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someblokecalleddave

someblokecalleddave

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someblokecalleddave's Blog

So - a winter plan? Whatever happens initially it's going to be hindered by the fact that I've pulled a muscle in my L/H calf muscle and I've been told by Liz Wizard on the simplycricket website that I need to rest it properly in order that I don't do any more damage to it. Liz is good at this stuff and has given me advice before that has then led to me getting fixed as such.

The winter plan I feel needs to lead up to the start of the season. At 47 I'm not as physically active as I was when I was younger and I have a tendency to expect my body to still do the kind of stuff I used to do as a kid. Over the last season I found that I was useless at throwing the ball in from the outfield and that everytime I did it I could sense that I was almost injuring my arm each time and it was obvious that if I continued I would in fact do some injury. Fortunately I noticed that the other 'Older' blokes were rolling the ball in and throwing it under arm if the batsmen had stopped running and wisely adopted that as an injury avoidance strategy. But at the same time I was gutted that I couldn't do what would have been easier in younger days - but then younger days would have been spent throwing rocks at objects out in the river Thames or hours spent trying to hit Swifts as they flew along river banks stuff like that where you'd be constantly exercising your arm. These days all I do is type and drive a car in between weekends, so it's not surprising that my arm isn't up to it?

So one of the things I need to do is exercises that will help with that and also practice on the technique. There's a good link on www.bbc.co.uk in the cricket pages where Paul Collingwood has a video where he covers throwing techniques and as soon as you see it and then try it - it all makes sense. Also on the www.harrowdrive.com website David has covered ways of practicing using different weight balls alternately as a method - so I'll re-visit that before I start.

How often? As yet I'm not sure and I want to do it in a way where I'm not really feeling I'm going to be wasting lots of time. I suppose what I could do is make it more cricket specific (If my leg was okay) by setting up targets opposite one another and everytime I've thrown the ball run/sprint to retrieve it, that way I'm also doing things like stooping down to pick the ball up quickly and turning to throw back in the other direction accurately which'll all add to my agility?

Anyway - my legs knackered so I'm not going to be doing that so what will I be doing this weekend? More than likely I'm going to be spot bowling trying to pitch the ball from 17 yards throwing top-spinners trying to get it to land in area 10" x 30" as that'll be fairly easy on my leg? If it proves to be too stressful on the leg I'll ease up again. I'll let you know what I decide.
 
Easing in

I've managed to get myself a leg support thing, which I'll probably start wearing tomorrow.

Today I took delivery of 6 dimpled hockey balls. I use these for bowling practice in urban areas (Outside my house, basket ball courts etc) as they're the same weight and size as a cricket ball and made of a tough plastic so are usable on concrete/tarmac etc. The dimpled surface also gives you some grip so I'm still able to put a lot of spin on the ball. So armed with my balls I went outside and threw a few.

I don't know about you but if I'm ill (I've had a nasty cold) I stop training and rest up and I'm at the tail end of a cold, so at the minute I'm still taking it fairly easy - which is good for the clag muscle situation. Despite that I threw about 6 or 7 overs worth of balls outside my house over a 2 - 3 hour period doing 'Spot bowling' practice. I didn't warm up but took it quite easy easing into it. It went okay, the outer arm muscle of my upper arm ached a bit after a while but nothing too bad and was expected.

I'm now looking at my pull up bar and my elastic bands thinking do I make a start on them again after a lapse of a couple of weeks? Maybe tomorrow as it's due to rain and I'm unlikely to be able to get out and bowl.
 
Food

I noticed one of the other blokes was also listing his diet which is useful - I'll do this here.

Sunday -

Breakfast - Cornflakes, Rice Crispies mixed with dried raisins and milk. Cup of tea.
Mid Morning - Cup of tea; Banana, satsuma and 2 bar kit kat.
Lunch - Bacon sandwhich with 3 slices of white fresh loaf type bread. Cup of tea and 3 disgestive biscuits.
Mid Afternoon - Satsuma, apple, cup of tea and 3 digestives.
Dinner - Steak casserole - steak, carrots, brocolli, swede, onion, gravy and baked in it's skin potatoe. Yogurt and cup of tea.
Mid evening - cup of tea and 3 biscuits
Later - Hasn't happened yet - but that loaf of white bread downstairs is gagging to be turned into a cheese sandwhich had with another cup of tea.

Look - I know the chocolate and biscuits is bad, but I don't drink and I don't smoke and I am trying to kick the habit. I'm not over-weight as far as I know and if I am it'll be slight. Tomorrow I'll go swimming so I'll be getting some exercise so hows that then - any good?
 
Plan of action continued........

Right - where was I?

Fitness and stuff

1. Allow for my calf muscle to recover from it's injury and take Liz Wizards advice on getting it back in action.
2. Throwing - improve my technique and investigate further what muscles I'm going to have to focus on in order that I can throw a ball without injuring myself - I've got a feeling this one's going to require some of that Core Stability malarky as throwing a ball just feels like it's an action that requires a whole bunch of muscles all over your body core?
3. Spin bowling - shoulders and arms and probably Core stability. I suffered from what seemed like over doing it last summer and I want to avoid a re-occurance of that. Currently I'm using those elastic band things tripled and pulled apart behind my head - I'll go into more detail when I start doing it again soon.
4. Sprinting - On hold because of the calf muscle, but I'm looking to do training that will allow quick bursts of sprinting and strength in legs and ankles etc to stop quick and turn and sprint again.
5. Stooping - I'm okay with this one for an old bloke, but I want to look into what I can do to improve it - running up to a stooping down to scoop up a ball and throw it. Needless to say loads of core stability is required for this one as it's all of your torso that is working when you do this and it's moving and bending in really unusual ways as you do it - and it's stuff you don't do much of during the rest of the week at work and at home.
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

5 x pull ups on a bar (to the chin)
15 x Reps behind shoulders pulling 3 x elastic band things apart
5 x the elastic band things but held for 10 seconds
6 x press ups (I hate doing press ups but as a bowler they seem to be necessary)

Also reduced my chocolate in-take today (by one) Ha!
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

5 x pull ups on a bar (to the chin) struggled with this tonight.
20 x Reps behind shoulders pulling 3 x elastic band things apart
7 x the elastic band things but held for 10 seconds - could feel the muscles doing the stuff.
6 x press ups - and God they were hard! Muscles probably still in shock after last nights onslaught of exercise, probably doesn't help that I do all this at 11pm at night!

Anyway slight improvement on the previous night and feeling sore for doing it.
 
Re: Easing in

Leg supports are useful. Even though they create some initial dull pain, they are extremely helpful in the moderately long term.
 
Re: Food

You have a good diet, try to cut down on the tea, I am sure too much tea will make you quite fat because of the milk.
 
Re: Easing in

I forgot to put the support on a couple of mornings ago and then noticed that I got a twinge just going up some stairs at work. It's back on again now and I'll be trying to make sure I remember to wear it. I'm surprised though that it's almost December and I've still got the injury which is a little worrying, but as Liz said if I don't rest it, I might be running the risk of making the injury worse.
The intention is that it will get better and then I'll seek advice from Liz as to how to get back into training but with a view to prevention over the season. Just saying the word "Prevention" means warming up straight away and all that it entails!
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

Again lovely and sunny and warm 13 degrees. So late in the afternoon I drove over to the field at Gloucester Park for a bit of a practice and look at the prospects of marking out and maintaining a wicket there this summer to try and encourage the blokes that play there to take their cricket a step further.

Got over there and there was no-one around, but the light was low in the sky and was picking out the lumps, bumps and undulations in the field allowing me to have a good look and make a decision as to where I might position the wicket. I found a relatively flat spot running in the same line as the blokes had their wicket last year but more towards the centre of the field. I measured it out and pressed some of those flourescent orange lucozade lids into the ground to mark out where the stumps will go. I set up some stumps and bowled a few overs to see if I could get someone's attention even at this early stage.

My bowling was pretty good which was nice, even the leg breaks looked okay, all in all it seemed pretty good with me hitting the stumps very frequently especially with the wrong Uns which I was getting to turn nicely (Maybe I'm Off spin bowler more than a leg spin bowler)? Anyway I kept bowling and was enjoying myself and had just delievered a nice Flipper hitting the stumps and I heard someone shout something in approval from the outfield. Looking round I saw one of the blokes from last summer and he came over and offered to keep while I bowled. It turns out that he bowls a Chinaman normally but screwed up his shoulder some years back. We threw some balls had a chat and he gave me some advice about my bowling saying that pitching the ball 5 yards/metres in front of the stumps was too short - it would allow the batsman to step back and hit the ball which is true as that's what my mate Nakul always did.

At the end of the session he said "Do you come over here often"? I said not normally and explained what had happened last year at Great Berry had kind of forced me to look at this field as a practice option. I then told him about my intentions of maintaining a practice wicket and that usually the council support me with this and that they'd even offered the use of the nearby council wickets free of charge if I was encouraging "Grass Roots" involvement in the sport. He asked if I'd be back next week or if I played in the evenings? I said yeah and went on to explain if he was up for it (Or indeed if he'd turned up earlier as the gear was in my car) I'd bring all my gear - bats, gloves you name it. He then said he'd bring his over as well next sunday and we'd meet up at 4pm.

So brilliant already and it's only February and my plan is swinging into action! Furthermore a couple of the blokes from our team last year - Rod the Aussie and Thomas are both syaing they're up for a knock about as well. So things are on the up!
 
Progress March

The season fast approaches and unfortunately for me my teams net practice happens on a night when I have to work late, so as far as getting some coaching from the other Leg Spinners in my team I'm restricted to the possibility of a few sessions in the school holidays. So with regards to my action and any advice as to how I might go forward I'm restricted to video-ing myself and uploading the results to Youtube and you blokes comment and I hope to do more of that as the weather gets better.

Back home though I'm still finding it difficult to motivate myself especially with regards to running/sprinting, I kind of regard myself as an asset in my team because despite my age I'm quite fast and agile and enjoy fielding and chasing down balls so I need to focus on this aspect of my game fairly soon.

The only things I seem to be doing is stretching those big elastic bands behind my head, press-ups where you walk from side to side and the plank. Again not lots of it - every other day.

Eating is pretty much the same loads of fruit and veg and usual English quisine in the evenings. Looking to substitute my breakfast mixture of cheerios, bran flakes and Rice Krispies for something with oats in with sultana's and dried apricots. Still can't give up chocolate, although I may have slightly reduced the amount I eat recently, but that's been driven by economics rather than a desire to reduce my intake.
 
Things beginning to happen

Here's an update of my blog - www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com

Things are starting to happen in my weird world or cricket as the summer approaches - I'm still struggling with motivating myself with regards fitness and match readiness - but I've had an idea which I may be be able to engage in and I think it might pass the "Cricket Specific" description - but I've got to remember to warm up - especially as my calf muscle is still very tight. Read on -

Today the forecast was for rain and what with it being dead soggy already over at Five Tree Field I thought that I'd go and have a look at Great Berry Open Space and see how that was fairing. Partly because I'm now wondering whether these blokes are going to be around this summer? Last year I used to see them a lot on the train, but I've not seen any of them recently so maybe they've all moved on in some way? Someone said that most of them worked at a company based in Basildon - some lived locally but several used to live up London way and these were the blokes I used to see in the morning, but as I said I can't say that I've noticed them for a few months, so have they all ended their contract or something and moved on? If so this whole Idea will go down the pan, unless there's still a group of them that still live local and want to play?

Great Berry was worse than the Five Tree Field - really soggy - so soggy you wouldn't want to play football on it. The middle section of the field didn't look that amazingly flat either compared to last year and if we end up playing there again I'll cut the wicket further over to one side I reckon.

The weather held out dry and sunny all day today, so the field would have had some chance to dry out. I went round to Thomas's gaff and measured up the handle for the roller and then cut up some of our old Apple tree wood and made a handle. The weather continued into the evening and Thomas rang in the evening and asked if we were going over the field, I assumed primarily to get the roller over there. So at 6.20 we went round to his gaff and tried the handle and it is still too big, so it needs reducing in size by a couple of millimeters. So instead we went and had a bit of a knock about.

The field is still soggy but the wicket had dried up quite a bit - enough to have a bit of a bowl and bat. what I did notice is that in the crease we are already wearing the grass very thin. I had a look along the wicket and stamped out some lumps but I reckon it would definitely benefit from some rolling - but it's not too bad. As we packed up I had a look at the adjacent bushes which are planted in clumps all around the sides of the pitch and the first one I looked at had the perfect place to stash the roller if we were to be able to get it onto the field and the longer the summer went on the more hidden the roller would be. I still advocate rolling the wicket under the cover of darkness because the roller would come out of it's hiding place not seen and go back not seen and it's unlikely anyone would see us doing the rolling which is going to take a good couple of hours I reckon each session and it may take 2 or 3 sessions. Thomas is still saying to do it in daylight, but even tonight there was a member of staff on duty in the Netball courts office which looks out onto the field and there was a landrover driving around past the field as well - who I think is the balif for the lakes, but who is still a council employee. I reckon any confrontation whether it's friendly or otherwise is not a good idea because at the minute we've got the council on our side.

If I can get the handle sorted tomorrow - Thomas is talking about doing it at the weekend, I reckon as soon as possible e.g. if the handle is fixed tomorrow - we roll tomorrow night for the first time while the ground is still soft and saturated with water.

Got in tonight after our session and Michelle said that Suhail had called. Now if you've not read the blog all the way through Suhail is a bloke who originally comes from Pakistan and when he was younger played cricket at quite a high level. He played with us a couple of times and looked like a really handy bowler, I can't remember how good he was with batting other than I bowled him at least twice getting him with my Wrong Uns - but I seem to remember he wasn't too bad - you could see he knew what he was doing. Anyway he'd rung and left a message with Michelle saying that his commitments this year with his work (He's a surgeon I think) mean that he can fully commit to playing in a cricket team, so either he can join in with us and our plans or he might be up for joining me at Grays and Chadwell? He's going to call me back another time. No matter what happens - if Suhails on the scene that is nothing but good because on all the ocassions he played with us he was always giving us tips and suggesting what we should do - he was really confident in his abilities and what was right and wrong - he's a good bloke.


Came back a bit stiff tonight and I'm thinking what shall I do in order to get some exercise - so I might do something over on the field across the way as much as I can 20 minutes of throwing and running. Across the width of a football field or the length do something like throw a ball as far as I can run up to it pick it up throw it back sprint after it, throw and run, throw and run, throw and sprint for 20 minutes or however long I can do it for. I reckon that sounds cricket specific.

Update - Suhail

Suhail phoned back - now there's a man with a plan! Blimey he is well up for it, he's talking nets once a week and out on the field once a week and reckons we can get 22 blokes together to do it within a matter of weeks. He's suggesting we roll Great Berry Open Space as soon as possible and start maintaining the wicket as soon as possible at GBOS - so maybe GBOS is back on track as the main venue. He was saying that he is still in contact with Ankul who is the bloke who knows all the blokes over at Gloucester Park and reckons that getting 12 people together is no problem at all. But the main thing was his enthusiasm and positivity - he reckons this is a goer and was even asking "Shall I get in touch with the council"? So tomorrow one of my first jobs is to try and see the caretaker at James Hornsby and try and establish the availability of the nets in the evening. So watch this space cos it seems it's going to get very busy!
 
Made a start

W'hey I did it! This evening I got in from work and now with a date of April 13th for our first match I got off my Butt put some trainers on and shorts (It's summer now in my head) and went out in the pouring rain and mud and did some training! Did some stretches on my calf muscle first and took it easy to start with.

So what did I do? Well this is what I did.....

I got two stumps and one of my famous hockey balls (Waterproof). I set the stumps a fair distance apart -40 yards and then threw the ball "Paul Collingwood style" (See BBC skills video) aiming to hit the single stump. Needless to say it goes way past the stump and then you run after the ball retrieve it and then throw it back to the other stump which now with the over-throw is 50-60 yards away - run after that retrieve and throw ad infinitum. Then every fourth run sprint as fast as you can and then keep that up for 20 minutes non stop.

Admittedly an old bloke like me had to have a walk around once or twice - I haven't done any running since last september, but I reckon I did quite well. What I was impressed with though was the Paul Collingwood throwing technique. For one I didn't pull any muscles and secondly I couldn't believe how accurate I was! If there's been three stumps I reckon I'd have hit them a few times, so that was really encouraging. So well done the BBC and Paul Collingwood - that's a nice little video you've got there!

Once in I did some rotator cuff exercise and a few planks of different varieties and some of those press ups where you twist and raise a lifted arm above your head, which look hard but came really easy. So a good start - I'll see how I get on tomorrow!

For more of my cricket madness see www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com
 
Re: someblokecalleddave's Blog

I've had to go into work today and turns out sunny and warm and 18 degrees!

This evening I continued my fitness training and had half hour out on the field throwing and running back and forth as described in the previous blog. So far I've not suffered any real after affects which is good and incentive to carry on. I've also been doing rotator cuff exercises to help with the bowling and throwing generally. I'm managing to do ten of these rotational push ups

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQ_E-f5278"]YouTube - Rotational Push-ups[/ame]

per spell and doing 30 or 40 per day, so that's good and I'll be looking to get up to 100 per day 20 at a time something like that by the time the first match comes along. Perhaps that may help with getting some more speed on the ball like Matt suggested at my club Grays and Chadwell CC?

I'm also doing these but using a sprung bar "Round the worlds"

http://www.trainwithmeonline.com/exercise_292_Around_the_World.html

So hopefully this will help keep injuries at bay and possibly help with my bowling?
 
Cricket diary - general

Really lovely day today with cricket going down all over the shop! (Mostly with my kids). At some point during the day around 5pm the temperature was 19.5 degrees centigrade and sunny and it had been sunny most of the day. Even this evening driving home at 8pm in almost darkness the temperature was 16c! It seems that by this time tomorrow a cold front is going to move down from the North and it'll be 0 degrees c or colder! Then on Sunday there maybe snow showers!

The exercise seems to have caught up with me at last as I'm exhausted today and I'll probably end up going to bed tonight at 10pm as opposed to my normal 1am. I've managed to do 30 rotational press ups today and pulling the elastic bands behind the head as well as loads of running around after balls this evening.

What with it being really sunny we went over to Gloucester Park this evening and I took the mower as Gloucester Park is probably the driest of all the 2 fields and the one that is most likely to have other people wanting to join in. I sent Suhail a text to let him know we were going over there, but he must have been at work. Thomas managed to join us 7pm or just after and then around about 7.30 a group of 3 blokes came over headed by a bloke called Ali from Pakistan and he offered to field. Again modestly claiming to not have played for 8 years and not being that good. He had a spell of wicket keeping, batting and bowling and did rather well especially his bowling - very accurate and fast. He too said that last year he'd seen all the other blokes playing cricket on the same field and said that we should all try and get together and have a game - so my master plan is coming together.

It also took a step forward in that we had the mower and as dusk fell and cricket was no longer an option we mowed the wicket. The only thing was the blades were not set correctly and the cut was too high and it didn't make that much of a difference. Having said that though you can see that it has been cut so hopefully it might get peoples attention? One down side was that in mowing it and rolling across the grass it became apparent how uneven the surface is. So we need to get the roller over there if this is to be our designated pitch? If Suhail is going to be involved we need him on board as soon as possible with blokes in tow who are willing to turn up at GBOS. But in the short term because GBOS is really wet still Gloucester Park looks like the short term option.

Ali was well up for more cricket and I've made arrangements to be over the field at 4pm on Sunday with him, so hopefully he'll come along with his two mates again hopefully more? I bowled against him and did quite well - would have forced a few catches off of about 10 balls, so that was pleasing. Thomas looked pretty good with his bowling and he took me a few times as did Ali. Thomas also bowled Ali twice, but it was dark. But Thomas's bowling looked a lot better than last year.

My two sons had a good day today, several of their mates were around in the afternoon one of whom had been bought a bat at Christmas and had been asking his Mum all winter "Can we go and play cricket"? So this afternoon we all went over the field and had a game. My youngest Joe who has picked up playing Front foot drives pretty well scored the most runs 16 and Ben the older one took a few wickets with his "Fast Bowling" and caught someone, so they were both enthused. But it got better later on when they came over to Gloucester Park. Prior to Thomas turning up they both had a go at batting with all their pads on against full size balls on the full size wicket against me bowling slow straight ones. They loved it especially Ben the older boy, he did really well again using his newly acquired skills with his front foot drives, he seemed really pleased with himself having faced real balls and hitting most of them - he said that hitting a real ball felt good. So that's promising.
 
Cricket free day and no exercise

I had Rain man and Fatty batter come through the post today from Amazon and started to read Rain Man in between the dreaded DIY. I've read 25 pages and already I can see why Tom made the comparison with my blog at www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com and I reckon by the time I'd have finished the book off I'd have started to incorporate some of the style of the book - it's a good read and it's had me in stitches already. One of the things I like about it is the observations regarding the people that you play cricket with, but the books retrospective looking back some years whereas my blog is live and kicking by the minute and if I was to start making honest comments about my mates and the people I play alongside I reckon I could be in for some stick and lose a few friends! I dunno I'll have to see how it goes?

Still no snow but massive difference to yesterday. Yesterday warm and balmy 19 degrees - today northerly winds and about 8 degrees - cold! But there's been hardly any rain and the wicket looks okay. (5 Tree field) I'll have to start referring to Five Tree Field as FTF. So how do I know it's okay when I haven't been practicing today? Well just like the obssessed autistic nut cases in Rain Man I do stuff like this.....

I hate DIY with a vengence, my Dad was a drunk so he never did it or did it very rarely. The outside of the house was done by the council about once every 7 years so I don't have house maintenance and DIY as a part of who I am. This annoys my wife like nothing else. My wife is in a state of perpetual readiness for a vist from Lloyd Grossman (Through the keyhole or the more recent "Cribs" programes from the USA) so she likes everything spick and span. Me - I'm not fussed - I was a surfer - used to hang out with Hippies and I used to live in a tent no fixed abode, so just the fact that the rain isn't making my bed wet is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. So a few scratches on door frames, or paint beginning to peel to me is of no importance whatsoever, especially as I've only got another 30 years left in which to be able to learn how to bowl like Shane Warned so time is of the essence! So why on earth would I want to be painting woodwork for - it's already got paint on it!!!!

But now I've discovered cricket it's being used as a bargaining tool. I've got two kids as well and for me to disappear off to some far flung cricket ground for 6-8 hours every Sunday doesn't fit in with my wife and everybodies idea of "Family". So inevitably I have family committment and cricket committment juxtaposed against each other with a big question mark over the top of them. The concession at the moment is that I do some DIY so that's what I've been doing all day! But I start getting cold Turkey and this evening I was thinking what can I do that involves cricket, so I used a trip to B&Q's (DIY shop) to get some filler as an excuse to quickly run over to FTF and check out -

1. Was anyone over there using it?
2. How well did we manage to cut the grass last night and how does it look?
3. Has it got any drier?

The answers - (1) No-one was, (2) yeah it does look like it's been cut but I'll have to do it again with the blades lower (3) yep it's drying out nicely.

But having cut it - it's now apparent how uneven the surface is.

Tomorrow hopefully a knock with my new mate Ali? 4pm - its a long wait but I'll cope!
 
7 Days till first match of the season

7 Days to the first match

It's not looking promising. This morning woke up to scene that would have been made complete with the addition of polar bears rumaging through my compost heap looking for somewhere to warm their paws. Less than 36 hours earlier it had been 19 degrees c and blokes were playing football with their shirts off over at the Rec. Whereas this morning I'm scraping snow off my car window freezing my nuts off in 2 degrees. It gets worse - tonight they reckon that in rural areas it'll get down to -3 degrees and there's a likelyhood of it continuing to snow!

I can't see that there's any chance of a game this coming Sunday because the weather is going to be cold and wet through until Wednesday if not longer. The other thing is standing around in the freezing cold freezing your nuts off for 3 hours sounds challenging as well. Sounds like thermals are going to be the order of the day and a wolly hat! Still we'll see what happens in the nets on Tuesday night and whether they reckon the game will be on. I'll sound out people and see what they recommend you should wear when you're fielding? Hopefully when they bring out the drinks it'll be soup and the teas will be made up of something like soup and hot food? God it reckon if this game goes ahead it is gonna be freezing!

Started my exercises again today again - rotational press ups, stretching bands behind my head stretches on my calf muscle and I'm feeling okay. I felt tempted to go over to both of the fields with my camera and shoot some pics of England in the spring - snow!
 
6 Days to go....

No sign of any polar bears, but the glacier at the end of our road just broke off and I reckon this has implications for global warming! Still the upside is that maybe it's an indication that spring is on it's way and that I may play cricket this sunday without penguins getting in the way?

Yep it's still cold - around 8 degrees so it has got warmer than yesterday but certainly not my idea of cricket weather. The forecast is for another sunny day following a freezing night and then more rain on Wednesday and possibly Thursday. Rain equals warmer weather but there isn't going to be any cricket if the sun doesn't come out and dry out the wickets? So it's not looking good.

Nets tomorrow night and I'm expecting that they'll say the matches are off, but I'm still being ridiculously optimistic and hoping that the match will go ahead. To be honest if the rest of my team gripe about paying £2.00 to have net practice in the warm I cannot imagine that in a month of Sundays they'll ever pay out £10.00 to stand in the freezing cold and sleet to catch pneumonia in the name of cricket, especially after a winter of sitting indoors on their bums watching cricket on SKY in New Zealand and where have you - it just seems like they're not going to be able or want to cope with the reality shock of cricket in England in April.

Me - I'm mental and therefore I've been out there throwing balls, running backwards and forwards across fields throwing a ball trying to hit the stumps from 40 yards, practicing Leg breaks (And still not getting them) 20 rotational press-ups so far, stretching bands behind my head, planks and sideway planks even did some pull ups all in the name of friendly matches! The amount of effort I put in you'd think I was in a league or something - I'm not!
 
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