Back to bowling

Spent an hour and a half today bowling in the club's nets, my first real bowling practise in far too long. I had wanted to bowl alone to an empty net so that I got into a rhythm and wasn't distracted by a batsman, but there were a couple of kids' matches going on at the time so inevitably I ended up bowling at the kids most of the time. It's just as well I'm not trying to learn how to bowl quick...

I'm pretty sure now that my bowling's better than I'm able to discern in the garden, and practise is much more fruitful on level ground. Also the footholes in the lawn have been noted by others, so I think from now on I'll try to use the club as often as I can. The only problem is that while in the garden I've no vertical barrier (and none of those pesky kids), the club net has rather a low roof, so if I give a ball a hefty bit of flight it ends up on top. I'm not sure if the net is too low, or if I'm giving the ball far too much flight, but either way the fact I've been bowling uphill in the garden means my natural delivery is too high for the nets. Guess I'll just have to learn to bowl a teensy bit flatter, which is probably better anyway.

As for how my bowling ended up, well, it wasn't too bad. Too many wides for my liking, but overall I largely managed to find a good length and tie down the batsmen. the amount of turn was largely OK, although my top-spun leg-break is still far superior to my stock ball. There was a little drift, but not huge amounts. My rhythm was pretty good and I seem to have spontaneously developed a little skip on my action. I've no idea where it came from but it seems to give the delivery more energy, so I might keep it permanently.

I bowled at that left-handed kid who smacked me about again, and rather pleasingly I kept him well within his shell this time. I still haven't got him out though!!!