Just a quickie. Played my second game of league this season having been roped in again. Rather wonderful ground hidden away up in Crouch End, which I had no idea existed, despite having played at least a few games a season up there for the best part of a decade . Great news for my main side as apparently it's available for bookings and we're after a decent pitch. I don't think many people know about it - it's a flat track and relatively attractive.
This one went rather better than the first league game - from a personal point of view anyway - last man out for 43 in a total of 134. I came in at number four but we had some kids down the order who didn't manage to stick around, though I did my best to farm the strike.
Great track but no covers, so overnight rain turned it into a classic Victorian 'sticky', which meant the opposition got their spinners on as soon as possible. It turned a long way, if slowly. In response I donned a long-sleeved shirt and preposterous Village cap, which inspired me to play Ranjitsinhjiesque leg glances and Comptonesque sweeps against them. Well, I thought they were anyway.
When bowling I did my best Sydney Barnes impression and trotted in to bowl cutters mixed with some gentle swing. It didn't get me a wicket, partly because I didn't get enough on the sticks and partly because our keeper was terrible - you really need a good one if you're bowling that style. They got them for three down - though we had to bowl all of our kids and some of them were very young.
In keeping with the retro theme of the match I tried out a new app for my phone camera which makes old-style photos - I think this one looks pretty cool:
Also found some old photos lying around the club house - here's one of the local teams from 1932, which for some bizarre reason this programme won't let me post horizontally.
So we're half way through the season and as predicted the Bradman-style start hasn't been maintained. It's a bit of a guesstimate but I make it 299 runs so far at 38, which is alright given I've been last man out twice so could have had a couple of not outs had I not been slogging. The bowling I've no idea, but I've only really been collared in one game.
Anyway, this blog's probably going on hiatus for a couple of weeks as off to Croatia on holiday, but there are cricketing things to be seen and done out there so if Mrs CC gives me some time off I might be able to update. Hope everyone's enjoying the diary so far.
This one went rather better than the first league game - from a personal point of view anyway - last man out for 43 in a total of 134. I came in at number four but we had some kids down the order who didn't manage to stick around, though I did my best to farm the strike.
Great track but no covers, so overnight rain turned it into a classic Victorian 'sticky', which meant the opposition got their spinners on as soon as possible. It turned a long way, if slowly. In response I donned a long-sleeved shirt and preposterous Village cap, which inspired me to play Ranjitsinhjiesque leg glances and Comptonesque sweeps against them. Well, I thought they were anyway.
When bowling I did my best Sydney Barnes impression and trotted in to bowl cutters mixed with some gentle swing. It didn't get me a wicket, partly because I didn't get enough on the sticks and partly because our keeper was terrible - you really need a good one if you're bowling that style. They got them for three down - though we had to bowl all of our kids and some of them were very young.
In keeping with the retro theme of the match I tried out a new app for my phone camera which makes old-style photos - I think this one looks pretty cool:
Also found some old photos lying around the club house - here's one of the local teams from 1932, which for some bizarre reason this programme won't let me post horizontally.
So we're half way through the season and as predicted the Bradman-style start hasn't been maintained. It's a bit of a guesstimate but I make it 299 runs so far at 38, which is alright given I've been last man out twice so could have had a couple of not outs had I not been slogging. The bowling I've no idea, but I've only really been collared in one game.
Anyway, this blog's probably going on hiatus for a couple of weeks as off to Croatia on holiday, but there are cricketing things to be seen and done out there so if Mrs CC gives me some time off I might be able to update. Hope everyone's enjoying the diary so far.
You are writing reports for matches in the future now? This should be called The Crap Nostradamus
ReplyDeleteAh, duly noted and edited...
ReplyDeleteIf this is the same ground (which I believe it is) that I've played on a couple of times, against a side called Octopus who have about 10 Kiwis playing each weekend, it must have improved a bit since we last visited. On that occasion, the game had to be stopped for a short while due to a chap practising cracking his Indiana Jones-style whip on the edge of the outfield. the noise of the whip was distracting the batsmen...Mally...
ReplyDeleteYup that's the one. Not great, but I've played on some real stinkers GYAC: couple of years in Hackney league.
ReplyDelete