It's been a while...

So I thought I'd get up to speed on here. Since 8th May, I have played a game for the Uni side, a midweek game for my club back home, and nothing since then. But all will be explained...

Uni game. Bowled first, I came on after about 7 overs. Facing a decent batsman that I had earlier dropped, hard chance mind you! Also previously ran the wrong way to field the ball at long-on, could barely see anything from the sun. Sorry Ryan... But anyway, came on, and my fir

st over was fairly on the spot, went for about 7 though. Second over, beat the batsman in the flight, but Joe couldn't get to the stumping (it had turned down leg, after pitching about middle, difficult take!) and so he lived on. For 2 balls, when he slapped a full toss straight down the fielder's throat at long on. Shit takes wickets n' all that. The ball was fairly difficult to grip because of the rain before the game, so inevitably a few full tosses came out, which (probably) I wouldn't have normally bowled! Picked up another one in my 3rd over, slapped for a 4 and a few singles as well. Ended well for me though. 3-0-15-2. Will happily take that! Didn't do much with the bat, out for 2 I think after Sir Garfield called me through for one which may have been there, but didn't feel like it at the time! Best moment of the day was definitely Karl's reverse-sweep for 4 off the final ball. Outstanding tekkers. Lost by 20 runs or so.

Ahh, the midweek game. Where the problems started. We batted first, I was next

man in at the end (as usual!) and we scored 93 off our 16 overs. Then, after fielding for 5 overs at point, I got one hit out to me on the bounce, and in trying to get underneath it to pick it up, I dislocated my finger! Bollocks! Whisked off to hospital by one of the WAGs (well, the only one there) and got it popped back in place, at the expense of an awful lot of swearing. Fuck it hurt! Here is an x-ray of the offending digit...

As you can see it is fairly out of place! And for the past 2 weeks I have been resting it, and I've declared myself fit for the weekend. Bored out of my skins at the weekend since!

On a boring note, Uni's almost finished. My year abroad placements are in Binic (in Brittany), and the Alps. Sweet Jesus I am excited. That's about it for this update though. Ciao!

What the funk?!

You know when you have one of those days where fuck all goes right? Yeah, I had one of them. Where to start... Well, my train was cancelled, so I had to wait an hour. Then, I realised I'd left my sun-cream, water and breakfast in Hull, so I was thirsty, hungry and prone to burning like Rich Clarke... Oh well! Got to the ground, to find it was drier than we thought it would be. Had a bowl at Sam in the nets beforehand, and felt in good touch. So we lost the toss and were put into bat. Looked a good toss to lose, was hard underfoot. Raky and Andy put on 75, SEVENTY-FIVE! For the first wicket. In 15 overs. Which, for us, is like a miracle. a) an opening partnership, and b) actual quick runs! Andrew was out first, and Rakesh the next over. Sam and Deegs put on 32, before Deegs got out to a fairly piss-poor decision. And from there we just, well, collapsed. I walked in at 124-6, and everyone else hit out (and got out), whilst I couldn't find my timing, and couldn't force the pace against some of the better bowlers we've faced this year. 142/10, myself left not out with a gutsy (by which I mean "horribly out of form and couldn't get the ball off the fucking square) 4 off 25 balls. Test-match.

Teas were quality. Standard Owmby!

Ahh, to the field. Danny started off with some really good areas, and got the well deserved wicket of their opener (another shit LBW shout, but still...) and then quickly followed it up with the other opener, a much better delivery beating his outside edge and hitting top of off. I was brought on as first change, after 10 overs, and picked up a wicket in my first over. Back through the gate, and it trickled onto the stumps. My next 3 overs were a mixture of some very good balls (beating the edge, leading edges, etc) and one bad ball an over, duly punished. 4 overs, 1-15. My 5th over was a whole different story. First ball, blocked back. Second ball, swept to deep square for 1. 3rd ball, short and cut for 4. 4th ball, legside and slogged for 6. 5th ball, low full toss drilled through cover. 6th ball, good length ball driven for 4. Arse. 5 overs, 1-34. "Have a rest Ben" came the inevitable call. Ah well, we all have bad days. This was the first real bad one I've had for the best part of 2 years, so I can't really complain... On the up side, I had a blinder in the field for the first 26 overs, the last 2 overs I missed one that I should have stopped (considering I view myself as a very good fielder when I get my head down), saved about 10 runs in the point area. So it wasn't a truly terrible day, it's just that my main ability let me down. Oh well.

Got 2 matches next weekend, a midweek game on Wednesday (16 8-ball overs!) and maybe another game tomorrow. Need some improvement! Will update sometime this week. BT x

Finally, a win!

So I played 2 games this weekend. Saturday, at home, against Alkborough. hadn't lost against them in 6 years leading up to this game. Won the toss, and in similar conditions to last week, bowled again. Argh, why?! Anyway, our opening bowlers haemorrhaged runs. Again. After 8 overs, when I came on, they were 50-0. My first 4 overs went for 13, bringing a semblance of calm to the game. I was brought off after 6 overs, to try and change things up, but the seam attack just got smashed around the park, so I was brought back on. I picked up a wicket in my 11th over, cleaning up the opener with an arm-ball. There was a little bit of spin, not a lot, and a bit of bounce when you looked for it, but quite low when you didn't. The opener made 73 off 96. The other lad was unperturbed, and went on to record a very well made century. The number 3 (who really wasn't a number 3 I don't think, he didn't look like he could bat a lot) played across the line to me and I cleaned him up. I bowled through, and they ended up on 221-2 off 45. I dropped the centurion off the last ball of my spell, didn't pick up the ball til late on, and it was probably the keeper's catch, but I still should have held it. My figures were 15-2-55-2, quite good considering the total innings RR was almost 5/over!

Teas were, once again, outstanding. As usual!

In reply, we lost Sam for a duck, and then Andy and Kev put on 80 for the 2nd wicket. When Kev was out for 33, Ciaran came in, and went on to score a run a ball 40. However, this is where the problems began. Their skipper is a notorious pie chucker, but also a wicket-taker. His array of full tosses, long-hops and the occasional length ball did for our batting. He ran through the middle order on his way to 12-0-56-7. I wandered in with us on 157-7. I lost Pete the next over, and Dan an over afterwards, leaving us 168-9 needing to stay 9 down, otherwise they would get all 20 points. I managed to safely navigate it, along with the Doc. I ended up 8* off 17 balls. Never in any real trouble, as I seemed to be the only one capable of not swinging across the line or playing another silly shot... So that didn't go how I planned it! On to Sunday then!

So, Sunday away at North Scarle. And it was in the middle of nowhere. Looked like a random field as well, terrible wicket. Moss on it and everything! We lost the toss and batted first. Sam was out for 10, and then Ben B followed 5 overs later for 13. Neil was out for a very hard-grafted 10, and wickets tumbled at a slow but steady rate, with me walking in at 99-6, on a hattrick ball, and 3 wickets going down for no runs. I survived the hattrick ball, and between me, Pete and Charlie, we put on 16 runs in the last 4 overs, taking us to 115/7. I got one ball that pitched full, and got up and hit me in the grille! Had no idea what was going on. Contrasting that was Ben B's dismissal, out LBW to a pea-roller! Very tough pitch. ended up 2* off 10, couldn't pierce the field!

Teas were truly dreadful, I got there and there were 3 ham sandwiches, some egg, and cheese savoury? What the hell is that?! A few bits of cake and that was it. Barely enough for 1 side, nevermind 2. Bollocks.

Got into the field, and with Ben B back, we had a feeling he could go through their batting line-up. And so it proved. With our premier quick bowler back, we ran through them like a dream. Their collapse from 11-0 to 29-9 was stuff of real, real village cricket! Ben bowled his way to figures of 8-2-10-7, and his younger brother Jamie bowled equally well to figures of 6-2-10-2. I took one catch in the field, and saved a few runs by diving about on the minefield. Dan picked up the final wicket to bowled them out for 40. In short, a well deserved win, nice to get off the mark in the wins column this year!

Only one game next week, at home to Cleethorpes 3rds, need to get a win in the Saturday league to get us going! Ciao for now! x