Your Cricket Season

[Jarquis]

Hope it rains continuously until mid-June tbh #selfish****

 

[Neil Pickup]

I'm gutted tbh, as I was due to be in the Firsts on Saturday.

Only gonna get a maximum of one weekend of pre season before the league starts.

What club are you playing for?

 

[Cabinet96]

Hornsey, in the Middlesex League.

 

[Neil Pickup]

That's a hell of a standard! Well done!

I'd also like to retrospectively congratulate you for this.

 

[weeman27bob]

Neil, do you ever come across Winchester House School on your school travels?

 

[Cabinet96]

That's a hell of a standard! Well done!

Tbf we're really know where near our league standard in pre season.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Neil, do you ever come across Winchester House School on your school travels?

Frequently. Why?

 

[Cabinet96]

I'd also like to retrospectively congratulate you for this.

Haha, gold!

 

[weeman27bob]

Frequently. Why?

You coach the U11's right?

Is your opposite number there a fairly short fellow with dark hair? Likes to crouch down when he umpires at square leg?

 

[Neil Pickup]

You coach the U11's right?

Is your opposite number there a fairly short fellow with dark hair? Likes to crouch down when he umpires at square leg?

Certainly matches the first criterion, but when I'm umpiring at the bowler's end, I don't pay attention to square leg!

 

[weeman27bob]

Certainly matches the first criterion, but when I'm umpiring at the bowler's end, I don't pay attention to square leg!

Pretty sure he's my dad then.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Pretty sure he's my dad then.

Haha... small, small world we live in. Sadly I'll miss the Winchester House clash this year as that clashes with the aforementioned camping weekend. I can give you a blow-by-blow account of last year's game, if you want, though? Lots of rain, some woeful running from my lot and then a 7-fer from our leggie as the Brackley boys gave a sneak preview of the way England would negotiate spinners all winter...

We're a bit lighter on batting this year (no one's yet made anything much beyond 30, hence why I'm gutted that the Bilton Grange game isn't going to happen) but our attack is as good as I've ever had at U11, including one of the fastest bowlers in the country...

 

[weeman27bob]

Lots of rain, some woeful running from my lot and then a 7-fer from our leggie as the Brackley boys gave a sneak preview of the way England would negotiate spinners all winter...

From the brief match reports I hear, this seems to be a common theme in U11 cricket.

 

[Neil Pickup]

From the brief match reports I hear, this seems to be a common theme in U11 cricket.

Won't argue with that - this was a particularly stunning example, however. We made 191/5 in 30 overs, and four of the wickets that fell were run-outs.

My verdict in the season review included "X [was dismissed] courtesy of another run out in which a barge pole wouldn’t have been long enough to make his ground." To be fair it also concludes with "both [partners in 129-run fourth-wicket stand] were run out in the scramble for landmarks".

We ended with "Although a number of catches – some difficult, some simple – went to ground, the leg spinner accounted for the rest of the hosts’ batting order, finishing with outstanding figures of 7/35 that included a thoroughly amusing hit-wicket. It was an afternoon that reinforced the importance of tackling spinners with footwork, rather than standing there and waiting for them to bowl you out."

We fondly recalled the hit-wicket incident in Cape Town the other week whilst watching it rain - the batsman was hopping around the crease, up and down like the Duracell Bunny and ended up basically jumping so far back in his crease that he just landed on the stumps...

 

[Jarquis]

How quick is the U11 Neil?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Clocked at 52/53mph - I think - by a Glos Academy speed gun at the tail end of last summer on a cold, wet, miserable day last September. Probably on for 56 now and I am optimistic we can get him at 60 by the end of the year and 70+ by the time he goes to Senior School.

I didn't see anyone quicker on the circuit last year, although admittedly we didn't play Essex, Hants, Middx, Lancs or Yorks.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Kilkenny 114 beat Sunningwell 46 by 68 runs

This was the only game in the division to get on due to the weather still rendering wickets and pitches unplayable. I rather wish this one had fallen by the wayside as well. The pitch was slow... sloooow... slooooooow. The ball also swung, and seamed, and cut (in both directions), and bounce and carry was also erratic.

I kept pretty well, particularly as my sum total of glovework practice over the winter comes to a couple of sessions behind the U11s facing a bowling machine, 10 mins in the nets to an U13 on Thursday night, and 2 hours of coaching it over the last week. One bye, which jumped off a length and I got the end of a thumb on (standing up), and four catches out of four (which was a bloody good job as no one else was holding them). One was particularly satisfying as it was an inside edge down the legside, which I took, diving, with my left hand. I didn't actually think it was out, though, I just appealed because I was so excited at having taken it. The umpire gave it about 15 seconds later...

Batting, well, the less said the better. Outswinger, outswinger, outswinger, right, safe to leave this one, bollocks, it's cut back in. This is a grass wicket not a sports hall. 13/1 became 13/5 and 16/7. Oops.

 

[Cabinet96]

Still can't get outside, either for matches or training. Had potentially 3 matches to play this weekend and had them all called off by Thursday. It sucks to say the least.

 

[uvelocity]

ahhh pomgolia. no contrast.

 

[jan]

Played a t20 (in whites though!) friendly yesterday. We had left the field several times due to rain before finally abandoning the match. Now DL result is being calculated.
Being completely wet and bowling a soaked ball that felt like a dumpling while trying not to slip on the mud pretending I could actually see something in the downpour ftw