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.

Smash-fest Nets

Even with the club's most important game of the year coming up this Saturday - I was still surprised by the turnout at nets yesterday! I think there were around 15 there in total, with 8 from the 1sts in attendance. The emphasis was on letting people have a chance to get their eye in and their confidence up, so it was more of a smash-fest than any sort of considered drilling of skills. It was still fun though, with plenty of banter between the lads about who can hit it furthest, and trying to hit skiers (skyers? Though who wouldn't like to hit a skier, smug gits ) in the general direction of certain sledgers so you can take the mick out of them when they drop it.

In this atmosphere my bowling was obviously taken apart! No death bowler me I was still happy with my bowling though, line and length were consistent, and my slower balls caused aggro every time I put one down there. Batting went fairly well too, managed to keep my wicket intact and played a few decent strokes. I also played a chinese cut or two, but a run's a run ... no-one remembers how you scored them unless you land on your ass during the shot

There are only four games at most left in the season, but I suspect that there's little hope of tomorrows game going ahead. It's been solid rain since early this morning, and there's still no sign of a let-up. Hopefully Sunday will still happen though. I'm going to try for a late season charge to get up to 30 wickets, I've been on 26 for almost a month due to cancelled games and not getting overs. I'm also in joint 2nd for the catches cup, so I need at least 2 more to get a clear lead. I'll be bugging the skippers to field me in the ring, as my high catching has been pretty poor this season.

Obviously some runs would be nice too, especially since my batting is just starting to come together. There's even a chance that I might not have the Duck Cup in the bag. There's one other lad that now has 4 (to my 5), and if he gets one more his ducks percentage will be higher than mine so he'll end up with the cup I'm not counting my chickens though, chances are I'll get ducks myself in all the remaining games

The Real Mother of Invention

Gah .... Woeful turnout at nets last night. A whole 2 peoples. And the second only turned up as I was leaving. I think the end-of-season rot has well and truly set in. I remember this happened last year too, where for the last month everyone gave up nets and it was very difficult to get a team out (not that I'm complaining too much - it got me my debut on the 1sts ).

I was more surprised than usual last night though, as our first team have their cup final next Saturday, and I thought some of them would be down sharpening their skills. Unless they were hiding in the bushes waiting for me to leave I know the skipper was working late, but surely a couple of them would have still pitched up to get a bat in their hands to check if they still remember how to use it! Especially after the last 5 weeks of cancellations and a drubbing last weekend to dash our hopes of promotion.

I got to the park just before 6 to open the place up, and while I was waiting I got out the stump and a few hockey balls to have a bit of a hit myself. At home I've been bouncing a tennis ball off the wall and practising driving it, but I hadn't been able to find a suitable place to do this at the pitch. However yesterday, what with boredom being the mother of invention and all, I managed to circumvent such petty obstacles :)

Basically, I dragged the roller over in front of the door of the equipment container, stood about 10 feet away with the stump, and then pegged the ball at the curved surface of the roller. This worked surprisingly well, with the hockey balls pinging back to me at a reasonable clip (but not too fast), and the length gets a natural variation based on where on the roller the ball hits! Errant throws also weren't too bad, as the container behind the roller stopped the ball going too far.

I think this new method might keep me going for a while, I'll have to find something similar for the tennis courts near my house. It's coming into the time of year when they'll be empty more often, so I might be able to get down and use them myself.

Tavs v Cavs

This is the match report for the taverners match at the weekend - it was an exciting game and so might be worth a read. Original post here (needs registration).

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I missed the first innings but hopefully one of the lads will fill in the gaps.

On an unexpectedly fine day the Taverners had their flagship fixture of a 35 over a side match against the Theatrical Cavaliers. The venue was Three Rock, which unfortunately looked like it hadn't been cut in some weeks When I arrived, the Cavs had about two overs left to bat, a quick look at the book showed that it was fairly low-scoring, which was unsurprising given the state of the field.

One of the first balls I witnessed was a full toss by Anto Howard that was smashed straight at Tosh stationed at backward square leg. A good catch elicited a cry of "It's one of those f***ing Sandyforders" from one of the Cavs Nice to know our presence was noted and appreciated

A quick look at the book showed some good performances with the ball from John Pike and Dave Gray (possibly from the others too, was only a quick look). Pick of the bowlers was Peter Soutter with 1 for 5 from 5 overs

At 35 overs the score stood at 128, and so after a quick tea, the chase began with Baz and Mick Fitz at the crease. There were some fine strokes played by Mick, who seemed to be hogging the strike (Baz faced about 3 balls in the first 5 overs), but due to the grass again, these shots often produced no runs. Despite not getting much of the strike, Baz was busy causing aggro at the other end, which one of their players from Leinster didn't seem to appreciate. Eventually the umpire had to tell them both to shut up but there was no harm done.

An excellent direct-hit run-out of Mick brought Peter Soutter to the crease, who played some very nice shots, and when he was out John Pike and Baz tried to up the rate which was flagging somewhat (43 runs at 18 overs). Baz was run out in this endeavor, but Tosh was well up to the challenge, with himself and Pikie really pushing the rate with some fantastic (read suicidal) running between the wickets. Singles were keeping us in it, just about, but with the rate at 6 an over, Dave Larkin was put up the order as a pinch hitter. I was a little nervous when he swung at and missed his first two balls, but the concerns were unfounded as he scored a great quick-fire 18 before being bowled.

This effort managed to get the rate back under 5 an over, and when Tosh was out a short while later Dermot and John Rowe kept up the big hitting. When Dermot's wicket fell, things were starting to get tight. With Anto and John at the crease we needed just under a run a ball. The tension was getting unbearable with 9 needed from 11 balls and three wickets in hand - but then, John Rowe hit a massive shot into the leg side which just cleared the boundary! A six, leaving us just 3 to win from 10 balls. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief - until John was out next ball

Dave Gray strolled out with advice from all sides ringing in his ears - then took off for a crazy single first ball that resulted in Anto being run out

Owen Rowe was then our last hope. 3 to win with from 9 balls. But unfortunately it was not to be. First ball he was bowled behind his legs

So the trophy goes back to the Cavs leaving it 3 wins and 3 losses from the last 6 years. A very exciting game, and one that both captains claimed they wouldn't have been too dissappointed to lose during the game due to the drama (liars )