Oops - done it again

Before you read any of what'll be below - I'm ok, albeit a little shaken (although I'd never admit that. Hmm ... doh!). Haven't seen the need to rush off to hospital, although it is still in my mind. I'm actually more worried about my leg.

Net practice again tonight, which meant me attempting to continue that crash course in wicket keeping ...

There's not really enough space in nets to stand back as you should do with quicker bowlers, so I'm usually right behind the stumps where you need practice, practice, more practice, agility, quick reactions and a little stupidity. I have a couple of those right now (the stupidity and the reactions) but I'm badly in need of the practice. The agility is so-so, loss of weight has helped but I've hurt my left leg.

The stupidity is still in control though, so I started off the practice without wearing a helmet.

That's a really bad idea. Top edges do nasty things, plus bales (the little bits of wood on top of cricket stumps) tend to fly straight up when people are bowled. So you should wear head protection when standing up to the stumps.

What actually happened ?

Ball's coming down behind the batsman (where you're unsighted as a keeper anyway) and he takes a swing. He gets a top edge, so instead of the ball coming near my gloves it goes straight up. And on to my top lip.

Oops

The damage wasn't actually too much, one fella didn't even realise I got hit (think he was the batsman). I cleaned myself up and got rid of most of the blood and then did what you should ALWAYS do in situations like this : Get back on the horse as soon as possible.

So after returning from getting cleaned up, on comes the helmet, gloves go on the hands and I'm back behind the stumps trying to learn wicket keeping. Looks like they're relying on me to do that job this year, which is scary.

My keeping still needs a lot of work, although it'll hopefully be easier standing the right distance back. I was getting a lot of confidence late on though from getting lots of clean takes and good stumpings.

So yeah - lesson learned. When standing up to the stumps, wear a helmet as it protects you when Strange Things happen. I'll look into buying other stuff too, like a face mask type grill so I can still see better. A face mask will also be lighter and airier.

Practice - went ok. I'm timing the ball pretty well out to the offside and the defences seem ok. My shot play seems more attack minded this year, with me flipping back to defence instantly when the ball demands more respect. Promising for the season.

How am I feeling now ? Shaken and sore.

Shaken - Beneath the "doesn't hurt at all" show, I was actually a little shaken. Fingers were wobbly for a while.
Sore - my left leg has decided to stiffen up. The problem is in the hamstring at the back of the leg right near the top. It's a bit sore. It isn't torn as the leg still works ok.

Lip's gonna look great at work tomorrow :-) But I'm not worried about it. Taken my lumps, learned my lesson, more worried about the duff leg.

PS My challenge at work tomorrow will be to show off the cut lip to as many people as possible ... and come up with a different explanation to all of them. Muahaha :-)