tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81631318943787159632024-03-13T07:38:17.598+00:00Pencil CricketUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-2150006220149653622014-08-24T23:08:00.000+01:002014-10-23T17:03:12.278+01:00"Oh captain, my captain"So at last, after four months, my team won a game. And what a game. A 136 partnership for the 9th wicket, and the final wicket falling with almost certainly 3 balls of the match left. If you don't believe me, here's the scorecard. However, there's one name you won't see on that scorecard - MINE.
On Friday night we came back from the annual cricket tour and I had a little mishap. Slightly less Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-25846287245551086382014-08-10T22:33:00.000+01:002014-08-14T00:36:36.288+01:00The middle thirdLike the mighty Mississippi the season keeps rolling on, and there's now just half a dozen Saturdays left. One can feel the icy desolation of Winter approaching and it's that time where a certain desperation comes over you, as you strive to make the most of it before another season comes to a close.
Since I last found the time to post here the Fifths have shown a definite improvement, although Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-6933559673378649542014-06-29T22:19:00.000+01:002014-06-30T02:26:37.033+01:00The first third (and a bit)I thought I'd post a brief description of how the fifths have been getting on. In short, we've had very little luck with rain, and when we have played we've been getting beaten by some reasonably big margins.
When I say we've had bad luck, I mean REALLY bad luck. Our first away game we had to wait for two hours while a boggy outfield failed to dry out before a heavy shower put paid to the match.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-28986311246570032072014-05-04T22:35:00.000+01:002014-05-05T15:11:14.674+01:00Decisions, decisions...Well today saw one of the worst decisions in any game I've ever played. Since I have a very strict policy of not arguing with umpiring decisions, one can deduce that the umpire in question was me...
We were playing in the Sunday league at Nether Whitacre, quickly becoming something of a jinx ground for me after last year's game was called off after one of my least favourite car journey's ever. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-16505928617600634792014-04-17T14:33:00.000+01:002014-04-17T14:33:00.139+01:00And so the campaign beginsAll the waiting is (nearly) over, and so on Saturday I start my first season as a team captain with the new 5th XI. The Thirds have had a few problems with the ground they're renting and their game is off this weekend, so my selection's been relatively easy with a few more players to choose from than will I imagine be the norm. The team's got a good mix of core 5th team players, juniors and a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-67267701859031529792014-04-16T20:00:00.002+01:002014-04-16T20:00:21.798+01:00Some advice for you DaveRegular readers (hello to both of you) may have heard of Dave Thompson, an obsessive leg-spinner who blogs at http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk and who I've been in contact with pretty much since I started. By astonishing coincidence, he has also found greatness, i.e. captaincy, thrust upon him by his club's elders this season, and he's written a couple of posts about some of the challenges Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-88146588576901736552014-02-23T22:22:00.000+00:002014-02-24T02:32:38.931+00:00A new season, a new start.There's some exciting developments at Stafford CC. After struggling to put out four full teams a couple of years ago we've now found ourselves with probably enough players to field a fifth team, and yours truly has been invited to lead this new experiment as captain. It's a very interesting new challenge for me, but it will be a massive task to keep a team together when we're short of players, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-73322354208250032102014-02-05T15:00:00.003+00:002014-02-05T15:00:58.094+00:00First net of the seasonWe're back in business for 2014, with my first net session taking place last night. There was a net session last week but I had stuff to do and had to skip it unfortunately. Last night was the first net for the U17s, so ahead of the seniors I had the luxury of an hour bowling to the little ones to get my mojo back.
For my first time bowling in two or three months it went reasonably well, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-62606719029186718502014-01-13T19:54:00.000+00:002014-01-13T19:54:00.762+00:00"Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage"So sayeth Confucius, and as with many of his sayings, it's both plainly, unarguably true, and at the same time something of a personal challenge to one's self.*
I mentioned a few posts back an end of season conversation with a senior player at the club, where my grumbles about not, in my view, getting a fair crack of the whip were wisely redirected into a conversation about where I need to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-36156093305265215052014-01-08T13:35:00.000+00:002014-01-12T18:56:27.488+00:00Leg-spin in 2013That last post about Scott Borthwick has led me to do some further digging around on Statsguru, to find out how the World's Test leg-spinners got on in 2013. There was 9 to 12 of them depending on whether you count players like Tendulkar who bowl both leg-spin and off-spin, and what exactly you classify Mendis as bowling (finger spin if you ask me), with just three specialist wrist spinners, plusUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-30732018449428470702014-01-05T21:59:00.000+00:002014-01-07T00:34:45.193+00:00REJOICE!
Rejoice indeed, for not only is that whole, horrible series now over, there's a new kid in town. Scott Borthwick has done the impossible. He has grown up bowling leg-spin in England and despite this has actually managed to bowl it in a Test for England. That does not happen every day. Over the last few decades it has hardly happened at all. Monday 11th December 2000 can now be stricken from theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-73078319386422763452013-12-20T21:48:00.000+00:002014-01-06T21:50:26.819+00:00Winter feverIt's getting to that time of year where the season gone and the season to come are equidistant, both seeming to be a long way away. It's right about now that my winter fever starts to bite, and so it was a couple of days ago I found myself practising shots and dusting off the Neville Cardus. I also picked up a second-hand copy of John Arlott's "Rothmans Jubilee History of Cricket 1890-1965", Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-69307953702015919042013-09-16T22:06:00.000+01:002013-09-18T02:27:07.188+01:00An acrimonious weekend
The season is over and, as is now
traditional, it's about time I updated my blog after rather a long
break. So, we need to talk about Saturday, because it was a classic
of its type.
I was rather non-plussed at having not
bowled the previous week at Onneley & Maer, so further to that I
was, shall we say, just a tad peeved to receive the following text on
Tuesday:
“Hi m8 sorry 2 say Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-39567928594687238222013-05-13T16:20:00.001+01:002013-05-13T16:27:27.656+01:00Washed out. Twice.
Well it's fair to say this weekend was a bit of a waste of time. In essence, I drove a very long way to and from two opposite far-flung corners of Staffordshire to spend two afternoons watching wet grass stay wet.
Moddershall first. Our motley bunch slowly assembled at the pavilion under unpromising skies, apart from Pete who was going straight there, and Andy who was late due to some minor Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-53850871542974221092013-05-11T01:37:00.000+01:002013-05-11T04:38:42.602+01:00Taking the helmChigsy's ill so tomorrow I'll be skippering the 4ths. It'll be the
4th match I've captained, assuming the weather isn't as advertised, and
so far I have the rather unfortunate record of played three, lost three.
To be fair, one was a tour game, and in another I only had 8 players to
play with and we did surprisingly well. It's 1:30am as once again I can't sleep. I'm not sure I'm cut out for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-24286728456959548222013-05-07T22:32:00.001+01:002013-05-07T22:32:44.355+01:00Overs remainingOur first home fixture of the season on Saturday saw an all too familiar tale. The formula so far this season has been to win the toss, bat first, lose nine wickets before the drinks break, creep just beyond 100 and then wonder why the team batting second aren't chasing the game too much. Only three of our partnerships made it to 20, and none got to 30. To be honest I'm pretty fed up with our Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-41183204202422912032013-04-30T16:21:00.000+01:002013-05-02T20:33:34.207+01:00A chat with another of Bosanquet's disciples*
Bernard Bosanquet
After the match on Saturday I sought out Greg, a 1st team leg-spinning all-rounder who's new to the club this year. I'd seen him around a fair bit as he's also coaching the juniors, but I thought it was about time we introduced ourselves properly. I'd faced him in the nets on Thursday and was very impressed - he perhaps wasn't bowling at his most accurate but he bowls at a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-46155213958287403912013-04-29T23:00:00.000+01:002013-04-30T05:03:01.943+01:00More bowlingWell it seems videos of my bowling are like buses...
Now I should explain this was filmed shortly before junior nets was supposed to start up, so there were a handful of the U17s essentially doing all they could to put me off, up to and including riding a bicycle around behind the net, leading to a few of my dodgier deliveries.
Excuses aside, this wasn't really my best bowling session, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-58041014000654571402013-04-28T22:20:00.000+01:002013-05-07T22:34:33.699+01:00Hard linesTo Aston where, for the seventh competitive match in a row, I ended up on the losing side. Aston is a curious little club, rather new and as a result rather unpopular with neighbouring clubs such as ours whose players they have recently pilfered. They're a good side with an even mixture of experience and youth and always a tough fixture. The weather forecast was decidedly unpromising, but when weUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-66020681313539018872013-04-24T23:33:00.000+01:002013-04-25T17:03:18.015+01:00Practise, practise, practise...I've bowled rather a lot this week, as my weary frame would attest. It's funny how over the winter you can forget all the little niggles that bowling creates, then have it all come flooding back in the space of a week when you start doing proper work on it. My two "go-to" issues are a soreness in my left knee and an inflamed tendon at the front of my right shoulder. They've been pretty constant Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-84020369317911827962013-04-23T23:22:00.000+01:002013-04-30T05:08:19.203+01:00It happens to the best of usI was looking around YouTube and found this rather unusual piece of footage of Shane Warne:
It's so strange, usually all you see on YouTube is his standard big-turning rippers knocking over some hapless batsman, accompanied by suitably sycophantic, cooing commentary as the great man once again shows he's the greatest leggie who's ever lived. And he undoubtedly is. But here we see he is still Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-77839932350796352662013-04-21T19:03:00.000+01:002013-04-22T03:23:03.369+01:00A mixed affairThanks heavens, the cricket season is here again. A beautiful sunny day greeted us as we travelled to Keele to play Porthill, now moved from their old Scot Hay 2nd ground due to over-greedy landlords. The old Scot Hay ground was invariably a pudding when I played on it, while Keele tends to produce a fair amount of shooters, so even without a sticky wicket we were in for a tough time batting-wiseUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-33693028714529517472013-04-19T22:38:00.000+01:002013-04-25T05:41:52.567+01:00A video at lastI know it's been ages since I posted a video of me in action, so here's the latest. Can you see any progress?
Wish I'd done more filming later on, I started bowling really well. Maybe I'm subconsciously trying not to reveal my secrets to any opposing batsmen who may be watching, but I never seem to catch my best bowling on film.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-91018911763618493472013-04-14T22:53:00.000+01:002013-04-15T01:58:43.011+01:00Back in the officeApologies again for the lack of new posts, I seem to be drafting them but never quite get round to finishing and publishing them. Anyway, two more up for you to enjoy (if "enjoy" is really the right word).
Anyway, I'm all too aware that our first match on 20th April is fast approaching and I need to get my bowling sorted out. More specifically, what I need to do is bank the hard work that allowsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163131894378715963.post-66257425416514816662013-04-11T16:49:00.000+01:002013-04-15T01:25:01.911+01:00"New balls please"So the season edges ever nearer, and it seems that just in time the weather is set to improve. It has rather sneaked up on me, and I must admit to feeling horribly under-prepared. Outdoor nets starts this evening, and will be only the second time I've batted this pre-season. Meanwhile my bowling's had precious little work done on it, Partly due to weather and also due to a week missed when I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0