Good Leg Break day
I tried to - I really did. I really tried to make today a fairly low key cricket day so as to not wind Michelle up. I held out till around 1.30pm when I felt compelled to go and mow the "Local Field". So armed with my shears and the lawnmower Iwent over cut another foot of the long grass closer to the other end and mowed the nice short bit into which I bowl. It looks lovely. Luckily enough I had some stumps with me and threw a few overs before going back home. That worked out fine - didn't impact on any family aspect to life, so got away with it!

Took the boys swimming and met up with my mate Thomas it just so happened I had a hockey ball with me so we spent 20 minutes or so outside the swimming pool bowling the ball back and forth to each other trying to get it to turn. Normally he's a wanna be fast bowler with a dodgey looking action, but today he was trying to get it to spin and he sussed it - left arm wrist spin - like a Leg break to a left handed batsman and he could do it really quite well! I was really surprised at how good he was doing it!

From there we went back to my gaff for a Bar B Que and somewhere along the way the status quo disintegrated and it seemed to be my fault. So what do you do in these situations? Yep you go and bowl and that makes me feel much better but really winds other people up - not just Michelle but my mate Thomas's wife as well. So both kind of really enthused by the affectiveness of bowling back and forth to each other using the Hockey Ball on tarmac/concrete we continued outside my house in the road. This was going okay but I was still not getting a lot of turn with my Leg Breaks and then I thought what if I turn my hand in a position whereby I'm actually trying to spin the ball so it spins back to me?

What I've been trying to do is flick the ball so that it rotates out of my hand in the neccessary anti-clockwise direction and so far this has improved my Leg Break in that sometimes it comes up with a little bit of a Leg Break. But it's not easy and the turn isn't that much. So outside my house with Thomas I thought what might happen that if I do the flick in the same way that Peter Philpott suggests at the early stages of trying to learn the Leg break. Page 23.....

"Try two methods. One is, as we have already discussed, spinning it from right hand to left hand. The other is to hold it out in front of your body and spin it back towards your chest".

He then says "I'll come back to that later". What I've been doing is the spin from right to left with the results described above. But half recalling Philpotts notion that you turn the angle of your wrist to vary the Top-spinner, The small Leg Break and the Big Leg break I had this ephiphanal realisation that the side to side wrist action might be the small Leg Break which is what I'm getting and another turn which in affect is you're trying to spin the ball back into you as described above. So I tried it - the arm comes over but you then do the "Spin back into your body" wrist action and off went the ball floating through the sky it pitched in front of Thomas he raised his hands to catch the ball and then - Oh my God it turned an absolute mile - a country mile as you lot say! The ball came back to me and I tried it again and it worked and again and again. At last after nearly 2 years I've got it sussed I reckon - I can now bowl a big Leg Break!

So tonight I've come back indoors and followed up Philpotts "I'll come back to that later". On page 34 he says.....

"Remember in stage one, I spoke about of the 2 types of spin practice as you begin. One where you spin the ball backwards towards your chest, the other form the right hand over the top to the left hand. Well the first is the maximum side spin practice and the other is over the top practice".

So it's the spinning back in towards yourself that is the wrist technique that gives you the Big Leg Break. So it seems I've arrived, I am now apotential Leg Spin Bowler and already I've told Little Joe my 6 year old son to start spinning the ball in towards himself!

So the bar b que happened and the atmosphere was slightly strained made far worse by the act that we'd gone outside and bowled for 15 minutes. After the Bar B que with the light fading Thomas and I went over to the "Local Field" with the stumps and had another go. Again it was quite successful. I'm not going to quite declare myself a Leg Spinner yet and I'm going to see how things go tomorrow, but I am optimistic because on the grass I was getting it to turn.



The quotes here are taken from Peter Philpotts "The Art of Wrist Spin Bowling" published by crowood. Pages 23 and 34. ISBN 1-86126-063-6.

The version with photo's in can be found at www.mpafirsteleven.blogspot.com

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Grays & Chadwell CC V's Horton Kirby CC
 I had a look on the internet where this was and the website kind of gave an impression that it was a fair looking ground, but then when I got there I was quite surprised - it was a lovely ground just near the River Darenth . The day was pretty amazing for May 11th - back to back blue skies and 27-28 degrees - lovely!



I got there before everyone else which was odd as I'd left home late, but then I use maps rather crapnav or whatever it everyone uses (The thing that sends ambulances 200 miles off course etc). I had a wander around and took a load of pictures and realised that this was one venue Michelle, Ben and Joe could have come along to especially if they'd bought the bikes as they could have just cycled around and explored. The surrounding countryside was beautiful.
While I was out taking pic's the rest of the Crew turned up and I found them already looking a bit weary in the bar moaning about it being too hot to play! I've been waiting all winter for weather like this!

The Captains went for the toss and think we won and Neil chose to field first much to the surprise of the other capt.

This is where I'm not sure whether I'm going to be dragged into the whole stats thing with cricket and whether the blog is a good place for it and what's going to be too much or too little. Anyway unlike 2 weeks ago I had my note book and took a few notes as well as pictures. I've got to say I know there's a few readers out there who take cricket pictures and they're going to be casting a critical eye over these images. I'll just state my case here in my defence. I'm not a sports photographer and today I was only using a 28-80 zoom so there was no way I was ever going to get a good shot anyway. I did shoot a load of "Action" images but I've only included one which you'll see later and I had to Photo-shop that as the ball was lower and was merged among the bushes, I've cloned it so that it's more visible in the sky.

So, Lovejoy was the first up for us bowling with the wind behind him running in from the pavillion end. We had 5 bowlers, 8 overs each and again sorry I still haven't sussed everyone's Christian names yet. Nick Buckley was the wicket keeper. Lovejoy's a fast bowler and he started off well bowling nice and consistently and by the end of his spell he'd had a maiden, no wickets and restricted the runs to 37 off his 8 overs. The fielding was a bit lack lustre with people seemingly not putting there all into it and getting a bit of verbal off the captain - Lee Downes in particular. I was crap as well - the ground unlike the previous match at Loughton - in - the - Rain which was a marsh almost was rock hard here having had a week or so of hot weather, so you kind of feel less inclined to dive even though I did once half heartedly. But worse was my now starting to feel as though it's healing thumb was being pounded by people throwing the ball from one to another as the bowlers walked back to their starting points - including me. Worse still half the time it was coming out of the sun and I must have dropped it about 15 times just catching it from a few yards away.

Along with Lovejoy we had bowling into the wind "Super Dave" and he bowled very well producing 2 maidens and getting 2 wickets with 38 runs made against him. He took some bloke called D. Chamber which Sammers caught and P. White that Lovejoy caught. Then the spinners took over starting with Neil downwind and the Pomphrett bloke bowling into the wind. The Pomphrett bloke is an older bloke (Older than me even) but probably has loads of experience, they both bowled seemingly quite well. The Pomphrett blokes bowling looked clever, looking so much slower than Sammers but bowling short thus tempting the batsmen out of the crease to really have a go at it and he drew 2 of their blokes D.Bull and B.Bull forward of their crease so that Nick Buckley the keeper had their stumps, made it look easy - experience counts for a lot in this game I reckon? The bloke D.Bull was looking for his hundred as he'd reached 92 at the point of being dismissed.

Then I was called in to bowl from the field end into the wind. That didn't help psycologically and additionally because of the less than relaxed atmosphere at home this morning I didn't dare pick up a cricket ball and have a practice this morning as I'd liked to have had done! So I was straight in there cold as such. Thinking about it I should have spent 10 minutes or so bowling in the outfield rather than walking around taking tourist board pictures of Picturesque Kent? So up I came and bowled a heap of crap. Wide after wide after wide, by the end of the 2nd over I thought I'd have been taken off, probably would have done if there'd been other bowling options? But Neil kept me on encouraging me saying don't worry about it and good bowling when it did go right. I think in either the 2nd or 3rd over I bowled 4 consecutive wides. At which point I gave up trying to bowl wrong uns hoping that I'd get them to turn and started to bowl straight balls - top spinners and then it started to come together a bit.

Meanwhile Pomph was given the other end and finished off his overs and Neil and me finished off the the last few overs. Eventually getting into the groove a bit I got a ball to go down the Legside and the bloke - Pellatt hit the ball towards Mid wicket and Neil was there to catch it, as it flew towards him I remembered the game at Loughton and his 3 consecutive drops, but he was safe this time! My first wicket of the season. In the next over I bowled a top spinner straight down the middle and hit the middle stump just at the bails dismissing N.Toomey. So I got 2 and had 54 runs scored against me with about 58 wides or something (10 I think)? So just a bit of room to improve I'd say? Neil took another bloke - B.Lane clean bowled. Neil only gave away 35 runs.

I also reckon I had a bloke LBW but no-one else shouted. One of Neils was also not given and that was a decision given by our very own resident umpire "Bruno". Everyone around for miles saw and heard it thud off the middle of the bat almost straight into the hands of Nick, but Bruno said no - reckoned he didn't hear it as the wind was in the wrong direction! Pomph threw his hat down in disgust he was that p*****d off about it.

So they left the field having scored 214 (I think). We then had a lovely tea that everyone commended as being top value for £30. Loads of cheese, ham and salad, even some chips that Lee single handed ate almost all of himself. Danny had a few but Lee was up there 3 times before he'd had enough to keep him going and then he went off and slept it off out in the oufield!

Because I had the camera and was looking to get pictures of everyone as they left for the crease I didn't really watch the batting that much. But Neil opted to bat first as the opener and went for 2 clean bowled. John buckley went out next and put on 4216244 before being dismissed caught in the slips. His six was good - straight down the pitch almost hitting the clubhouse.

Next out was Chris Buckley (His bother). I think John is also Nick's Dad? Chris scored 241241 and was put down in the slips at around half way through his innings off of an outswinger.


Nick Buckley was out next (Wicket Keeper) he okay well scoring 123112341 and in doing so smashed his bat at the toe. Nick was joined by Lee Downes who at this point must have been almost cooked in the sun what with lying there for the last hour or so.



Lee ran on from where he'd been lying to put on a few more runs but both him and Nick were looking a bit lethargic considering they're both young lads and pretty good batsman. Sammers and the rest offered support and derision from the boundary line trying to get them to step up their game a bit and get some runs on the board. Looking from where we were sitting they did look as though they couldn't be bothered at times. Lee "3 teas" Downes did well with 441221221422211121 but did look as though he should have only had the one tea at times. "I bet he's blowing Goats out there" remarked Super Dave after a couple of hits in one over where there was back to back 2's run.

Next out with the dismissal of Nick (I think) was Dave Skeels with a new bat he'd earlier been banished to the far side of the field for knocking in his bat in within hearing distance of the locals. We were all hoping for something a bit special from Dave after his 80+ at Loughton a couple of weeks back and he didn't let us down, he showed the young uns the approach that we were looking for them to take. He scored 441421121446144 before being dismissed. Lee went first and was then replaced by Danny Groves and I was then given the nod to pad up as I was possibly going to go out next, at this point I was taking pictures and getting padded up and I've lost track of what happened. But the gist of it was that Danny should have gone out there and hit a bunch of 6's as it was now down to the last 2 overs and we were still about 40-50 behind. Super Dave took my place in the very last over and made a run or two and we ended up losing by quite a few runs.


 The other team were good bunch of chaps and it was a lovely place to play cricket and a really nice tea. Despite losing, it was a good laugh, but it means back to the drawing board and more practice for me and a definite strategy of bowling the ball either before I go to these matches or once I arrive, cos today I bowled like crap. Neil said he'd been watching my bowling and said one of the things I don't do is drive forwards with my hips. I know that part of my action is a bit naff, so I'll have to give it some thought - again it's issues now around the run in, this is a constant theme.

So a blog with loads of figures in - I wonder if that works for people? The inclusion of the images was long winded as well and it's difficult to layout the page well with the images. But I do like it with images, but I reckon I'll try and get portraits rather than these walking out to the crease type images shot today. I'll also try and get hold of a 400mm lens as that will help with the sports style shots and remember to take a tripod.

Wow, those flowers! Haha, and the guy sunbaking, lol. Bad luck on the loss and the bowling. Bowling into the wind for spinners is great, we always bowl our spinners into the wind, but I've seen it can really through you off your line and length at times, which I'm guessing is what happened to you?

Whats with the numbers?

I'm guessing that it's a breakdown of the scoring shots of the batter, as you would see in a scorebook.

God, I thought that was just a really bad joke.

The wind did put me off, but more than anything I can't bowl cold as such. I have to have bowled already at some point during the day. I've found that even if it's a few hours after an initial practice I acn bowl okay, but to just go in there and start bowling it then takes a few overs to find my line and length.

With regards the numbers - have I done that wrong or something?

Numbers - nothing wrong but it would make it easier to read if you put the total score rather than the breakdown.  So, Dave Skeels would have scored 43 rather than 441421121446144. 

Ah - gotcha! I'll do that in future, cheers.

Although, being a statistician, I like to see how many 4s and 6s were scored.

To be honest, I'm quite sad... I would also like to see the byes, leg byes, dot and no balls.  The strike rate tells me a lot about the way a player is playing and compared with the others, it also tells me the type of wicket.

Is there no end to your talents!! 

Giving the breakdown could be confusing if the person scored 24.  Does this mean 6 or 24?!?!  Sounds like a good game and a great day for it!

I told you... I'm sad 

I'm just worried that too much stats in the main blog might turn people off looking at it? I noticed that edlad has put a counter in his main blog and has a link to uploading a counter for your own blog but I couldn't figure out how to use it, but I'd like to because this blog at the moment seems to have a fair few viewers and I link to the master blog frequently because the master blog includes images and diagrams and is visually more interesting possibly? So it'd be nice to see how many people look at my main blog.

End of the weather
Here in the UK we've just had a run of about 10 days where the weather has been amazing. Back to back blue skies and as hot as 28 degrees centigrade which is 10 degrees or more warmer than the average for early May. It's not unknown to have 2' of snow and be sub zero as late as April 20th (see weather stats for SE England Aprill1993) so this weather has been most welcome! Needless to say we'll be probably looking at droughts later in the year if it keeps up and already the Met Office has been suggesting we're on track for the warmest May on record and now doubt warnings of global warming and global melt down.

But tonight there's a low moving in over France which is currently over the Channel and tomorrow we'll have some serious rain. Walking home from work tonight I noticed that my practice wicket on "Local Field" was looking a bit grassy and needing a trim and was unable to get over there earlier to cut it. What with the rain the growth will be accelerated and I might lose control of the grass length and have to resort to cutting the bloody thing again with hand shears! so just now at 10.45 at night I've just gone over there with my mower and mowed it in the dark ready for the deluge!

I went over to "5 Tree field" where I practiced in the early part of spring and at the end of the winter. The grass is pretty long and there's no evidence of the Asian blokes having been playing over there. Last year at this time I'm pretty certain they were over there almost every night. It'd be nice to have a practice wicket over there as well just on the off chance that I could encourage them as I'd planned to get involved with playing with cricket balls, but it's just too much what with my real team and all the practice I need to do on getting my Leg Break fully sussed. But I am tempted.

lets hope the weather improves for the weekend! we'd all love to play some cricket!

good blog dave keep it up!