Winter Nets 2026

 Yep still going and still gagging for it!

So this year we've got 6 indoor net sessions at the Harris Academy in South Ockendon again, fewer than last year, I think we lost money on it... hire fee versus people showing up meant the cost wasn't covered by the weekly fee of £5.00. I can see why to some extent, net sessions aren't the best. I don't know how batters feel about them - whether they're any use to them. I don't like the fact that you only get to bowl once every 6 balls or so and I'm always looking to find the net with the least amount of people in so I can bowl more frequently. At the start and quite often during the one and half hour sessions there's an empty net where I generally start to get the first few ropey balls out of the way or try deliveries that I don't bowl that often such as Flippers which is what I did in this session. 

Session 3 of 6

Felt crap tonight got a cold so didn't really feel up to it. Dosed myself up with Paracetamol and drove over on my own. Bowled in an empty net to start off with, just bowling at a piece of paper on a good length. That worked better when aiming at the stumps rather thn leg-side of the stumps. 

I've watch Allanah King in the series between Australia and India and noted she bowls completely different in the test games compared with the ODI games. Whether that's a strategic thing or just poor form I don't know? In the ODI's she sprayed the ball all over the place with an in-out field bowling at the stumps leg-side and off-side, all Leg-Breaks. She doesn't seem to have any variations at all? Then in the Test matches with a massive advantage (Massive lead) she bowled completely differently - accurately... pretty much at the stumps or on 4th stump line on the off-side with a very aggresive and attacking field - almost everyone up under the gills of the Indian batters and it worked. Did the accuracy come with the confidence and lack of pressure afforded by runs of the board? Could she have performed as well if the game was in a far tighter situation? It's a moot point. 

So I batted at 3 blokes properly tonight - did the usual thing explained the field in the diagram below and said you've been sent out and you've got to score runs. 

Lennon - Got him 3rd or 4th ball having been hit for potentially 2 runs. He ran past the ball and would have been stumped. 

Brad Staff - Similar 4th ball - played and missed just out of his crease.

The one that struggled with was the new 6th XI captain Joe Hill. He's a new batter, but he's getting better, but he's still pretty unorthodox in the same way that "Batty" kids are and so it look about 11-12 balls to get him and he'd have scored about 17 runs off those balls. I might have got him around the 9th ball with a stumping, but about 3 balls later he hit one back straight back me off a poorly timed ball that dipped that I'd have probably caught in a game.

So in terms of strike rates, I'm currently smashing it.

Session 2 of 6

Joe Front left Sri Kumar mid image looking left. L-R in the BG Luke Dawe, Phillip Tooke, Rob Brookes and Michael Gray. 

My Son Joe mid bound.

A decent session, quite low numbers this week, so that mean at the worst points I was bowing with 4 others, but most of the time there was only 3 others in the net. So the plan was to choose a batter and aim to get them out within 18 balls and concede as few runs as possible. Luke Dawe who I do struggle against usually in the nets (3rd team captain and opening bat). He normally plays in the 2nd XI. I got him within six balls and where he was able to hit the ball I would probably gone for around 5 runs. I bowled him with a faster leg-break - bowled. I followed that up with a bowled and caught and a stumping. He said "I can't pick you - I haven't got a clue what the balls going to do".

Then my son Joe came over and said "Tom Tonnison wants you to bowl in our net - he said you're the one he needs to face because you're so diffilcut to bat against". That went well. I got him within 5 balls, after being hit for 4 through mid-wicket. He had a couple of play and misses and then was out running down the wicket for a stumping. 

Rob Brooks, similar -drawn out of his crease for a stumping for only a run or two off of 3 balls.

In between I had few balls at Brian Waterman - old bloke batting legend. Defends brilliantly, cuts you through point if you get the ball a little short and it turns, or paddles you down to fine-leg if you get the length slighty short leg-side, or flicks you off the legs if too full. 

I bowled a few at my son Joe before the net got too full. He's faced me since he was 8 years old and he was doing well at me off the 6 balls or so I bowled at him. He's batting really well so far this season in the nets. 

Then I got bowl in the first XI nets against Phillip Took. I had about 6 balls at him, they were all played through mid on and mid -off and one over mid-wicket which may have gone for 4. I then moved on to an emptier net as that net filled up too much. He said later when I asked him how I'd gone and he said I'd bowled well and that he found it tough because I get the ball above the eye-line.

All in all it went well. Bowled very few Flippers and generally it seems that in this scenario with them being flatter and faster than the Leg-Breaks, they're hit easily it seems? Next week I'll try and bowl at my son Joe, Brian again because he plays so correctly and someone else from either the 1st or 2nd XI. 

Session 1 of 6

So over the winter I've been considering bringing the Flipper back as in the last 2 seasons I've bowled it infrequently in games in part because I don't trust myself to bowl it with accuracy because of the lack of practice with it. So the idea over these 6 sessions in the nets was to give it a go, but in this first session it wasn't looking promising. The first 6 balls albeit effort balls were 3' down the leg-side and it wasn't till I slowed them down that I got my radar right. After the initial 10-12 balls in the empty net the batters were ready and I went and bowled at a couple of blokes.

I did the thing where I explain my field (See image) and tell them to bat with that field in mind and the 2 blokes that I bowled to I got within 6 balls and neither of them would have scored more than 6 with that field in place. That was using Leg-Breaks and Top-Spinners. The good news was that the Top-Spinners were straight and not breaking to the off like a Googly which is something I'm concerned about e.g. creeping Googly syndrome which seemed to be happening over the winter in the indoor cricket games using a rubber ball. 

I'm not fussed on who I bowl at and I would like to bowl at the good batsmen in the 1st XI net, but there's always at least 6-7 bowlers in that net and to get them out is a different prospect. Really you kind of have to bowl 6 balls at these blokes to get the measure of them before you can come up with a plan which is never going to happen. I have been known to walk into their net and bowl a bloke around the back of the legs with my first ball. In a way it might be better not to bowl at them and wait for opportunities in inter-club games where they then generally show some respect because they don't want to be shown up by "The old bloke who bowls in the 5th and 6th XI". 

Session 2 of 6

Plan - What I'll probably do is use the empty net to practice with the Flippers and take some markers and bowl 12-18 balls just trying to get the line and length right from the off. Then move over to the nets explaining my field and say to the batter - bat in accordance with that field and see how you get on. The intent being to get them out within 23 balls - trying to improve on my strike rate of 23.10 from last year. 

Once in the nets I'll bowl as I would in a game - Leg-Break variations and Top-Spinners till I get them out and then I'll focus on bowling Flippers at them and see how that pans out. 

On top of that I'm doing general fitness and agility stuff starting today. Will probably do a run on Wednesday night on the way home as the sun sets at 17.45hrs. Ran today as well 4K 

I finish these runs off with a sprint up hill and get the heart rate up to 152 bpm and then I check it again a minute later and in this instance it had recovered to 114 bpm. I asked ai "I'm 65. If my heart rate drops from 152 to 114 after a minute after a run, what does that tell you in terms of my fitness"? It came back with...

January Running log

19/1/26 Night run/walk

So, I went out primarily to have a go a the "Flyover to Underpass segment" and see how I'd do and I figured I might have a shot at 2nd place. Turns out with very little running since pre-christmas I've done it relatively easy. I wouldn't say that I feel particularly fit at the moment, so I'm happy with that. But then seeing this 'Butler' geezer is exponentially faster than everyone led me to researching and see what that's all about. See below, the blokes the real deal, so the chances of beating him by the time I'm 62 are pretty slim to impossible.

This one below just happened by accident. It's a segment on this new circuit (See further down). 

But again look who's top of the leader board and it's the same with all the segments, so I did a bit of research and look what I found....

"David Butler is a prominent veteran long-distance runner and volunteer from Billericay, Essex, primarily known for his achievements with the Billericay Striders running club and his leadership within the local running community. 

As of 2026, his athletic career is characterized by the following:

Athletic Achievements

National Representative: He earned an international call-up for England in 2010, making his debut in the British and Irish cross-country international.

Marathon Success: In 2014, at age 61, he won the over-60s section of the London Marathon with a personal best of 2:48:46, a time that ranked him top 40 globally for his age group at the time.

Rankings: He has consistently been one of the top-ranked veteran runners in the UK. By 2025/2026, he is classified in the V70 (over 70) age category and continues to compete at a high level.

Track and Road Records: He has held some of the fastest times in the country for his age group in distances ranging from 5km (16:21.7 on track) to 10km and 5 miles. 

Community Leadership

Billericay parkrun: Butler was the founding Event Director of the Billericay parkrun when it launched in 2017.

Volunteering: He is a highly dedicated volunteer, having served as a Run Director dozens of times and accumulated hundreds of volunteer credits.

Club Involvement: He remains a key figure for the Billericay Striders, often representing them in regional and national masters competitions". 

I'll just stick with 2nd place rather than trying to beat 'Prometheus'! I'll have to find some others that he hasn't bagged!

15/1/26 Night run/Walk

Looking at this in terms of segment bagging, I've got this wrong and it's become apparent you have to do the run, the right way round. So the "Flyover to Underpass" my effort was put in from the run out from the start which is Underpass to Flyover, so that massive effort wasn't recorded. My time which has beaten my previous record is now 2.59 and that was recorded at the back end of the run where I was taking it easy, but I'll take it anyway as it's a PR. 

But there's some work to do even if do it in reverse - I've got to take a minute off my current time. But I'm hopeful, because look at the other segment...

I've smashed it and beat the previous record by 12 seconds, but it looks like the previous bloke was taking it fairly easy with heart rate of 119. 

I'm still doing this in run/walk splits, I'd like to be able to do this running the entire time which I've only done once and that was when I did 5K with my son Ben as a pacer and he ensured I ran the whole distance, so I can do 2K easy enough it's just a case of pacing myself. 

This above is the other record I beat which is a segment that I set up. I've set a target for getting this down to 10 mins, but looking at the fastest time across all ages the record is 8.18, making me think 11 mins may be more realistic? But anyway a new PR tonight which was nice. 

Longer term there's a segment I want to create and one I want the record for. The one that exists is Two Tree Island which is 2.27KM and some other old bloke holds that for 12 mins and something. The one I want to create is Southend Pier to Benfleet which is a smidge over 10K. So once Spring makes a showing and we've got some light I set that one up with a run/walk. 

Basildon & Pitsea CC Indoor v Basildon Gully indoor cricket

4th Jan

An important game in the indoor league Division 2. Another game against the Basildon Gully boys who take their cricket very seriously and from what I can gather love playing us and beating us. I wasn't aware of the situation with regards our position in the league table and no-one seemed to be aware. Our captain Lennon was unable to play as he had flu, so the team consisted of...

5 x All rounders, the whole team other than me... Michael & Dan Gray, Ariz Malik, Elliott Noble and Liam Rouse. I'm there as the spin option.  

I had to score the game before ours with the help of the others, but it was way too fast for my liking and I made a right bodge of it, but came up with the same score as the umpires. I had to score the game between the Gully Boys and Willow and Herbs and thankfully a couple of the Gully boys helped out with the clarification of their players names and what have you, which was really helpful. By the second innings I'd got my head around what I was doing and the pace of the game and the score sheet for that was fine. 

We lost the toss and were put in to bat. They bowled really well - no wides or no-balls and the only real disaster we had was Elliott being run out which comical as he was half way down the wicket before he realised Dan was staying where he was and he just slowly slowed up ending 2/3 of the way down looking back the player at Square leg where he'd hit the ball, who was still gathering the ball up as he stopped and then he dropped it again and it rolled away from him and Elliott just looked - still standing there as the bloke had fumbled the ball again and still he stood there and the bloke gathered the ball and took a shy at the stumps and missed and Elliott still stood there, the ball was eventually gather at point and the bloke walked in and took the bails. Elliott must have had 10 or 12 seconds of fumbling time and could probably taken two runs before the ball was at the stumps!

Despite that and my 2 runs we managed to get to 131, which is reasonble in these games, but not a definite winning score. We needed to bowl well and get their main man Deepak.

Deepak was up first facing Ariz (pace bowler) last season 99-20-416-35 with best figures of 5 wickets for 4 runs. Deepak was looking to go big - hitting the ball hard looking for 4's and 6's each ball was either fielded for no run or he had to block and he soon went having not scored a run. Thereafter it was relatively easy pickings with only Prasad Nagendan making any impact with 17 to his name. supported by Balakumar Padmanabhan with 14. I took one - as usual the Top-Spinner 'That did a bit' e.g. a mini wrong un with shed loads of top-spin and I came away with the best economy which is fairly common, but pretty good. 

After this game we're now in second place in the League with the prospect of playing MCL smashers. I can't recall how we've gone against them in the past, but you'd imagine they might historically be better than us? But looking at the games here played on Jan 4th MCL Smashers don't look like they're unbeatable. 

16/11/25 - Indoor game

A good game tonight. 6pm start, with an inauspicious start due to the fact that the scoreboard was busted. . The team this week was pretty much the same as last week, but Kirby replaced by the official captain "Lennon" so another batter. 

We lost the toss, so we had to bat the 12 overs first. With Daniel Gray (most runs at the club last year and Elliott Noble 2nd most runs) we were in good hands in theory, these were backed up with Michael Gray (33 x 50's for the club) Ariz and Lennon both decent batters. Then me. 

I had the Gopro and set it up and videoed the whole game, so I should put this up on Youtube in the next few days. 

We didn't get off to a good start...

I wasn't even the end of the 4 over? and I found myself in the middle with Michael Gray and we were on about 25 runs and somehow needed to score realistically about 100 in order to have something to bowl at. One of us had to get through the next 8 overs and that was obviously Michael Gray, I just had to try and hang in there and try and play some shots and just not get out. I've done it before, so could I do it again? 

I could play straight shots defensively, but I don't have the skills to place those shots in the gaps, cross bats shots at balls oustdie off stump?  But they can result in dragging the ball onto the stumps or top edge to the keeper or bloke at point, but I had to try it just in order that Michael Gray was able to play shots and make runs. Over by over, I survived and when I was on strike I for the most part was able to get bat on ball once in the over and score a couple of runs and rotate the strike, although looking at the score-sheet I didn't do that as much as I thought I did. I played a couple of down on one knee slog sweeps much the hilarity of the lads watching from viewing balcony!

With no scoreboard we didn't know how we were doing, but the scoring in this format is pretty quick, a ball that hits the wall and includes a run is 3 runs. A straight ball along the ground hitting the back wall is a 4. A ball hitting the back wall only is a 6. When you're bowling the most valuable ball apart from the wicket is a dot ball, they're so significant as they're pretty rare. Anything legside is a wide - it's brutal. If you can do it, a deft late cut backward of point with a run is pretty safe and gets you three runs if it hits the side or back wall, conversely the flick off the legs backward of square-leg is the same result and just ticking along with them is the way to go if you've got that ability.

Michael has the ability to play straight and over the top, but I realised he was just playing a basic game, accruing the runs 1 or 3 at a time building an innings. There were a decent amount of wides as well and they're worth 2 runs without the extra ball. Bit by bit we were getting through it and the runs were accumulating and we played through the 11 overs and then Michael brought his "A game" for the final over as I watched from the other end. An over of 6's and a 4. The lads were saying from the blacony that if the strike was rotated I had to try and hit sixes, I thought whatever happens if there's a small hope I run anyway and get Michael back on strike, but didn't need to. 

So we ended up with 109 which in these games is a low score, so we weren't out of the woods yet.

Ariz was thrown the ball (last week he started off with 4 or 5 wides, but this week a first ball wicket! We were in the game!

Then a series of wickets fell quickly with virtually no runs being made until the captain made a stand and batted well for his 43 before being bowled by Daniel Gray in the last over, he'd left himself too much to do and hadn't got the support from his other players and the fell short by 19.

All in all for us a very good game considering how we started off. 

No wickets for me, but happy with my economy. I might get to play again? 

Some Indoor cricket

 Played Sunday in the 3rd game of the winter season and won this one having loss the earlier two. I don't recall the first game, only that we were soundly beat. The 2nd game I do as the opposition cheated off my bowling and the result was they won because of it. I was bowling top-spinners and leg-breaks and the bloke played a cross bat shot at a top-spinner that did what it was supposed to do... bounce more and he top edges it through to the keeper, everyone around the bat and the square leg umpire  all agree that it's out and the bloke throws his bat under his arm and heads off to the door (near the square leg umpire) with his team above the umpire. I think they saw the standing umpire hadn't reacted and told him to wait. The keeper and the near fielders were all screaming "Mate, you top-edged it and you walked, you know you're out", meanwhile he's now making like he'd walked to square leg to adjust his pads to then walk back to the crease and resume batting.

The umpire at my end hasn't reacted and he indicates to play on, the square leg umpire is totally on-board with rest of the players ready to give it out and looks my way looking incredulous that the standing umpire has indicated to resume. The wicket keeper and others are in total disbelief and carry on with making it clear that they're not happy with his cheating in the end the bloke (In his 30's) turns to call them F***** C*** (they're 17-18 year olds). The umpire steps in as diffuses the situation and the game resumes and this bloke then takes the game away from us. Then in the car-park it carries on and one of our adults has to intervene and diffuse the situation again. 

We've got them later in the season, they wont be playing 5 x 17 year olds in that next game I'd imagine if they're blatant cheats. The celebration at the end of the game was funny a bunch of 30 year olds ecstatic they'd beaten 5 teenagers and an old duffer like me!

The team that was beaten in the 'Cheat game'

This weeks team that won

This week we had a better game with the inclusion of another Adult... Michael Gray. To be honest in the game we lost with the incident I'd bowled poorly - way too full, multiple full tosses and a number of legside wides. Any ball down the legside that goes go on to bounce over the stumps is a wide - it's pretty brutal and this weeks game started off with our fast bowlers bowling a succession of wides. Me and Kirby (None of the other teams have girls in their teams) with our bowling - Kirby bowls left-arm orthodox a bit like Linsey Smith (England)  and like Smith goes through teams some days cleaning up and with my Wrist-Spin brought the game back and enabled us to win. 

Kirby and I got a wicket each, Kirby's a stumping and mine caught behind (Daniel Gray). 

But during my 2 overs the oppo lost 3 wickets. I think they see the slow bowling as a point in the game where they should be making runs and when the runs pretty much dry up in many instances, they then  resort to a back-up plan of trying to take quick runs and in this game that was their un-doing. 

I can't say that I've seen much of this format, but it does strike me that there is definitely a place in this game for specialist slow bowlers as they do seem to have a big impact on the game and I think my inclusion in the team is testament to that as I can't bat to save my life. But I'm pretty agile in the field at 65 and I love the fact that I get to play teams of adults in a team of teenagers and me! The thing is some of them know what I do and see me as a massive asset, thankfully they're the captains and they're prospective 1st XI players who recognise what I do with the ball is not to be dismissed too readily. 

It's really nice being valued in that way by significant players at the club!!!

In other news I've been running of late, getting out twice a week generally. 

Some cricket soon, but in the meantime... More running

Cricket News: The indoor league starts next weekend and the poll has gone out to see who wants to play and this year after the initial year with only just enough people wanting to play and being registered it looks like this year there's shed loads of people queueing up to play and at the moment there's already 10 people who've put their hands up for selection...

All of whom are younger than me other than one bloke who's a decent bowler - he bowls stump to stump straight stuff - kind of you miss I hit on a good length. There's 2 other slow bowlers - Kirby and 'New Chris'. I've no idea if I've got a chance of getting in the team and or how Lennon the captain goes about selecting. What I do know is you have to be fit fast and agile and at the end of the season last year having not kept up with a robust exercise regime over Christmas I succumbed to injury because of the intensity and the need to be fast between the wickets and pulled my caf muscle. 

So I've got to wait till later in the week to find out If I've been selected. 

Today's run...

The usual 5K around Gloucester Park. Yesterday I had a flu jab and otherwise I'd have run, but with that and the fact that it rained all day I didn't go. Today though was dry but very windy, but I just didn't feel up to it and I don't know whether than was down to feeling a bit ropey becuase of the flu jab? But I wasn't looking to be any records and I was only looking to run slow around the whole circuit. But once I got running and did the initial Kilometer to the skatepark I couldn't be arsed and walked and ran the rest of the way with very long walking splits. On the subject of 'Splits' on this 5K run there are recognised 'Splits'...

So it seems there's these 'Splits' on Strava that people possibly focus on and try and set records for and they're differentiated by age groups, so I'm in the 65-69 and without even trying on one this splits see below...

I'm already the 2nd fastest and being the leader is only a matter of 17 seconds difference. 

This is the one I'm more interested in. The Goucester Park Sprint.

In my age group I'm 4th place and that's with no real knowledge of this sprint.

What I do have to do is figure out whether you have to do it in one direction or not?

At the moment I run this section 3 times during the 5K run, at the start just after half way through and at the end. My current time as you can see for my age group stats is only 5 seconds behind the leader, so I reckon this might be one that I tick off on the next run? 

Wednesday Run 1st Oct

Wednesday Oct 1st

So it worked.

My older son Ben who runs was saying I was doing this all wrong and that I should run slower and steadier and not stop and see how that would work out. So was at Heathrow airport today and stopped off at ours in the early evening to run with me and see if he could see me through a proper run. I'd watched some videos on Youtube and what he was saying correalated with experts advice. 

So the run was quite late and I'd had some tucker before we set out. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to sustain a full 5K, but was going to give it a go.

We set off a what was quite a pace, but he was doing the thing where he was encouraging me and he had his strava on and it was tracking the pace and so he was feeding back whether to speed up or slow down. He'd pre-determined that I'd be aiming to to do 6.00/KM splits for each Kilometre and so that's what was aimed for. 

Sure enough down the first straight bit alonside Upper Mayne I was thinking 'I'm done with this I want to stop and walk - I'm not that bothered and it's boring' but he was still going and waffling on like a proper trainer and so I kept going and at each split after the first KM we were on track and faster than the proposed pace. On the last section between the lake and the finishing point I still had some extra 'Gas in the tank' and banged out a 5.36 kilometer...

In doing so I smashed the previous record by a lot.