Top spinner

 The last game of the season is coming up on the 9th Sept in Chelmsford. Last weekend talking to some of the other lads, there's an appetite to keep playing through Sept and no wonder, the temperature today (6th) was in the 32 degree centigrade and has been the warmest day of the year! Weirdly though this same morning I noticed in the fields of Benfleet marshes 200 + geese having arrived to spend the winter here. Then coming home Chalkwell and Leigh on Sea were doing their best impression of the Costa Del Sol, the beaches and coast line packed with people in swimsuits and bikinis sun-bathing at 5.30 with loads of paddle boards on the estuary.

On the way home Koush messaged me and asked if I wanted to go and have a net? I said yes, he tried Sri, but Sri wasn't answering his messages, so it ended up with just me and Koush. 

I batted first and did okay and finished quite happy with how I'd batted. Then I had a bowl

This is a comment I wrote on Big-Cricket...

Does anyone here ever get to bowl with another spin bowler with 2 sets of stumps one at either end bowling taking turns bowling to each other. I used to do with my sons, but they always got fed up with it too fast. I've always rated it as a good method of practicing - because there's the potential to give immediate and helpful feedback. I've had the opportunity a couple of times in the last two weeks to do this and in doing so was able to work with my top-spinner which I rarely do. Not sure if you recall, but as a variation I generally recommend the Top-Spinner as being the ball you learn next after the Leg-Break, but I rarely bowl it because I don't get to practice it enough. But, in one of these bowler to bowler sessions I had a go and my mate Koush (The other bloke) who's a number 3 bat in the 1st team was like 'Whoa! What was that'? Then it went from there, that was all the encouragement I needed to throw a few down and he was very impressed. 

We netted today - just him and me and having had that little bit of practice allowed me to send a few down among the Leg-Breaks and Flippers when he was batting and he was totally out-foxed by the inclusion of the Top-Spinner. His feedback was because of the Top-Spinner he couldn't play the Leg-Break in the same way and felt with the Leg-Break he had generally 3 shots to work with, but with the inclusion of the Top-Spinner he know felt he had to wait for it to pitch to see whether it was going to turn or not, massively changing his options. He said that he could not read it out of the hand and it also mean that a slow loopy Flipper also took on a slightly different dimension that had him playing differently.

I've got a game Saturday, so I may give them a go in the game. Top-Spinners have never been a mainstay of what I do, but after these to sessions with Koush I might persevere. I've always been aware of their potential - but never had a practice session where it's been obvious or commented on.