My first competitive over

(N.B. This post was written some time after the match for the sake of completeness)

And so at last I got to bowl in a proper match.

But first, it should be noted that I had been put down to bat at No10, and sat out the entire innings as we put on 290 for the loss of 6, Bob Singh continuing his excellent run of form with 93 not out. A little part of me was ever so slightly miffed not to get a go in the middle, especially after showing some decent progress in the nets the previous Thursday, but on the whole I didn't mind too much as 290 definitely looked like a winning score and I could hardly argue my form merited a higher station in the batting order.

So into the field we went and with only three balls bowled I dropped an absolute dolly. I was pretty embarrassed as I felt I hadn't properly switched on, but in retrospect I was again trying to catch it too far from my face. Anyway, on I went chasing after everything, no more catches coming my way but a few boundaries saved. One ball in particular flew off the bat, bounced up and was on target to hit me "squarely amidships" until I turned to stop it with my right thigh, leaving a pretty impressive bruise!

Fat lip

Nets tonight, again a mixed bag. There were only four of us there tonight, but at least that was better than last week.

We were using the artificial net wicket, which sadly gives me virtually no turn whatsoever, or at least I don't seem to get any even when I know I've given the ball a good rip. My bowling was OK to start with, but the lack of turn meant I was getting whacked about a bit which left me rather miffed. The more I tried to get turn, and the faster I tried to bowl, the more wayward my bowling got, so I was progressively less effective I'm afraid. I need to work on focusing on a plan and not allowing outside factors to suck me into bowling badly - I need to stay in Philpott's "Circle of Concentration".

On to batting then, and for once it was pretty encouraging. There were obviously only three bowlers - an off-spinner, a leg spinner and a guy who was bowling several different styles, but no full-time bowlers. I was batting with "Hyacinth" and unlike last week this time I got plenty of bat on ball - she's a lovely wand. I started off wafting a bit, but then got into a much more defensive mindset which went well, and by the end I was leaving wayward balls and getting some good hits off the straight ones.