A different type of spinner

On a training front, Tuesday went quite well. I was bowling more consistantly than in previous weeks. I think I need to be bowling a few overs every weekend to keep myself in any type of form. Spot bowling is all well and good, but it doesn't teach you how you should be thinking in the middle of a match. There weren't enough at training to have a full field either, so it was basically just a ring field. But I was paying attention to where the ball was going, and how that would have fit with the field I would have set. As usual, all the big arial hits went either over my head to long-off (where they would have been dropped ) ... or were pulled over Midwicket. These two positions (long off and deep midwicket) are going to be my strategic fielders I think. The guy I was bowling to is a good bat, and so I reckon he was hitting the ball where is deserved to go (not forcing shots) - so therefore it makes sense that long off and midwicket are generally where people want to hit me. So by having fielders there it will either result in catches, or make the batsman think twice about playing that shot.

Obviously, it depends on how the batsman is playing, but as a starting point it's good to have an idea where the field should be. Currently I'd be setting a field like:
Mid On - Deep Forward Midwicket - Short Midwicket - Square Leg - Shortish Fine Leg (at 45) - Shortish Third Man - Backward Point - Cover - Long Off.


We'll see how it pans out this weekend. In a repeat of last week we have three teams out on Sunday. This time though it looks like the captains will have the teams set earlier - so I should be playing 4ths (barring any last minute changes). We're playing on a ground that has a notoriously bad mat, with absolutely no bounce. So it should be a low scoring affair. I'm going to dig out the camera and try and get some more pics up on the blog. I bought it a few years ago, so it's not a great one (Fugi Finepix something), but I'll see how they turn out.

In other relatively exciting news - there was some progress on the bowling machine yesterday. I got a pair of wheels at the weekend, and I now have them mounted on the motors. I used some hot-melt plastic as the "adapter" and it seems to have worked quite well. I have the motors pretty much centred (thanks to some dental floss and a padlock ) but the wheels aren't level at the moment, meaning that there's still some vibration when it's powered. If I can get my hands on a spirit level (or failing that some chalk or a ruler) and a hairdryer I should be able to sort it out this weekend.

The wheels are hard (not air tyres), so I don't think I'll be able to use hard balls in the machine but if it fires tennis balls reasonably fast I'll call it a prototype and that'll do for now If I sort out the camera I'll take some pics of the different parts and show you guys the progress so far. The next step is to make up a frame and a way of guiding the balls down the centre of the wheels. I reckon a bit of pipe (like a drain-pipe) with slots in the sides might do the job - but I might have to revise that once I start looking into it properly.