In the Game again

And a bunch of Eve pilots just went "doh!"

(It's an Eve thing).

Actually played cricket tonight. Or should I say, I turned up at the game in my whites and impersonated a cricketer for a little while. I am literally getting too old for it now, although I did survive tonight's game relatively unscathed.

It was surprising that we played tonight - we had rain on and off all day, with lots of sunshine at times too. There was steady but light rain when we were practicing before the start. There was even Hail.

In May. There was hail. Global warming is definitely having its effect.

The rain held off in the game, with the sun coming out. The sun actually causes a few problems, the ground we play on isn't great for seeing due to the colour of the houses on the other side of the boundary. We play with a red ball with whites with no lights at the ground, so if that red ball crosses the red brick of the houses, it tends to disappear ...

You get used to it and it's the same for both sides. Similar for the ground condition. Water changes the way pitches play in unpredictable ways. It can make the ball bounce more, or it can skid on and almost speed up when it bounces. You never really know until you play, which makes my usual job as opener (first to go out there and sample the conditions) a lot harder. I didn't actually bat tonight, which I'm up and down about.

I was in my spiked boots tonight but was still having real trouble with the footing ... I dropped two catches tonight, the second saw my feet jump out from underneath me (true), with me falling on my bum. Didn't manage to knock the ball where I could catch it. And that's not the only time I almost ended up on my bum. My legs still seem to have enough power available to cause me trouble :-).

Lots of fielding tonight - I took a heavy knock on my knee (moderated by the knee pads I use), plus I'll have a fantastic shiner on my left hand from another catch which I really should have held. (Need new glasses).

We lost tonight but salvaged our honour after a really bad start to our innings.

I'll definitely be suffering tomorrow from :
Sore quad muscles on my legs
The bruising on my left hand
Bruising to come on my knee
A calf muscle which very nearly got pulled due to cramp
(need to remember to prepare better during the day)

Everything else seems fairly ok, although I will definitely suffer for the next few days after my body gets a chance to stiffen up. That's an early season inevitability. I should really train more to get the conditioning. Actually, one thing I did notice from tonight was that my lungs were better, I didn't lose my breath even though I did a few sprints (batting would be more stressful). Perhaps I'm avoiding an allergy something that would be affecting my breathing.

The big news from tonight is that my ailing skin actually survived the game with not many issues. A month ago, if I ran up the stairs the back of my knees would bleed. The skin there was that delicate. It's still sensitive but much more resilient.

That's actually really good news, although I have to stay on top of it by making sure I don't "help" it too much.

Oh ! Star Trek Into Darkness tomorrow. That should be awesome. Looking forward to it.