Your English Cricket Season: 2008

[Goughy]

Well Ive arrived at the tailend of the Bulgarian cricket season but managed to get 2 games in this Sunday and Monday.

Both were against a touring team from the UK. I got games with the British Embasy team and the Bulgarian National Sports Academy (effectively the National team)


Sunday
Touring Team- 120 all out (25.4 overs) Kev Gough 3-3-0-3

Ambassoders XI- 110-8 (26 overs) Kev Gough 54 retired (a silly rule that stopped us winning the game)

It was a dodgy track so I came off 5 steps and only bowled 3 overs as we could have rolled them for about 30-40 and in the spirit we bowled our 'lesser' bowlers to give them a decent total. Their skipper came in and took our less experienced bowlers apart and gave thema good score on a tough track.

Monday
Touring Team- 180-6 (35 overs) Kev Gough 7-3-12-1 (or something like that)

Bulgarian National Sports Academy- 183-3 (33.2 overs) Kev Gough 97

Heart want really in this game and took it very easy bowling. Didnt think Id last whilst batting but it came pretty easy after a lazy start. Got out with 7 needed to win playing a silly shot. Only after I was out did they count up and found out I was on 97. Bugger

Nice tour and good to split the games 1 each. Great to see English teams pioneering by touring cricketing outpots like Bulgaria

 

[Richard]

Never posted in this thread before but I think it's time for a bump and an update of the title for someone more empowered than me...

In the first season I'm likely to be able to play properly for 5 years (2003 was the previous and only one) I started today by taking 8-22-0. Have bowled much better on other occasions, but several things satisfy me:

1. No Beamers in 50 deliveries (2 wides in there).
2. Felt little less comfortable in my 8th as my 1st, which has pretty well never happened before - proof, I hope, that the gym work I've been doing the last 2 years is finally starting to have the effect I'd hoped it might.
3. Bowled an OK line and, especially, length (probably not as good as the figures suggest - the batsmen, while perfectly competent, were far from the sort of standard I'd consider a stiff test for a bowler of my ability) for the whole spell.
4. Am now sitting here without any stiffness at all, something that's never happened - ever - after a first-bowl-of-season. Which suggests that for the first time ever, I warmed-up properly for the opening bowl of a season.
5. For a first bowl of the season, that wasn't too bad.
6. Bowled in spikes for the first time since colt level (2001) and had no side-effects. In fact I think they helped, and I've found myself asking "why TF didn't I use these for the last 5 seasons?"

Still, of course, much that wasn't great - we were playing amongst showers early on, meaning the ball got damp and barely swung from my 3rd over onwards. This, inevitably, meant a fair few balls went down leg, and were mostly missed by the right-hand batsman. Those that missed the pads as well might easily have been called wide by a stricter Umpire, and had they been so I'd have had no complaints at all. However, it just so happened that the standing-Umpire was... yes, my Dad, an ex-bowler, and he's always been very understanding towards bowlers on the wide issue. The lack of swing also meant I offered little threat, and though I'm always of the economy >>>>> wicket-taking in the limited-over game mindset, obviously wickets >>>>>> no wickets. The nearest I came to a wicket was my 4th over in which I persuaded the left-hand batsmen to edge a flat-footed drive at a leg-cutter (would be an off-cutter to the right-hander) into the gully area, which fell fairly comfortably short.

Also, I'd be a fool if I pretended I didn't bowl at a relatively nice time - as soon as I finished my 8 overs, the first wicket fell, and an Australian lad who was clearly an overseas semi-pro intent on warming-up for the season walked to the wicket and promptly smashed 45 from 28 balls. Now, of course, he might have hit one from me straight up or nicked one of my early away-swingers to the wicketkeeper had he come in and faced me. But more likely he'd have butchered me as he was butchering all our bowlers until he was held by a superlative boundary catch off... yes, the famed 69-year-old Jeffrey Stanyer, who promptly took 3-34 (7) with his famed 30mph-ish off-breaks.

Oh, yeah, they scored 189 for 8 and won easily - we replied with 150 for 4. But that meant I didn't even need pad-up, and it was nothing more than a friendly. So overall, I was happy enough with the start to the season. Neil Pickup might recognise the name of the club we were playing at too - Thorverton CC.

 

[Richard]

Oh, yeah also... found-out Aaron Redmond was apparently groundsman at my club back in 1998 earlier today. Used to play a bit too, they say - apparently on 3 seperate occasions was found drunk in the bushes at 7 or 8 AM, then walked in and smashed 60s and 70s in a game later that day.

This was the year before I joined said club, however, so the truth of such stories I cannot 100% vouch for.

Which might vaguely interest the Kiwis, who are probably not reading this thread. So will also post elsewhere.

 

[Chubb]

I love this thread. Before I started posting in it I had never made a score of more than 40 in a cricket match. It has been a record of the two best cricketing summers of my life. There have been highs and there have been lows, but this thread has always allowed me to analyse them, and recall the good times, or the times when things were worse. UEA IIs played their first match today and lost by 5 wickets thanks to a fairly inept batting performance- hopefully I can get a shot in the next game on Wednesday. I umpired both ends of this match for 73 overs. I had a really good games actually, I didn't make any poor decisions.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Rich - any chances of any names for the Thorvy players? Would like to know how various faces are getting on. Will be back down in Devon next weekend, plenty of catching up to do.

Personally...

Bicester & North Oxford IV 123-7 (Pagan 41)
Bicester & North Oxford III 124-3 (Booker 52*)

Always nice to start the season with a win, against a 4th side that also featured a bit of the 2nd team. Kept for 40 overs, one bye, one catch, no broken fingers, pretty tidy throughout, and wasn't needed in the seven-wicket win, which was under more threat from the bank of cloud building over the M40 than any bowling.

 

[Richard]

Rich - any chances of any names for the Thorvy players? Would like to know how various faces are getting on.

Not often much use at remembering names upon first meet. Sorry. Don't think I even heard more than 2 or 3 actually TBH, one of whom was an extremely lanky 15\16-year-old bowler who outdid even me on the Beamer front - fortunately it was too high to be of any danger.

Think the fellow who was skippering this Sunday XI was a left-handed opening batsman who looked decent for someone who must've been 50 or near-as-damn-it. Not sure if that rings any bells.

Will be back down in Devon next weekend, plenty of catching up to do.

Planning on watching anything at the County Ground? Though I'm actually not sure whether Jeff's got a game here, away, league, friendly or not at all this weekend.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Not often much use at remembering names upon first meet. Sorry. Don't think I even heard more than 2 or 3 actually TBH, one of whom was an extremely lanky 15\16-year-old bowler who outdid even me on the Beamer front - fortunately it was too high to be of any danger.

Think the fellow who was skippering this Sunday XI was a left-handed opening batsman who looked decent for someone who must've been 50 or near-as-damn-it. Not sure if that rings any bells.

Planning on watching anything at the County Ground? Though I'm actually not sure whether Jeff's got a game here, away, league, friendly or not at all this weekend.

From experience of fielding said beamers, the bowler will have been either Jamie Farrell or Rhodes. Opening bat will have been Alan Birmingham, who opens for the IIs and scored a lot of runs last season, setting a platform for the rest of us to piss away.

Plan is County Ground Saturday, whoever's around, County Ground Sunday morning to catch up with the Colts, then Thorverton Sunday for TCC v University 4ths.

 

[Richard]

Farrell sounds vaguely familiar, though I'd not want to vouch for that in court.

 

[Richard]

Well, perhaps incredibly, I've now put in 2 good performances on the trot, something I've not done for quite a few years. Better still, I bowled 13 overs off the reel and didn't and don't feel remotely tired. Proof that one of the pieces of work I've put in over the winter has worked the way I was hoping it would, which is particularly satisfying.

Must be said, things went my way, as they usually need to for players at this level - had a beautiful cricket-ball, again one of the best I've had for years, swung from 1st to 30th over and barely lost the shine, never mind got dull. I'll be holding-on to that for a while yet. Also had a very nice breeze, for which I got the right end, that helped my outswinger enormously. I also ran in downhill a little. The pitch was awful for batting - no pace, and hopelessly uneven. And with a couple of exceptions, the batsmen weren't particularly great shakes. The number-nine who had a decent technique for keeping out straight balls and missing wide ones (aged I reckon 65 at the youngest) being possibly the 3rd-best batsman in the side says a bit.

For this reason, I was actually somewhat annoyed I didn't get more than 13-29-3. If I'd got more balls straight I could very easily have had 7 or 8, as no-one else bowled terribly well either. The ball swung throughout my spell, I was the only one who got it to do much, and I must've induced at least 30 play-and-misses. And they did manage to get bat on many straight ones. And I didn't manage to get enough balls as full as I was aiming to get every single one. And my 1st wicket (which took 5 overs) was from a shocking leg-side Full-Toss that was somehow top-edged in a swirling catch to long-leg (for Neil's benefit - Jahad Ahmed made an excellent take there).

Nonetheless, the fact that I managed to bowl 13 overs without difficulty - either feeling like I'm about to collapse or having tiredness cause me to start bowling 4 wides per over - pleases me greatly. Hopefully if I can net more I might improve my straight-ball ratio. That - and the ever-elusive reverse-swing - is my next target.

 

[Chubb]

UEA IIs 329-6 (D. Sargeant 130*, M. Gilbert 45, D. Littlehales 25, Chubb 24*)
De Montfort IIs 179 a/o

This was the most one-sided BUSA match I have seen. De Montfort had ten players, many of whom had hardly played cricket, thanks to a first-team crisis. We, on the other hand, had an exceptionally strong batting line-up thanks to the addition of Sargeant, who plays for Clacton Is in the East Anglian Premier League. Initially, at least, it was a contest, because although the pitch was quite hard and bouncy the odd ball did something off the pitch. Despite this Sargeant made batting look easy. It was like a stroll in the park for a player who has faced bowling attacks in one of the strongest club leagues in England. De Montfort did themselves no favours by bowling about 60 wides and fielding risibly. I came out to bat at 271-6 with five overs left, and just hit the ball around a bit- I make no great claims for this innings because by this stage they had given up, though I did play some nice shots. Of course the result was never really in doubt during De Montfort's innings, although it took us time to kill them off because we came in a bowler short.

I have now "cemented" my place in the team for Sunday's match at Derby. However, I have done this at the expense of my housemate Matt, who scored 7* in the match against Bedford and has done nothing wrong. The captain (who is also my housemate) seems to believe he can't score quickly. It is easier to score quickly at 271-6 than at 78-6. I feel sorry for him because it is our final year. I also feel bad because I turned down a match for Hutton VI with my grandad for a chance to play for Norfolk League side Norwich and Coltishall Wanderers. I love playing for Hutton but I have to try to test myself- I averaged 50 from 4 games for them last year, something I've never done for anyone before, and I will only ever play in the Sixth team because I'm not based in Essex. I still feel bad about it despite the justifications.

 

[Richard]

Forgot to mention - Sunday after the Saturday game mentioned in my previous post, took somewhat disappointing figures of 9-45-1 (following 2 Beamers off the opening 2 balls of the match, dismissed the batsman plumb lbw 1st legit ball, and later found-out he was an England Schools opener and wicketkeeper, so was vaguely pleased with that). Apart from the 2 Beamers, my 3rd over went for 11 and my 9th for 14. The rest of the spell (7-16-1) was damn good.

Played for Devon Dumplings too on Wednesday, again disappointing, 3 excellent overs without ever feeling particularly good, then a poor over, and didn't bowl again as we were defeated by 10 wickets (4 dropped catches, including 1 off the last ball of my abysmal 4th over).

Disappointed at the lack of input so far this season TBH. Dickinson, Pickup and Chubb exclusive club so far.

 

[Shoggz]

Well, weather permitting, I will be making my debut for Willoughby 2nds on Sunday.

Not too remarkable you might think?

However, at the age of 43 and not having played competitive cricket for over 20 years, I'm really quite pleased!

I had actually simply taken my son along to the indoor nets where the junior teams were training alonsgide their senior counterparts as he has caught the bug and wants to play. I started off purely watching, but after 10 minutes my curiosity got the better of me. Could I still bowl at any sort of pace or accuracy? I've played in the garden with the kids with a tennis ball, but of course that gives no indication for what you can do with the real thing on a 22 yard strip.

I hesitantly asked if I could have a go and after bowling two beamers to begin with, gradually managed to get the ball in or around the right place!

By the end of the evening I was even managing to get a little away swing, with the moral victory of getting the 1st team captain to edge one behind! I'll be the first to admit the pace will be down significantly from when I was in my early 20s, but I was simply pleased that I could get the thing in or around where I wanted to - (with the odd ball sprayed at head height or down the leg side to be fair!)

Thinking no more of it, I came along the next week - but this time I got stuck in straight from the start and really enjoyed it. One thing that makes it easier for me is that I have kept myself fit. I go to the gym every weekday and have always been a keen runner - doing probably 15 - 20 miles a week.

So, the upshot is that I have been asked to play on Sunday. I'm sure they must be short of numbers or something, as I can't believe I'd be picked otherwise! Having said that, I'm just pleased at my age to actually get playing again and whatever happens on Sunday I'm going to enjoy myself.

Oh, and as I haven't done any batting at all in this new cricketing chapter, it'll be interesting to see what happens with that..!

 

[Richard]

Great to hear.

 

[PhoenixFire]

BRCC u-15s v Hall Park u-15s

Hall Park beat Ben Rhydding by about 60 runs.

Ouch. It really should have been more. They batted first and lost a few early wickets, but their opener played pretty well and got 53*. They got to abour 120 in their 20 overs, helped along by some **** fielding and bowling by BRCC. I opened and played OK for 21 (top scoring) before playing a **** shot and getting out, we sadly capitulated to about 60 AO.

Tomorrow: BRCC 2s v Silsden 2s.

We are going to get slaughtered.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Dear me, we did get slaughtered

BRCC 2s 80 (45.3) - Silsden 2s 83 -1 (22.4)

We batted first and lost our first 4 wickets without scoring a run I cam in and batted 27 overs for 34, and I CBA telling the rest as it is just too depressing.

 

[Richard]

Shocking performance from Exeter Thirds earlier today, in which I may not have been chiefly at fault but was certainly involved.

Fielding first, I noticed my bowling boots had broken as I warmed-up. I thought "maybe they might last this match". Wrong. During my 2nd over I had to go off and allow someone else to complete it and change my footwear, as the rubber flapping around made running in as good as impossible.

Bowling in trainers, without the foothold I'd been enjoying throughout this season, I bowled the most fearful heap of crap for a while. Averaged about two short deliveries per over, more of which than not got hit pretty well. I was fortunate that one of them also got pulled straight to the square-leg fielder, and one vaguely satisfying moment came when I was slogged for a few and had a few rubbish balls hit by their number-four. I changed tack (took me longer than I'd hope it would - about 4 or 5 deliveries) from my normal wide-of-the-crease-swing-from-outside-leg-to-off line to bowling much closer to the stumps and aiming outside off, forcing him to reach for it. After swishing and missing 3 balls in a row, he swung one to mid-off. However, I still bowled too short of the rest of my spell and none of the rest of our seamers could escape from wide-o-mania - in 44 overs, we conceded 27 in wides. My part was 7.2-43-2.

The most annoying facet of our performance, however, was our shocking fielding. Misfields came aplenty, including from myself, and byes were not far behind wides. Worst of all though was the drop at slip from my bowling which allowed one of the few decent batsmen in their side to score 109* - 84 more than anyone else in their innings. Had that catch been held, we'd have had them for 140, very possibly even less.

And after looking decent to chase 250 in 48 for a short time, we then fell in a heap against their opening bowlers... and missed the chance to cash-in against two of the worst change bowlers (both first and second) I've ever seen. 135ao.

I've rarely been more annoyed at the loss of a league match. However, I'd be even more annoyed if I wasn't feeling greatful to have my family still intact, having come fairly close to losing both my mum and my sister in a RTA this morning.

 

[GIMH]

I hope they are okay Rich!

 

[Richard]

Yep, no more than a few bruised ribs and a scratch or three respectively. But there's one of the others involved still in intensive-care, a family friend. We're just hoping she pulls through. And that could very easily have been either Mum or Sarah.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Wow, sounds terrible, I hope your friend is OK.

 

[Richard]

Thankfully, the answer now appears to be "yes".

Played once more today - emergency call-up 4 hours before the meet for the game - and after an excellent first 5 overs (cost about 9-11) was slogged hugely in my next 2 and ended-up with 7-40-1. First 5 overs were superb, got plenty of outswing APU and edges and play-and-misses by the truckload. Ironically enough, as so often, my wicket came from a shocking delivery and an even more shocking shot, when my 3rd delivery was cut to cover.

Disappointingly, my attemps at out-thinking the fellow who was swinging wildly were thwarted by my lack of skills - I could not hit the lengths I was aiming at and often bowled too short and too full simualtaneously. Fortunately that fellow was the only half-decent batsman in the side and his 60 from 48 balls could not stop his side being dismantled for 100 by our fine seam and left-arm-fingerspin attack. The fielding was possibly the best I've ever been involved in, with 5 stunning catches, some brilliant groundwork and 3 almost impossible catches very nearly held (all by the same person, who later took 1 of the aforementioned 5 screamers).

We made heavy-weather of the chase, losing 4 for virtually nothing as last Sunday, but eventually cantered home by 2 wickets (we had just 10 players). So that's 2 Sunday League wins - and it damn well should be 4 League (Sat and Sun) out of 4.