LBWho?

I don't think I've ever been this knackered after a days cricket as I am today. Us 4ths were having our 2nd game of the season, and after a good win last week hopes were high of making it 2 from 2. Personally, I started Sunday on the wrong foot. I came up to Dublin from my home in Kildare (About 1 and a half hour drive) on Saturday night, arriving just after 12 :S - only to open the boot of my car and realise I'd left my gear at home!!! Luckily we weren't meeting until 11.45 the next day, so I had a bit of leeway timewise to run back down and get it - thankfully my Da came a bit of the way to meet me, which cut about an hour off the total journey time.

So after a busy morning's travel, I arrived at the meeting point at the alotted time, to find that only two of my teammates had also turned up on schedule. This is hardly surprising though, as deadlines are only really guidelines as far as most Irish people (and most other nationalities I suspect) are concerned ::)

Anyway, by 12 o clock we had 8 of the 11, and there was one other who was meeting us at the away team's ground. The captain decided we'd better start moving - so two cars departed, while he waited for our two absentees (neither of whom use mobile phones it seems - they own them, just don't use them) for another few minutes. However, by 12.30 he was forced to write them off and start the ~hour long journey to the ground by himself.


So at kick-off we were two short (team above, that's me front row 2nd) but still well up for the game. As it turned out, the other team were short two players also, so they drafted in two kids to fill the gaps in the field. To be fair to them, they both played very well - efficiently stopping anything that passed reasonably close to them. One of them bowled a few overs too, and managed to pick up a wicket, caught at midwicket (he made 2 not out in the batting also).


We were put in to bat first, and knew that the vital thing was to bat the 40 overs out. Which we managed to do fairly comfortably, putting on 158. I was on scorebook duty, and so was batting at 8 - I just managed to get in with 2 balls left in the game, the first of which I inside-edged past stumps and keeper for a single. And the last ball our captain defended down for no run - even though I was three-quarter way down the track backing up. Nevertheless, it was his call - so a "no", saw me turn-tail and hare it back to my crease.

We knew we were in for a hard day's work in the field making up for the two gaps - but we felt we had a total we could defend, (especially since 6 of us considered ourselves bowlers). Their openers were going OK for a while, until our first change came in and one of them knocked up a relatively easy catch to me at mid-off - which I took, but nearly made a hames of it changing my mind twice about which way to take it!! Fingers up? No, fingers down? No, some sort of mish-mash of thumbs together but hands still sort of pointing down!!!!? Yes! At least it stuck, I would have looked a right idiot if I dropped it after the tangle I got myself in!!

Soon after that however - our depleted side received another blow. One of the lads pulled his hamstring fielding a ball. Which meant we effectively had 8! He decided though that he was OK to stand on the pitch (at short midwicket), meaning he was taking up a space in the batsmens eyeline, and there was always a chance of a catch. But there was definitely no more running for him, and even picking up the ball was a bit of an ask, so the rest of us had to find another gear to try and cover the field.

Anyway, we got regular wickets for a while. But two of them managed to get comfortable at the crease, and looked set to get the total relatively easily. So after drinks, I was brought on as bowler number 4. With last weeks performance heavy on my shoulders I knew I needed to repeat the form of last Thursday to have any hope of getting a few more overs in the next few games. So no pressure like :D

I decided to come in off my 4 stride run-up, as I wasn't sufficiently confident of my longer faster one - just work the line and length, and try to vary the pace a bit through my action. It occurred to me that the batsmen might assume I was a spinner - so I tried to foster this by spinning the ball from hand to hand while the captain sorted out the field. If nothing else, it might be enough for a surprise wicket on the first ball. However, I got a bit too excited about this first ball needing to be fast to capitalise on any confusion - and ended up pegging it wide :(

After that though, I relaxed a bit, and went back to my original game plan - and it all came together great!!! Both these settled batsmen were afraid to go after the ball very often, as it was consistently on the stumps and was seaming awkwardly. I was even getting some nice variation in the bounce off the seam. On the last delivery of my first over, the batsman came forward - only to have to dodge out of the way as the ball came up at his face from fairly full.

I was quite unlucky from the first 3 overs, with a fair few balls going through the batsman only to just miss the stumps. However, I am thinking this is going to be a factor of my bowling - as it seems to be happening quite often - so I guess if I just concentrate on targeting the stumps I could start taking wickets. Anyway, there was one such ball in my fifth over - where it completely avoided the bat and his front leg. I was sure it was going to hit the stumps - but suddenly his back leg came across and knocked the ball away. I was gutted - but then I heard everyone else appealing and realised - That was LBW!!! Bit of a late appeal from me, but the umpire still gave it, and that was that, my career first wicket in the bag :D

I managed to get another the same way later in the spell - but this time I was wise to what an LBW looked like from my follow through - so I was up in a much more timely fashion.

So I ended up with 8-0-31-2, which I'm delighted with. My first real spell of bowling with an economy of just under 4. And now that I have wickets, I finally have an average - of 27.5.

So after 40 overs of fairly intense fielding, we ended up with 9 wickets to secure the win by 18 runs. Everyone contributed somehow, and it was a great team win. Special mention again goes to my mate that took 3 wickets on debut last week - he got 2 for 20 yesterday off 10 overs.

So all in all, a great away win, especially considering the circumstances. Looking forward to next weekend, hopefully we can make it 3 from 3 :)

Sorry if the post is excessively long, but as you can see it was a long day (my legs can attest to the fact). Thanks all for the comments, and cheers to Dave for the mention and link on his MPAfirsteleven blog.

Thank. God. For. Nets.

As the Blog space on Simply Cricket is being replaced with a forum-type interface, I've set up a blog on blogspot.com, just to have somewhere to keep an archive of my posts while updating the forum version on SimplyCricket. I reckon a blog layout will be easier to look back on when I'm old and want a good reminisce, whereas the forum layout will be much better for getting people to see the content and hopefully comment and interact. So why not keep both :D ...

For the SC people, my blog is on http://edladd.blogspot.com/, I'd 15 posts before this one, so if you're bored feel free to check it out.

And for anyone that happens to drift across this on blogspot, Simply Cricket is located at http://www.simplycricket.net/

Anyway, back to the cricket! All I can say is ... Thank. God. For. Nets!!!

After the fiasco last weekend, I thought I'd be reduced to begging to have any hope of getting a bowl during this weekends games. But last night? Everything I touched turned to gold (relatively speaking). In the field, I was taking catches left, right and centre and there wasn't a ball got past me. With the bat, I was playing strokes with a semblance of authority for a change - I even managed to put a few away down leg!!!

But it was with ball in hand that things worked out best. I only had a single wide in my two spells, and only maybe two balls were hit past the field. Everything else was right on the spot - probing the gap between bat and pad. In the end I was unlucky not to have 5 or 6 wickets, as a load managed to get through the defense only to squeeze by the edge or the top of the stumps. I don't mean to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet, (especially considering my performance wasn't spectacular in comparison with plenty of the other players at the club) ... but it's definitely the best all-round spell I've managed to pull off to date. And if I can take the confidence it gave me into the weekends games, maybe I can replicate it in a match situation.

Regardless of anything else, I'm hoping that last night relegates last weekend's "incident" to the status of a blip, and so won't be afraid to throw me the ball if the opportunity presents itself.

Elsewhere, we'd our 2nd session of work-organised indoor cricket yesterday too. Only 6 turned up this week, which was disappointing. But it was fun none the less.
And I've finally ordered the motors for the bowling machine, they should be arriving during next week. I'm reluctant to tell the guys at the club that I'm actively pursuing this idea, as I know it's not going to be up to the standard of a Bola or anything. Best case it'll be OK for feeding my tennis balls so I can practice strokes. Who knows, if it goes OK it might end up being a prototype for a more functional machine :)

To the Interweb!!!

Not much going on this week, so I thought I should pick up again on my playing career. In a previous entry (Beginners in the rain) I talked about how I finally got off my ass and started playing college cricket. But this was never going to be enough; over the course of the 2nd half of the college year there were only 8 or so games (most of which I did play to be fair). But even with just this, the regular training sessions were tiding me over.

That was, of course, until the ODI World Cup.

There was little or no hype before the tournament – as I’ve mentioned before, Ireland is a place where most people are at best completely disinterested in cricket; and at worst hostile towards it. In a lot of cases, telling someone you play cricket will elicit the same response as telling them you enjoy flower arranging (not that there is anything wrong with flower arranging of course).

But after the first game, when we tied with Zimbabwe, you could feel a change in the air. Suddenly people were noticing that Ireland have a cricket team! And that they’re not bad!! Believe it or not – cricket was even replacing GAA and Rugby on the TV in nearly every pub in the country!!!

By the time the infamous Pakistan game rolled around on St. Patricks Day, it was as if the entire population had been cricket supporters all their lives. You could overhear conversations about run-rates and duckworth lewis on random street corners. And can you imagine what it was like after the game? After beating one of the super-powers of world cricket and qualifying for the last 8?? You couldn’t have avoided cricket if you wanted to!

And in this atmosphere, college was on a mid-term break … meaning absolutely no hope of cricket. There was only one thing to – to the Interweb for to find a club!

Google threw up a few sites for clubs around Dublin – but most of them were rubbish - more of a web page than a site so to speak. And you got the feeling even though they said “Beginners Welcome”, they didn’t really mean it. But then I came across by far the best club website in Ireland – www.sandyfordcc.org. And apparently it’s no accident that it comes up first in google when you search for cricket in Dublin, if you look at the page source, there is a list of keywords as long as your arm!

And most importantly, they did actually seem like a nice bunch of people. There is a very active forum on the site, where people seem to spend all day slagging each other off – there’s no way people spend that much time talking to each other unless they actually get on OK really ;)

And so, club picked and with two of my mates in tow (they never went back btw), I headed down to start a summer jam-packed with cricket (when it wasn’t raining of course ::/). I was by no means the best player in the world. I could just about hold a bat, and my bowling was at best straight if lacking a bit of pace (my 9 balls in league cricket went for 9 runs :S ). But I was enthusiastic to the point of being annoying; I only missed two practice sessions during the season (both with valid excuses); I never turned down a game if it could be helped; and when fielding I never gave up on a ball, or a game, no matter how bad things looked.

This was the only advantage I had over more experienced cricketers – guys who pitch up to have their bat or bowl, then spend the rest of the game catching up on their sleep in the outfield :angry: It got me a good few games over the course of the season, especially where a captain had their batting and bowling in reasonably good shape but needed to fill a place in the team with someone who’d be happy batting at 11 and fielding :) At the end of the season, as numbers thinned out, I even got a few games on the 1st team.

Best of all though, at the end of the season I won the Achilles Cup for “Captains Player of the Year”. Which goes to someone who might not have the best figures from the season, but goes the extra mile for the club … which was nice.

I was also on the winning team for the end of year double-wicket competition – the “Double-D Cup” :D. Apparently I bat better with a few beers taken :)must try it in a league game ;)

This year obviously hasn’t gotten off to the best start for me personally, but as it progresses I hope to rectify that. As I see it, my first year was to learn how the game is played – and this year is going to be about learning how to play the game.

If, by the end of the year, I’m getting regular spells of bowling where the captain actually wants me to bowl rather than giving me a bowl because I’m there, I’ll be more than happy. Any wickets, catches and runs I take after that will be a bonus as far as I’m concerned.

And they’re off!!!

The season is finally underway and is off to the right start with a win for our new 4th team. On a day where it stayed dry but temperatures never got above 8 degrees C (felt colder though), 22 brave souls from Sandyford CC (my club) and Avondale CC clashed in a (fairly) epic battle.

Our captain won the toss and chose to bat, which suited me fine as I could leave my extra few layers on for the first while. I was down to bat at 9, so I made myself useful by taking over scoring duties. By about an hour in my hands were so cold my writing looked like a 3 year olds! But my, was I kept busy!!!

In an inauspicious start to the season – the first ever ball faced by a 4th team batsman resulted in a clean-bowled :o And then 3 balls later … same again :o A double wicket maiden for the opposition to start – things were looking bad :( After about 10 overs things weren’t much better, with the score in the 30s and 5 wickets down. But the middle order managed to stabilise things for a while and keep the scoreboard ticking over. Still though, about an over after drinks the number 8 was called for duty meaning I was next in – scoring duties were delegated and I set about looking for someone to give me a few throwdowns – but two balls later “Ed, you’re up”.

Undaunted, I strode towards the middle – then ran back again as I’d forgotten to take off my jacket – then jogged back to the middle, confidence radiating. I was at the non-strikers end for the first two deliveries, before dashing through for a quick single to get ready to face my first ball of the 2008 season.

I took guard on middle and leg and turned to look the bowler in the eye. He started his walk-in … I triggered … he bowled, a full toss … I swing, I miss, I take it in the stomach. Ouch – lucky enough he was a pretty slow spinner, so no harm done. Though I think a full toss above waist high is technically a no-ball, but it wasn’t called. Second ball pitched, and I drove it between mid-off and cover for a single; at least it’s not a duck.

Before the next over I went to talk to the other batsman (our opener who was keeping his head amidst the falling wickets), to ask what the next bowler was doing with the ball. He took a quick look and said “Oh this lad, it’s just dead straight”. The first ball he sent down looked like it was going down leg – so I decided to leave it. But then the bloody thing came back towards me and I had to make some attempt to play it – too late, it hit me on the pads and played on to the wicket … crap.

I mentioned this strange non-straight behaviour to the opener later on and he said “Oh yeah, you’re right, he was swinging it from outside leg” :< Anyway, to be fair, even if I had been expecting it I probably would have been bowled anyway – I’m rubbish on the on-side, and I can’t deal with swing. Ah well – I’m not in the running for the Duck Cup so far this year at least.

Our opener made his 50 during the last wicket stand, and then got run out next ball calling for a non-existent second. So at the end of our innings we were 114 ao. This certainly didn’t seem enough, but we’d no intention of giving up.

I was a bit underprepared, gear-wise, for the conditions we were playing in. I had on two white t-shirts, and my whites trousers are a bit flimsy when it comes to wind resistance. So consequently it was a bit hard to stay warm in the field. I was fielding at point for the most part, and there wasn’t much coming my way, so I had to make do with running to back-up people (who didn’t really need it) and jogging between overs.

We got off to a great start too, with both their openers out in the first 4 overs. We opened the bowling with a mate of mine who had only ever played twice before – and he managed to get 3 wickets!! A great start for his Sandyford career. One of these was a catch I took at deepish forward midwicket. It was a simple enough chance, but I still had to cover a bit of ground to get under it. And he managed a fantastic diving one-handed caught and bowled, so we were all delighted for him.

My own bowling was horribly disappointing :( I was far too cold coming on, and for my first over, every ball was either wide or went for runs over my head. I managed to do a lot better in my 2nd over though, with 4 dots off the last 4 balls. Still, a 2 over spell going for 15 runs is unacceptable. The only thing is, I know I can do much better than this so I’m determined to have a better spell next Sunday – that is, if the captain gives me a bowl.

I’m going to look for some advice on the forums about warming up during the game before bowling; and I’m going to invest in a long-sleeve white top!

In the end it looked like it was going to be pretty tight. They needed 30 runs for the last wicket with plenty of overs remaining, and their number 11 was no pushover. The first ball he played at went for 4 :o It was OK though, as we managed to run out their number 3 with about 25 runs in hand.

All in all, I’m happy with the game. We won; I avoided a duck; and took my career 2nd catch. And I learned the importance of warming up before bowling – without costing my team the game luckily enough.

I’m heading towards next weekend with something to prove, and I’m determined to do everything I can to make sure it goes well!!

14 articles/ 9 comments / 75 views

FAO: Sisters of Fate

What a day!!! I arrived in work to be greeted by an e-mail reminding us all that the work sports and social club indoor cricket sessions were starting today – which I’d completely forgotten about! Luckily enough I’d my gear in the boot and a pair of runners in the back of the car, so despite not being ideally prepared I was set to go.

I needn’t have worried much anyway, there were only 8 of us there and it was certainly very informal. Great fun too. We all bowled 3 overs a piece and batted about the same (depending on when we lost wickets). Me and one other guy were the only ones that actually play club cricket, the rest being beginners or just interested parties.

In some ways it was very interesting to see how I measured up against this class of player. This time last year I’d say that this was exactly the level I was at, so it was good to see that all the practice is actually making a difference, as I scored about 10 runs and only went for about 4 (with none being extras and plenty beating the bat and just missing the stumps).

Then later, it being Thursday, and Thursday being Netday – we’d another indoor cricket game instead of normal practice in order to get closer to the right frame of mind for the games this weekend. It wasn’t ideal for fielding, as everyone was forced to be too close to the bat, but it was good to get in some practice for the little things, like calling for runs; backing up the stumps; and getting the ball into the keepers gloves (instead of pinging every bloody ball at his ankles in some crazy attempt to run out a batsman that’s already home!!! >:| ).

I think I surprised a few people with my bowling. Two overs coming in off a short run-up, the line and length were nigh-on perfect until the last two balls (full-toss followed by overcompensated long hop :/ ). Again, there were plenty going through the batsman, one of which seamed into him from outside off to hit middle stump. If I can bowl like that for the 4ths I reckon this is going to be a good season :)

Batting could still use some work - the only reason I was never out was that my edges went into the gaps. Although I was told that it didn't look that bad - I'm doing the right things, and with practice I'll get better at them. My calling and backing up were OK at least - as was my actual running. I reckon I'll do OK at 10 or 11 if it's not too much a pressure situation. And if it is, I'll so my best and you never know - it might all come good.

There is now just over 24 hours until the first game and my place has been guaranteed. Of course, Murphy’s Law dictates that it’s going to be sunny until 13.15 tomorrow and then hailstones for about, oh ... however long it takes for the captains to call off the game – followed of course by more sunshine. Or the other team won’t be able to field a side – it being a much earlier start to the season that usual.

I am of course remaining optimistic – and the Sisters of Fate, when they read this blog (they’re big fans you know) will do their utmost to ensure that the game happens smoothly – with a win for us of course ;) (Though I’ll take a loss if it’s reasonably close, as it means I get to play cricket again)

I was also approached by the captains of the 1st and 2nd teams last night to see if I was available for a late call up on Sunday or Saturday evening – as they weren’t 100% sure of their numbers. So there’s a good chance of a 2nd game this weekend too :D

T minus 3 days and counting!!

Just 3 more days!!! The season kicks off this Saturday 19th April, and I cannot wait. I've been dropping hints to the 4ths Captain for the last while (fairly big hints like "I'm available please pick me" kind of hints), and he's given assurances that a place will be found for me on the team - sweet! I'll have to make sure all my gear is ready to go this evening in case I need to clean any of it or make any last minute purchases.

One thing I would like is a new pair of spikes. Currently I have a pair of GM shoes with the rubber spikes on the sole – which is fine if it’s dry. But if the grass is any way long and wet, they get little purchase and slippage often ensues. The last thing you want is to be worrying about your footing when you’re sprinting for a catch.

I went hunting for a new pair a few times in the past few weeks – preferably ones with screw-on spikes so I can change them out when we’re playing on the mat. But the problem is, a) there is only one chain of sports shops in Ireland that carry cricket equipment; b) they only have two types of cricket shoe; c) neither of these are available in anything over a size 8; and d) they aren’t getting any new season stock until July-ish!!! Consequently; no new shoes for me. I’d consider purchasing on the net – but I’d like to be sure they fit and are comfortable before buying them.

In other news, we had our club table-quiz fundraiser last night. It was good fun, though the vast majority of the questions had our team hazarding guesses – but despite this, we still managed to beat 4 other teams!!! (and lose to 10, but that’s inconsequential :D). There were about 60 people there, but of these, only 14 were current club members – the rest being former members and friends of members. This is a bit disappointing considering we would expect well over 60 people to turn out for the club over the course of this season. I’m sure plenty of people have valid excuses – but I’m equally sure there were some just weren’t bothered going along … pity.

Anyway, we’ve our last indoor net tomorrow, from then on we’re hoping to get two outdoor training sessions a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I didn’t get a chance to go down to Marlay by myself this week, and I probably won’t before Friday. Not ideal preparation for the first game of the season, but it’ll have to do.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance Saturday evening or Sunday to update on here. Here’s hoping it’ll be good news!

12 articles/ 9 comments / 65 views

Damn Spinners

Hmm, haven't got to post up here recently because I’ve been so busy with work, which is a pity because the cricketing side of things is fast approaching full swing (if you’ll pardon the pun).

First thing’s first – we’d our team-building/cause-your-teammates-pain outing last weekend, that’s right … paintball!!! 19 of us signed up, but on the day only 15 appeared. Not a huge turnout but decent considering people have to work ‘n’ stuff. It was a great day, lots of charging around in a random forest in Wicklow, then getting shot and going down shouting “Medic!” – Perfect for a group of overgrown 10 year olds. It’s funny how stressful it is getting shot at, even when you know it’s only paint. I don’t know how people cope with being in the army.

Champagne moment – seeing our club captain going for a heroic dive into cover behind some barrels, only to have the impact of landing cause his paint-hopper burst open and spill his ammo everywhere. He had to spend the rest of that game trying to put them back in while the opposition took pot-shots at his back. :laugh:

Following that, I didn’t get much cricket in on Sunday as I was knackered. And Monday was a write-off too due to weather unfortunately. So Tuesday in order to make the most of the break in the rain, I called into our pitch in Marlay Park and spent an hour bowling hockey balls from both ends of the wicket. I’m really happy with my run-up at this stage, it’s comfortable and consistent, which is all I can ask from it at the moment I reckon. The jump at the end of it could use work though; it gets very raggedy if I’m tired or not concentrating.

My delivery is coming on nicely too, only a small percentage of the balls going wide, and with about 1 per over hitting off stump, the rest either going over or just beside it. So the line and length aren’t too bad. I’m still very aware that I’m not bowling fast enough to trouble most people; but everybody says it’s line and length that get you wickets, and the pace will come over time I reckon (as will swing I hope).

Thursday then, we’d our second last indoor net session before the start of the season, a turnout of about 20, which is average. My bowling wasn’t great, I wasn’t able to settle into it because there was just not enough room for my run-up. I tried smaller strides for a while, but that felt horrible – so I moved onto a 6 stride run instead of an 8 stride. This was OK after a while, but I’ll be glad when we’re playing outdoors and I can practice as I intend to play. Even with these issues, the line was still good, (though the length proved a problem), and I got a few clean bowled.

Fielding drills were grand as usual. I’ve noticed that the single biggest factor in improving my catching is to convince myself that I genuinely want the ball to come to me. It makes a huge difference in the level of commitment you can muster attacking the ball, and there’s no better feeling than taking a great catch. (Or no worse one than dropping a sitter I reckon).

I got in for a bat too – talk about a game of two halves!!! The first 10-15 shots I played were (if I do say so myself) fantastic. I was playing everything under my eyes and cracking it away. After one shot the bowler remarked “That’s a four if ever I saw one”, to which I replied “It would have been a first”.

But then, a spinner joined the bowlers (cue foreboding music). I dealt with his first ball with no issues, as my confidence was still up. But his second? Blasted thing turned from outside leg to past off, and took an edge on the way. From that ball on I completely lost the ability to read a ball from any of the bowlers – so the rest of the net went by with a flurry of wickets, air shots, edges and body blows (my right index finger is black today).

This is pretty much the same as happened to me in the first indoor net – where I was unnerved by a full toss and lost the ability to read a ball. I need to come up with a strategy to allow me to get back into a good frame of mind when this happens to me.

I can take some comfort from the fact that he’s a first team spinner, so I won’t regularly have to face that quality of ball (I hope).

We’re having a pitch preparation session tomorrow, so I’ll be down in Marlay for a while dragging a roller around and marking boundaries … manual labour, can’t wait ::)

11 articles/ 9 comments / 55 views

The one that went Rat

Another net session last night – and I’m happy enough with how it went.

I got in to have a bat in the quickies net, and made a conscious decision to be as defensive as possible. I (initially) didn't play at anything wide, and I completely ignored anything on the leg side (I take guard on leg so this was safe enough). Then if a straight one came down I tried to forward-defend it into the ground.

I did get bowled once, by a short ball that stayed very low, but that's good preparation for the kinds of wickets we'll be playing on during the season. Round these parts it's called a rat-ball. We'd a game last year where we were bowled out for 70-odd, and only just lost by 2 wickets simply because the ball never got higher than your ankle! So it's forward defense, regardless of length methinks.

As the session went on I did become slightly impatient at watching all those deliveries outside off going by – and was eventually tempted into going after a few of them. This proved fruitless initially as I played and missed a lot. I quickly realized what I was doing wrong though, and refocused on playing the shots correctly and it came together alright. I managed to guide a few through the slips region and one or two through extra cover - and they stayed along the ground … which was nice.

There was one observation I made during the fielding drills. There were a few guys there that only started playing cricket this year, and so they didn’t fully understand what was required. For example, we were doing a drill where one guy attacks the ball while a 2nd backs up in case he misses – but because these guys had never played in a game before they weren’t going at the ball with any intensity, and they didn’t know where they were supposed to be to be any use backing up. The strange thing was, none of the people running the session made a big effort to explain. I suppose when someone takes up the game when they’re not a kid it’s harder to break things down into their simplest form for them, as it seems condescending to explain “kid’s stuff” to an adult.

From personal experience, I would have loved if someone had shown me more of this stuff before I started playing last year. It would have saved the embarrassment of backing up too close behind a teammate and consequently letting a ball through my legs to run away for 4 overthrows

Then again, if you try and explain this stuff in too much detail to someone who has no frame of reference you risk confusing the matter. There’s so much stuff to learn anyway, that it’s probably better to let people make some mistakes by themselves and then try and teach how to do it properly.

Needless to say, I’ve been hinting to these guys that they can pick up an extra bit of “sneaky learning” on the side by accessing a certain website or two.
The cricket club have also organised a game of paintball this weekend as a "team-building" exercise. Though the last time I tried to foster a friendship with someone by shooting them in the face it didn't work too well ...

10 articles/ 7 comments / 44 views

The immaterial wall

I went for another (shorter) session of bowling this Monday - it had been spilling rain all of Sunday in Dublin, so there were areas of the pitch that you could have drowned kittens in ... if that's what you're into.

Having said that, the run-up on one end of the pitch was dry enough so I soldiered on. I set up the area as before, (middle and off stumps down the far end with a target around 7 paces nearer just outside the line of off stump; and just a leg stump down my end) and marked out my run-up. I was using one of the spare bails on it's side as my target this week - so you can imagine my surprise when the first ball I sent down clattered into it. "Fluke" thought I, setting up the target again. Second ball just missed the target bail ("That's more like it"), but then went on to clip the top of off stump!!!

Maybe I'm just getting better :)

The next ball brought me back to earth - a rank long hop down the leg side that would have definitely been clattered or called wide. Normality restored I set about getting down to work.

All in all it was a better session than last week. My run-up is feeling comfortable and if I really concentrate on getting the front arm straight through the line of the wicket – the ball will go down straight. And I’m happy that my length is coming under control. The session was cut short because I was raking up a fair bit of muck and dragging it onto the mat – which I’m not even sure we’re allowed to go near this early in the year … meh.

It was definitely an improvement over my bowling at nets last Thursday! I was looking forward to showing of my newly refined run-up off 14 paces – but then when I actually went to measure it out … I got to 13 paces and was forced to stop or come up with a radical new theory of physics whereby physical barriers (i.e. walls for instance) are irrelevant (“I refute it thus … ow”). General result was a bit of flustration, but once I settled in to a shorter run-up it wasn’t too bad. Also, I re-confirmed that I can play shots with a semblance of authority when someone’s feeding me the ball at a reasonable pace, I’ll keep working on it. I’m toying with the idea of getting a solid defense and only playing the straight balls. At least it will give me a purpose in the batting line-up being able to hold up an end. Currently, one straight ball is enough to get me outta there.

I’m planning another quick bowl this evening – depending on the state of the ground again. It’s certainly nice to have the option now that the hour has gone forward again.

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Cricket - It's what Bank Holidays are made for

Bank Holiday Monday and the weather over here was very decent for this time of year; a bit cold but the sun was shining and the rain (and snow) seemed like it was going to avoid us for a change. I took a leaf out of Dave( T)'s book and got down to the park with a set of stumps and a bag of balls and worked on my bowling by myself for a couple of hours. I stuck down the stumps and put a tennis ball just outside off-stump on a length and set about getting comfortable with the action and pitching the ball as close to the target as possible.

I’m fairly happy with how it went; a decent number pitched close to the tennis ball and went on to just go over off stump; a few pitched too full (probably half volley) but were still on a good line, and some of these did dislodge the bails; three actually did hit the marker; and for most of the ones that went awry I knew what I was doing wrong (mostly not getting my right leg through which meant arm wasn’t getting around – hence ball down leg). I should probably start keeping track of the numbers so I can see if I’m making progress. Once the evenings stretch I’ll try to call into the pitch on the way home from work a few evenings a week to peg down a few.

The strangest thing of all was the amount of spectators :blush: - a fair few dog-walkers, buggy-pushers, knackered-joggers and general others stopped on the way by to watch a ball or two. Obviously, the vast majority wouldn’t have been able to tell a wide long-hop from an inswinging-yorker (I wish!!), but I still felt under pressure when they were standing there. It’s a good thing really, of course – bowling under imagined pressure from randomers will probably stand me in stead when it comes to match situations. To date, my 1.3 league overs have come when we were so far behind that the game was definitely over – a trend I’m hoping to alter this year.

One thing that wasn’t great about practice was that I’d only one (count ‘em … er it) cricket ball. So improvisation was called for! I brought a selection of balls from the house that I’d hoarded over the last year for various solo practice sessions – including a baseball, a hockey ball, a hockey training ball and 2 sliotars. I’m going on e-Bay today to see if I can pick up a box of cricket balls fairly cheap for these bowling sessions.

I did notice that I'd a few deliveries that pitched on a length and then just skidded through low. This seemed to only happen when I wasn't following through my run-up, so it's not surprising that I got no bounce. But I was thinking, if I can get some control over it, it could be a good variation. A slower short ball that just doesn't get up. I know it would give me trouble, I'd probably be moving back as soon as I see it short and I'd almost certainly be trapped LBW or bowled under the bat. Maybe once I'm happier with the stock ball I'll come back to it.

So as Easter Mondays go … not a bad one!

With regards nets last Thursday – it was very quiet. What with the long weekend there weren’t many hanging around the Big Smoke (aka Dublin) – hence ~13 pitched up. This had its pros and cons; pros – more time in net and managed to get a bit of one to one time with some of the first teamers to practice batting and reaction catching; cons – not enough people out of the net to get any reasonable fitness and fielding work done.

One thing I did figure out was that I can bat fairly well if the ball is slow enough for me to pick the length. I’m OK for line – I just don’t know how to link where the ball pitches to what shot I should be playing. Practice I guess! Roll on bowling machine!!! Minor setback on that front as the company I was ordering the motors from only had one in stock – so it’ll be a while before I get my hands on them. Might see if I can get someone to feed me throwdowns in the meantime.

In other news, our club have links with a local taverners side – they play on our pitch and we get to play 4 or 5 of our guys in their games. It’s a great way for beginners to get some match experience in an environment where the result doesn’t really matter. So this year, I’ve been asked to be the taverners liason. Basically being the club contact for them and picking the players for the matches. Someone obviously thinks I’m ready for some responsibility – club captain here I come :p

Either that or nobody else wants to do it!! :D :D

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.

Eureka

There's a lot of terminology out there associated with learning cricket. People talk about getting the wrist behind the ball; driving through the crease; pitching on a good length; keeping the seam upright; and a million other nuggets of advice.

All of this makes sense, and I for one always endeavour to analyze my bowling in terms of these idioms.

But it's one thing to know how to do a thing, and quite another to actually do it.

So there I was in nets last night - I turned down the chance to bat to work on turning the arm over - and I was doing quite well. The line was great, but I was still getting tonked! Then someone said "A bit shorter Ed" and voila! a good length! The batsman hadn't a clue where to go and the ball ended up going right through him and just missing the top of off stump. For the next 6 or so balls I was nigh on unplayable! It's such a subtle difference between knowing where a length is and knowing how it feels to land a ball there.

The interesting thing for me is how sometimes you'll do something and it will feel right - so you step back and try to analyze what had changed. And during this review you'll stumble across a way of describing what just happened that sounds familiar - because every coaching resource has been telling you to do it for an age! Suddenly you'll go - "So THAT'S what they meant....."

Eureka moments are the best :)

I'm getting them a bit more regularly these days too. As I see it, my first season was for learning how to play cricket at a high level - like what was expected of a player on and off the field. Season two is going to be about improvements in technique. So after a winter of gym work and reading as much cricket related material as I could, I'm starting to see a payoff for my efforts. Long may it continue!

Proof that team building causes DOMS

So we had our second training session last Thursday evening. The format was very similar to the previous week, but we turned up 30 minutes earlier to get in the warm-up without eating into the time we had for the hall space.

The session itself went very well. My bowling was faster than last week and is consistently landing in the right area – which resulted in the stumps getting over a few times. Which was nice!

My batting also improved. I was trying to work on following the ball right out of the bowler’s hand. So I concentrated on that and didn’t try to whack the ball – just get forward and get the bat right behind it. This is one thing I’ve noticed a lot of people find hard to do in nets; they think – “Limited Time + Non-game situation = Hit everything as hard as possible”.

In the fielding section of the hall we set up a few games of a mini-indoor cricket. Teams of four, where everyone bowls off one step and every pair bats four overs. This wasn’t great from a fielding point of view though, as we were using a practice hockey ball – not ideal. The ball was the same weight as a cricket ball – but was made of rubber and so came off the bat too fast to have a hope of catching. It didn’t help that it was the same colour as the walls :S My legs are still covered in bruises from last gasp efforts to try and stop the bloody thing from pinging past me. I reckon we should use something different next week.

The only problem from the evening was that it resulted in my first case of DOMS in about a year. One of the guys decided that he was going to lead a warm-up and we were all going to follow him. To be fair it wasn’t too bad, but I’ve been using my own warm-up for a long time now and it’s never failed me yet. I suppose it didn’t help that I didn’t cool down properly after the session – as I had a very important night of drinking to attend :-D

This week no such amateur errors will be made! I’ll be turning up earlier and doing my own warm-up, then if he want’s us to get all pally again I’ll have no problems.

Beginners in the Rain

The third nets went well - my batting is starting to resemble a proper number 11's, and my fielding is still good, in my humble opinion. I didn't get a chance to bowl this week, but that's ok, as I can chuck a ball around any time. So, all in all, a quiet week!

I figured it was still worth posting though, as I wanted to put down some of my history with the game so far.

I started playing last January with UCD CC. UCD being University College Dublin (Ireland). It was a cold and wet (but surprisingly bright) Saturday aftenoon; we had an astroturf pitch booked for two hours; and around 10 pretty-much-absolute beginners turned up (myself included).

In between the heavier showers, (spent crowded sheltering in the goals), we got our first taste of the game. We were probably a right shambles in the eyes of the two guys who turned up to train us. But we persevered. Me? I could barely swing a bat without taking a lump out of my shins, but I'd spent an inordinant amount of time looking at bowling videos and how-to guides on the net, so I picked up this side of the game pretty quickly. It did occur to me that if the people at the training session were the future of the club - we were screwed!

I needn't have worried, because of the 10 or so new players - only 3 of us managed to get a game that year. It turned out that there were plenty of guys with experience that weren't going to bother going to the early sessions. And they were right, in that they only had to turn up for the last few sessions (if even) and then walk onto the team. Frustrating for the guys going to all the sessions, but it seems to be the way a lot of clubs operate.

I was lucky, in that I didn't settle for this and pestered the club into letting me get games in. I may not have been very good, but I'd a positive attitude and enthusiasm that made up for a lack of experience to some degree.

So overall, UCD CC was good to me. I played in the indoor and outdoor intervarsities (which we didn't and kinda did (rain) win respectively). And got a few nice weekends away to play around Ireland. Next time I get a chance I will post my history with my first real club.

At last … the year’s first cricket!

We finally had our first net session last night; a grand total of 18 turned up for 9pm only to be confronted by a group of indoor soccer players who had the hall booked until 9.30! (All sympathy should go to one of our guys who turned up at 8 and set the nets up by himself, :-o, only to have to put them away again for the footballers).

Undaunted, two of us started our warm-up outside the sports centre. And with a little bit of encouragement we managed to convince most of the rest to join in. By 9.15 we were all raring to go, so we got in a little game of Stumpball with a tennis ball to get the blood pumping.

So at 9.30 we got into the hall and set up the nets (again); two guys got padded up; 6 bowlers (3 per net) were given balls; and the remaining 10 got down to fielding drills. It’s a system that works well, as long as someone is organised enough to keep rotating the bowlers and batsmen through the fielding drills.

You could definitely tell there were some people that hadn’t been near a ball since last season, backing off to let balls bounce instead of attacking them – or not holding onto easy catches …. But I guess that’s why we have nets :D

At this point I got in for a bit of a bowl, and surprised myself. I was bowling off a few paces to try and get my line and length working, and it came together quite nicely. I was landing the ball consistently outside off stump, and keeping the seam upright which resulted in some nice deviations when pitching. Didn’t manage to get any wickets mind you, but managed to get a few past the edge of the bat and a couple I’m fairly sure were catchable with the field I would have been using.

Then came the batting – which is easily the worst part of my game. I’d been trying out some sock cricket and whacking a hockey ball off a wall for the last couple of months so I was keen to see if anything was improving. And initially it was quite good – I was picking up the line early; getting my head over the ball; and it was going where I was trying to send it. But then someone pegged in a full toss that I didn’t spot, I still managed to get on top of it and defend it into the ground. But for the rest of the net I was in knots! Couldn’t see the ball until late, and wasn’t getting my head near it! I reckon I’m going to have to do some more work on getting comfortable at the crease. But I’d bet there’s no substitute for time at the crease for getting this done. My biggest problem is that I’ve no-one to feed me throwdowns between training sessions – Maybe I’ll just have to make myself a bowling machine :)

Plenty to think about before next week … now that I’ve got a fresh picture in my head of what it’s like to face a ball I can revise my mental preparation. All in all, quite a good start I reckon – hopefully it’s all up from here!

Flirting with the Zone

The Zone – been there, done that …. never got to stay long enough to buy the T-shirt. In fact, I’m not even sure they have a gift shop – we’re talking flying visits here!

Having said that, these brief liaisons have been responsible for some of the coolest stuff I’ve managed to do on a cricket pitch. Not cool in a “Reverse-sweep for 6 off the opposition’s fastest bowler” kind of way. At one season into my cricketing career I still get a thrill out of not messing up a long barrier! No my moments of glory are of the fairly simple variety. It always brings a smile to my face remembering the time I threw my foot a near-certain 4 just short of the boundary – and have it chip up into the hands of my waiting team-mate; or my slalom-like dive around the non-striker to take my first ever wicket caught and bowled; or even my first catch in a league game to remove the opposition’s highest scorer on the day.

All these things have one major thing in common though – it wasn’t really me doing them! Oh it was me, just not me in the “stream-of-consciousness” sense. Brain was probably off having a nice cup of tea somewhere; or trying to figure out where we’d left our car-keys; or generally being distracted while Body got on with the cricket!

Unfortunately Brain isn’t nearly as accommodating as I’d like him to be. To be honest, he’s a bit of a control freak! As soon as Body goes and does something interesting, Brain realises he doesn’t really like tea, and our car-keys are in the bag where we put them before the game – and POP … zone-mind disappears leaving you standing there looking a bit conflustered at a cricket ball in your hand and a disappointed looking batsman wandering back to the pavilion. Another whistle-stop trip to the Zone is over, and Brain will be damned if he’s letting go of the steering wheel again soon – I mean, what if we’d crashed, Body’s not even insured to drive this thing by himself!

This year though things is gonna change! Armed to the teeth with tips from the web (thanks Harrowdrive ;) ) Brain is learning to relax and let stuff happen. Maybe this year I’ll be able to stay in the zone long enough to reach that milestone 5^th run, or open my account for league wickets …. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get that T-shirt.

An obsession begun

For me cricket began a few short years ago, back in the days when Channel 4 used to have more than just Big Brother! I was flicking through channels on a rainy day and stopped to try and figure out what was going on. Everyone was wearing white - I couldn't even tell which guys were on the same team!!! The score seemed ridiculous – how could one of the teams only have 4 points when the others had a couple of hundred. And worst of all – the commentators sounded like they weren’t watching the game!!!!!!!

Still though, there was something hypnotic about it. Minutes where nothing seemed to be happening followed by a flurry of activity resulting in ...... a nice cracky sound of bat on ball; a couple of OOHS from the crowd and the players; and (possibly) a knowledgeable remark from the commentator along the lines of "Lovely ball, shaping away nicely". None of which meant anything to me … I was aware of cricket in the same way that I was aware of Liberia – heard of it, but there was no reason for me to go there.

I gave it a few minutes to see if anything was going to happen, and was about to turn away when BAM … a cricketing obsession was born. The batsman played the cheekiest shot I could have imagined – down on one knee and tickling the ball just passed his back to let it speed away to the rope. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew I liked it!

It took a while for this obsession to grow – but before long I’d found a promising looking piece of wood to be my bat; a trusty bucket for my stumps; and some semi-willing volunteers to peg a taped-up tennis ball at me …. Happy days!

Now I’m here looking back on my first full season as a club cricketer, and really looking forward to the next 7 months of socially acceptable obsession. It’s been a slightly bumpy start, with nets being snatched from my grasp twice from their original start of January 24^th. But it’s only heightening the tension for the arrival of the 21^st February when I stare down that net at a trembling batsman, flipping the ball from hand to hand – spring into my run-up like a lithe cheetah – gather – leap – and unleash the year’s first wide ….. well, it’s a start!