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?