My First Game - Fine-legging like a pro!!!

Only 1 month to go until the first game of the new season – and I’m already starting to feel nervous (in a good way ;)). Imagine how I was last year! Coming into a new club, with a few indoor games and a handful of training sessions under my belt … I was bricking it.

The night before was like Christmas Eve. I’d my kit all prepared from about 5pm and I spent the rest of the evening pacing around like an expectant father. Eventually I gave up trying to watch TV and went to bed at about 9 – but still didn’t get to sleep until all hours of the morning … not the most ideal preparation in anyone’s book!!

Next morning I was up much earlier than I normally would of a Saturday; checked my kit a few more times to make sure I had everything; tried valiantly to force down some breakfast and then off to the “ground” to see if there was anything I could do to help set the place up.

Eventually 1.30 rolled around and the game got under-way. The maddest thing is … the next 7 hours shot by! And to be honest, my contribution wasn’t exactly what you might call “match-winning”. I was batting at 11, but we only lost 8 wickets; and I didn’t bowl, so I spent 45 overs jogging from fine-leg to fine-leg.

To be fair – my contribution wasn’t what you’d call “match-losing” either. No chances came my way so I’d no drops; I fielded every ball that shouldn’t have got past me – and chased down one or two that could have; and I made every effort to look dangerous in the field to prevent the batting side thinking there were easy runs down towards me. So not too bad – as they say in the medical profession - “First, do no harm”.

We still lost, unfortunately, but it was a pretty close match and we never let the heads go down in the field. There were a lot of new and returning-to-the-game-after-10-years type players in the side – and I don’t think we disgraced ourselves by any measure.

Back to the present, I’m hoping I can give a bit more to the club in the opening games this year. We’ve entered a 4^th team in the leagues for the first time, so hopefully I’ll be getting a few overs under my belt and (fingers crossed) won’t be making a hames of my batting : ) . On that note – we’ve another net session tonight and one of our top batsmen has promised me some one on one coaching. I’ve also looked into getting some parts together to make a bowling machine. I reckon with a 12V battery and a few decent hobbyist motors I can put something together that will at least fire tennis balls in a more or less straight line. And I’ve some thoughts about a simple-enough mechanism for feeding balls into it. But as they say, “The devil’s in the details”, so I’m sure I’ll hit some hitches once I start working on this for real.