Coaching Course - Session 2

We'd the second session of the coaching course today - and I'm bloody wrecked after it!! We warmed up with a game quite like stumpball, but the objective was to complete 10 passes to score a point. I couldn't breathe after it, which I was a bit surprised by. I'm not super-fit or anything like it, but I can normally run about for 5 minutes without hyperventilating. I've since developed a bit of a chesty cough though - so I reckon that goes some way to explain it, must have been coming on since before today.

We covered a bit of fielding (intercepting and retrieving), a bit of wicketkeeping and a few back foot shots. We also did the run-up and bound - which was a complete head-wreck! I think the problem is that the bowling action is fairly complicated, with different parts of the body doing different things - and in order to match it to the technical model, you have to try and hold all the different parts in your head at the same time!

We finished the session off with the "full hit to leg". Basically it's a cross batted shot to a full toss about waist high on leg stump. Front foot towards the ball - down on the back knee - and smash the ball to the leg side boundary! Feels great when it works, but there is a danger with it, if you don't pick the right ball top edges are nigh on inevitable. Last season, this is pretty much the shot I used to get my boundary (yes singular!), off a very long hop by a leg spinner. It's also quite close to the shot that I got caught off in a cup match to a full toss :/ Win some lose some I suppose!!

The Mystery of Timing

Just had my last session of work related indoor cricket! A record showing of three turned up strangely, so we just had a single wicket competion. Two overs batting in the innings - one against each of the other two bowling. In the time we had we managed to get in three of these games, so not too bad, six overs of batting, six overs of fielding (read running around like a headless chicken), and six overs of bowling.

I was keen to try out a few of the bits and pieces from the coaching course. Obviously, I've been doing a bit myself - knocking a ball against a wall to practice driving, and a bit of one-step bowling. But I was surprised, nay shocked!, by how well I did today. In the 6 overs, I managed to score 47 runs, (and get out twice, but I'll forget about that until we've done the forward defense ;) ). In the bowling, I was trying to include the hip-drive, by pushing the front knee through - this resulted in a quicker ball every time I remembered to do it! Picked up a few wickets clean bowled with this, along with a reflex C&B off a slower ball.

The big difference in the batting, I think, was that I was more relaxed since I had an idea what I was trying to do - and that I was using the "backswing and step". These both contributed to a more fluid, straight, and powerful shot. It was a bit bizarre, in that I felt like I was hitting the ball with less effort and still getting it to race away to the back wall :/ I guess that's how timing works :)

I did hit a bump in one of my middle overs where I was trying to force the ball away, and reverted to swings and misses; edges going in the air; and driving the ball straight into the ground. But I recognised the issue, made myself relax - just watch the ball - and react ... and things came good!

Hopefully with a good winter re-inforcing the basics I can go out next year and do some damage. Priority going to beating this years average of 1 :D

Coaching Course - session 1

We had our first session of the Level 1 Coaching Course last Saturday. It went pretty well really, I thought before the start of it that the other lads on the course would have a huge advantage because they were likely to have way more experience - but as it turned out, that really didn't matter much! It's nearly an disadvantage in some ways, I'm quite happy to accept that doing things by the book is better than the way I'm doing it. One or two of the others were more inclined to say things like "Well I've been doing it like this for years and ...". At the end of the day, everyone probably does have their own adaptations to suit the techniques to themselves - but when you're teaching a newbie - it's probably best to show them the universally "right" way, and let them start playing around with it themselves. Certainly better than teaching them the quirk that works for you, even when you don't really know why!

The impression I've got after the first day is that the "secret" to being a coach is not necessarily how much you know, but how you get the information across. And the greatest weapon you have for achieving this? Preparation! If you're showing a bunch of kids the pull shot, you'd better be damn sure you know in advance how every part of the session should work (with room for flexibility if needed). There's no point starting the session, and every few minutes interrupting yourself to add a point you forgot - or having to figure out how to demonstrate the skill on the fly. All you'd be doing is undermining yourself - and getting a group of kids to listen to you is hard enough anyway.

It's also good to know that there are lots of the basics that I haven't been doing right (or at all). I'd hate to think that I have been using good technique and still can't bat - that might suggest that I'm just rubbish ;)

Also - well done to the Irish team that managed to win the Intercontinental cup for the third time in a row! They recovered from a pretty poor first innings performance to win by 9 wickets in the 2nd innings, Cusack getting a deserved man of the match award for a gutsy 95* in the first innings to get the Irish close enough to make the result an option.

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!

(York)Shire it anyway!

Despite their severe hangovers, the 12 visiting Yorkshiremen beat us soundly

It was a fun game though, especially since it was played in what was most likely the last drop of sun we're likely to see all year. We had a 36 over, 12 on 12 match, where everyone bowled 3 overs, and batsmen retired on 50. We also decided to bowl out the overs regardless of how many wickets fell, so that anyone who got out cheaply could have another go. Which is good ... knowing how crap it feels to drive down the country for an hour or two and then get out first ball - imagine what it's like flying to a different country and having it happen to you!

They had two batsmen in particular that took the game away from us, both of whom made 50s at a good strike rate. One of them drove a ball from me straight down the ground for 4, and next ball picked up my "sly" attempt at a slower ball - and cracked it back over my head for 6!!! B*****d

My first over only went for about 2 runs, and not a single ball of it was off line. 2nd over he took the attack to me with a couple of big shots in a row as above and it went for about 14 with a couple of wides and a no-ball . I managed to get things back under control a bit in the third over, to finish up with 22 runs off me overall - but no wickets

I didn't finish up with the most expensive spell though surprisingly. It turned out that the two lads were just getting warmed up with me, and really let loose after I came off - hitting one of our lads for 37 and another for 41!! Luckily they both got their 50s and were off - so some normality was restored.

They set us a target of about 180 (5 an over) which looks reasonable on paper, but we never really had the strength in the side to take that on. We got off to a decent start but soon enough there was a collapse and some spirited batting in the tail couldn't compensate.

For my own innings, I got about 6 runs more that normal - that's right, 6 runs! The biggest surprise of all though was that 4 of those runs came off one of the first balls I faced! It was a a slow long hop outside leg, and without thinking about it I managed to go down on one knee and sweep it away to the boundary in front of square leg. It was only afterwards that it occurred to me that that was the first 4 I'd ever hit.

And I don't just mean in matches ... I mean ever! I can literally not think of a single other time - even in training - that I managed to hit a ball well enough for it to go. I'm normally too tensed up over protecting my wicket to attack a ball - but I guess the relaxed nature of the game let me do it. I was feeling pretty confident after it, and played a few other decent shots, picking up two singles - one driven well down the ground and under the bowler, and the other chipped over midwicket. A couple of other balls were struck OK too, but went too close to fielders.

All too soon though it all went to pot. I played across a ball that I thought was going down leg and it smacked into middle. To me it looked like it swung, but I asked the umpire afterwards and he said it didn't. I'm thinking it's some kind of mental block I have with a ball that comes in at a certain angle straight at me. Maybe I'm falling over it and it looks like it's moving away - but it's a ball that keeps bowling me. I'll have to have a think about it and start playing it with a straight bat next year.

For this year - all that is left to do is give my bat it's end of season makeover; pick up my Duck Cup at the club dinner; and start planning for next year. I'm going to wait a few weeks before making any sort of training plan, just to give my head a rest. I'm signing up for the level 1 coaching course in November - so it might make sense to coincide the start of my winter training with that. In the meantime I'll just rest up, and if the mood takes me, knock a tennis ball around at home.

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.

Why do I do this?

AGM went well last night, the position of secretary is secured and no power-tools were needed :) There was a fairly poor turnout really, but it was still more than last year, so not too bad. There was a lot of talk of improving the facilities at our ground before next season, by putting a proper base under the mat and building concrete net bays - and a sum of money was set aside for this purpose.

It would be nice to have the net bays definitely. There have been plenty of times in the past two years where there's been a very low turnout at practice and too much of our time and energy has been spent running to collect the ball from all corners of the ground rather than focusing on the task at hand. Nets should go some way towards helping with that. I know practice games on the actual square have plenty of benefits too - from the point of view of developing awareness of the field and being able to set up realistic practice scenarios.

I was also accosted by a member of the club that had found his way on here and read some of this! He was disappointed that I hadn't mentioned his heroic 40 not out (carried his bat) in the 2nd game of the season. I've mentioned it a couple of times since then though, especially late in the season when it became apparent that our biggest issue in the 4ths was failing to use our overs. Definitely the only times we've posted a really decent score (anything over 100 at this level), it's been because one or two of the top order hung around around to get a hard fought 40 or 50. Then with the stability at that end a few others managed to chip in with 10s or 20s.

Anyway I explained to him the purpose of these blogs on sC (or BC now I suppose :D ). You never know, if he reads a couple of the other ones over there he might start his own next season :D I know personally I feel like it's helped me a lot. If nothing else, writing this stuff down in a way that has to be mildly comprehensible to others forces you to acknowledge what you're doing wrong - and what you're doing right. And it helps every now and then to skim through what's happened this year to try and spot patterns etc. And on top of this, comments from other people on sC helped to straighten out a few issues and put things in perspective. I may not be international standard (yet :p) but I'm a hell of a lot better that I was last year and at the start of this season, hopefully with some good work in the off season the trend will continue.

Addendum

As an addendum to the last post I've uploaded the pictures for the day (or at least the part of it that our president (pic below) was there)

el Presidenté

This chap was my batting partner for the day. As you can see he generally looks like he knows what he's doing a bit more than me. So unsurprisingly he got most of the runs.

Middle - BOG for the day

I've mentioned Stephen before - he only started playing this year and got a two wickets in his first game for us. He won the cup and was BOG for some very good bowling - some great batting - and a cool head in the field. When he was bowling to me I couldn't get him away for a single that would have got our batsman on strike. And then when he was batting he attacked at the right time (hit two 4s on long grass), and defended at the right time (blocked an over when they had a 5 run lead). Best of all was the run-out on the last ball that won the cup. The batsmen needed 3 to win (a tie would have still lost them the game). They ran the two quickly and turned for the 3rd as the ball was coming back in - Stephen picked it up and instead of throwing down the stumps, scrambled and dived into them to secure the win by about a foot!

As for myself - there's the Good(ish):

Leaving one down leg - got a few wides for that
The first on-drive I've managed to hit well
Backing up on the last ball of the over to secure a drop-and-run single

The Bad:

Completely missing one that I tried to hoist over midwicket - very lucky not to get bowled
A wideish ball that I played through cover. The result is OK, but the shot ain't so hot. Not a big enough step forward - and hitting the ball too far in front of myself.

And the Ugly:

I think I was trying to guide it into the gap at cover - but then realised it was too straight. Hence the most awkward and useless forward defensive ever!! (Somehow worked though)

Double-D Cups

The Double-D Cup competition is over and the title has been snatched from my grasp

The Double-D Cup

Basically we had our annual end-of-season double-wicket comp last Saturday, on what was the hottest day I've ever seen of a September. With the weather being so good I was expecting a big turnout, but surprisingly, only 12 actually made it!

Undaunted, we soldiered on with 6 teams of 2. While each pair were batting we all fielded and one of the other teams (chosen at random) bowled at them. Each pair batted 4 overs, and bowled 4 overs and their final score was runs scored - runs conceded. A wicket was -5 too.

It's not a particularly serious competition either, as it was being run in tandem with a BBQ and a few beers - and there was some fundraising going on in the form of "fines". These were handed out for all manner of infractions like "Impersonating a fielder" (for diving over a ball), "having a shoe fetish" (changing spikes numerous times), "Being afraid of a bra" (see pic above), among numerous other offenses. I was fined a few quid for dropping 4 catches! - and then fined again for having the nerve to take two later on!

Our president was there for about 20 minutes with his camera and timed it perfectly to coincide with my batting There are some dodgy looking shots among the pics, but I'm reasonably happy with how some of them look. This one particularly, as it's very rare that I get a ball to go on the on-side. You can also see how bloody long the grass was!

God knows what kinda shot this is

Incidentally, I didn't get a run for this as my partner didn't realise that the cameraman wasn't fielding!!

Later in the week I might stick up a few of the other pics so I can see where I'm going wrong.

AGM tonight, it looks like I'm running uncontested for Secretary - so I'll be busy for the next year!

Hindsight (not much 20-20 though)

I think it's about time I did my end-of-season review :( A word of warning, it's very numbery (yes, it's a word) and not all that interesting, especially if you've been following this season log generally, but I think it might be useful for a comparison at the end of next season.

I'd said at the start of the season that my aim this year was going to be to learn how to play, and that any wickets, catches and runs would be a bonus. On the whole I think I've managed that, as in I'm a better cricketer now than I was then. There's still a long way to go, to be sure, but it's not a bad start. So ...

Games:
23 of them in all, split up as: 12 for the 4ths; 6 for the 3rds; 4 for the 2nds; and 1 for the 1sts. 23 games in 22 weeks ain't bad I suppose, although surprisingly one of the lads managed 25 games! (He also has the most overs, the most wickets, the best bowling figures and the most maidens). I'd prefer if there were a few more 3rds games there, at the very least it would make more sense - 2nds should be stealing from the 3rds and 3rds from the 4ths .... but there were a few occasions that 2nds stole from 4ths?

Batting:
11 runs in total at an average of 1.00 and a strike rate of 13.56. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be considering I managed 6 ducks (2 of them golden), but the 5 not-outs seems to have counterbalanced this a bit. What can I say, I'm a true number 11. Believe it or not, this is better than last year, and I've increased my top score from 4 to 6 :D

Bowling:
Pretty happy with this overall. Picked up 26 wickets at an average of 11.76 and a SR of 17. The economy is the wrong side of 4 though (4.14) which would explain why I got so few overs (relative to the number of games played - 30% of the amount I could have bowled). And 62 of the 74 overs were for the 4th team (resulting in 23 of the wickets). Bizarrely I bowled twice as many overs for the 2nds as I did for the 3rds :? But then again, the 3rds had a very strong bowling line-up ... and the 2nds skipper was very much a "give everyone a go" type chap.

Fielding:
Again, happy with this. I was in the running for the catches cup for most of the season, and ended up taking 11 catches overall. The fact that I have as many runs as I do catches was the source of some merriment in the club; imagine what it was like before I scored the 6 runs! Last year, fielding was the only thing I had to justify my place on the team - so I was generally fairly enthusiastic at cutting out fours and the like. I still do this, but I'd like to be able to slide a bit - could be more effective. I'd also a couple of drops this year, two of which I should have taken, but overall, pretty good.

Next year? :
Obviously I'd like to be better able to bat. There have been some signs of light, but there's a long way to go. Currently my bowling is zero-swing line and length. It's good for cleaning up tails and takes wickets when the batsmen are pushing the rate - but otherwise pretty ineffective. If I can get a bit of movement or some more pace it might allow me to compete at the higher leagues too. With fielding, I need to get better under the high ball and learn to slide - or make sure I get to stay in the ring.

Hopefully Messrs Woolmer and Noakes will be able to help me with that. And there's always a chance that I might get off my ass and finally finish this bowling machine ... maybe.

Going Tepid Turkey

Actually, it's not all bad. There is still some cricket left in the year, not very much mind, but enough to avoid going cold turkey. Maybe we can call it tepid turkey?

Next weekend, for example, we have the Double-D cup - a double wicket competition within the club. I'm facing into this as defending champion, though as you can imagine it was mostly due to the person I was partnered with. Our winning total was 47, of which I think I scored 7! To be fair it was all just a bit of fun, I'd had 2 bottles of beer before batting (which might explain why I scored so many ), and the cup itself comes with a bra attached - which gets cut in half and the winning team have to wear a cup each on their heads

There's also the indoor cricket sessions on Thursdays. Again this is just a bit of fun - 8 lads knocking a tennis ball around, but it should keep me going for a while.

We also have a touring side coming over from England (Yorkshire I think) for a game in two weeks. Though at the moment their schedule seems to be - Arrive, drink, sleep (optional), drink, eat, drink, sleep (optional), drink, eat, cricket, drink, sleep (optional), drink, depart They're a fun bunch of lads too, should be a good weekend.

And then there are the various "end-of-season" type events. There's a delegation from the club going for a weekend in Bratislava (which I can't make unfortunately). There will also be the LCU (league governing body) official end of season dinner and prize-giving ceremony, where we'll be presented with our cups and league titles for the year. I wouldn't mind heading to that, not sure when it's on yet though. Not to mention the club AGM, I've a feeling this will be pretty much a love-in after the successful year!

Pick of the bunch though will have to be the club President's Dinner. All the intra-club awards are handed out for player of the year, and the catches cup, and sixes cup and the like. Nice fancy dinner too, and plenty of speeches (and maybe a song or two ;-) ). I'll be there to pick up the Duck Cup (hmm) I had hoped that I'd be picking up the catching cup too, having been in the shake-up for most of the year, but sadly I was overtaken and couldn't catch up (pun intended). I'd like to think that I'd be in the mix for the 4ths player of the year on account of my bowling, but I reckon my batting might be a deciding factor Besides, there are other lads there that would have taken more wickets than I did if they'd played more, and they already have more runs.

So even if most of the cricket-related activities this year aren't actually cricket, at least they're close. And for now that will have to do.

24 years of hurt

Well, it's over.

It's more than mildly depressing to know that it's at least 7 months until the next competitive game, and probably a whole 5 months until I'll pick a ball up in the company of people who are really interested in what I'll do with it.

There seem to be a good few people on SC who are writing up a review of their season, but I'm going to sit on my one for a few days - partially to try and get a bit of perspective on it, but mostly because there's other more interesting news.

Not that my last game this season was cancelled due to opposition failing to get numbers - on the nicest day we've had in months ... That's not news at this stage, it's been happening so often the last few weeks - it would have been more surprising to actually get a game played.

The real news is that our first team have finally gotten their final played (Third time's a charm). And guess what.....

go on ....

Guess ....

They won!!

After 24 long years as a club we actually have a cup. (To be fair, our 2nds won a 20-20 competition earlier this year, but there's nowhere near the same history associated with it.) Our firsts have been in the final of this competition 7 times before and lost them all (once when it would have been much easier to win).

So as you can imagine, there were a lot of teary-eyed players and former players about the place exorcising their demons. And there were a few pints imbibed on Saturday evening (I'm still trying to remember if I said or did anything embarrassing). It was a great day for the club, and it caps off a fantastic season - our 2nds and 3rds both won their leagues, the 2nds won their short-game cup and now this

I don't know how we'll top it next year - but the monkey is off the back now and hopefully it is just the start of a new era for us.

Batting Masterclass ;-)

Again with the lack of people at nets last night! We had a grand total of 6, which is way better than Tuesday, but very disappointing for the last Thursday net of the year; and the very last chance for the 1sts to practice before the final (It HAS to happen this Saturday).

Still, we made the most of it. One of the lads had noticed I wasn't great under the high ball and so fixed me Apparently, I was trying to take the ball too far from my body, which is why it was bouncing out so much. And apparently for covers and midwicket type catches - if it's coming at you hard, fairly low and to your side - it helps to get your leg behind the ball. Firstly, because if you miss, there's a second line of defences. And secondly (and more importantly), it's difficult to judge where your hands are once they go past your knee. I tried his advice, and it's certainly helped so far - I can work on it a bit over the winter and hopefully go the extra mile with the catches next year

Batting went well enough. At one stage I hit a lovely cover drive (in the midst of a load of edges ), where I ended up down on one knee and with the bat above my head pointing towards where the ball had gone. The keeper remarked that I looked exactly like Michael Vaughan.

Next ball I missed completely and it went through the gate and knocked over middle stump. The keeper remarked that I looked exactly like Michael Vaughan.

Bowling was the same as usual - I'm no use as a net bowler, as I need the field or scoreboard pressure to force errors. But it was reasonably accurate, and I worked on my follow-through a bit.

Our game on Saturday now looks like it is back on, so I still have one last opportunity to pick up a few more wickets. Hopefully I'll be a bit more successful than last week - though it was nice to get my economy down a bit to just over 4.

The end is nigh (or at least soon)

The last Tuesday-training of the year was two days ago, and guess how many turned up?

Two.

Again.

We spent about 30 minutes giving each other throwdowns, but to be fair, we were dodging showers for most of that. Apparently all the wind and rain we had at the start of this week was the tail end of hurricane Gustav! It happens a good bit over here, where a couple of fronts associated with a hurricane in the US follow the gulf stream and dump a crap-load of water on us. The one that most people still talk about was hurricane Charley in the 80's, did a lot of damage apparently, though I don't remember it, what with being 2 at the time and all

So with inclement weather, and a maximum of 22 people playing next weekend - it's hardly surprising that nobody made it but it is still disappointing that one of our last opportunities for a hit has passed us by. Hopefully there will be a few there this evening for what is officially the last net of the year.

I started swimming lessons last Monday though, which should give me something to do in the off-season. Nothing challenging so far, but I don't think I'm kicking properly - and it's quite difficult to tell what your feet are doing when you're busy trying not to drown

Other than that I haven't really made any plans for the winter, cricket- or training-wise. Rest up for a few weeks I suppose, then we'll see what happens. That is assuming that we're all still here for the winter.

Wonder of wonders!

Managed to actually get a game in yesterday, but it was a bit of a disaster for us - so I don't know if that was a good thing

We were bowled out of 98, and they got the total, under no real pressure, in about 30 overs and only losing 4 wickets.

Me? I got a third ball duck , and am going to have to add "Batting against swing" to my already long list of pending improvements. I also bowled 8 overs for 18 runs, but didn't manage to take a single wicket. It was extremely frustrating, as it was by far the quickest and most consistent spell I've ever bowled, with no wides, and only 5 or 6 balls not going where I wanted them to.

I think this actually made it less likely for me to take a wicket though - as the opposition batters were refusing to chase the ball ... instead dead-batting the majority back to me, and turning the odd one down to fine leg. It didn't help that they were under no scoreboard pressure either I suppose. Normally, I get wickets from people being tempted into chasing my innocuous bowling - missing the pace of it - and so getting bowled or caught off a miss-hit.

So perhaps straight line and length bowling is only really effective when it's really slow - or when they have to chase it? Not that I was chanceless - I was dropped twice (one a dolly), and had a few LBW shouts turned down. I beat the bat a few times too, but no luck

The obvious next step is to get some swing out of the ball. If I can keep up this pace so that they try to defend more often, then a touch of outswing has a chance of taking an edge.

I'm bloody knackered today after it, not necessarily because of the physical exertion (8 overs ain't a marathon after all), but more from disappointment. I bloody put everything into the game, both in the bowling and trying to get the team going in the field, and have ended up with nothing to show for it.

Ah, hopefully I'll manage to get in a better game next week. Still need 4 more wickets to get 30 for the season, which isn't really significant - just a nice round number , and if I can get two more catches I'll be back in with a shout for that cup.

I also haven't really used the camera since I was away, I'll have to get back into the habit.