Today though, with the fact that I'm going to be playing wholly new teams blokes, there seems to be the potential to create something new again, so alongside this blog, which is the only blog these days that has new content, I've come up with something specific to the new league...
It's basically an improved model of the aforementioned post that has had more hits than any other post... Analysis of batsmen. Potentially, because this blog is targeting the new league which is much larger than the previous one, it may take off and be equally as successful?
The other thing I might look at re-establishing is my old forum here http://spin-bowling.boards.net/ which in the past has been really popular? We'll have to see how enthused I am by the new league and teams in the coming summer. In the meantime I'll try and get monthly content in here over the next 4 months leading into the new season.
Joe_________________________________________________________________
He's still hanging in there. We had the annual awards night early in December where there were further revelations relating to the club which are below. But with regards Joe he won an award which I collected on his behalf from Elvis. Joe won Under 18's player of the year which will go some way to keep him on board. He, like many of us had a tough year playing way above his level and came out as the 4th best at the club behind Tony Keep and some 1st XI blokes
Writtle Nets
Haven't been so many times this year, the price has gone up, almost pricing us out of being able to go, but we've been twice. I've been batting slightly differently - more gung ho and it seems to work in the nets. I'm a massive fan of England Women's player Tammy Beaumont's batting and her controlled aggressive approach to taking on the bowlers, especially the walking down the crease to the fast bowlers early doors approach and this is something I started to do last year with some reward. In addition, just playing in a more relaxed and confident manner, looking to be aggressive seems to be working. Whether it'll convert to a cricket pitch and a real game remains to be seen, but if we manage to be placed in the new league at the right level and standard, it might come off?
The funny thing is in the nets Joe doesn't do that well and gets really frustrated and I play far better than him, but he's able to take it to the game with far better results than me?
T Rippon news. (The new league)
At the awards night there was another revelation. The Zimbabwean contingent who looked poised to take over the club seemingly changed their minds and suddenly lost all their commitment to Basildon and took themselves off to Benfleet cricket club along with their kids. As a result some of the old committee enthused by the events of November I would imagine, combined with an influx of some new committee members have taken the reigns again to guide us through the new season with 3 teams as opposed to 4 teams which has been the case in the past.
The really disappointing thing though about this league is the length of the games. I'm not 100% certain, but for the 3rd XI team it may be as short as 40 overs which is ridiculous in my opinion and may yet to prove to be 10 overs too little for me and Joe like-wise as I think he'll be bowling in 45 over games. The argument for this is that anything longer is too long for the concentration span of kids. It's a dilemma for cricket, but its to the detriment of the game. Maybe there should be a league whereby kids and adults that want to play crap formats like T20 and The hundred are given the opportunity to do so and the rest of us who want to play proper cricket do so in 50 over games? Maybe once these kids get into it, they'll think I want some of that, I want to prove I can bat long, I want to show that I too can score a century and bowl a long spell. Surely that's what male teenager do? It's certainly how I would have looked at it, I'd have wanted to be the Alpha male among my peers when I was their age... most stamina, most focused, strongest, most agile etc.
There seems to be an acknowledgement of the fact that we're still struggling to get players, although there is a belief that once we find a level that we can be competitive at, that'll bring in players and already there's been a few names mentioned of players who'd retired that have said they'll come back. But longer term, there's a desire to get more of the kids to come through to the 14, 15 year old age bracket. They've got this idea that some of the younger blokes including my own so Joe (17) and others in the 16-19 age group will get involved in training the younger kids, thus demonstrating that kids do get past that age group and do filter into the adult games and excel. There's about 4 of them that are able to execute that role, although one did disappear off the radar mid summer last year, so he might have been lost to the game. I've not mentioned this to Joe, I'm going to leave it to the club to spring it on him and see how he reacts, personally I don't think he'll be up for it and I don't think he sees any value in it. Additionally, he works and he'll be in a situation where he would have had to negotiate Saturdays off to play cricket and will feel like he owes the company, e.g. be available to work at other times... the evenings.
December ends with my weight being 11 stone and 11lbs which I was surprised about given I've eaten a fair bit of crap over Christmas. Started to exercise today 30th Dec, man am I unfit. I can usually do head-stands for over 4 minutes, but at the moment I can't even get my legs up vertical because all my lower-back and core strength has gone! There's a fair bit of work to do!
https://trmecl.blogspot.com/
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