Games and Fire

Thinking about burning the cap I got at the weekend ... It's a luck thing honest ... and the best way to purge luck you're not wanting is with a nice fire. Plus Fire = Nice n Warm.

The cap got bought outside Wembley last Sunday, during a Bank holiday weekend trip to see Rotherham play. It was a good day out, Wembley is a very impressive stadium that should be reserved for football only so the pitch can live up to the same standard as the stadium. Bit of an issue with the referee though, as it was one of those classic 11 vs 12 men things.

So - Sunday game : Rotherham vs Dagenham and Redbridge in the playoff final, whoever wins gets to play in a higher division next season. Quite a close game, Dagenham scored against the run of play, immediately followed by a Rotherham equaliser. 1-1 at half time. The same happened in the second half, Dagenham score followed a bit later by a Rotherham equaliser. Felt that if Rotherham had taken the lead, they'd be clear but that wasn't to be. Dagenham win 3-2. Good game, enjoyed the show but disappointed at the result.

However, when you look at it logically, Rotherham will lose half their team before next season due to loans finishing and transfers. Time to rebuild and look for more next year. Good day out, I got to see an uncle I haven't seen in years.

How's the cricket going ?

New bat has arrived :-) And it's felt good straight away. It feels so good that I appear to have gone a leetle nutz with it. When I use technique like the square cut, it comes off great. Hit a couple of very nice boundaries that went very sweetly. For everything else though, I'm over hitting. I have a decent pull shot but have been missing them, plus I should have a decent drive but my left elbow form disappears when I try and use it. I've had two bruises now from wearing balls that should have been whacked by that pull shot.

Head back, WAAHOO and a waft at fresh air.

Still getting runs, actually quite a few. The new bat has earned 14 in its first innings and then 32 retired hurt tonight. The 32 top scored but took far too long to get. I have two major rules when I bat :
1 - Don't get out first
2 - Score at a decent rate
They're both aimed at not letting the side down. I've been succeeding with the 1st rule (my last two opening partners have both been run out !) but letting people down with the second.

Erm - I said "Retired Hurt" there ...

Felt better tonight, the hip trouble that slowed me down in the previous games was much less tonight. Daily Injury was sore shoulder (snafu) and sore ankle. Fielding was better, although I allowed one run through that shouldn't have been scored. I hate giving runs away when fielding. Makes me angry, which makes me faster :-)

Gave another one away though, which led to that retired hurt. Took a reasonably well struck ball flush on the shin, will have an Omelette on there tomorrow. I got one on the shoulder too, which I may well be able to show off tomorrow :-) The best type of bruise is one that doesn't hurt but can be shown off. Like the 2 inch carpet burn on my elbow or the vampire eyes after Nose Job 2.

Anyway, shoulder one was due to a bouncer that lifted unexpectedly, I was able to get my helmet out of the way and wore it on the shoulder. Looks like I got bit :-) Cool bruise and no pain from it.

Shin is more serious. I have this instinctive pain block thing where adrenaline lets me ignore pain, up to and including broken bones. I was able to finish fielding and could open the batting. Lasted a while too, before being hit on the other leg distracted that pain blocking thing.

Meh - think I needed to get something out there ... Summary is :

Team earned a win, my slow batting made it too difficult. Sucks, feeling quite bad about it. Time to move on.

Last note - why does the cap need to burn ? Luck ! After hitting a wall out there, I started looking for ways to get out. After a while, my arms and legs go and I have trouble getting the ball off the square. Nothing worked ! I padded up, looked for lbw. Not given. Didn't have enough in my legs to run myself out. Tried to miss a straight one, ball goes over the stumps.

Ho hum. Definite luck thing going there, dunno what kind though :-)