Diary of a Vegan Cricketer (Week Nineteen)

C is for …… coaching and computers, another win for Staffs Seniors 1s, played some golf, had a net, and finally spent some time in the middle with a bat in hand!

2024 Season Week Nineteen: August 5th – August 11th

When we lived in Spain it was still quite early in the evolution of IT and the Internet: no smart phones, dial up Internet and the ‘weapon’ of choice for many an ‘expat’ was a bundled PC that was cheap for a reason ….. they were based on already outdated equipment. It struck me how little people were willing to spend on something that they depended on so much (so many got caught out when their kit just couldn’t cope with video calls which were the way many wanted to keep in touch with family and friends back home.

How do I know this? Because as it became known that I had a background in IT (albeit not a technical specialist) I was quickly, and regularly, called on to ‘do a favour’. It genuinely never dawned on my fellow expats to offer to pay for what was actually a fairly highly skilled and extremely valuable service to them!

Fast forward 20+ years and I could write pretty much the same about your typical cricketers kit bag and both the individuals and clubs approach to coaching, although this time I am older and wiser: never lend my kit (in all honesty would someone that hadn’t bought their own kit replace any they damage) and never coach for free.

NB: I do happily lend out the No Boundaries Kit and provide mentoring and coaching FOC as part of our Community Development activities!

Got that off my chest!!

Staffs Seniors 1s continued their/our winning ways with a last over win against Cambridgeshire, keeping us unbeaten and top of the league, where the winner goes into the semi-final. I didn’t bowl, contributed little with the bat (before being run out trying to push the score along) but fielded the best I have done since my return: dare I say that the body is finally starting to feel strong and robust?! I am playing this week against Derbyshire but that may be it for me then:

• we play Durham on the 20th but I can’t travel the night before as need to be at home for the animals and I can’t stay the night of the game as need to be in Stoke for 9am on the Wednesday so a return trip and a game in one day seems unrealistic – a 4 hour drive each way with a game in between.
• the following week we are away against Suffolk and I am playing in Yorkshire on the Monday (and for Church Eaton on the Saturday and Sunday I suspect) and have a dinner and hotel arranged on the Monday night so again unrealistic to think I can get from Yorkshire to Suffolk to play – a 4 hour 30 min (at least) journey, with a 12am meet means leaving at 7.30am, and then a 3 hour 30 min drive home, because I don’t think I can stay overnight.

It will be a shame because we have a great chance of getting to the semi- final, but I suspect I wouldn’t be selected for that with not being a first choice pick this year. I am fine with this as a) I wasn’t planning on any Staffs Seniors Cricket this year and b) you should always pick your strongest team and on current form I wouldn’t say that included me.

Church Eaton 2s carry on in the same old way: no consistency in team selection because of availability, a lot of injuries, juniors mainly playing their first year of senior cricket, and not enough experience in the older players. Once again I lost the toss, we fielded first and for the third game in a row we watched a batter get 100+. We didn’t help ourselves with dropped/missed catches, but we bowled and fielded pretty well, they are just better than us. I batted 6 and was in at 40 odd for 4 after 20 overs, so had one task: hang around and try and get at least one batting point. I did that and enjoyed a longer stay at the crease and felt much happier with the ‘new’ approach: hands/bat higher, no trigger, a slight press forward to lower body and open front foot.

Finally got to play 9 holes and whilst the changes following the lesson are taking time to really kick in, my bad shots were nowhere near as bad, I was more consistent, hit the good shots much further and two putted every green: happy with that progress.