Scoring symbols - bowlers analysis

Scoring's an interesting aspect to cricket and it's a shame that increasingly there's a move towards using digital systems for recording scores. I came late to cricket and had no idea of how involved scoring was and was intrigued when I looked over the shoulders of people doing it, filling in all the little boxes with weird symbols.

I've never fancied the idea of umpiring and quickly saw that if chose to score I'd be alleviated of the job of umpiring and so began to watch people doing it and asking them questions. One thing I quickly noted was that there was no one way of doing it. Different people did it in different ways, so when I was learning, I had different people saying do it this way or that way. When it comes down to it you need to learn the basics and then listen to what different people say and adopt your own way. Of course there are courses that you can do and some clubs are prepared to send players on such courses, but if you're playing at the lower levels this isn't necessary.

What is disappointing is that, as much as I try I can't get kids to do it, even my own son is fairly reluctant, but has learned to do the basics.

On-line there are a number of different resources and I'm currently trying to put together a series of videos on Youtube to help people.

The thing is if you don't get it right and you use unorthodox methods, you'll pass on those methods to others, so it's important to standardise the process as much as possible. I've knocked up this post in response to my bowling figures being inflated because of the lack of knowledge with regards how to record byes and wides primarily. I know from experience that if you get it wrong and the results of the match are tight, what you've done is pored over and scrutinised and it can lead to embarrassing and tense situations at the end of the game. This is my take on how it's done and if I'm honest just by writing this blog and having to check what I'm writing is correct I've learned a couple more things about how to do it correctly. I'm not saying this is the definitive way of doing it and there may be things that I'm still doing wrong? If I am let me know.
_________________________________________________________________________

Figure 1

Multi-colour or single colour? I started out using a black/blue penwhen scoring, but in the last year or so I've started to use multi-colour pens. When each of the bowlers is assigned a different colour (Figure 1) and you combine this with marking the balls the batters face in the batting "Runs scored" row using the same colours as the bowler (Figure 2).

Figure 2

You might find it makes it far easier to check your figures at the end of the overs and at the end of the innings when you check everything consolidates.

Bowlers analysis box symbols________________________

1st Over F.Blogs 

Figure 3

One of the first things to consider especially if you're scoring youth matches or any game with potentially sketchy bowling is the size of your symbols in the boxes. If you get into a situation where numerous wides are bowled, you're going to run out of space and potentially may need to use the notes section to record data that you can't fit into the bowling analysis boxes.

Figure 3 In this box the bowler has bowled six balls that haven't gone for runs so 6 dots are recorded. No runs in an over is maiden indicated by an 'M'. In the running tally I've marked 0-0... No runs for no wickets or vice versa.

Score sheet layout 

Figure 4

Below (Figure 2) is how it could be recorded in the batters 'Runs scored' section of the score-sheet.

Batting row "Runs scored" Figure 2

One of the advantages of using coloured pens for scoring is that it makes it easier to establish who was facing who and this is often helpful if you lose track of where you are and ensuring your figures add up when you do the end of over checks.

Figure 3

______________________________________________________________________

(B). In this box we have 5 x dot balls and a small w which indicates a wicket has been taken. Therefore no runs have been scored and this is a wicket maiden indicated by the W. 
Note in the tally box beneath the symbols is the running total of the runs and wickets 0-1 indicates that no runs have been made for 1 wicket. A lot of people write this up the other way round e.g. 1 wicket for no runs, but you simply need to be consistent with the way you do it for each match.

In the box between (B) and (C) runs have been made. The first ball is a dot ball, the 2nd is run for a single, the 3rd ball 2 runs are made, the 4th ball - 2 runs followed by 2 dot balls e.g. no runs. Overall in that over, 5 runs are made so the tally in the box below now reads as 5 runs for 1 wicket (5-1).

(C). The + symbol is used to indicate a wide has been bowled. In this instance no runs have been made as a result of the wide. The + is counted as 1 run against the bowler.

Scenario - The bowler bowls a wide, the keeper collects the ball and no runs are made. The Umpire calls "Wide ball" and signals the wide you acknowledge the symbol.

1. In the 'Runs scored' batsman's row, a dot is recorded.
2. In the cumulative total 1 run is recorded for the wide.
3. In the extras box, 1 is added in the wides section.
4. The cross (Wide) is added in the bowlers analysis.
5. In the 'Bowlers analysis to the right, there's an additional section in which to record the wide and it's useful to do so.

In box (C) the wide (1 run) is followed by 2 dot balls and then 2 balls that the batters run 2 for and then 2 more dot balls. The total for this over is 5 runs against the bowler bringing the running total up to 10 for 1. Note; Wides are not legitimate balls, so an additional ball has to be bowled, so in that box you'll see 7 (D) symbols as opposed to the normal 6 symbols. 

(E). Wides with runs; In this over, the first ball is a wide, so again the cross is used, but a single run is made (See below).

Figure 4

The run is indicated by the use of a dot in one of the quadrants of the cross. If two runs are made off the wide, 2 dots are marked in separate quadrants and so on. If the ball is bowled as a wide and runs across the field of play and crosses the boundary that is marked in the bowlers analysis in the same way. Note as mentioned before if you have bowler with the Yips this starts to get messy and you need to have contingency for a situation where multiple wides are bowled. Remember too that for every wide another ball has to be bowled as a wide doesn't count as a legitimate delivery.


So in the box (E) We have a wide that has one run made, followed by 2 runs, then 4 dot balls, followed by a wide with 2 runs made and then a final dot ball. 8 separate entries 2 wides and 6 legitimate balls.

Figure 5

1. The first wide with the 1 run = 2 runs against the bowler.
2. The 2nd wide with 2 runs = 3 runs against the bowler.
3. Add the 2 regular runs made off the 2nd ball, the runs against the bowler in this over add up to 7 in total meaning the running total is now 17 for 1.
4. Note on the right hand side in the wides column the 2 and 3 wides have been recorded.
5. The runs from the wides must be recorded in the cumulative tally.

The 5 wides would also need to be recorded in the Extras and in the cumulative tally. The runs gained as a result of the poor bowling are NOT credited to the batters and are recorded as dots in the batting row.

(G) Byes; These are not credited to the bowler. 

Despite the fact that Byes (And leg-byes) are not credited to the bowler, they still have to be recorded in the bowlers analysis, but the bowler is not penalised... 

The bowler has bowled a good delivery and it's either glanced off the batters body (Leg-Bye) or everyone has missed it (Batter and wicket keeper) and the ball has evaded all of the fielders enabling the batters to run.

In the bowling analysis for A.Nother in the first box marked (G) we see the symbol for a Bye which is an upward pointing triangle. In the bowlers analysis this is worth nothing and some scorers don't even use a bye symbol and simply mark a dot ball, but this I feel is bad practice as if you're struggling to make sense of your scoring when it comes to adding everything up and checking the data at the end of the innings, the use of the correct symbols helps with the process.

Scenario; The bowler bowls a legitimate ball, it misses everything and it beats the wicket keeper for pace and runs down towards long off. The batters see that no-one is going to field the ball and make 2 runs before the fielders get the ball back to the keeper/bowler.

1. In the batters row (Runs scored) you have the option of marking dots or the Bye symbol, some scorers don't mark anything.
2. The two runs must be added to the cumulative tally.
3. In the extras box the 2 runs have to be added in the Byes tally.
4. Finally the bye symbol is added to the bowlers analysis -  you do not record the runs made as a figure in the bowlers analysis, otherwise they will not tally up correctly at the end of the innings/game.

(H) Leg Byes; These are not credited to the bowler and the rules are as above for Byes except that the symbol is downward pointing triangle. 

(J) Maiden with Byes/Leg-Byes. If in the over the bowler bowls a series of dot balls as in the case of a normal maiden (See above in section 'A') but one or more of the balls goes for runs off of either Byes or Leg-Byes which is no fault of the bowler, the over is still a Maiden and the M should be written in the box in the usual manner to indicate it is a Maiden.

___________________________________________________________________________

(K) No-Balls with runs off the bat
Scenario - The bowler runs in and bowls an illegal ball and the Umpire calls "No-ball"! The batsman strikes the ball hitting it for six in the case below in the bowlers analysis for (K). 

Figure 6

In this instance the No-Ball is down to the bowler, so the bowler is penalised heavily, with the No-Ball indicated by the circle and then any runs made off the illegal delivery credited to the bowler. The batsman in this instance has hit the ball for six, so the six runs appear in the circle.

Figure 7

Figure 8

How-ever many runs the batsman scores having hit the ball, these are recorded inside the circle as a number.

Additionally at the end of the bowling analysis row on the right-hand side, see image above circled in black, the 7 runs (1 for the No-Ball and 6 for the runs off the bat) should be recorded. The other two singles that are recorded in that same column in the circle are for the No-Balls associated with the leg-byes and byes in columns L and M.




(L) "No-Ball byes". Scenario - The bowler runs in and bowls an illegal ball and the Umpire calls "No-ball"! The ball then either evades the batsman and the wicket keeper and runs away enabling the batters to run byes; or the ball strikes the batsman's body and runs away enabling the batters to run Leg-Byes. In this instance we'll say they run 2 runs. So they get 1 run for the team for the No-Ball and then 2 runs for the team for the Byes or Leg-Byes run.

1. In the batting row "Runs scored" you have the option of entering nothing or a dot or a Bye symbol, the batsman gains no credit for the runs accrued.
2. In the Cumulative Tally you add 3 runs - 1 for the No-Ball and 2 for the Byes/Leg-Byes run.
3. In the extras box - 1 is added to the No Ball row and 2 is added to the Byes/Leg-Byes.
4. In the bowlers analysis (See below) a circle is used to indicate the No-Ball and in the circle you have the option of using a upward pointing triangle for Byes or as in (M) a downward pointing triangle for Leg-Byes. 
5. . You do not have to record how many runs were accrued as a result of the batters running - these have already been recorded in the extras section and the bowler is not penalised for the runs from Byes/Leg-Byes. The bowler is penalised for the No-Ball and when adding up the bowling figures the circle counts for 1 run. 
6. On the right hand side of the bowling figures at the end of the row you need to record the No-ball element, but not the runs.

Figure 9

Figure 10

To be continued...

...

If you're not sure still, I found the best way to learn was to sit in front of a computer and watch a complete game on Youtube and score the game. That way if you miss something you can re-wind it. I've discovered a better way that is less likely to be confusing is to watch these XBOX/Playstation games here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-mgbdTeQP4&t=1284s




https://basildoncricket.hitscricket.com/pages/page_25500/A-guide-to-scoring.aspx
http://www.snitterfieldcricketclub.co.uk/page.php?page=scoring
https://cornwallcricket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/MCC-law-changes-2017-code-guidance-for-scorers.pdf

June 2020

I should write about the last two months in general terms as well as cricket. April and My have been ridiculous in terms of  how sunny and warm they've been. In terms of sunshine hours for Spring all previous records have been well and truly smashed, well not smashed - decimated beyond comprehension.

Unfortunately, it's coincided with the Covid 19 pandemic which has been weird. Most of us have been off work in some form or another for over 2 months now as 10's of thousands of people die from the pandemic. But the Tory governments tactic has been to tell us for the most part to isolate for the last 2 months meaning we've not been able to mix with anyone other than our immediate family in order to reduce the impact of the virus and reduce the spread rate. As a result a lot of time has been spent in the back garden in the unbelievable sunshine and warmth, but not elsewhere. 

Historically as a diary writer when I was younger I'd have written more about this in a lot more depth, but with the internet it'll be extensively recorded in real depth. Going back to the weather though, there's obviously a degree of concern on the part of the Met office and they cite the fact that we had an extremely mild, wet and rainy winter and that's now been followed by a this ridiculously dry, hot and sunny spring which is more akin to an exceptionally good June and July.

It's scheduled to cool down in the next 48-72 hours with some sporadic rain, but the Met is warning that it'll be insufficient in terms of beneficial affects on farming. I guess, that once this current weather pattern moves on we'll need for the weather to establish itself in the usual way with periods of rain and cloudy weather other-wise we'll be watching the news and the prospect of droughts, crop failure and an increase in food prices? 

The other outcome of the Pandemic is that like almost every other sport cricket has been cancelled. The ECB has apparently pumped loads of money into the sport even at club level in order that clubs survive. This year was going to be a big year off the back of all the successes the National side had last year and a new format 'The Hundred' was due to be launched this summer to try and capitalise on the boost in popularity and the fact that cricket was again in the public eye for the right reasons. Sadly that's not happened, so there's a fear that, that momentum might be lost and opportunity to get kids and girls especially involved has been missed. That aside there's a sense that with the season being non-existent this summer that might see people leave the game and 100's if not thousands of small struggling clubs go under never to be resurrected.

Anyway all that aside - the first bowl of June 2020. 2/6/20

This doesn't look too bad given that the last few sessions were a bit ropey. The pitch map below is the last few of May over-laid with each other...

You  can see in the top pitch map I seem to have reduced the amount of full tosses on the leg-side and there's a few less balls on the leg-side generally. The good news is the balls are generally fairly accurate today with a lot more threatening the stumps and on the off-side. 

The lack of real accuracy might be down to the run-up and approach to the crease. It's rough - really rough and if it does rain I might do some work on the run-up area and try and make it a little more even. 

Knee - The reason I hadn't bowled for a few days was they knee felt slightly sore, so I rested it and it was a lot better. Of more concern at the minute is my lower back - back spasms and a real sense of stiffness. I've been doing core strength work to try and improve the situation along with stretching and Yoga and there may have been a bit of an improvement, but it's negligible.

28th June

Throughout June my physical fitness declined with increasing sitting down whilst working. Normally I'd be walking around at work - walking up and down several flights of stairs and also walking on the way home - getting off at one of the stations early to walk to the next to re-join the train home (It's a coastal walk of about 20 mins). It reached a point where my younger son Joe joined me for a bit of practice and I basically couldn't bowl because my back was so stiff.

I did some research and it appeared that this was a result of so much sitting down and having weak glutes. I then watched some Youtube vids and got some ideas about what I could do to reactivate my glutes and three days later I'm back in action bowling 60 + balls twice a day with no negative outcomes.

Today there was some really good news, my club have announced that they're expecting to get the green light to resume cricket around mid-July. The League has been cancelled and so all of the games will be friendlies with an Inter-club match being the first one as they sort out fixtures for the rest of the season. This coming Wednesday there's a practice session at the club, so at last some cricket and an opportunity to see how these Flippers go without an on-going knee issues.

Knee injury update May 2020

On the 19^th May with a slight relaxing of the Covid 19 ‘Stay at home’ rules I was able to get out and mow the wicket over at the Paddock and have a bowl. With my knee having been bad for months almost a year I’ve got to say in recent months it’s felt significantly better with a slight increase in basic activities such as walking. I started (Before the Covid 19 lock-down) to get off the train at Westcliff, breaking my journey and walking to Chalkwell and then getting back on the train. Since the Covid out break I’ve been walking around the wood and running a little – short bursts equivalent to running up and down the wicket twice every now and then during the walk.

So on May 19^th I bowled 24 balls off of a run-up to see how it went and it was fine. I’ve been watching a bloke on Youtube

 On the 20^th I bowled another spell of 24 balls around 3pm and 30 later in the day 7.30pm. Using the Martin Koban rule, I reckon I came back with a pain level of less than 1. Something like 0.25.

21^st I’ve had a rest day today – some angled board calf stretches, a 20 minute walk, couple of deep squats and I’m feeling okay. Also 10 seat squats.

22^nd A bowling day; So, I know I can bowl 24 balls and not have any negative outcome and it’s likely if I rest as seen before a few hours later I can bowl another 24. Koban says not to accelerate the increase in activity too fast, small gradual steps, combined with your physio regime. The same applies with that, if you increase what you do in your physio this too should be increased gradually, noting what the outcome is e.g. any increase in pain or discomfort.

If anything for me it’s the other knee that feels as though it’s been affected, so I need to keep an eye on that. Another thing I noticed was I didn’t wear the same trainers today. I’ve been wearing newish Adidas Sambas with a cushion in-sole, but today I wore my old knackered Samba’s and it didn’t feel so good – so the cushion in-sole seems to make a bit of a difference.

I think what I’m going to do is bowl 24 each day now and see if that works okay and then after about three days I might then start adding a ball a day and working up towards the 60 balls which as I recall might be the maximum I can bowl in the league I play in.

To make it more interesting I’m going to record my pitch maps, which should be pretty good as, so far this first week has been spot on, so it’ll be interesting to start plotting the data.

23^rd – Had a bowl today, completely ignored the plan – bowled more than I intended, but that was out of frustration that it went so bad. Since the resumption of bowling I’ve bowled with good accuracy, so yesterday I decided that I’d record my pitch map. Isn’t it always the case that when you start to do something, and you want to do it really well it doesn’t work out like that? That’s how it was today. Before I went out, I felt ropey anyway, but went despite this. The weather was sunny but really blustery 40mph winds. The intention was to bowl the usual 24, but there were so many bad ones I bowled extras to try and get it right.

If you look at the pitch map for 23.5.20 you’ll see that generally for much of the time I bowl really full, thankfully most of the leg-side balls are really full mid-stump height full tosses which I usually get away with. But generally, that was a really poor bowling performance. I will just have to see what happens tomorrow. Despite the extra 6 balls or so, my knee feels fine, so the same again tomorrow 30 balls and hopefully better accuracy.

I’m going to make excuses now – the approach to the wicket for my run up is rough – really rough. I might look at how I might be able to level it out a bit, because I’m sue that doesn’t help.

24.5.20

Better today and again more bowling, but the knee seems to be holding out...

.The clusters on the leg-side behind the wicket are full tosses, they tend to be about middle to top of the stumps and would probably be given as wides. The grey rectangle is my optimum length and the measurements are in Yards and feet, Ideally I'd be getting them on that grey rectangle, but I'm okay with the slightly wider option as I can bowl the flippers with a little bit of off-break with some practice. But as yet I've not worked on them as yet, I'm still trying to get it to the point where I can bowl 60 balls with confidence and not suffer any swelling or pain. It looks as though I'm getting there as this appears to have been around 45 balls. 

Red balls are balls that went on to hit the stumps. 

The two sessions over-laid below...

 

 

 

25/5/20 

No bowling today, well that's not strictly true. Got up and did some stretches as I'm having aggro with my lower back and struggled to do some of the usual ones. Yesterday while I was bowling because of the lower-back aggro and feeling my 60 years, I did some work on running and attacking the ball on the ground and throwing down the stumps. Whilst it was a bit creaky, the main issue that arose was that this involved using my knee in a different way and this morning it felt like using the Koban pain index I was probably at No.1, so decided to not bowl properly.

Instead I bowled probably a couple of hundred Flippers off of a couple of steps and my younger cricket playing son Joe joined me and batted against a wind ball and I had a bat as well. It was lovely and sunny and we were out there a couple of hours which was nice. 

I'll see how the knee feels tomorrow and probably have a bowl in the evening. During the day I need to do some stretches and yoga and work on this lower back soreness as today I also suffered back-spasms which is something that has happened over the last 20 years on and off, but it's not something I want happening on a regular basis. 

26/5/20

Again another bat and bowl in the sun with the wind ball - bowled a far bit off of a long run up. The knees fine. I think the issue is side-ways movement - Pliques are required or something similar I reckon might have to look into options for physio with side-ways movement. 

27/5/20

No Joe today he's gone fishing so I had to bowl on my own and do so properly and plot another pitch map.

A lot of balls today and no affect on the knee it seems which is good news. Instead I've seemingly got a really stiff back and never felt that comfortable bowling during the session and it resulted in loads of wides - highlighted in orange and loads of those full tosses on the leg-side, they ranged from a couple of no-balls around chest/head height and the other were all withing stump height.

Towards the end of the session I changed the angle of the run-up and that seemed to help considerably with the accuracy. So now I've got to work on this stiff back situation. It does feel like I've got a weak core - so I'm going to work on planks and see how that goes and other back exercises. 

30/5/20 

Bowled tonight and last night as well. I was going to plot a another pitch map but the start last night was so bad I gave up and tried to figure what was going wrong instead. Towards the end of the session it was coming together okay again. It seemed as though because I was plotting where the ball landed I was putting undue pressure on myself. So, then as soon I scrapped the plotting my line and length came back. 

Tonight like last night I bowled for an hour - yep, the knees doing well and I'm no longer counting balls bowled. I'm probably bowling 60-80 balls a session at the moment with no ill effect. Tonight I went out and just bowled - no pitch map plotting and it went a lot better, probably the best session so far. I did notice that I was bowling far too front-on and had to re-adjust by making sure that in BFC I was looking over the outside of my leading arm at the stumps. As soon as I was doing that my accuracy improved considerably, so that's obviously something I need to keep an eye on next time. 

31/5/20

Last session of May. An hour or so bowling, pretty consistent and accurate - good line and length, worked with varying the speed and moving the wrist position to create variations. Went well. knees fine as well. 

Knee injury progress

Last night (20/2/20) was the first net of the season and I didn't really hold back. Batted twice and bowled for the 2 hours. I was surprised a bit at how unfit I felt generally. The knee held out all night, towards the end it felt affected e.g. not 100%, so I mixed coming off a longer run up (12 steps) with my old 2-3 steps approach.

Drove home and half expected to feel worse getting out of the car, but it wasn't too bad. The rest of the evening it stiffened up a bit and I took some Ibuprofen before going to bed.

This morning I've got up and it feels a little sore, but a long way short of being totally crippled as was the case in the last game in September. Today, I've been continuing with my rehab exercises, but nothing that involves impact, just exercises that build the strength in the muscles around the knee.

I'm going to take it easy over the next few days and see how the discomfort continues. If it takes longer than expected to recover, I'll consider not going to nets next week and up the physio regime as well as general fitness, hopefully bringing in some cardio work. Overall though I'm feeling quite positive at the prospect of playing in May at this point.

I'm going to do this Gibbs style from now on...

27/2/20 - What happened? All week I worked on my physio and slowly the soreness dissipated. This Thursday I batted twice and bowled a handful of balls (9) off of a 3 step walk in.
How do i feel it went? It's pretty much gone to plan with regards the idea that I'd do the physio and avoid bowling tonight as there's no increase in lack of mobility or swelling.
What was good/bad? I bowled 9 balls off of a 3 step walk-in bowling leg-breaks and got a wicket or 2 through a clean bowled pitched outside of leg-hitting top of off and another off of a stumping chance. Nothing really bad, just that I'd rather be bowling properly.
Analysis; The theory is if I work on strengthening the muscles around it'll stablise the knee and make it less susceptible to further injury or consistent injury. Having bowled properly on 20/2/20 and then suffering a minor relapse, I've been happy to rest the knee this week. I feel that if I'd taken Ibuprofen I may have been able to bowl off the 14 step run in at full pelt, but the consequence of that would have more than likely been further damage. Instead I bowled using a sidearm and bowled 9 leggies off of a short step in a la Terry Jenner.
I batted twice and that didn't have any adverse affect.
Action plan; I'm looking forward to the weather clearing up and getting slightly warmer as that'll give me an opportunity to get off the train either earlier and walk from the station before my stop. Or get off mid-way on my journey and walk between the two stations with the nicest views (Chalkwell and Leigh-on-Sea. Other than that continue with my warm up and physio exercises this week, trying to stay on track with it, but I have to admit I find it really tedious.

8/3/20

What happened? Sporadic physio with decent amounts of rest. There's no nets for a couple of weeks which mean no real heavy impact on the knee.
How do I feel it's going  - Pretty well, there was a point just before writing that it felt normal.
What was good/bad? - The weather has improved and I've discovered a new walking route that I'd never considered before that has a number of benefits.
Analysis - I've not been going at it full-on, with a couple of months till I have to play I'm more inclined to take the bowling easy in the nets and focus on my batting, from what I'm researching there's a tendency to recover and then go backwards by over-exerting yourself and being too optimistic about the recovery process. The focus therefore is to take it easy and very slowly re-introduce the bowling and running with an increase in walking and cycling in order to build up the muscles around the knee.
On the Friday just gone the weather was good and I got out of work at 4.30 and there was plenty of light and I got off at Westcliff and walked to Chalkwell via the beach. This is definitely the way to go, the walk is pleasant and not too long it may even be a little short of the 20 mins that I aim to do each time I go for a walk. One advantage though is there is the option to walk across sand and pebbles meaning there's a different dynamic to the way that the knee has to work in this situation and I can only imagine that's going to help as it's low impact?
It also gives me the option of going at it quite fast to work on cardio as well as a general fitness, so it's a win win situation as far as I can make out.

Will I play this season?

Will I play this season? My knee is not 100% so I'm not sure... I've done none of things I would normally have done - nets at Writtle, bowling and batting. Instead, I've tried to take it easy, I've been doing self directed physio and been trying to use the knee as much as possible in an attempt to slowly recover. To be honest I never got a proper diagnosis and should really follow that up and try and establish what I actually did do. From everything I've read and watched it sounds like I might have damaged my PCL, but I've got so few of the symptoms associated with knee injuries I'm left a bit confused. 

Generally it's fine, it feels vulnerable, but I've got full mobility, I'm able to do deep squats with a little discomfort (Not pain) and it fully extends. The little running that I've been doing recently doesn't result in any massive relapse and so generally things look fairly positive. 

With 3 months or so till the first game, I'm going to try and slowly build up the strength and increase the amount of physio I do and hopefully be in a position where I might be able to get through a spell without suffering the next day and the following week. If it does happen, I'm kind of ready for it and will back off for a year and see what happens. I'll go and watch Joe (My son play) and record the oppositions batsman's wagon wheels... https://bowlingplans.blogspot.com/ which if I'm honest I'm kind of looking forward to doing and enjoying, the last time I did it, I video's the outcomes as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCcqLCaXzY&t=9s  

Tomorrow's a big day though in the scheme of things as it's the first net session at the club and I'll be going along. The idea is that I will have a go, but at the moment I don't know whether I'll bowl all night, a part of me says hold back and perhaps only bowl about 24 balls over the evening and see what the outcome is the next day. If it comes off and there's no real issue the next day, I'll continue with the physio and bowl a few more balls the next week and build up slowly. 

Great Berry Open Space cricket - The Pavilion

Great Berry Open Space - Cricket Ground history.


Looking toward Nightingales.

Great Berry Open Space is a recreation ground on the outskirts of Basildon in Essex, just a stones throw away from 'The Rec', which has been a cricket ground for several decades and is still used for cricket by teams from as far as East London.

I shot a load of pictures for Friends of the Earth in this area back in the early 1990's just after the trees had all been chopped down in the Highview Ave and Aylesbury Drive area. The images were primarily of the trees that had been designated to be left. I had the idea that I'd go back later and do before and after images. At the time I didn't wander as far as Great Berry Open Space, so unfortunately have no images or recollection of the space. There seems to be very little on-line about the area...

Great Berry Open space has never been built on and was part of Great Berry Farm. During the areas history when the Plotland buildings were erected, none of the plotland buildings appear to have been constructed in that area on any of the maps I have access to. The 'Open Space' piece of land has changed very little with regards its size and shape since before the 1840's perhaps earlier?

 For much of its recent history it's had trees around the edges, certainly since the 1860's. The avenue of larger trees running along the eastern side of the field follow the line of what was the original Berry Lane. The cycle path looks as though it was the original Berry Lane. Originally it ran from the Railway line and it then turned at right-angles across what is now Nightingales and followed what we now know of as Berry Lane. The Pond down the hill in the far corner diagonally opposite has been there since the 1840's and earlier.

Cricket Field

Despite my efforts, I can't find any mention of cricket in conjunction with this field. It seems that perhaps when the new estate was built, the planners might have imagined that because of the size and nature of the houses and the expected prices they'd command, the demographic might have been different and a cricket pitch more in keeping with the new influx of residents? The dimensions of the field are suitable, the surroundings with the Oak trees typical and so it seems the field was leveled and laid with the option of cricket being played there. The pub on the corner of the field is called the Pavilion; There's a water main in the middle of the field for watering the square and years ago there was an all-weather artificial strip. If you venture into the trees on the Nightingales side of the field, about 10'-15' in from where the grass finishes and dig around in the leaves and under-growth, you'll find a chicken-wire fence. Thirteen years ago when the images above were taken the posts were still evident and in some places the fence still very obvious. 

Anecdotally, I've been told by locals that the local 'footballers' poured petrol onto the all-weather strip and burned it to ensure that the field was never used for cricket. 

It has been used for cricket as you can see from my images. In 2007 I took to practicing there simply because I noticed that the surface was in really good condition in between the 2 football fields. I practiced there so frequently that a couple of local lads started to talk to me and eventually joined in that summer. We were then joined by 2 other blokes Suhail and Nakul who lived on the estate and we used to have a knock about most evenings in the summer. More people joined in and eventually there was about 6 or 7 of us most nights. It got to the point where the bowling was so fast we needed to do something about the surface as it was a H&S issue and I said that I'd get a roller and a mower and I'd cut the grass. One thing led to another and the strip ended up in the middle of the field with the lines being painted and more people got involved. Eventually it got to the point where there was almost 2 teams and we marked out a boundary and played a T20 game one Saturday in 2006/7.

One morning I was cutting the wicket and the Council turned up in a van and 3 blokes got out. I was expecting to be told that I was contravening some bye-law, but I'd read the bye-laws and was in the clear as far as I could make out. But the opposite was the case. The main bloke in the van was the one of the heads of Parks and Gardens and he commended me on my initiative and offered all kinds of support. He there and then tried to get the heavy roller used at The Rec brought over on a low loader to roll the wicket properly, but they couldn't get access to the low-loader. Instead he allowed us access to the Rec ground to practice on for free on Sunday mornings which we took up and accepted.

I continued to cut the wicket on Great Berry Open Space for a several weeks with the councils blessings, until one day I was mowing the wicket and was accosted by a bloke wearing a West Ham football shirt who'd come down from the Pav. This bloke made it very clear that he felt that I had no place mowing his field. He was tanked up and wasn't having any of it from me, telling me he was some big cheese at the Pav in charge of the football club and so on. Diplomacy wasn't his strong point so I left and found somewhere else to practice, never to return.

But, there might be a resurrection! This afternoon another bloke I know who is very much involved in the Pav and its social side has rang me, with no knowledge of my previous endeavors, suggesting that I get involved with him, in trying to get some cricket going in some form based at The Pav. From this first phone call I kind of get the impression that he wants to form a friendly/social team and for them to be based at The Pav. It sounds as though he's got the numbers to get a team together and he now wants to get a wicket cut in between the two football pitches. He's going to contact the council and sound them out with regards how they might be able to help and I'm going to meet up with him some time soon and have a wander over there to see what condition the field is in. Maybe after all these years the field is going to be used in a way that the planners envisaged as below...