Death of a cricket club

I believe I'm seeing the demise of our cricket club. For the 2nd week in succession I'm playing in the 2nd XI as are a number of other 4th and 3rd XI players. The 4th XI game has been cancelled and the remaining 4th XI players are in the 3rd XI, you know the score if you play cricket. 

Last year both the 1st and 2nd XI had bad seasons and over the winter a lot of the  players have chosen to stop playing or play far fewer games citing reasons such as work and family commitments. To be fair, they are all of that age - late 20's early 30's with possibly young families and Brexit breathing down their necks threatening screw everything up. It seems to be triggering a domino effect, as players leave others are saying things like... "Well if my mates are not playing, the games no longer the same, It's no longer a laugh". 

But it gets worse...

So tomorrow, the team I'm in, which is probably devoid of regular 2nd XI players will come up against a team more than likely full of 20 and 30 year old's, with perhaps an odd older bloke in his 40's and young kid being bloodied who has potential for the future. We've got three of the 'Young Kid' types, including my son Joe, but the rest of us are 4th and 3rd XI players and the likelihood is that it's going to be tough.

I'm up for it, I'll pay my £15 and a fiver for Joe. I'll have invested £20 in the match, plus any other costs incurred, this week it's not a lot, as it at home. But what I don't want to hear is the same crap that I heard last week...

"If we win the toss, we'll bat and get it over and done with and be home before tea, no-one wants to be chasing leather all day".

Er, I think you'll find some people do. I haven't paid £20 + to purposely play a truncated game where the captain and other key players in the team have given up before a ball is bowled and want to get it over and done with. I want my £20 worth. I want the opportunity to bowl against good batsmen and try and figure a way of getting them out. Yeah it may be a disaster and I might go for a lot of runs, but then again me or one of the bowlers might pull off a miracle? Perhaps the batsmen can see it as a challenge to try and chase or maybe even play for a draw?

If this is going to be the pattern for the whole summer, with this attitude and the same strategy of getting the game over and done with, I don't want to be playing and I'll probably go looking for another team along with Joe. I don't understand why if you like cricket and want to play the game, you would look to curtail the game and not look to face up to the challenge of fielding for the full innings against good players or as a batsman look to pull off a miracle with the bat in a miracle chase?

More practice in the paddock

Off the back of the 2nd XI game and the fact that I beat the batsman with my solitary Flipper, I've been further enthused. The bloke I bowled at and beat said last year he'd been playing both 1st and 2nd XI league cricket and he came in at No.5, so I'm assuming he's half decent. I've bowled in the nets at one of our best batsman Liam Rouse and he said my Flipper nearly got him and that I should bowl it more and finally last year against Thundersley I bowled against another bloke and nearly had him with the Flipper too.

So after years of not using it, I'm now very enthusiastic about it and working with it constantly. Currently in practice I bowl alternate balls... Leg Breaks and Flippers. The issue use to be that I always felt that the Flipper would work best if suddenly used out of nowhere and that always meant that it was pretty much a high risk ball in that it would probably be wayward and sure enough it was. I'm now looking at my use of leg-breaks in isolation and thinking that I need a variation. I can't and don't want to bowl Wrong-uns because of previously mentioned outcomes related to that. I've tried to bowl finger spin with a minimal amount of success and that looks as though it'll take absolutely weeks to develop. My Top-Spinner is a bit sketchy - too loopy and comes out as a small leg-break,but the Flipper I currently feel has some potential.

The plan is to roll it out in the next game this coming weekend and see how it works. How to use it is the next issue, do I try and bowl it alternately and see if that causes any problems or mix it in sporadically, or lure the batsman into thinking there's a pattern to the bowling and then change it up?

I'll try and get some video footage of me bowling it and post it up.

Basildon & Pitsea 2nd XI v Walthmstow 2nd XI

I have to make it clear this wasn't the usual 2nd XI. For me to be in the 2nd XI means something is up! Apparently 6 blokes in the 1st XI weren't available, so everyone had to shift up a grade or two with me moving up from my usual place in the 4th XI. Also from the 4's... Lee Dutton, Al McIver, Mitchell Robinson.

The only 2nd XI players were Mike and Charlie Blerkom, the rest of the team were 3rd XI players. As a result the 4th XI game was called off for lack of players as far as I can make out. I won't bother with any analysis because the likely-hood of me coming up against these players again is minimal. For a short while I did think there might be some hope because this team were skittled in their last game of the season last year - all out of 14, with one bloke taking 9 wickets in that game against Billericay. 

Before the game was started I was disappointed to hear our blokes saying that they wanted to win the toss and bat, because they had already conceded defeat and just wanted to get it over and done with. What about the bowlers? Why not bowl first and see how we get on and at least have half a game if the batsmen are not up to it. Thankfully they won the toss and put us in which was the same scenario, but at least it wasn't orchestrated by us to the detriment of the bowlers. 

The game commenced in very light rain - spitting and the whole game was played in rain of varying degrees and not once did we come off. As expected it didn't go that well with only Mike Blerkom the captain putting up any resistance. We  were all out for 54 after about 23 overs or so. I survived facing about 5 balls batting with Lee Dutton. I was out bowled by a good off-cutter, Dutton said it was a good delivery.

We made a reasonable start getting two early wickets. Joe (My son) got their captain caught at fine leg and then Joe took a catch off of Alistair Hayton's off-breaks while he was at Fine Leg. Chris Debond took a wicket, but from then on a really good batsman came out and took the game away from us. I got the last over and went for 10 off of 5 balls it, in the middle of the over I bowled a flipper and beat the bat just wide of the off-stump much to Sean Healey's appreciation in the slips. 

The details are here on Play Cricket.

Tea was nice and we came home about 4.30 in the rain. I was very pleased to have played a full match albeit short and in constant light rain, most of the other matches in the area were probably called off because of the rain and we even got a bowling point for the league table.

I also managed to get a picture of their Pavilion for my pavilion project here which was a result. I'll be adding more pictures to that blog page as the season goes on and it remember to do so.

Game this weekend

Here in the UK we've just had the hottest May Day bank holiday on record. Unfortunately it was pre-season and a week after a pre-season game that was cancelled because the pitch was too wet.

Since the weather above it's gradually got cooler and this weekend with the first league match of the season there's a chance of rain. 

At the moment it's shaping up well as I've been promoted to the 3rd XI along with Lee Dutton the 4th XI captain, which means we join my younger son Joe who's one of the best bowlers at the club. Although what with it being the tail end of the football season, it seems that a lot of people would prefer to either play football or watch it rather than have a game of cricket and some of the teams look a bit bereft of players meaning there will be the inevitable shifting around of players at the last minute. 

I've just looked at the forecast on XC Weather and it's not looking too clever...

Building up to this I've been practicing over at the Paddock and that's been going okay. I've been doing a lot of work on my Flipper and I reckon I'm confident enough to use in the game tomorrow. What I've been doing is bowling alternate balls - Leg Breaks and Flippers. I've been looking for something comes into the RH bat and one of the Flippers which is intended to do that occasionally does. But, more than anything just the fact that it's straight, faster and relatively accurate which I'm hoping will prove to be an asset. 

 The paddock where I practice May 6th

 Below, I've even painted the wide lines this year.

Tonight I did something different. I bowled combinations of the Leg-Breaks and Flippers from both sides of the wicket, just to see how it would pan out if I was able to go from one side to the other after a couple of balls and it went well. So, again dependent on what happens I might try that out as a part of my plan?

Hopefully the SLH side have the same players. This team last year won the league winning almost every game they played. We came close with me and Joe nearly getting us over the line in what looked like a lost cause. So with Joe in the match Saturday I'm looking forward to the challenge especially that of bowling at Robert Pearne their captain...

This is my analysis of his batting strengths. The legside shots are the ones I need to negate although he was strong through the off-side too and he also has some nice deft shots down to 3rd man. The question is - do I load up the off-side with players and just look to bowl accurately? The boundaries are average if the strip is in the middle towards the R/H side there's slight slope advantage at their ground which may need to be considered? Or do I come round the wicket and look to bowl to his strengths and load up the leg-side and try and get him caught off a big shot looking for a six. I guess it's going to depend on how much bounce I can extract from the wicket, how much I can get the ball to turn and how well the Flipper comes out and how wet the conditions will be?