bear in mind that I didn't bowl this weekend, so all of the below is just me complaining at the captaincy and describing my inability with the bat haha. If you want to read about leg spin then simply don't bother because there isn't anything in the following...

I played a league game for the 2's on Saturday. We fielded first on a decent track (the rain seems to have helped the wickets a great deal, they've gone from uneven with minimal bounce (despite being rock hard and dry on the surface) to being pretty flat with a little carry. Still not great but they never have been at our home ground). The opening seamers were the usual 2nd XI this time around (last week was a cobbled together side), a 15 year old with decent pace who is a really good bowler when he gets it right, and an older fat bloke who just bowls military medium pace on a perfect line and length every ball. I got stuck out at square leg (my least favourite fielding position on the field because you never get to do anything, and its normally 2nd to deep fine leg for places to hide someone useless, and I'm one of the best fielders at the club, so no idea what the captain was thinking there). And the first 8 overs or so were the most boring overs of cricket I've ever played. Batsmen just blocking out line and length deliveries, and I had nothing to do stood in gale force cold winds.

Anyway, things didn't get much better, it was one of the most boring matches I've ever played in. Wickets fell steadily, I can't remember if we got them all out in the last over or if the overs just ran out. But the opening seamers were very tight without getting many wickets. Then we had a girl come on first change along with another guy that I've played with a couple of times this season, and the girl took 3 wickets in the end (the usual case of people seeing a girl and thinking she will suck, when she was actually bang on the money every balls), and the other bloke got smashed around loads for 6's and 4's. He was bowling too short almost all the time, and wayward with quite a few deliveries, and yet he still got 10 overs. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me, I'd have taken him off quite early because he wasn't good.

The 2 fill-in overs were given to the regular "off spinner" (I say it in inverted commas because in order to be defined as a spinner you need to spin the ball and occasionally turn it). He wasn't too expensive, but then he had everyone on the rope, and was bowling at new batsmen mostly. I knew I wouldn't get a look in, the captain just doesn't rate me, and to be honest I'm not going to play for the 2's anymore as its a pointless exercise. I'd rather just play Sunday cricket until I improve enough to get a chance in the first XI because the 2nd XI mentality just doesn't fit with the way I like to play. Its too safe and boring.

We kept their score low enough (despite them having a couple of fantastic batsmen), 202 to win I think. Our openers got out cheaply, both caught playing loose shots and giving their wicket away. Number 3 got in and played beautifully, 4 got out for a golden duck, then 3 and 5 put on a great partnership and took the game well towards victory. We would have cruised there had they not both got out in the 40's, with us still needing 50 odd runs off plenty of overs. The batting order then collapsed (I think 8 of the 10 wickets were caught in the field, which is pathetic. Lower order you expect it, the upper order just gave their wickets away), with me in at 10. The guy at number 9 (the off spinner) went in and is actually a decent batsman, but hes just a bit of an idiot. He hit some lovely boundaries, and got the scoreboard ticking nicely, he just had to stay in. But as usual, he tried to smash the ball out of the park every delivery and got caught within an over. So I went in and just tried to play sensibly, block anything good and smash anything bad. They had a kid bowling at me and I just played straight blocks but didn't really get bat on ball (its not my natural game). At the other end there was a pretty rubbish offie, so I fancied a go. First ball swang hard across the line (it was straying leg side so no danger) and I missed, but it just hit me in the stomach. Their fielders all got excited thinking I was rubbish and just going to slog, but I shut them up next ball when I played a fairly gentle and conservative cross between an on-drive and a pull shot through mid-wicket for 3 (longest boundary, and it looked like it went for 4, but the fielder reckoned not). I got out to a crap medium pacer at the other end though trying to play too delicately to a short wide ball outside off stump which I could have just left, and got caught at gully. If I had swung properly it would have gone, I was just trying to be too conservative to try and see the game home. I should have played my natural game and just gone in swinging. We ended up all out about 30-40 runs short.

Then I had to work yesterday, so didn't get to play the Sunday friendly which I would much rather have played in. Got a midweek T20 game on Wednesday away to my old club. Can't wait for that, just hope the weather holds out. Their pitch is usually nice to play on, and I'm relishing the prospect of beating them. I'm then away next weekend and so can't play, which gives me a couple of weeks to try and get some decent practice in. That back injury I mentioned a few weeks ago is still lingering though, so I might have to do something about it.
 
Well, I didn't play, as I've dislocated my finger. http://yfrog.com/user/TumoLPK/photos that is what it looked like, and my x-ray results. As you can imagine, even with a local anaesthetic, only one thing has ever hurt more, and that is a bone marrow biopsy (sticking needles in my pelvis, yum). I was in agony as they pulled it back into place. What's more, we lost both games this weekend, in situations where they probably needed me (one of the better spinners in the league, good fielder, level-headed number 8). It's looking better, buddy-taped it to my ring finger (little finger that's dislocated) and keeping it elevated. Hoping to be fit for the weekend. Doing my upmost to be as well.
 
Tumo said:
Well, I didn't play, as I've dislocated my finger. http://yfrog.com/user/TumoLPK/photos that is what it looked like, and my x-ray results. As you can imagine, even with a local anaesthetic, only one thing has ever hurt more, and that is a bone marrow biopsy (sticking needles in my pelvis, yum). I was in agony as they pulled it back into place. What's more, we lost both games this weekend, in situations where they probably needed me (one of the better spinners in the league, good fielder, level-headed number 8). It's looking better, buddy-taped it to my ring finger (little finger that's dislocated) and keeping it elevated. Hoping to be fit for the weekend. Doing my upmost to be as well.
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Ouch and yeuk! Did they try and push it back there and then or did you have to go to the hospital and queue- that kind of stuff?
 
A+E, queued. Although I was seen within the hour, and out within 2, which is good because after a couple of hours it's normally too late to just pop it back in. It's still swollen now, I'll get a picture of it soon. It's much better than it was. Just means no upper body work in the gym. Lucky it wasn't on my bowling hand, that would have really done for me!
 
Tumo said:
A+E, queued. Although I was seen within the hour, and out within 2, which is good because after a couple of hours it's normally too late to just pop it back in. It's still swollen now, I'll get a picture of it soon. It's much better than it was. Just means no upper body work in the gym. Lucky it wasn't on my bowling hand, that would have really done for me!
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Mine was sore and tender for a week and half or so and then still felt not quite right for some time after that. You're younger so you might fix quicker? When I saw how they fixed it though I was guttted that I'd had to wait for 3 hours in uncomfortable pain when it looked as easy as just shoving it back in, looked so simple, don't know whether DIY dislocation fixes are advised though?
 
Yeah, it looked so simple to do, but I think they wanted to check if I'd broken anything, because it was pretty bad (their words not mine!) and it was the safest option. Hoping I fix quicker, being sensible as well to quicken the process. It looks like it won't feel "right" for a while, but I can deal with that. If I'm good enough to grip the bat and field well, that's fine by me. Bowling is irrelevant, wrong hand as previously stated. Apparently, if you know what you're doing then you can do it yourself, but it's a risk if, in the worse cases, something IS broken.
 
I have to say, I would always recommend you get this sort of thing checked out. It is not something I would do without an x-ray/scan. As Tumo says, it is not uncommon for fragments to break off; if you reposition the finger trapping fragments between the two bones, you can cause damage... forget the pain :p. If there are splinters, these can cause damage to soft tissue.

Take care of it Tumo and you should be back to playing soon.
 
Jim2109 said:
Before you read my usual waffle about my weekend, bear in mind that I didn't bowl this weekend, so all of the below is just me complaining at the captaincy and describing my inability with the bat haha. If you want to read about leg spin then simply don't bother because there isn't anything in the following...
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With such a great introduction Jim, how could I not read it!!
 
Liz Ward said:
With such a great introduction Jim, how could I not read it!!
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If you did, you'd have seen at the end that I still have that back injury niggling me haha.

It just hurts at the very base of my spine (literally on the end of it) when I bend my back, and is quite random sometimes in when it hurts. But I can pretty much get it to do it now anytime I really bend my spine whilst sitting down. Not sure how serious it is, it isn't painful enough during cricket to bother me, but there are brief moments of sharper pain during random daily movements that make me stand back up. Could do without forking out to see a sports therapist at the moment, but in my experience doctors are worse than useless at anything muscle related, so I don't really even see a point in wasting my time going to see one just for them to say leave it for a few months and see if it goes away. I seriously doubt I'll get an NHS physio referral for sporadic mild sports-inflicted pain.

Any thoughts? Even just stretches or something that might either give a better diagnosis or chance of improving it. As I say, it isn't painful enough to stop any aspect of my cricket (I barely even feel it during cricket movements, if at all), but I don't want to do any damage, and it hasn't just gone away on its own. My ankles are better, think maybe they were just tight from an inactive winter, and I barely feel them now, just every now and again. My "shin splints" make very brief appearances from time to time, but thats because I'm being lazy with post-match stretching, and my bowling action still loads my legs up too much. I know how to fix that. Injury wise I'm not too bad at present, just this niggling back problem.
 
It is really hard for me to say without seeing you Jim... I know that's not what you want to hear :(.

However, 'a few weeks' should have been enough to show huge improvement. Tell me what you were doing when you first noticed the pain and what you mean by 'bend my back'... is this forward or backward.

With the little information I have, it sounds like an impact injury... did you fall and land on your bottom/lower back at all?

In the meantime... no sliding! ;)
 
No idea how I did it, I had never felt the pain, was practicing in nets one day when some kids from the club showed up but didn't have protective gear, so was just bowling with tennis balls then batted for a bit with a lightweight kids bat. Then when I went back to bowling again after they left I had the pain all of a sudden.

I mean bending my spine forwards. It is quite sporadic, I can't get it to do it now. But mostly it is easiest to achieve by sitting in a chair and just bending forwards as if trying to reach under the chair. Sometimes just sitting down it will hurt, but its really random.

There was no impact at all around the time that I first noticed it hurting. I hadn't fallen or anything. The ONLY thing I can think of is that I bent hard to my right trying to take a "caught and bowled", but I stayed on my feet, but did stretch quite hard.

Sliding might be why it isn't going away, as I do it at least half a dozen times per game, so if that makes it worse then chances are thats why it's not just gone away! I've got one game on Wednesday that I will try not to slide in, then after that I've got at least 10 days rest from matches.
 
Jim2109 said:
... The ONLY thing I can think of is that I bent hard to my right trying to take a "caught and bowled", but I stayed on my feet, but did stretch quite hard.
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Unlikely to be the cause. I would expect the pain to be more above the hips and to one side.

How does it feel when you do this...

images



How does it feel when you do this...

9k=
 
Neither of those induced any pain at all. But then it hasn't hurt since this morning, so next time I feel it I will try those again.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
The boy done well! My older son, the one I commented about a couple of nights ago bowling wrist spin out of no-where returned to his usual seam up stuff tonight in a match against the best the southern half of the county could muster. He wasn't looking forward to it at all, realising that faced with The Super Human Crew he could only see that his bowling would get carted for 6's and 4's against such superior opposition. Remember he's joined a team that were smacked out of the league losing every single game but one last year. So little old Basildon and Pitsea faced up the best of Essex (Southern sector). They batted first in a T/20 format game were smashed by our boys into oblivion and my son Ben played an integral part in the process with figures of 4-3-2-3 one wicket maiden and a double wicket maiden and a bog standard maiden, he was well chuffed and one of the wickets was a bowled and caught and he had a run out in his third over as well. The little-un Joe (Wrist Spinner) now has got some incentive and he's gagging to play in his own age group where he should get a pile of wickets for no runs. He currently has the lowest economy of the lot at 2 an over, but he's now looking to get wickets to get his strike rate up around Ben's or better!
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Ben's now followed this up with a school game where he got 3-3-0-0!
 
i now have a copy of said book in hand, and I can tell you its basically been written by one of us, only a few pages in and I know I'm going to both love it and hate it, because its pretty much the book I wanted to write myself. Also it has already directed me towards a book called The Bowlers Art by Brian Wilkins which i have now ordered from amazon...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bowlers-Art-Understanding-Swing-Swerve/dp/0713634480

sorry chaps i got mine for a tenner, the next one is 50 quid!
 
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