Game on !

Yep - more cricket last night.

After the English summer turning into the Rainy Season, nature relented for the games this week and decided to let us play. To show how bad it's been, the team I played for last night has only managed to get on the field for 4 games ... I've played in 2 of those.

Our work actually has two teams playing, with last night's game being the second attempt this season at getting a game on between us. I played for the new side last night, mainly because it's my first season with them and I was looking to face some of the bowlers in the old side after fielding to them for years. It worked out too because it put both teams at 10 men each, just one short. That's not bad actually, for 2 teams playing out of the same site and in the middle of summer leave silly season.

Ok ! Enough with the preamble !

Our team batted first, which was awesome. Really hot days at the moment ... I prepared by drinking heaps of water through the day. Weather like this, you're gonna sweat buckets whoever you are. So we got the chance to sit in the shade while the old team sweated in the field. It was a little bit cooler later :-)

Our team batted pretty well, keeping the scoreboard ticking over nicely. A few lusty blows near the end from the skipper boosted us towards a handy total. Although it was a little sad that we got boosted even more by the fella bowling the second last over which lasted 13 balls.

I don't think I wasted too much time, although my poor run of batting form continued. I hit a sweet tap-pull round the corner for 4, plus a sprinted single. I then got out trying to whack another pull shot, the ball didn't bounce as much as I expected and hit the top of middle. It woulda flown for six runs - honest. Ok, maybe not cos that was an awful long way out to the boundary that side. I managed to bring out the switch hit too, although I didn't get much leverage on it and it went straight to a fielder.

We scored 141 (although that scorebook needed some severe checking !)

Over to us in the field and it's OMG I'M KEEPING WICKET.

I've not done that for 9 years and the game where I got my nose broken. That wasn't from keeping ... honest, it was from the batting afterwards. Ahhh - keeping. For the uninitiated, the wicket keeper in cricket is the one that stands behind the stumps looking to catch whatever goes past the batsman. It's the only job in cricket where wearing armour is accepted (as well as batting!).

You wear a pair of short pads plus a solid pair of armoured gloves. But it's still not quite enough ... In the game where I got hit on the head for the second time (helmet = no damage!), the opposition keeper had his fingers rearranged by the same bowler that tagged me. Even if you take the ball perfectly, it can still leave its mark.

I think I did just "ok", by my own opinion. I was taking the ball reasonably well, when I remembered to allow it to come into my hands on its own instead of snatching at it. Snatching means hard hands, means the ball bounces out. Allowing it to gather naturally with soft hands lets you absorb all the momentum of the ball. I let 5 byes through (1 single and a 4 to the boundary) which is better than I've seen some regular keepers do.

I grabbed one catch down the legside too :-) Really pleased with that, because if the ball goes legside it's going behind the batsman. You can't see it there ... So for the 1 second between the bowler letting it go and it hitting the gloves, there's a fraction where the keeper completely loses sight of it. I was in complete and utter disbelief :-) So much so the appeal went something like "HOW..." (did I really catch that?) "HOWZAT!".

Yep. Putting my stutter into the game :-)

Kinda disappointed I didn't get a stumping. One or two of the batsmen were looking likely that it might happen but I didn't get a chance to get 'em. People seemed to think I did a pretty good job behind the stumps and I think I'd be asked to field there again by either team.

New team ended up winning by about 20 runs :-)

But for me, it's come at a cost ... An early bit of fielding saw me run after the ball and do a one move pick up and throw (actually held it cos there was no point in doing the throw but I got in the position). All that was done on the turn ... which is bad news with my back. I could feel something squishy let go in the lumbar area, which is an old injury that comes back to haunt me. I've had trouble even going up stairs today ...

I'm out of next week's game with that as I doubt it'll settle down before then.

That's not all the damage - there were a lot of wild throws coming in, one of which tagged me on the end of the thumb. Even with the armoured glove, there's a lot of momentum in a hard flung cricket ball. When it hit, the instant thought was "Ow - that's broke or dislocated" but I've gotten away with that one again. Just a case of bruising and hyperextension. I have fairly mobile joints, which is how my fingers have survived inept fielding over the years ...

At the moment, I have the legs-in-concrete feeling where they're complaining at me for doing unaccustomed exercise. That'll fade though. Hopefully the back injury will go back to sleep soon too, although it's times like this that I wish there were someone around to give me a little TLC!

Or at least someone to show the bruises off to :-)

PS At least half of this soreness is down to me focusing so much on the catching that I fell back into instincts that date back 20 years. My chase after the ball ground fielding was pretty darn good. Shouldn't have been doing that mind (my job was to let the fielders do the running around) but I couldn't fight those instincts. But - lol. The instincts still work after 20 years but they're kinda expecting to be wired into a body that's had 20
years less damage :-)
PS2 I wore the helmet for all but one over of keeping. In really hot weather. Glad I didn't have a game tonight - it might still be wet !
PS3 The catch means another £5 for Pink Hat Bounty, which this time will go to a colleague's sponsored Skydive.