Your English Cricket Season: 2008

[Kweek]

Where to begin?

Kweek | 25 June, 2006 16:32

I know I havnt updated in a while, but cricket season in full flow and school finishing off with exams, not much time to blog, but im back.

Where to begin is the big question now! i'll start with a letter I recieved 9th of may
Dear Dutch Lion
a lot of blabla, but the main thing was; Im in the Holland U17 development team! and going to Essex (Bradwell-on-sea) in the 7th of August! best news ever! training of the teams started and as all dutch lion trainings are combined, I get to train with the Likes of Alexei Kervezee, really a awesome player.
in club cricket im a little dissapointed here and then, not statwise, statwise im doing fine with bowling taking a lot of wickets, and working hard. no the problem is that I don't play on the lever I should play to develop as a cricketer! ive played 3 (of 9) games in the 2nd team and took 1/30 in 10 3/4 in 2 and 0/33 in 4(ahum) and fielded decent, they still wont play me more, or a guy who never plays and used to be good 20 years ago plays instead of me, what do you want as a club with not the best youth-setup in Holland, make sure you got players for the future or stay with the old 40+ players and see where it gets you.


The U18 got beaten for the 1st time last week! before that we were 5 times unbeaten, very unlucky to lose to! by just 3 runs! bowling is going well for me and ive taken 10 wickets so far this season, and I havnt bowled in 2 of our 7 games.

Yesterday we had a bit of a thriller, we batted first our kiwi(who before this had an average of 140) went for a 3rd ball duck , and we were in trouble. but not totally we got ourself to 121 thanks to a 12(or is it 13?) year old U15 player, a bit of a talent but he proved to do well on number 11!

so 121 is a total you got to work hard for to win it from there. we bowled well, fielder really tight to no drops no missfields and everyone went for the ball! awesome to see. we got them om 20/3 pretty soon and worked from that. at one point I decided it was time for me to stop wicket keeping and get the 12(or was it 13:')) year kid on, leg spinner. they had no idea what to do, i went in tandem with him and toghter we got them from 50/3 to 84 all out( him 3/18 in 7 and me 3/17 in 5.4). before this match I got kicked on the knee with football, and it wasnt sure at all that i'd play, but I did and, but as I wouldnt be playing 2nd XI I called of for 3rd xi as I didnt want to risk doing my knee any further(batting was hell with the knee)and holland training tomorrow! no way i will play.

this morning at 8.30 sharp I got a call..tarick can you please please please play..no i said im not gonna risk it, sorry. slightly dissapointed in me they hang up. luckely the cricket was rained off today, so no worries i'd say.
next week might bring a visit to the physio as im unsure about my knee, if the pain stays i will go.

from my blog :')

 

[Chubb]

Britannia Royal Naval College 159-10, 40 ovs, 12 batsmen (Chubb 5-0-36-1)
Upottery 160-6, 34 ovs (B. Inglis 45, Chubb 1)

Absolutely fantastic ground, but the pitch was very poor. The officer in charge of the BRNC side was ashamed of the pitch because it ruined what could have been a very entertaining match. Apparently the ground is maintained by Navy contractors who don't do anything to the pitch except mow it. They have covers, but they hadn't been used and it was damp and soft, drying in the heat.

My bowling was pretty good again, I got a lot of flight but the faster deliveries didn't work as well as on Sunday. I could have had more wickets as there was a dropped catch and a couple of mi***** that fielders didn't quite reach.

I was batting five which is not somewhere I like and I got out to a spinner after facing about 11 balls. I feel I am vulnerable against spin early on like everyone else is and so I always prefer to open. That wasn't an option today because I bowled, but at least that went well.

It was a good day and a lot of fun. The BRNC is just like a campus university really except there's a gun-toting guard on the gate and helicopters landing on the sports field.

Next match on Saturday for the I XI at Witheridge, the weakest team in the league.

Photos from the left:
The Pitch, Helicopter Stops Play, Me

And they're not resizing again. They'd look so much better if they did.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Exeter Uni 197-9 [40]
Warwick Uni 182 [39.4]

I played a glorious ten-ball cameo for 17* with three fours, all hit off the opening bowler. Firstly, a flick off my waist down to fine leg, then I got hit by a bouncer. Didn't stop me comig forward next ball and creaming it through the covers, and then in the last over I played a front-foot pull through midwicket from about three steps down the track. Great fun.

Bowled 3-0-23-0 later - too much too short too legside - but I took my first outfield catch since June 2002 when I caught a very standard leading edged at cover in the third over. Spoilt that somewhat with a spill at slip in the 37th. Got one hand to it in front of knee and didn't hold on.

 

[superkingdave]

turning yourself into a batting allrounder Neil?

 

[Neil Pickup]

I've no idea what's going on with my game, no idea at all.

Batting 30.08.85 to 07.06.06: 24 innings, 5 not outs, 48 runs @ 2.53
Batting 14.06.06 to 29.06.06: 5 innings, 1 not out, 58 runs @ 14.50

I'm loving it - and I'm playing twice at the weekend too. Next stop twenty...

 

[Chubb]

Witheridge 91 a/o (38 ovs, S. Drew 4-15, G. Kennard 3-15, D. Broom 2-16)
Upottery 92-3 (25 ovs, G. Kennard 39, Chubb 34)

I told you they were the weakest team in the league. They had ten players, and at one stage they were 46-4 off 29 overs. We bowled really well at them, with Kennard bowling six consecutive maidens at one stage, and they never looked likely to post a useful score.

I opened the batting and did really well, before receiving a genuinely dodgy LBW decision following a strangled appeal from the bowler alone and about 40 seconds deliberation from our umpire. I was gutted to miss out on a fifty. However, I am sure that I will have another chance. I feel I am playing better than I ever have before.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Babbacombe II 126 (41.2)
Exeter III 128-1 (23)

Our opening bowlers had a combined age of 27, and still we rolled them. Added one more outfield catch to Thursday's as their number five lifted a gentle lollipop to square leg. Then watched 2 & 3 ease us home.

 

[open365]

Go Chubb!

My season is goin pretty crap.

Today, despite having loads of players missing, i still batted at 10, and was so ****ed off i was out 3 ball for 6.

My figures were 8-3-22-2 But i bowled crap in my second spell and got taken off.

I'm losing my entusiasm for cricket now, last year i couldn't wait for Saturday, this year i spend most of Sunday and Monday deciding wether i really want to play anymore. I still go down to practise most days, but it's becoming more out of habit that anything else. I don't seem to be getting any better. The team itself has also lost something, last year we had loads of kids and great old guys who all knew each other, it was a great side to play for. But now everyones moved on and it's just not the same, no one sledges anymore, and the only two people who say anything in the field are the captain and some other no-body who keeps repeating 'you only get back what you put in'. It doesn't seem to be that may with me this year...

 

[Kweek]

3rd XI is soo stupid know the feeling Open..
no one talks in the field in the 3rd XI...and when I do talk sledge a bit, just talk the captain tells me to shutup :S

no game again tomorrow. ****es me off.

 

[steds]

I'm losing my entusiasm for cricket now, last year i couldn't wait for Saturday, this year i spend most of Sunday and Monday deciding wether i really want to play anymore.

I got like that.

 

[The Baconator]

Water Orton CC 96-5 Hurst 3-32, Crampton 1-16
Sutton Coldfield CC 65 all out Russell 19, Crampton 9

Pretty pathetic display really. We were 42-1 after 6 overs but the middle order completely collapsed. I was batting 6 and as the run rate neede was rising deicded to go for it a bit. I probably went a bit too early, and I just holed out to a spectacular catch at mid-on.

I did get a wicket though, first for the club for 4 years, so my average is probably down to about 60 or 70. Their number 3 tried to smash it over mid wicket, but got a leading edge and gave me the simplest of return catches. The fielding wasn't up to much though, several stupid overthrows and a couple of dropped catches..

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

5-0-8-0 today, came on with the opposition openers 70 without loss after seven. We lost in the last over, as they made a mess of chasing 127 with their openers knocking off half the required runs in the first six overs.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Exeter 125 [39.2] - Harrold 57, Millington 22
Roborough 128-2 [19.4]

Ouch. We were four down very early on when I came in, which then became five down soon afterwards as I left my fifteenth ball, only to see it swing in and hit off stump. Less said the better.

 

[Kweek]

PSV Tegenbosch 125 all out [35] - Sharif 4/7 in 4. Weber 3/27 in 9 & 2 catches
VCC 108 all out [37] - Faqiri 30*,Vogelaar 12, Weber 11

oke at 8.50 I was vastly asleep, at 8.52 my mobile phone rang, next to my ear...with still my eyes closed I reached for the phone picked it up and said in the sleepiest voice I have...ello Tarick speaking. Hey Tarick, fancy a trip to beeping Eindhoven(120km away) were one short in the 2nd team. oke ? erm oke...oke cya in 5!
I ran as fast as I could to the shower, got showerd, packed my bag..and got into the car for a 1.5 hour trip to Eindhoven. today a warm day...and we lost the toss and fielded first.
few overs in I was fielding 2nd slip...edge..onto my chest...and got him! great stuff!
after 17 overs I was asked to bowl, and in my 4th over I took 2 wickets almost in a row(dotball inbetween) my 3rd wicket was a spinners dream..ball on midstump, turning sharp, finding the outside edge of the bat,into the keepers hand! was recieved with great joy! they dropped a catch of my bowling deep mid wicket, but didnt care that much.
I was fielding at short cover..and took a stunner of a catch...was really good, didnt know I could dive that well haha
so oke they were 125 all out. youngest kid in the team said; is we lose this i'll walk home..haha we said...
oke we got on crap 22/3 and eventually I came in at 66/8 at number 10...I batted defensively found the edge, got dropped once, you need that luck. If i'd stayed in and not get out on fulltoss on leg stump, I think we wouldve won! as when I went out we were on 106/9. 108 all out I couldve kicked myself.
but the most positive thing I can get out of this game is that I got my place in the 2nds! and they were all really happy with me.....feels good.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

County Cup Quarter-Final, 25 overs-a-side. Opposition are 100-3 of 15, game is under control. Since the off-spinner at the other end is having both batsmen in all sorts of trouble, having just bowled their opener, I come on to take even more pace off the ball.

My over: 4(nb)661004, full of full-tosses, long-hops and one peach of a leggie which was almost stumped. They ended up 204-5 off 25, we made 165-5. I feel so dejected .

 

[open365]

Awww, head up George, your a leggie, it's gonna happen at some stage.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

In the County Cup Quarters though... one of their batsman, to be fair, batted brilliantly albeit with short square boundaries, made 82 with eight sixes. 180 would have been par for 25 overs.

 

[Chubb]

Honiton II 258-9 (46ovs)
Upottery II 151 (43 ovs.Chubb 11)

Absolute joke. Now, I've lived in Honiton most of my life, but I've never played for them in any form of cricket. The reason? Well, Honiton's pitch is by far the ugliest I have ever seen in East Devon. Pickup's home ground ain't exactly a gem, but it's better than Honiton's which is basically a football pitch in the middle of an industrial estate (though the club house has good facilities) Besides, most of my friends at school played for Upottery. However, the captain of Honiton IIs, Ingy, is a friend of mine from school and so this was quite an important match for me, in a friendly rivalry sort of way.

For some bizarre reason, the club decided to drop Kellow, a man in the batting form of his life (he recently registered his first hundred in 30 years playing cricket) to accomodate me in the second XI. Then, the captain of the IIs decided to bat me at nine. I couldn't believe that. I went from opening the batting for the first team to batting in the tail for the IIs!

We had Honiton on the rack at 100-odd for 5, but their lower order, including Rice, whose father and little brother play for us and who once played Tybalt to my Lord Capulet in our school's Romeo and Juliet got them up to 250+.

We weren't too concerned about that because the IIs batting has been firing all summer. However, this time it didn't come off and I found myself walking in on 134-7 with ten overs left. In the DCL there is a rule that states you have to reach two thirds of your opponent's score to get points for a draw, and so 173 was my target. I hit my second ball for 4 and was batting confidently when I drove the ball at a twelve-year-old fielding at cover. I didn't call, because it went at him fast and he got behind it, but the non-striker came charging down the pitch, and left me stranded.

It was my call, and I didn't call it. I was angry. I am 90% sure I would have taken us to the losing draw points. It was extremely disappointing and has compromised the IIs position in the D Division East.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Having bowled out Honiton U12 for 22 earlier this season, I'm surprised he got behind it...

Won't argue about that ground being ugly as, though. I do take issue about your abuse of the County Ground, mind. What else do you expect us to do in the middle of a city? It's a nicer ground than St James or Alphington have, after all...

 

[Kweek]

2nd XI bowling figures this year

1/34 of 10, 3/4 of 2, 0/33 of 4(1 maiden :$) 3/27 of 10, 2/30 of 10, 3/31 of 10

so thats 12 wickets @ 13.25 a piece with 3.45 per over...
certainly most wickets as a spinner this year in 2nds, and they are still discussing if I should play :S WTF !