More practice - Pre nets

Langdon Hills Recreation Ground - Tennis courts

Was the venue for a practice today for Joe and I

This is a vid from a few years ago when the place was in a fairly good condition when the fences were sound and the tarmac in reasonable condition. In the last few years Basildon Council have seemingly let it fall into a state of disrepair which is a real shame as there's very few places in the area where you can play ball games within a fairly large area and contain the ball. It seems really daft when the government are aware that the population is increasingly sedentary and inactive and obesity and the likes means the NHS pick up the cost - that's paid through taxes. But, how is anyone going to engage in sport if the facilities are not there?

Anyway that aside - what with the surface being so rough I thought it might be a challenge to try and bat on it and sure enough it was. The surface is badly damaged by frost and is ROUGH so with Joe bowling Off-Breaks using relatively bouncy Bola balls (Red ones) I had problems. Right Arm Off-Spin is one of the things I come across a lot as a tail ender and is one of the things I really struggle with so this challenge is one of the key ones I need to come up with solutions to. In the end I came up with a couple of solutions...

(1). Standing right on the edge of the crease if not just out of it which is risky, but I seemed to be pulling it off the majority of the time by giving myself a far better chance of getting to the pitch of the ball and either hitting it cleanly or just smothering it.

(2). Again - staying with the same stance and position just outside of the crease - creep forwards a touch encouraging the bowler to bowl fuller and then hitting on the full with a drive or stepping back if it was short and cutting it off the back foot.

As I said for the most part it worked and I was probably successful 19 out of 20 times during which I was hitting the ball effectively - meaning that I'd be making runs and getting off of strike, all of which is a massive improvement on previous years. I'm definitely hitting the ball exponentially more than I have ever done and doing so with far more confidence so I'm really looking forward to May when the season starts.