Thursday, January 27, 2011

Cricket prospects this week

This weekend sees the start of the season for Joe and Ben my sons in that they'll be attending their first pre-season Nets at this new venue - James Hornsby school (see below)which is just round the corner from where we live which is good as last year we had to drive miles to get to the other place which was a couple of towns away. This is also where my net sessions will be on Monday nights meaning that I've now left Grays and Chadwell cc and have joined Joe and Ben at Basildon & Pitsea.



Back in the MPA 1st XI days we used to hire this hall and it's going to be interesting to see if they've equipped the hall with any new gear, as there were only two really flimsy bowling mats that had seen better days. The thing we liked about this hall was that the three nets that pulled out down the centre left two big bays either side of the 3 nets, which could also be used and it's very light in there. The only gripe about the venue was the mats and the stumps. So I'm looking forward to seeing how Joe and Ben get on with their first session on Sunday and I'm looking forward to having a bit of a bowl with the Basildon blokes who I've yet to bowl at.

Spring watch

As I get on the train now in the evenings there's a glimmer of light at 5pm even if its cloudy. I had a look at the paddock and it's looking dismal but it is at its lowest ebb at the minute. The through traffic that we had last year seems to have not been such a problem this winter which is good, but I've got a feeling there's going to be increased use of the paddock this summer by kids that are playing football.

I've found a good website with details about preparing the wicket here -

http://www.cag.org.uk/docs/Keith%20Boyce%20-%20THE%20CRICKET%20SQUARE.htm

The Rec

I'd like to get over to the disused Tennis court more this spring with Joe and Ben and get their mates more involved which is a definite prospect as two of them have started to play cricket at their school and their level of interest in the sport has increased. Plus at the end of last season Suhail was up for joining in and hopefully he'll be around as well, so we may be able to get a few people in there and get some stuff going on.