New shoes!

So I have a game lined up this weekend!

I swear - this is the last one.

There are 12 lads coming over from Yorkshire (the county, not the club), so we've lined up a 12 on 12, 35 over match for Saturday. I played them last year too, and they seemed a nice bunch of lads, so it should be a good game. My resounding memory from last years game was being the hat-trick wicket for one of them :( Might get revenge this year >:D

I also have a new pair of spikes that I'm looking forward to trying out. Up until now I was using a pair of GM Catalyst rubber soled spikes, like these:
In the last month or two they've really started falling apart. The tongue on the right shoe is completely detached now, so the laces are all that are keeping it in place. And the lining on the sole inside is worn through in patches.
But yesterday I was off work, and was in town early enough to get into the shops for a change, so I picked up a new set with removable spikes in the end of season sale:
I bought a set of moulded spikes to screw into them too - but when I got them home I found out that there was a set provided with them :< Ah well, at least I'll have spares.

I had them on for a while yesterday evening, and they seem comfortable. Obviously the acid test will be bowling or fielding in them - so I'm looking forward to giving them a run-out tomorrow before I have to pack them away for the winter (more or less).

I also went into the garden at home for a bit of a practice - bouncing a tennis ball off the wall and playing it with a stump. The biggest problem I was having with this is that the ball was so bouncy that it forces you to play on the back foot a lot. Definitely after last winter I was so used to this that I played everything on the back foot at nets - which resulted in my being bowled a lot under the bat. I've tried a few things to get around this before - like taping up the ball; puncturing it and filling it with rice; using a hockey ball .... all with varying degrees of success.

But what I tried yesterday seems to be a simple solution that works quite well. Basically all I'm doing is pegging the ball at the bottom of the wall. 9 times out of 10 it comes skidding back low - which is generally how the wickets play here. It is usually bouncing more than once - but at least it gives me a viable way to practice a forward defensive. And it's something else to keep me occupied for the off-season.