Been "Knocked for Six"?

I've made no secret of the fact that the Irish as a people don't really "get" cricket for the most part. I think this is changing though, as the national team are making ripples and getting mentioned in the news, more and more people are coming around to it.

One thing that always fascinates me though, is the amount of cricket related terminology that has found it's way into everyday usage - even when people have no clue what it means!

You could say, they'd be "stumped" by it .... ahaha :*)

The amount of times I've heard people saying, right "off the bat", they've been "bowled over", or "caught out" on a "sticky wicket". I've heard people say when an elderly relative had died that he'd "had a good innings". I even heard someone on the radio the other day that a particularly prolific musician had a "good batting average". Apparently, "hat-trick" also originated in Cricket - and now it's been plagiarised by every other Tom, Dick and Harry sport.

This was brought home to me at the weekend, when I spotted an article in our local paper. It was about a member of a Gaelic football club that had taken charge of the scorebox for his 1000th game. The picture accompanying this was of him waving out of the box with "1000 not out" written out on the score display.

At first I thought I might be imagining this - I do have a tendency to imagine I've seen something crickety all the time, I think it's called obsession. But no, this time it was real. This hard-core GAA fan was using a cricket term.

It doesn't surprise me that there are terms from cricket out there in common use .... you don't spend hundreds of years in the psyche of an empire without seeping into the language. And in fact it's a two-way process, plenty of terms from other walks of life have drifted into cricketing parlance. What does surprise me is that people understand the terms - without having any grasp on the origin. I guess it just shows you how powerful cricket is - it can even get inside the heads of non-believers ;D

The Duck Cup is MINE!

We'd our end of season dinner Friday night, was great craic. 50 odd people turned up, which is more than last year I think. At that dinner one of our founder members provided the highlight of the night by singing a lament he had composed! Lamenting the fact that Sandyford had never won a cup in it's first 23 years. I was looking forward to the sequel this year now that we have 2 cups under the belt - but unfortunately he wasn't able to make it. Apparently being on the wrong continent is sufficient reason not to attend the club dinner ;-p I'm sure he was as disappointed as the rest of us, it being the first one he's missed.

After the dinner the awards for the season were presented. I was looking forward to picking up my Duck Cup - and my impatience was obviously showing, as it was the first award of the evening.

Duck Cup!

As you can see in the picture - it's LITERALLY a Duck Cup :D I picked it up amid mild heckling (Good-natured of course), and had just sat down before I was called up again! This time for 4th team player of the year! Yeah, I know - a real award! :D Despite averaging 1.25 for them with the bat, I'd also managed 23 wickets at 10 each, so that was pretty sweet!

To top it off, I was also given one of the league medals from the 2nds campaign - which I was completely blown away by! I didn't think I'd contributed enough to the Inter B campaign to deserve one of the medals, but sure, if the skipper thinks so who am I to argue :D I played with them 4 times, and was due to play another that were rained off. And there were another one or two games that I was down for but replaced late on - so I suppose, it's a medal for being dependable ::)

There's a ridiculous picture of me on the front page of our club site now too - behind a table-load of awards. They're not all mine, and I wasn't planning on stealing them - I swear!

The Specialist Tryer

Had indoor on Thursday with work - quite sedate in comparison with the Friday evening version, but still good. There's no running involved during the batting - so scoring is controlled by hitting the walls or getting the ball past lines on the floor. For the most part it's good to practice hitting gaps - but I have nowhere near that level of control for the most part. Still, managed to put on about 4 an over, which is OK with me. The winning player was going at 14 an over, so no hope of competing with that! And I didn't get out for a change :)

I bowled well though, probably got hit for the least runs and took the most wickets. At one stage I was on a hat-trick - but as has happened every time I've been on a hat-trick - I bowled a wide :( Fielded pretty well off my own bowling too, saving a few runs. But I did let a chance past me. To be fair, it was past me before I realised it was a chance - but some days those chances stick.

I saw something on a forum earlier about all-rounders that made me think. Technically an all-rounder is someone who could be picked in the team based entirely on either batting or bowling. In club cricket there are plenty of these guys. They're the ones that open the bowling and the batting every week and pretty much single-handedly win the game. But there are plenty of others that consider themselves all-rounders - because they are equally mediocre at both batting and bowling. Which isn't what the tag represents at all! I don't really know what you'd call these players. A "specialist tryer" perhaps :)

It also got me thinking about all-rounders in international cricket. It's fairly undeniable (I'm open to argument on this) at this stage that the standard of world cricket has improved a lot in the past number of years/decades (as it has in all sports really, records are constantly being broken). The expected standard of batting and bowling is way above what it once was - so does this mean that there are less genuine all-rounders these days? And instead is there more pressure for all players to be at least capable in their non-chosen skill. Almost every batsman these days bowls a bit of part-time spin. And it seems to almost be a droppable offence for a bowler to be unable to hold up an end.

Anyway, just something I've been thinking about. The only thing I know about all-rounders is that I'm unlikely to be one any time soon :D

Quick Update

Not much going on these days really cricketwise! I'd another indoor session last Friday (missed Thursday - work too busy). Went really well, I took 5 or 6 catches and effected a few run-outs - but I suppose the hectic nature of the game means that it throws up a ridiculous amount of chances. I've also managed to get in a couple of practices with a stump and tennis ball. I'm thinking that the indoor batting has improved my reflexes. It certainly feels like I have more time to get in line with the ball in the past few weeks, which is nice!

We've our end of season dinner coming up next Friday, which I'm looking forward to. Will be nice to see the guys from the club again. And of course I've got to pick up my Duck Cup :D. And then the following week I'm starting the level 1 coaching course. One of the other guys from the club has signed up for it now too, so if all else fails at least I'll have someone to talk to :-) He's taken on the captaincy of the 4ths next year, so I reckon I'll be playing for him a good bit. Should be beneficial that both of us have the basics covered ;-)

Sleeping with the Enemy

Well, Ireland managed to wrap up the Kenya game with just 20 minutes to spare - so they are through to the final against Namibia starting Thursday week. I hadn't fully realised that a draw would have put Kenya through instead of them, which makes it even better. And a win this year will make it three in a row! I'm looking forward to the day that Ireland can be fully involved in world cricket as a Test side - we're not there yet, but we're making progress. And of the associate sides you'd have to view us as the front-runners?

Of course by "we" and "us" I am speaking in the patriotic sense - I'm not playing for Ireland ... yet ;)

Forgot to mention about last Thursday's indoor game - generally there are about 10 of us, so we all field and score the game as two teams of 5. This can lead to some interesting situations where someone drops a dolly off one of their own team, or accidentally deflects the ball into the wall for runs, and gets a bit of ribbing over it. No-one does it on purpose though - even if they'd like to! Last week was a prime example, of the 7 catches taken, only one was caught by a member of the opposition! I myself took two pretty sharp ones at short cover, and both times, as I realised it had stuck, I was thinking - "we're screwed"! It all evened out though, and at the end of the day, taking the good looking catches sticks in the mind more than who won the game - at least in this format ;)

I wonder would everyone perform better for the opposition? It's a marvellous incentive trying to prove that your vested interest isn't going to hold you back. I know last year I got more wickets playing for opposition Taverners teams (when they were short a player etc) than I got for our team! Maybe it's a mindset I should try to carry into my own games - convince myself I've got something to prove, rather than going out to just play a game. Worth a try at least?

Just after seeing a priceless quote from Australia's newest player Peter Siddle. His first ball cracked Gambhir on the side of the head: "I went with the bouncer and it wasn't a bad first delivery," he said. "I think I broke his helmet, so that's always pleasing."
How's that for a start to a test career, just what you want from an Aussie fast bowler - agression and a hint of vindictiveness.

They're everywhere man!!

Long overdue update!!

I keep meaning to post but I've been so busy the last few weeks it just hasn't been an option. And on top of that, there's no formal cricket coming up so I've not much to motivate my posting!

Having said that, there is still cricket going on, and it is going well for the most part. I'm now playing indoor cricket twice a week - once with the work crowd on Thursdays and then on Friday evening that was organised by a lad from the club. The Friday one especially is great fun, it's only -2 for a wicket so you can really go for it. We were taking runs off every ball we got a bat to and managed to put on 91 in 12 overs!! It really shows you that if both parties are switched on that there are singles everywhere. Sure, in a match situation, you're not going to take those risks, but if it's not straight to the fielder a run is possible if you're alert and the fielding is a little lax.

In the field too, the hectic nature of the game gives you license to take risks. Or more, you don't have time to think about what you're doing so you just try things without thinking - and if they work - it looks awesome I'd a couple of nice backhanded flicks into the stumps that nearly had a runout ... and one pick-up, spin and throw off my own bowling that had the batsman yards short. I'd never usually chance it in a match, as the risk of overthrows is too high - but it feels good when there's no consequences!

My drilling of shots using the tennis ball and stump is paying off too. I'm starting to trust myself that I can connect with the ball relatively often - so I don't have to obsess over everything I'm doing in minute detail. I just need to move towards the ball and let the shot happen. Not that it always works - but compared to a few months ago

And following up my first 4 a few weeks back, I hit my first 6 in indoor cricket last Thursday - up onto the balcony in the sports hall. Not sure what kind of shot it was - kinda a short-arm pull over the bowlers head It worked though so I'm not complaining. Two balls later however, I couldn't resist trying another and was caught at the back wall - sickened...

I'm keeping an eye on the Ireland v Kenya match at the moment too. Ireland need the last wickets to secure an innings win from the last 50-odd overs. Kenya are doing a good job of hanging in there though, could go right to the wire!