A different type of spinner

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

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


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

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

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

Out for the 2s

Another good weekend for the club



We had three teams out on Saturday, which meant it was bit difficult to get enough players - but we managed, just about. Myself and one of the other 4th teamers were drafted up to the 2nds, along with some lads from the 3rds. And most of the 4th team were names I'd never heard before - I don't know where the captain found them :?

The 4ths had an interesting game by all accounts. They batted first and were all out for just 57 - but then they bowled the opposition out for 30 including one lad getting 5 for 7 off 10 overs.

Our game was just as dramatic - if for different reasons. The top order did it's job well, with the first 3 getting 91, 72 and 77, which led to us getting 294 in the 45 overs. Which is a record for the club, beating the previous best (267) that was set in 1987 (in a game that they lost believe it or not)! There was also plenty of activity aside from the free run-scoring - with scuffles between the batsman and the keeper; a dog trying to eat the ball; some comical attempts at fielding the ball; and no less than 4 arguments over the rules - all with the same member of the opposition. I didn't get to do much during the first innings obviously - being set to bat at 11 in a game where we only lost 4 wickets. But I did square-leg umpire for a bit. I still haven't had to do the bowlers end umpire yet this year - I'll have to start doing it at some stage I suppose, but a 2nds match is probably not the right place.

I did manage to get a bowl too. I wasn't really expecting to get on, but just after drinks the captain gave me the nod. My first over was a perfect study in how NOT to bowl! I was a bit nervous, and was alternating between long hops and full tosses down the leg side. And my run-up was just feeling wrong. My first over was carted around the place, going for 12 runs , 8 of which came from 4s hit straight over my head! I have recently been putting some thought into setting a field for my bowling - which does include a long-off that would have discouraged the batsman from playing that shot - but I wasn't confident enough to set the field coming on ... I was more worried about not screwing up! It would have looked bad if I'd set a field for my normal bowling and then proceeded to give them balls that were crying out to be hit into the gaps. I'll definitely be doing it next time though.

I came back well though - I relaxed a lot and only gave away a total of 6 runs off the next three overs. There were a good few close chances in there too. About 2 in each over beating the bat, and somehow just missing the stumps; I'd 3 or 4 good shouts for lbw too, but in all fairness I probably wouldn't have given them myself; and there were 3 catchable opportunities, 2 fell short of fielders (who should have been walking in), and one was driven just over my head and I just managed to get my fingertips to it at the top of a jump, which at least took the pace off it and stopped a possible 4. There were a couple of byes off me too, strangely enough. Two of the balls that beat the bat, also confused the keeper it seems. It's not that they were too fast, if anything they were slower balls. But perhaps the problem is that it so rarely gets past a batsman (either hits or defends) that the keeper's not expecting it when it does

Four overs was all I got though. When coming on for the 4th, the skipper said I could stay on if I got a wicket ... but it wasn't to be. I even tried a deliberate slower ball with my last one, but the line was off and it just resulted in a single. The game was over fairly soon after anyway. The other 4th teamer (who was given the chance to open the bowling and took 1 wicket from his first spell), came back on and did a great job - being rewarded with 3 more wickets. The last being a decent enough catch from me running from mid-off to cover and taking it at a stretch to end the game with the opposition on 153. So a 4-for for the other 4th team bowler! It's quite likely now that the 4th team mightn't be getting to keep him for much longer

That catch was my 7th of the season from 10 games, which puts me currently joint top of the table with the 3rd team keeper. If I can keep up with this sort of pace it might result in a cup that can be used to "cancel out" the now near-inevitable duck cup. I could also do with a few more wickets too. I racked up 11 wickets in 4 games (6 if you count games where I didn't bowl) and then didn't get to bowl for almost a month. I'd like to be getting a lot more overs in, but we almost always seem to be in games where we bat first and then don't have to defend for long enough for me to get a chance at them. Maybe this weekend?

Wanted: 4th teamers ::)

Bit of a woeful training session Tuesday night! I started well enough, putting every ball on a line and length - and then I had a bat that went really well. But I was a bit knackered and when I came on to bowl again I just couldn't find a length ... My run-up felt all wrong, where I'd be reaching for the crease one time and having to hold back the next time - meaning I wasn't concentrating on delivering the ball. My run-up is normally very consistant - so it was a bit annoying.

Good training session last night though ... My batting was quite good compared to before. I was making a concious effort to be as still as possible before the ball was delivered, as someone pointed out that I was tending to shuffle around. And I think it helped, as I felt like I had more time to watch the ball and still had time to play it. A few balls got through me, and I was C+B once - but mostly not bad.

Bowling was better than Tuesday too - not brilliant, but I think I figured out where I was going wrong. On Tuesday I was trying to run in fast and use that speed on the ball, whereas I should have been just running in consistantly and try to put pace on the ball with the delivery.

I was fielding at square leg too - which was fun. I did drop a catch that I should have taken, but I was trying to chase it down and catch it over my shoulder on a bumpy part of the outfield - so I never got close enough to where it was going to land and it just bounced out of my hands I was able to effect a few runouts though - 4 in a row at one stage . Though it was more due to the fact that the batsmen were refusing to call and running everything ... and one of them had shinsplints. Still ... had to get in on the ball quickly and get it into the keepers hands.

This Saturday coming is turning into a bit of a mess games-wise. Three of our teams are out on the same day, and our 4ths were the first to have a team mostly picked - but now they're being ransacked from above. I've been called up to the 2nds, which is fine ... but I'm not likely to be able to contribute at that level as much as I possibly could have on the 4ths I'll do my best though - the captain seems to have a policy of bowling as much of the team as possible, so I might get an over or two. Hopefully they won't be carted to all ends of the country

Weekend Woes

Woeful game at the weekend :( We were all there at 1.15 for a 1.30 start ... but there was no sign of the opposition. Cue a bloody HOUR of sitting around waiting! Eventually they turned up after 2.30, and they didn't seem too apologetic. They sort of moped around until we herded them into the changing rooms - and even once we got them on the field they were in no hurry to make up for the fact that they were an hour late.

It wouldn't bother me so much if they were a team from down the country that had to travel to get there. Even in that scenario, if they were late they'd probably ring ahead. But these lads are from a club that's less than 30 minutes away - and they never contacted us once to let us know what was going on!!!

I don't think I'd ever been so fired up for a game - but alas revenge was not to be ours! They had two very good bowlers, who were firing it in quick and straight and picked up 7 wickets clean bowled between them. The rest of the team were pretty much rubbish from a bowling point of view - and were our only source of runs. Having said that, there weren't many of said runs - with our side only able to put together 65 :o And for me? You guessed it - a duck (one of 4 from our side)

So as you can imagine - defending that total was never going to be easy. I think the fact that we were all gunning for them for holding us up was our downfall in the batting - where clearer heads would have been better. But in the field, a bit of adreneline can only be an advantage, and to be fair we didn't do too badly. It took them 24 overs to get the 66 runs, and we didn't give them any easy runs through misfields or lazy chasing. On the flip side, they were under no pressure and didn't need to take risky runs - usually taking singles off balls that could have gone for two. Again, they only had two batsmen that looked really good - with one of their openers playing through the innings. It's not often at Junior C level that you see a player that can split the field as easily as he could. Normally, a lad might have two shots that he can place, and anything else he uses could send the ball anywhere in a 60 degree arc.

Our bowling wasn't as good as it could have been either - with only one of us firing (he picked up 3 of the 4 wickets). There was too much going down leg on a day that we could ill-afford byes. My own bowling was a bit mixed. I hadn't bowled in a game for the 3 weeks previous, so I'd kinda forgotten what was working for me. My first over was waaaay too expensive - I was being overly cautious and putting it down too slowly. The line was good, but the length was a little too full and their opener was driving it well (again which you don't normally get - usually batsmen are leg-side sloggers).

Second over was much better, with a couple of chances coming off it (an inside edge, one that seamed in and was just blocked and two that went in the air but dropped just short of fielders). But two was all I had time for, with the game finishing a couple of balls later. On the plus side, I did take a catch - which as someone pointed out puts my catch tally at exactly twice my run tally for the season. That has to be some kind of record?

It turns out though that we were well within our rights to claim a walkover after half an hour of the start - if we'd decided to. Obviously there was no way we were going to do that, we all wanted to get a game in - but looking back on how it went ........

Nearly forgot!!! On Friday evening I'd a game of taverners cricket where I made 11 runs and took two wickets. We still lost, but it's the first time I've made double figures in any form of cricket :D

Sunshine and winning - also what bank holidays are for

Mondays Winning Thirds

A great weekend for the club - and an OK one for me personally. We had 4 games, one each on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and (Bank Holiday) Monday; and we had good wins in all 4. And it was all topped off by glorious sunshine for the entire weekend.

Friday and Saturday were straightforward wins, although our 2nds made things difficult for themselves by reversing the batting order and giving a bowl to all and sundry! They could have had the opposition out for under 100, but ended up giving them 140. Luckily they knocked off the total for the loss of just 6 - would have been very interesting if they'd lost though :?

Sunday was a fantastic win for our 1sts - chasing 200 against a good side, and just scraping home with 9 balls to spare and 9 wickets down!

Monday though was a rollercoaster of a game! I was playing with our thirds, in a game where both sides are unbeaten so far this season. We had, on paper, a nicely balanced team with plenty of batting, and too many bowlers - which meant I was unlikely to have much of a role to play :( We won the toss and opted to bat, but got off to the worst imaginable start - a first ball duck. So 1-1 at the end of the first over. And then, worse again 2-2 at the end of the 2nd :o

We did manage to steady the ship a bit, but still lost wickets too regularly, and at 20 overs we were only 51 with 5 down. I was batting at 11 (which suited me fine), but all too soon it was time to go in - 34th over with the score on 97. The other man in was quite a good bat - so I took on the job of blocking out an end and let him do the business at the other end. Our number 1 priority was to survive to 40 overs, as the opposition get to bat any overs we don't use. We managed to do OK, getting the score up to 110 in the 37th over before my batting partner was stumped trying to get a quick single off the last ball of the over. He started running before the ball was bowled, with the plan being to just get a touch on the ball to kill it, and we both scamper through to keep him the strike. Unfortunately the bowler pushed it a bit wider, and the keeper did the work behind :(

Still though, 110 gave us something to bowl at. As it turned out though, we needn't have worried too much. They got off to pretty much the same start we did with a collapse at the outset - and unlike us they didn't get to stabilise at all :D We got them all out for just 53. The only downside was that we got the winning wicket one over before I was due to come on. Still, a win is a win.

So not much for me to do, I'd a few stops at gully and at point, and one chase to the boundary. Obviously I was happy with the not out, especially as it gives the captains a little more confidence in me being able to hold up an end if nothing else; and it's better than a duck. I can't really expect to get a bowl on the thirds too often, as the bowlers above me are getting the wickets, it would be a different story if they weren't. It is dissapointing though - as my last spell for the thirds broke a troubling partnership and I ended up with 3-14. The stand-in captain on the day thought that I turned the game too.

I think the problem might be that the 3rds captain has never seen me bowl in a game. I've mentioned before how in practice I tend to get tonked, but in games the extra pressure leads to a good few wickets for me. Hopefully I'll be getting a few more overs with the 4ths in the next few weeks - and maybe he'll notice that I have a role to play in his attack.

Also, I've just found out that our 1sts have a cup game this evening - it was supposed to be on thursday but there was a scheduling mix-up, and the other team will claim a walkover if we don't field a team!! The captain got 11 at short notice, but a few of them are 50/50 available at best, so I've been put on standby! I played for the 1sts twice last year, but I reckon that this would be a different kettle of fish - it being 20-20 and the result actually mattering and all. Not completely sure if I want to get called up for that, but needless to say I'll do my best if I am.

The sneaky leg-glance

So, as I said previously - it's been a relatively quiet week cricket-wise. Tuesday nets were cancelled as our 1sts had a game - which was then rained off :( Luckily, I'd dragged myself off the couch on Monday evening and down to the pitch to do some bowling by myself so there was no loss in terms of practice time. This bowling went quite well - with at least one out of every 6 actually hitting the stumps. And as I got into it, I was bowling faster without losing accuracy - which was nice.

I did hit a bit of a wobble mid-session though, where I bowled one wide and then started to overthink - resulting in more wides X( But at that stage I just went back to basics and it came good again before the end. I really need to get my hands on a camcorder so I can see my action - it feels OK, but I'm probably doing loads of stuff that's slowing me down.

On Thursday, I'd a good long bat, and things are still on the up in that regard. At the start of the season, my problem was that I was playing back to everything - so I fixed that by going forward to everything (which is obviously a problem in itself). But last night was the first time that I was able to pick some of the balls to go forward or back to. And at the moment, I have 5 shots that I'm reasonably happy playing - in that I can sometimes play them without having to think about it or premeditate it. The two I've always been fairly happy about are the cover drive and the late cut - which obviously leaves a bit of a gap for the straight ball or anything down leg! I could also manage a sweep - but only against spinners, and only if the ball was overpitched or really short.

Now, however, I've picked up the forward defensive - and somewhere along the way the leg glance snuck in there. I think it's because after learning the defensive stroke, I play the ball better with a straight bat - and the leg glance is basically just that with a twist of the wrists. And as I've said before - now that I'm less likely to get bowled by a nothing ball I'm more confident with the other shots. I'm still not at the stage where I can pick gaps, or even hit it to the boundary (though with shortish boundaries and a good outfield you never know) - but it's progress.

Quick update on the bowling machine - I've hit a bit of a roadblock in that I have the mechanical element sorted, but still haven't got wheels. To be fair I haven't really looked all that hard. It's a bank holiday here again this weekend, so hopefully I'll get a chance to go to a few hardware stores or something to see if I can find anything suitable.

The more I practice the luckier I get

There is a poll this week on our club website - www.sandyfordcc.org - to see who people think will win the infamous Duck Cup this year, and aside from the novelty choice I am runaway favourite!! Not without good cause obviously, I only just missed out on picking this up last year, and I already have more ducks this year than I picked up in the entirity of last season :*(

I'm still working away at it though, and there are signs of improvement. I was hitting the ball cleanly towards the end of last nights session, and my defence has soared from "non-existent" to "streaky". The only bowler who really gave me trouble was the first-teamer who took 7 for 25 two weeks ago. He's got a great action, where he sort of jogs in and suddenly the ball is on your feet! He was also swinging the ball with a slingy action from outside leg onto middle stump.

I'd a fair few lucky edges, where I just got the bat in the way at the last moment and it squirted off to third man or fine leg. But the way I see it, a few weeks ago the bat wouldn't have been there for the edge to come into it. I remember hearing a quote from some golfer saying - "The more I practice the luckier I get" [Gary Player according to Yahoo answers]. Which is to say I'm taking the credit for my streaky shots - better than no shot at all.

When I was bowling then, I was getting fairly tonked for a while, until I decided to just have fun and try a few different things, most of which, surprisingly, worked quite well. I even threw in an off-cutter, which I've never done before, and it moved off the pitch and through the gate - just missing the stumps somehow! I also threw in a few of my slower yorkers, (which work a bit like the SLOB that Manee found on Mavericks Cricket, but with a different action).

With regard to the duck-cup situation, it doesn't bother me nearly so much as it would have last year. At least this year I have the excuse that I'm a bowler :p. After last weekend, I now have as many wickets to my name as I have runs :D. My fielding has been sharp this year too, with 5 catches and a run out in 7 games. They say you should be good at 2 out of the 3 disciplines of Batting, Bowling and Fielding - so I'm relatively covered...

No cricket this weekend, as I'm off to Wexford - the Sunny South-East as it's known here - for a weekend's drinking with my college friends ... in fact, looking back at the last few weekends you'd think I was a big drinker, when nothing could be less true - normally I'll not be drinking at all, or if I do it's usually very tame as I'm a complete lightweight. Still though, one of these weekends I'll have to make up my sleep quota.