Bowling, bowling, bowling...

We went out for lunch today so for only the second time since pre-season training began I missed nets. However, with the weather as it was I popped down for a solo session at about 5:30 this evening and I must have bowled for over two hours.

There was a certain amount of extra motivation today as our first match next Saturday is the most local of local derby games: Stafford 3rd XI against Stafford 4th XI. Last night, following the 3rds' first game - a straightforward win against a weak side - a few of the 3rds and 4ths (including your humble narrator) went out on the town for a curry and a fair amount of alcohol. As you can imagine, there was a fair amount of mind games and kidology going around. There was also a fair few compliments for my bowling including from Ali, the 3rds captain, although to what extent this was another part of the mind games is anyone's guess! Anyway, compliments are neither here nor there - all I need to do is spin the ball hard and land it on the spot. Do that, and the rest will take care of itself...

So anyway, This evening I went through a pretty thorough program, starting with the standing start drill, moving on to the stock leggie which I persisted with until I'd found a rhythm, then round the wicket, left hand line, top-spinners, back-spinners, and then a few bagfuls where I went "round the loop" bowling alternate backspin, stock ball, topspin, then back round again. Overall it was coming out fairly nicely, even if I'm now getting a little hard on myself when I bowl wayward balls. I did have a bit of a job finding and keeping a good rhythm which was a little frustrating, but by the end I was bowling very well, getting some nice variations of flight and plenty of turn on occasion. My pivot must be getting better as I've managed to unscrew and thus lose one of the rubber studs on the toe of my left boot, and you can take it from me they were screwed in pretty tight!

One thing I was really struggling with was the exact timing of unfurl/release, and it rapidly becomes a major problem when you bowl with an arm as low as mine. When my concentration's good it's not too much of a problem, but the slightest lapse and I'm back to spraying the ball, predominantly down the off side. Other than that I occasionally seem to "forget" to cock my wrist in the gather, and the positioning of my feet in the delivery stride seems a little inconsistent. I don't want to overdo it though, I'm pretty sure my bowling today would be plenty good enough to take wickets on Saturday.

One aspect that's pleasing was that even after two hours of bowling I didn't feel overly tired. I did have a couple of breaks for ciggies and a drink but it was still pretty intensive and I probably bowled 15-20 overs. I don't feel stiff or really all that tired, so at least with my bowling I seem to be in decent physical condition. Sam's already said I'm in the team and likely to get at least 3 or 4 overs so I should get the opportunity to claim my first scalp if I bowl as I can. Roll on Saturday...