v College, Marlborough
(click v College, Marlborough to watch and read full vlog)
It was good to get away from league cricket . Read the last post to see just what a lot of bertie’s league cricketers can be. At some stage I’ll show you the letter/pack of lies written by Barnet Barclay’s to the Middlesex league. Thank god I tape some of these games. The mendacious boghouse banisters didn’t know it was all on film.
v Barnet Barclay’s CC
(click v Barnet Barclays’s CC to read and watch full…)
This is the first league game I’ve blogged about this season. After what happened on saturday, you might understand my reluctance to write about league cricket. I joined a new club. They’ve been fair. They gave me starts in first team cup games but told me to work my way up their four teams. So I started in the 3rds, got dropped to the 4ths, went up to the 3rds, scored 85, took five wickets v Harrow 3rds , into the 2nds where I’ve remained. There are three 2nd team divisions. We play in league one. The standard’s good.
All this stuff took place last tuesday and thursday. I turned up for nets and there were Pakistan; training at the Walker. White balls disappeared. Not mine though. I sat out Afridi’s onslaught. I think the best bit was talking to Pakistan’s bowling coach about my third team dobbers not knowing who the hell he was. All wavy black [...]
I used to develop tv docs and there were programmes you’d pass up a hundred to sell. Series 2 of Empire of cricket last night was one such programme. I recieved a review copy last week and it was brilliant documentary tv. The opening film on English cricket was a tough one to start with. 1 hour to cover the history [...]
v Stanmore
(click v Stanmore to watch and read…)
I saw a sign, banner, poster somewhere once. It read “lord protect me from what I want.” I wanted a Millichamp and Hall bat. I got one. It got me out. The bat was too good for me. I was caught at deep mid on the Walker ground. Proper boundaries. The ball flew, effortlessly for 60 and more yards. I hardly hit the damn thing.
v MCC
(click v MCC to watch and read…)
Joined a new league club; new one is only a few stops on the underground. Must be my 3rd, possibly 4th. After rude preseason form in the indoor nets at Lords- lovely surface- I fancied a spot in the top teams of my old club but our new aussie captain said he saw me as a bowler! I’ve taken six wickets this century. He said he hadn’t seen much of my batting . Though I remembered him in March nets approaching me to ask if I always batted that aggresively. I loved the buzz of the Milverton road gang. It was a relaxed, diverse, fizzy club. It was organised chaos at times but great fun.
I was caught at second slip for a second time this season; in only 4 games. It’s only May.
To Somerset, to Taunton, for help, for salvation from the finest craftsmen in the world. It was time to change bats, time to blame your old tools and get better, newer ones. I went to buy the most treasured object man can hold; a bat made by Millichamp and Hall.
They should call this place Cowdrey School for cricket. While I was batting- for a three ball duck- Cowdrey’s grandson was bowling, Cowdrey’s son was watching.
(click on v Crusaders to watch vlog)
To Cambridge, down Grantchester lane, past Geoffrey Archers gaff, past the Rupert Brooke, to play the first game of the season with Hassan my Jamaican, Welsh, Bengali and Irish mate. At 11.30, the start of play,156 days 3 hours 20 mins 15 sec had passed since my last knock. Two questions might have entered your head and in what order I’m not sure. They are does Hassan exist and is the time that’s elapsed since my last innings real? Which is more likely you think? That I’d be driven to a cricket match through quintessential Blighty with a quarter Jamaican, bengali. Irish, and Welsh man or that I’d be potty enough to have kept a countdown since my last bat. I hope I’ve suprised you by telling you that Hassan is real and that there’s has been no flipping countdown.
On the eve of the first game of the season, I should be labouring on a poetic, prophetic perhaps, sweeping possibly, opening statement but all I can think on is this picture I found on ‘Flickr’.