16/11/25 - Indoor game

A good game tonight. 6pm start, with an inauspicious start due to the fact that the scoreboard was busted. . The team this week was pretty much the same as last week, but Kirby replaced by the official captain "Lennon" so another batter. 

We lost the toss, so we had to bat the 12 overs first. With Daniel Gray (most runs at the club last year and Elliott Noble 2nd most runs) we were in good hands in theory, these were backed up with Michael Gray (33 x 50's for the club) Ariz and Lennon both decent batters. Then me. 

I had the Gopro and set it up and videoed the whole game, so I should put this up on Youtube in the next few days. 

We didn't get off to a good start...

I wasn't even the end of the 4 over? and I found myself in the middle with Michael Gray and we were on about 25 runs and somehow needed to score realistically about 100 in order to have something to bowl at. One of us had to get through the next 8 overs and that was obviously Michael Gray, I just had to try and hang in there and try and play some shots and just not get out. I've done it before, so could I do it again? 

I could play straight shots defensively, but I don't have the skills to place those shots in the gaps, cross bats shots at balls oustdie off stump?  But they can result in dragging the ball onto the stumps or top edge to the keeper or bloke at point, but I had to try it just in order that Michael Gray was able to play shots and make runs. Over by over, I survived and when I was on strike I for the most part was able to get bat on ball once in the over and score a couple of runs and rotate the strike, although looking at the score-sheet I didn't do that as much as I thought I did. I played a couple of down on one knee slog sweeps much the hilarity of the lads watching from viewing balcony!

With no scoreboard we didn't know how we were doing, but the scoring in this format is pretty quick, a ball that hits the wall and includes a run is 3 runs. A straight ball along the ground hitting the back wall is a 4. A ball hitting the back wall only is a 6. When you're bowling the most valuable ball apart from the wicket is a dot ball, they're so significant as they're pretty rare. Anything legside is a wide - it's brutal. If you can do it, a deft late cut backward of point with a run is pretty safe and gets you three runs if it hits the side or back wall, conversely the flick off the legs backward of square-leg is the same result and just ticking along with them is the way to go if you've got that ability.

Michael has the ability to play straight and over the top, but I realised he was just playing a basic game, accruing the runs 1 or 3 at a time building an innings. There were a decent amount of wides as well and they're worth 2 runs without the extra ball. Bit by bit we were getting through it and the runs were accumulating and we played through the 11 overs and then Michael brought his "A game" for the final over as I watched from the other end. An over of 6's and a 4. The lads were saying from the blacony that if the strike was rotated I had to try and hit sixes, I thought whatever happens if there's a small hope I run anyway and get Michael back on strike, but didn't need to. 

So we ended up with 109 which in these games is a low score, so we weren't out of the woods yet.

Ariz was thrown the ball (last week he started off with 4 or 5 wides, but this week a first ball wicket! We were in the game!

Then a series of wickets fell quickly with virtually no runs being made until the captain made a stand and batted well for his 43 before being bowled by Daniel Gray in the last over, he'd left himself too much to do and hadn't got the support from his other players and the fell short by 19.

All in all for us a very good game considering how we started off. 

No wickets for me, but happy with my economy. I might get to play again? 

Some Indoor cricket

 Played Sunday in the 3rd game of the winter season and won this one having loss the earlier two. I don't recall the first game, only that we were soundly beat. The 2nd game I do as the opposition cheated off my bowling and the result was they won because of it. I was bowling top-spinners and leg-breaks and the bloke played a cross bat shot at a top-spinner that did what it was supposed to do... bounce more and he top edges it through to the keeper, everyone around the bat and the square leg umpire  all agree that it's out and the bloke throws his bat under his arm and heads off to the door (near the square leg umpire) with his team above the umpire. I think they saw the standing umpire hadn't reacted and told him to wait. The keeper and the near fielders were all screaming "Mate, you top-edged it and you walked, you know you're out", meanwhile he's now making like he'd walked to square leg to adjust his pads to then walk back to the crease and resume batting.

The umpire at my end hasn't reacted and he indicates to play on, the square leg umpire is totally on-board with rest of the players ready to give it out and looks my way looking incredulous that the standing umpire has indicated to resume. The wicket keeper and others are in total disbelief and carry on with making it clear that they're not happy with his cheating in the end the bloke (In his 30's) turns to call them F***** C*** (they're 17-18 year olds). The umpire steps in as diffuses the situation and the game resumes and this bloke then takes the game away from us. Then in the car-park it carries on and one of our adults has to intervene and diffuse the situation again. 

We've got them later in the season, they wont be playing 5 x 17 year olds in that next game I'd imagine if they're blatant cheats. The celebration at the end of the game was funny a bunch of 30 year olds ecstatic they'd beaten 5 teenagers and an old duffer like me!

The team that was beaten in the 'Cheat game'

This weeks team that won

This week we had a better game with the inclusion of another Adult... Michael Gray. To be honest in the game we lost with the incident I'd bowled poorly - way too full, multiple full tosses and a number of legside wides. Any ball down the legside that goes go on to bounce over the stumps is a wide - it's pretty brutal and this weeks game started off with our fast bowlers bowling a succession of wides. Me and Kirby (None of the other teams have girls in their teams) with our bowling - Kirby bowls left-arm orthodox a bit like Linsey Smith (England)  and like Smith goes through teams some days cleaning up and with my Wrist-Spin brought the game back and enabled us to win. 

Kirby and I got a wicket each, Kirby's a stumping and mine caught behind (Daniel Gray). 

But during my 2 overs the oppo lost 3 wickets. I think they see the slow bowling as a point in the game where they should be making runs and when the runs pretty much dry up in many instances, they then  resort to a back-up plan of trying to take quick runs and in this game that was their un-doing. 

I can't say that I've seen much of this format, but it does strike me that there is definitely a place in this game for specialist slow bowlers as they do seem to have a big impact on the game and I think my inclusion in the team is testament to that as I can't bat to save my life. But I'm pretty agile in the field at 65 and I love the fact that I get to play teams of adults in a team of teenagers and me! The thing is some of them know what I do and see me as a massive asset, thankfully they're the captains and they're prospective 1st XI players who recognise what I do with the ball is not to be dismissed too readily. 

It's really nice being valued in that way by significant players at the club!!!

In other news I've been running of late, getting out twice a week generally. 

Some cricket soon, but in the meantime... More running

Cricket News: The indoor league starts next weekend and the poll has gone out to see who wants to play and this year after the initial year with only just enough people wanting to play and being registered it looks like this year there's shed loads of people queueing up to play and at the moment there's already 10 people who've put their hands up for selection...

All of whom are younger than me other than one bloke who's a decent bowler - he bowls stump to stump straight stuff - kind of you miss I hit on a good length. There's 2 other slow bowlers - Kirby and 'New Chris'. I've no idea if I've got a chance of getting in the team and or how Lennon the captain goes about selecting. What I do know is you have to be fit fast and agile and at the end of the season last year having not kept up with a robust exercise regime over Christmas I succumbed to injury because of the intensity and the need to be fast between the wickets and pulled my caf muscle. 

So I've got to wait till later in the week to find out If I've been selected. 

Today's run...

The usual 5K around Gloucester Park. Yesterday I had a flu jab and otherwise I'd have run, but with that and the fact that it rained all day I didn't go. Today though was dry but very windy, but I just didn't feel up to it and I don't know whether than was down to feeling a bit ropey becuase of the flu jab? But I wasn't looking to be any records and I was only looking to run slow around the whole circuit. But once I got running and did the initial Kilometer to the skatepark I couldn't be arsed and walked and ran the rest of the way with very long walking splits. On the subject of 'Splits' on this 5K run there are recognised 'Splits'...

So it seems there's these 'Splits' on Strava that people possibly focus on and try and set records for and they're differentiated by age groups, so I'm in the 65-69 and without even trying on one this splits see below...

I'm already the 2nd fastest and being the leader is only a matter of 17 seconds difference. 

This is the one I'm more interested in. The Goucester Park Sprint.

In my age group I'm 4th place and that's with no real knowledge of this sprint.

What I do have to do is figure out whether you have to do it in one direction or not?

At the moment I run this section 3 times during the 5K run, at the start just after half way through and at the end. My current time as you can see for my age group stats is only 5 seconds behind the leader, so I reckon this might be one that I tick off on the next run? 

Wednesday Run 1st Oct

Wednesday Oct 1st

So it worked.

My older son Ben who runs was saying I was doing this all wrong and that I should run slower and steadier and not stop and see how that would work out. So was at Heathrow airport today and stopped off at ours in the early evening to run with me and see if he could see me through a proper run. I'd watched some videos on Youtube and what he was saying correalated with experts advice. 

So the run was quite late and I'd had some tucker before we set out. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to sustain a full 5K, but was going to give it a go.

We set off a what was quite a pace, but he was doing the thing where he was encouraging me and he had his strava on and it was tracking the pace and so he was feeding back whether to speed up or slow down. He'd pre-determined that I'd be aiming to to do 6.00/KM splits for each Kilometre and so that's what was aimed for. 

Sure enough down the first straight bit alonside Upper Mayne I was thinking 'I'm done with this I want to stop and walk - I'm not that bothered and it's boring' but he was still going and waffling on like a proper trainer and so I kept going and at each split after the first KM we were on track and faster than the proposed pace. On the last section between the lake and the finishing point I still had some extra 'Gas in the tank' and banged out a 5.36 kilometer...

In doing so I smashed the previous record by a lot. 

Saturday run

 Another run and another 5K record. But lots going on and it's all getting a little obsessive already..

I discovered on Google Maps you can measure distances, so I was able to plan the route before going out trying to get it down to virtually 5K. Ended up doing 5.26K, so need to shave off 260 metres. Which'll be easy enough.

So today with my son in my ear telling me I'm going about this in the wrong way. I watched a video today about the principles of running 5K and they explained the slow at the start and save energy for a faster finish. So today I gave that a go.

It may have worked a little bit. I tried the slow start, but it didn't feel efficient, it felt like the same amount of exertion as a faster run, but I wasn't going anywhere. Not sure how long I sustained it for and for some reason my heart rate analysis didn't work, so I'm lacking that data. But it was a bit slower. 

Today the first KM was done at 6.22KM an hour and then I settled down to an average of 6.12KM which in comparison with the previous run was much faster. When I'm running I'm running at speeds that if sustained would be sub 20mins over 5K which even I admit would be crazy. In terms of heart rates, the fast sections reach highs of 142bpm which as far as I can make out is not the way I should be doing it as this doesn't build overall running fitness. 

The good news though? Is that despite the fact that my heart rate gets that high *Note the time above is 32'12" in less than 2 minutes my heart rate recovers to 122bpm in a minute and half. 

 

I checked this with Google Gemini and the answer back was...

A recovery of 20 beats (from 142 to 122) in 1.5 minutes is considered good; a drop of 18 beats or more in one minute is generally considered a sign of a healthy heart, and your rate is showing a good recovery rate, so it's unlikely to be bad. A slower recovery can sometimes indicate heart problems, so faster recovery is usually better. 

Why your heart rate recovery matters

• A quicker drop in your heart rate after exercise is a positive sign of good physical fitness and a healthy cardiovascular system. 
• If your heart rate takes a long time to return to its normal pace after exercise, it might be a sign of potential heart issues. 

What to consider

• Your target heart rate: 

  While not part of the recovery calculation, ensure your exercising heart rate is within a safe range for your age. For a 65-year-old, the estimated maximum heart rate is around 155 bpm, with a target zone of 78-132 bpm. Your maximum heart rate of 142 bpm was within the upper limits of this range. 
• Consistency: 

  While this one event is positive, consistency is more important. Regular exercise and proper recovery are key for maintaining heart health. 

So the bit high-lighted in orange is the bit my son is focused on, being able to run more consistently maintaining a less stressful heart rate. His argument is If I ran slower maintaining a BPM of around 122 I'd still beat my 5K record and wouldn't be putting my body and hearth through so much stress. 

Currently I'm trying to run every 3rd day allowing for 2 days of recovery and the good news is he's coming down to Essex on Tuesday and he's going to run with me and see if he can guide me through a 5K run at a far more suitable level. So we'll see how that goes on Tuesday. 

The other thing I've done is signed up for the Free trial of Strava for all the data and looking through it I've found this feature where you can set 'Splits'... sections of your circuit where other people's records of their times on specific sections of the run. The good news is that it's broken down in to age groups and I'm on there already at No.8! I reckon I can easily improve on my time!

My new 5K time is 

https://www.strava.com/activities/15955589700

Old Chelmsfordians Sunday game 14/9/25

 Leading up to this, everyone was speculating as to whether the game would actually happen as there were a series of rain fronts coming in from the west one after another all week. In the final 24 hours it looked like the morning would be OK and the early part of the afternoon, but then it was scheduled to go down hill and rain. That's what happened...

I was there first and joined by a few others and we dragged the ropes in place and had a look at the wicket. Very wet and covered in worm casts. When Michael Gray showed up he got out the heavy roller and rolled the wicket for 5 minutes.

We won the toss I think and decided to bowl? I over-heard that they'd organised their batting order by basically picking the name out of a hat. Possibly not the best idea. Both teams agreed, because of the potential for heavy rain in the afternoon to reduce the game to 30 overs. We'd also bowl from one end for 15 and the swap ends to speed up the game. Teas would also be truncated and no longer than 15 mins. 

We ran through the first six wickets really quickly with Krishna taking 2, Tony 3 and me 2. But then they dug in and started to play with more conviction and tactics. The Aussie bloke seemed to orchestrate a plan whereby the looked to run quick singles and it worked. Even then when another wicket went down they kept putting us under pressure using the same tactic and they combined this with hitting the bad balls for 4's, 3's and 2's but they accumulated a lot of singles. 

The wicket being so wet didn't offer much by way of turn, apparently if you were bowing from the main road end, it was tougher and no-one bowling from that end took wickets from our team and I don't recall many from the oppo. Tony bowled his usual stuff with Krishna. Krishna took a good 'un with a slow off-cutter and his other was regulation fast. Tony's were all catches, but he had some put down as did Sri. My two were a one- handed casual catch in the covers from Ali Abbas and ball chopped onto the stumps playing a widish one outside the off-stump. 

I bowled OK, not particularly well. I bowled a couple of leg-breaks in the first over to see if there was any turn and there wasn't that much and I got the line wrong - outside of leg-stump, but got away with it. Over the 6 overs I must have bowled 75% top-spinners, most of these were too full and were hit through the off-side and were fielded well by Koush for the most part. My spell seemed to be over in a flash because we were all bowling from the same end. I came away with 6-1-22-2 at 3.66 an over I'm happy with that. Kirby bowled well for no wickets and Sri came away with no wickets as well, but had 3 chances not grabbed, one definitley should have been caught, but Ali went for the catch with one hand when he could have easily used two and increased the chance of keeping hold of it exponentially and ended up dropping it. Sri wasn't best pleased. 

They ended up with 138 off their innings and we all came off for tea and pretty much within the 15 mins allocated for tea, the weather changed and it started to drizzle. It then pretty much rained for the entirety of our innings - ocassionally stopping for a few minutes, but 85% of the time light drizzle. It looked pretty miserable being in the field and I was ready for either side to say 'Let's call this off', but they didn't. Dan Gray's Dad (Michael) turned up at around 3.30-4.00 pm having been home and said he expected us to have given up the game and was surprised we were still playing. 

As I was scoring I wasn't really taking a lot of notice of the run of play. But then there was a flurry of wickets and I noticed Krishna and Sri were padded up and I was after Sri. Then Krishna was walking out to the middle to Join Dan who was nearing the point where he'd have to retire. Then on checking the score I realised the dynamics of the game had changed, it was getting a bit tight... In fact it was nearing squeeky bum time!

I got changed quickly handing the scoring over to Michael Gray and came out to find that a couple of more overs had been eaten up and Krishna was out there having replaced Amrit. The scoreboard in the meantime had hardly moved, neither he or Dan were able to pierce the circle and Krishna was bowled having made no impact. Sri made his way out and more of the same and another couple of overs were soaked up for next to nothing with Dan now needing one run before he was forced to retire. I wanted to shout out... 'Dan - this last ball needs to go for 6 or 4'!

Dan hit a single and was called in, there were about 9 balls left as I walked out and we needed about 6 off of the 9 balls. I can't work out what happened at the end, but it ended up with 1 over left and 5 needed. The bowler Wallace was a faster bowler with 2 wickets already. Sri, had the most slippery shoes ever - no spikes... "Normally I have spikes in my bag, they've been in there all summer and this is the first time I've needed them and I left them at home". Things were stacked against us, up till this point in Sri's last 12 balls, he'd laid the bat on it 5 times.

Wallace ran in from the Road end and Sri out of nowhere hit the ball back past the bowler, I'd walked in with the bowlers run up and was down Sri's end in double quick time coming back with Sri sliding around like a bloke on ice, he managed to get back for two and on strike easily looking across to the clubhouse expecting a signal for four, the ball was picked up in a resigned manner as though it had gone for four, but no-one signalled... just 2. 

The bowler ran in again - same approach, but Sri slipped and ended up without his bat mid-way down the wicket on his arse covered in mud, the throw came if to execute the run-out, but in the panic they messed it up and Sri got back to his ground. Three needed - four balls left.

Sri hits the ball and I scamper through for a single. So I'm on strike, so we're now in trouble... The bowler runs in, the ball wizzes past massively wide and I have a swing that seems to be well short of the ball... I look to Brian... Nothing. Sri looks back at me in dismay. I think just get on with it and ready for the next ball. 2 balls left.

Bowler runs in, I slash at it and make contact - the ball not hit hard finds a gap and we run through to win the game with only 1 ball left of the game. A good win and a good game played in the right spirit in pretty awful conditions. Everyone seemed to agree and a great way to finish the season. 

Running Log No.2

 Don't know how frequently I'll log these runs as they're not that exciting. I'm still trying establish a 5K run over the winter months and as yet not settled on one. 

I did this one late evening, so was running at dusk and even though it's a park where loads of people run, the paths are a bit lumpy and uneven under-foot in the dark, so I'm not sye if it's going to be suitable. 

I'm still nowhere near being able to run the whole 5K, so what I'm doing is during this run is running for 1'15" and then walking as fast as I can for 2 mins. Then everytime I run again I'm increasing the run time, so the next run which will probably be on the 27th Sept I'll run for 1'25" and see if that beats the previous time. 

No. 1 Running Log Sept 2025

 So I'm 65. Most of the blokes in my family don't get to 66, but they smoked, drunk and ate Bacon and other crap food. Hopefully, having seen that happening around me, particularly my favourite Uncle dying aged 40 out of nowhere leaving a wife and two small boys, I kind of took notice. 

So over the years I've generally had a decent diet and it's one of the more important aspects of our family life - eat well. But in the last 5 years or so I've been diganosed as having high blood pressure for which I'm taking Amlodipine. Originally 5mg and then 10mg and then I made efforts to reduce my blood pressure holistically and recently at the last check the dosage was brought down to 5mg. 

But this July I had a blood test and I got a call from my Dr saying that your Cholesterol is a little high, when you got to get your Amlodipine, there'll be a bunch of statins. Take these and we'll see how you're doing in October. 

I've watched a lot of stuff on Statins and have seen that you might be able to regulate and reduce your cholesterol by life style changes. So since then I've been making adjustments to my diet and doing more exercise with the hope that come October the Drs do another blood test and come back with 'Guess what mate... the Statins have done the job, these will now be part of your daily life along with the Amlodipine'. Hopefully, I'll be able to turn around and say "Ha ha! I've not touched the Statins, I'm just eating better and doing more exercise".

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but in the meantime I've started to run and my older son Ben who runs advised me from the start to buy some proper running shoes otherwise I'm going to end up with knackered knees. So I've bought myself some Hoka Challenger 8's which cost £140 - most I've spent on footwear ever. But, to be fair they make it so you feel like you're running across a mattress.

When I was younger our family never had a car, so I ran and walked everywhere if it wasn't further than about 3 miles. If I ever felt unfit or bored I'd go for a run to kill an hour or so or just to test out my fitness levels. For a winter or two I did orienteering with a mate and we were pretty fast at that and at school I would alway place in the top 3 on cross country runs in PE.

But as I got older I did less of it and if I ever did it for fitness purposes it bored the living hell out of me in the same way as going back and forth in a swimming pool does. But with this desire to live a few more years and play cricket into my 70's this kind of fits in with the whole health and fitness agenda. So since August I've been running sporadically.

I've been trying to work out what routes I like and which ones are going to be usable in the winter. I have another aspect to the running, ideally I want to do it after work and for it not to be something that gets in the way of other aspects of my life. With this in mind these last couple of months I've been doing this route here above which is around 7KM. I get on the train at Southend and then get off at Leigh-On-Sea and run to Benfleet along the creek. This is my favourite route in terms of the desolation and the fact that I'm not breathing diesel and petrol fumes. More on this later.

Initially I wasn't set on beating times and what have, but it was very apparent from day one that my ability to run continuously over any distance - even 400 yards was gone and so I went to a technique I used in previous summers - interval training. I run for a short period of time and then rest for an extended period, when I say rest, I mean I'm walking as fast as I possibly can for around 2 mins at the start. 

Since then I bought a chest heart monitor and a belt to put my phone in which allows me access to a bunch of data and then I got Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/147680321 and then things started to get interesting. Remember, I don't really enjoy this a great deal, but as someone pointed out to me - this is similar to your obsession with your wrist-spin bowling and cricket data, which is true. So now when I run, I'm able to look at the data and analyse the results and see if I'm improving and that for me is interesting and hooks me in. 

The most local run is a shorter run in the local woods 'Marks Wood'...

The last time I did this one was back In August. At the time I set a series of PB's...

These PB's have all been beaten since on longer road runs, but the run I've done on Sept the 16th on this same route "Marks Wood" if compared shows improvement, which is what I'm looking at and pleased with.

This route around the woods is more like cross-country and involves rough terrain and hills.

So tonight the details are...

Another thing I'm looking at and comparing is my recovery rate. Yesterday I was a bit disorganised as I approached my house what with getting my phone out ready to turn off the Strava app used for recording the times. As a consequence the final section where I run fast and try and get my heart rate up to maximum rate was a little short, so it only got as high as 122bpm . Despite that it dropped to 99bpm within a minute and 82bpm within 2 mins which is very good for someone my age. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/15833451843

Basildon & Pitsea Sunday XI

August 30th, I had the opportunity play a league game in the 5th XI against Rayleigh Fairview on a ground I didn't know existed just outside of Rayleigh. Seemed like a decent team and I got to bowl early-ish. I had the option of bowling into a very brisk wind or bowling with it and chose to bowl with it. The captain wasn't Tony the usual bloke it was Pmac. 

Pmac, was the captain of the 5th XI some years ago and I was pretty much secure in my place as a bowler in the team, but subsequently the following season and thereafter I was replaced and was relegated to the non-league 6th XI. This left me with a head space whereby I believed he had no faith in my bowling and fielding. It wasn't a big deal, but that sense was there.

This year the club has implemented a selection committee and Pmac is on the committee. So when I then find myself not selected, I'm looking around at the selection committee and can't but help come to the conclusion that Pmac must be instrumental in the decision to leave me out?  So then when I do get in a league game he's the captain I'm already of the opinion that he has no faith in what I do. Subsequently, I'm then apprehensive about setting my own field and pretty much let him do it, which is OK, but it's not the way that I'd set it.

Shane Warne, his mentor Terry Jenner and the bowler Peter Phillpott who wrote the seminal book on wrist-spin bowling "The Art of Wrist Spin bowling" all say that it's of utmost importance that the Wrist-Spinner feels that they are valued in the team and integral. Warne went as far as saying "They have to feel loved"! Because with the complexities and difficulty of bowling it, a massive part of their success comes about through confidence and having the confidence of your captain and side. 

Most of this stuff wasn't at the forefront of my mind and I was called on to bowl at about the 18th over. So, I started off with a fairly ropey over which included some full tosses, but it just went down hill and I couldn't think what it was that was going wrong, but I definitely sensed Pmac being increasingly P****d, but then he called across the pitch for someone else to get ready to bowl. I then tried harder and it just got worse.  I went for 8.75. My final figures... 4-9-35-0.  What I've not mentioned is the 4 overs that I bowled 2 catches that should have been taken that went to hand were dropped off of good deliveries. It wasn't enough and I was taken off, never to bowl again in the game.

Now cut to 4 hours later back at the club and I'm talking to Michael and Dan Gray about todays game and it turns out it's going to be Dan who's the captain and straight away the first thing he says is "Tomo, you're definitely bowling 8 tomorrow"! With total commitment and assuredness. If Michael had been the captain - again I get the sense that he too has faith in my bowling and I'd have got 8 overs. But another thing, there's something about Michael and the way he takes me out of the attack, which he does if I'm not doing well. It's done in a different way to Pmac. I think Pmac says a lot with his body language.

So, today...Horrible ground. No pavilion, I think it's being built? What with this being the hottest and driest summer ever, the outfield had dried and cracked and everywhere there were huge ankle breaking holes. The same holes when fielding make for dangerous situations where the balls bounce unevenly taking your teeth out or breaking cheek bones and the like. 

We fielded first with Tony Keep and Ariz bowling. This is the kind of team I like playing in and the opposition was of a similar make up. The adults were Tony 70+ Me 65, Michael 48 and Sri I'm not sure, but I reckon he's possibly in his early 40's. The rest were all under 19's... Kirby, Elliott, Kanav, Keagan, Ariz, Tom Tonnison and Dan Gray. 

Tony and Ariz bowled well. Keeping them at around 4.5 runs an over. Then Dan Gray threw me the ball and got me into the attack...

Tony 8-0-35-0 

Ariz 4-0-20-2

I got into my work pretty well from the outset bowling Top-Spinners, but one floated up outside of the off-stump was deemed a wide. But right from the outset I went from yesterdays performance to bowling one of my better spells ever. For the most part if I stuck to the Top-Spinner I was getting the length, speed and flight right and the batters didn't seem to have any option other than to take a massive risk and come down the wicket or play with a straight bat and defend. In the third over one of their better bats (M.Hatcher) came down the wicket and smacked the ball back past me hard with a four, so the next ball was a ball on middle and leg- this time a small leg break, playing with a straight bat he defended, the ball dipped slightly shorter and turned, missing his bat, taking off the off-stump bail. I was a nice ball and the umpire acknowledge the same. 

The next bloke played one ball for a dot and then was bowled with a Top-Spinner. Very top of middle. Carried on bowling pretty well, was hit for another 4 down the ground again. The next wicket was a bloke who got off to a decent start, who looked intent on having some impact, he may have been the one that hit for 4, so I decided I'd bring out the flipper. So the intention was a full one outside of off. It came out wrong, was ridiculously short, almost bouncing twice as it stayed so low and was on track to be given as a wide. The bloke swung his bat at it and under-edged it onto his stumps. 

That brought out another big hitter allegedly, but his excuse was that he was injured. To be fair, injured or not he hit one legside for 4 in between Kanav and Elliott, but the next one wasn't directed so well and Elliott caught it as cool as you like one handed for a wicket maiden. I then had 10 balls to get a Five-fer, Kirby held back seemingly to give me the chance of a wicket, I wasn't aware that it was the last wicket. The bloke then played carefully for the remaining balls and saw me off. 

Sri then finished his spell off with his variations taking 3 wickets...

Our Innings seemed to get off to a decent start and with 158 to chase it wasn't a concern. But then wickets started to fall with some good opposition fielding. Elliott Noble one of the better batters was bowled and caught off a ball that was hit hard - a very good catch. Dan the captain went cheap and he's hit 1700 runs this season. The scorer doing it digitally got Kiegan and Tom's name around the wrong way and as Kiegan built his innings of 40 steadily each four was met with cheers of "Keep going Tom" with Kiegan looking confused at the crease as to what was going on. 

With Dan and Elliott gone, this left the game looking slightly tighter than it needed to be. Kanav went cheaply and so did Sri. Michael - Dan's Dad went out saying "It looks like its down to me to save the game!" He joined Ariz and they steadied the ship a little and then Ariz was lost too. I'd been put up the order from my usual No.11 and joined Michael with around 12 runs left for the win. At one end was a bloke bowling straight, he looked fine, but at the river end was an off-spinner. I don't know how I survived, but I had 3 balls that either missed and turned past the leg-stump or I inside edged to enable me to get off strike, similarly a few byes helped out as well. At the other end Michael steadily got the runs and I contributed with a 2 not out. So in the end it was a close call...

 Adding the data to the 

 https://basildonandpitsea.play-cricket.com/website/results/6838130

5th XI game against Rayleigh 5th XI

As it's the middle of the summer holiday here in the UK as with most clubs - getting your lowest team out becomes almost impossible and we had to scrap the 6th XI game and the majority of us got moved up to the 5th XI and so on throughout all the teams. Ry a 6th XI player got a chance in the 1st XI because of his ground fielding - he's one of the best. He's a rugby player, so plays hard and fast and doesn't care about diving and the consequences, he just gives total 100% full committment, he's not a IT/Office worker, so he's got glutes and a strong core - so is an actual athlete. The majority of us ended up in the 5th. For Basav, the captain in the days preceding the match it sounded a bit of a nightmare with the game potentially being short of players and all sorts of shenanigans with regards the selection process of the players. 

So Friday night I helped him out and went and collected the keys and balls from the club, so he didn't have to worry about that on Saturday. I assumed, as did some of the others we'd be on pitch 2, which is where the 5th usually play.

So once there, I could see that game was underway and Brian Waterman was over at pitch 3. I had the keys so assumed that we had access to the showers, toilets and changing rooms. I opened them up and then some youth came over saying his captain had issues with me opening the change rooms. So there was a bit of a discussion about that. I left it at 'I just assumed as we had the keys we shared access to the toilets and showers'. Then locked up and went over to pitch 3. Whether that added to Basav's woes or not, I don't know. Tony Keep took it upon himself to choose the strip we were to play on and put in the stump - fixing them way too wide. It was also the wrong strip.

We won the toss, all the team showed up and we were to bat first. The opposition were mostly small boys with 3 older blokes and some youths including the Wrist Spinner 'Kat' who I've played against  before. Looking at our team in comparison you'd have said we were the potential favourites, so I wasn't that fussed on batting first, but a part of me always wants to bowl first in case we have a batting collapse. This didn't look likely by my estimation, but how wrong I was!

They opened with  a bloke who was probably in his 40's and a younger player. His first over was a little wayward with some wides, but it was evident he had some pace, and then he tided up his bowling and bowled a spell that basically blasted us out of the game supported by some good bowling at the other end from the youth player. 

It was only Brian who negotiated the strike avoiding S.McDonagh as much as he could that went to high score at a decent strike-rate with 31 before being caught by S.McDonagh off Barkers bowling. The only other player to get a decent score was our young player Shriv who played with a much better attitude in this game and basically gave us a shot at a game.

I batted No.11 with Tony Keep and got a not out for 0, we finished with 117. With three adults in the game and a few in their later teens and early 20's this looked like a tall order.

A couple of confident looking younger players came out first, but Deepak saw off a couple of them with some good accurate bowling. Tony Keep bowled tightly with no wickets from the Estate end, but was leaking a few 4's here and there. Unusual for Tony not to take wickets, but it was a pressure game with little runs to play with.  It looked worse then when out marched S.McDonagh at No.3 - I'm thinking - 'Is he now going bat like he opened the bowling'? Fortunately he didn't. Deepak getting rid of him for 8 runs. That brought Elliott Davies and Oliver Milchard (I think) to the crease with more discussion in the middle between them and a sense of determination. Davies was looking to access runs through the legside as much as possible. Between them they stabilised the innings and took a degree of control and steadied the game...

We were starting to leak runs and at the end of the 18th over they were on 77 with only 40 runs required off of the remaining 22 overs, it was looking like a lost cause, but to make it worse we were dropping catches left-right and centre and fielding like a bunch of 12 year olds playing with a hard ball for the first time. People were getting frustrated and we had somehow gained at least 1 extra captain at this point over-riding Basav's captaincy it was a shambles. The game was getting away from us and they still had 6 wickets in-hand including the captain.

Basav brought himself on - under pressure, he'd already copped a ball in the face fielding and split his lip and now bowled poorly giving away more runs, bowling full beamers being pulled for 4 down to fine-leg. Then he bowled a 3rd full beamer and hit the batter 'Ollie' on the head (With helmet) and he went down like a sack of bricks. Early drinks break was called and after that Shriv was brought into the attack (Another fast bowler) and although he bowled well, he was let down in the field by really poor fielding and was expensive. By now, the ball was in a state where I could bowl and Basav bought me on, to be fair I didn't think I'd even get a bowl. It turned out to be a decent plan. 

Basav got Davies (Bowled) and I got Milchard off of an unusual bowled and caught, the ball was hit directly back at me low and hard and I realised if it went past me it was going to be a 4, so I stuck the side of my boot out angled upwards, so that the hard sole would take some of the impact and the ball deflected off the boot vertically up into the air about 12' and I took a catch - Caught and bowled! I did it really 'Cool and calmly' and everyone was like - "Whoa look what the old geezer did". Others were saying 'I've never seen anything like that in all my cricket days'. 

My foot was a little bruised by the end of the day!

That wasn't the last of the decent wickets though. A younger kid came out and showed no respect and hit me for 3 as I recall into a pocket with no fielder (May have been mis-fielded) and it may have been a cover-drive. So not having bowled Flippers this year, thought that the kid would have never seen a Flipper and would be expecting another leg-break and bowled him middle stump - almost knocked out of the ground!

Then the captain came out. I bowled at him outside of the off-stump and he wafted several play and misses, but I was looking to bowl very wide looking for catches from the keeper or Brian in slips. One went to Brian off the top edge but Brian dropped it. Brian's 75 and had a broken collar bone, so that's fair enough. The captain when I did get the line slightly wrong was hitting me down to Basav at fine-leg. Basav did a good job down there, pretty much stopping everything. So, I thought, this bloke can't hit the ball through the off-side, so he might fancy his chances on the leg-side, so if I fill up the leg-side and bowl around the wicket, there's a chance I might get him caught leg-side, or seeing that the off-side is now virtually empty, he might try some crazy shot and get caught behind or just miss and be bowled or stumped? I never bowl around the stumps to right-handers, so this was a radical move for me, but I felt it was called for. It worked, I bowled a couple where he played and missed and the 3rd ball went past the edge of the bat and went through his legs and hit the off-stump, he was fuming.

The fourth wicket was more straight-forward a dipping leg-break that the kid tried to put out of the park and mis-hit caught at covers by Shriv. At this point they were on 106 only needing another 12 to win. I had one over and 4 balls left with their leg-spinner Katherine Mayfield and the small kid Rixon. I probably over-thought it, Mayfield hit 2 off me and so too did Rixon and then bowled a wide in the last over. Waleed "bowling" from the Estate end was hit for 4 and that was the game. We were beaten by just 2 runs. 

Overall, given the fact that it was such an eventful game and the fact that they out-bowled us and left us in a difficult situation, the fact that it came down to the last little kid who brought the game home for them with a 2 and a 4, which were both good shots, it was a great game. I'd much rather be in games like that than ones where we bat, score 280 and bowl out the opposition for 100 or something. 

Take-aways... I don't think I could be a captain. I kind of fancied the idea, but seeing the appalling fielding executed by adults - people that are 30 years or younger than me that can barely run and bend down, that have no technique, agility or committment, I don't think I'd be able to keep my cool. So the idea of being the 6th XI captain next year for the moment post this game is on the shelf. I know also that Basav has had a nightmare of a week and I reckon that given all the crap you have to deal with I don't know if I could show up at the game and play as well as I could if I wasn't the captain. I know back in the 4th XI days, I hardly bowled at all and that was when you could bowl 14 plus overs if you wanted to. So for the moment that idea is shelved. 

In this match this is where I was hit. At one point when I did set my field, there was virtually no-one on the leg-side. Basav did put someone in at square leg, but they didn't get near a ball. Every leg-side ball was swept to fine leg and all but one was stopped by Basav.

All of the balls that went through the Gully/third man region where mis-fielded. 

I've blocked out of my mind how many catches were put down off of my bowling. But if we'd have taken our catches we'd have easily won, but that's always the case, but this was an atrocious display of fielding and catching and it cost us the game. 

Bowling around the wicket.

See the next blog post.

Among the Non Pro spin-bowlers, this is where this left me this week...

Net sessions and discussions with other players

What happened? (work in progress 5/8/25)

Played in a couple of games that went OK, but let down by some loose deliveries

See here for decent coverage of the Raleigh game - skip through to 1 hr 4 mins for the start of my spell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyzFea26MiE&t=3934s

This is the analysis of my bowling in the Raleigh game associated with the video above.

Raleigh cricket week 

This is the aprroximation of what happened in the game at the weekend 

How do I feel it went? Went OK especially the weekend game, as I came away from the Raleigh game with some ideas about how to improve and these were implemented in the game against the 5th XI and it worked.

What was good/Bad? Good - my stock delivery. Bad the execution of variations. The variations are what cost me all the runs.

Analysis; So, the main take-away that seems obvious is... Not to attempt to bowl the variations. My current strategy in almost all scenarios is to bowl at the stumps. Anything outside of leg, even if it's turning tends to be attacked. Whereas, the balls at the stumps and outside seem to be the most effective in terms of economy. But with regards taking wickets there's limitations. A lot of the teams we play against in the friendly games seem to have a definite policy of not giving LBW's unless they're ridiculously obvious, but I felt the LBW in the Raleigh game fell into that catergory - a full (Yorker) top-spinner on midddle and leg and the bloke didn't give it, it's rare that I get any LBW's. 

One of the most likely outcomes off my bowling is the edge to the wicket keeper or slips, I think in the 6th XI game 3 of these weren't taken, if not more? The conclusion I've previously drawn and been advised to do is develop a straight ball option... The Top-Spinner. I've been working on it on and off, but not mastered it, some days it works really well, other days, as in the Raleigh game where I was desperate to get more wickets and tried it way too many times, ending up costing me a lots of runs. 

The 6th XI game I reigned it in and used it twice as a slow loopy option and both times it was mis-timed by the batter being hit down the ground and plugging before the boundary at deepish mid on and off. In discussion today with one of the 1st XI players who was in the Raleigh game with me, said that I bowled consitently flattish. He then said that Yan, the clubs best bowler (Pro player) who bowls left-arm orthodox (See data below)

every now and then tosses one up loopy with the field set back and gets wickets that way and advised me to do the same very now and then and to be fair the two balls that were hit off the top-spinners in the 6th v 5th's game may have been caught if the fielders had been deep and would have probably have only gone for 1 rather than 2. So, that's something to try and implement. 

Looking again at the wagon wheel of where I was hit in the Raleigh game, all of those 4's were off of bad balls (The 6 was a good ball and he just got hold of it). The obvious conclusion therefore, other than don't try the variations in actual games is to put more time into practicing them and that's what I did last night in the nets...

I had 2 hours in which I only bowled 3 leg-breaks. Thankfully there were some decent batters and a 'Leftie'. The weird thing was the first person I bowled at was Koush and I expected (going on what had happened in the 2 games) to bowl crap Top-Spinners, but right from the off they were bang on the money causing Koush to defend them. One or two strayed slightly leg-side and these were flicked off to fine leg for a potential single. But overall they were coming out OK. 

Then I moved to the other nets as they had a 'Leftie'. Initially I got the line wrong (Coming around the wicket) bowling at the off-stump and the bloke was hitting them easily down his leg-side. So then I went wider as I did against Ted Currington and that was a different story. Eventually getting him twice, the same approach works with Sri Kumar when I bowl at him. 

Once Koush left the net 3 other big-hitting aggressive players followed him and using the Top-Spinner with the ocassional Flipper I easily would have had all their wickets for virtually no runs if that's how they approached their batting in the nets. Stumpings, caught mid on and mid off if they were up and point as well as bowled a couple of times. They were completely fummoxed coming out of the nets saying 'Well bowled mate'. Joe said they were 3rd XI middle order batters. By this time the ball was coming out differently - not a pure top-spinner, but a small leg-break with lots of over-spin. The question now is... Was that 2 hours of bowling Top-Spinners enough to execute the same ball in match conditions? I think what I need to do is get Sri and some others to have a practice on Thursday over at Holy Cross on the artifical wicket.

Conclusion;  Leave the Flipper, not practiced enough with that, keep working with the Top-Spinner.

Action Plan; As mentioned above try and get another practice session in again at some point against batters or go over to Mopsies with a bucket of balls, a target and stumps and practice without a batter. Although I think Sri is off this week, so I might ask him if he wants to join me?