The week that was, then wasn’t, then sort of was again.
I am a very organised person. Primarily my personality but career wise it was a necessary attribute and now we are back in the UK and closer to ageing parents it is once again a beneficial attribute to have, but it it is not without it’s frustrations as this week proved.
Take One: the week was all set up and structured around the usual activities – net practices at Penkridge on Monday, weekly afternoon with parents on Tuesday followed by net session on Tuesday night at Barlaston, “day off” with Sands on Wednesday, then Thursday she was going to Formby to see her mother and my parents were coming down to The Cottage as usual, then Friday night net session at Penkridge followed by Junior Training (I have a lot of stuff accumulating for the Football Team Cards), game on Saturday and then breakfast on Sunday with my parents at one of their old friends.
Throw in walking the dogs most days, some regular exercises, a car service and tattoo on Tuesday, the England semi final on Wednesday, the England ODI on TV on Thursday, a DEFRA van certification inspection on the Friday afternoon, and you have a pretty standard, organised week.
Take Two: the week started with a message from my father that the hospital had been in touch and they were moving a small procedure he was booked in for forward as they had had a cancellation. This was going to be on the Thursday, which meant Monday was going to be spent with a couple of hospital appointments to asses his health pre op and have a COVID-19 test (both passed with no issues). Meant no Monday net session for me, but that was OK. I scheduled a session on Wednesday night and arranged for pizza, wine and good company to watch the England Semi-Final. Also meant that Sands had to reschedule her visit to Formby from Thursday with Wednesday being the only option that wouldn’t impact on anything else. Wednesday morning father called to say they had cancelled his appointment on Thursday, and as they had already reallocated his original appointment they would be in touch with a new date as soon as they could. Sands in the meantime had already set off for Formby. Before I set off for the nets I got a call from a Romanian Rescue that we are still helping asking if I could do an urgent internal transport on either Friday morning or Sunday afternoon to fit in with their scheduled transport.
And breath ….. so by Wednesday night I still didn’t know what my plans were for the rest of the week, but after a good net session (apart from the pain in my finger which is an increasing issue as the splint to immobilise works rather too well as when I take it off I can’t bend the finger at all), we watched the England game with good company, good wine, OK pizza (it is far from being my favourite food) and an excellent result. Thursday a restructured England ODI team “did a 4s” on Pakistan and my day on the sofa was reduced to a few hours. To round off a frustrating day got a message that the game on Saturday had been conceded as their players had to self isolate (first time this has happened), which was more than a tad ironic give that the England ODI team have had to do the same, yet the country is on the brink of taking the shackles off. Friday I woke to a message saying that the transport needed to be that day, and that the DEFRA Van Certification needed to change the appointment time which meant no nets Friday night, but a successful transport of the dogs and another van certified. Saturday the ODI was better than the first one, but again didn’t go the distance by someway which is not a great trend given we are going to Edgbaston on Tuesday. Sunday woke to a message that parents friends wife was not up to visitors as she continues to battle a long term illness so with time to kill, and realising that on Monday even less people would be interested in this drivel I decided to the post the weekly diary.
To cricket matters then ……. with time to kill during the week I spent time on Play Cricket which continues to fascinate and depress me in equal measures. Back in the day we had nothing like it at all, which may not have been too bad given how there are very few hiding places on it. With the 4s many of our games are scored the old fashioned way and then a summary uploaded so a lot of the data is missing. When I say the old fashioned way I am of course wrong: having watched Rachel score on many occasions it has to be said the result is far more detailed and exact than anything I managed to produce with my one pencil. The sheets she produces are a thing of beauty. I am tempted to buy a set of coloured pens ………..
Some basic analysis of the 4s games this season showed that: on average we give away 27 extras per match, which accounts for 14% of the runs scored against us, and averages out as the 3rd highest ‘batter’ for the opposition. Three times out of the nine games recorded we have given away 35 extras. Of these 9 matches played extras given has exceeded our own top batters score 7 times. Only twice have we had someone score more than this (2 batters in 1 match and 4 batters in another match). Hard to analyse the impact of dropped catches and missed chances but the average score of the Not Out batter at the end of the oppositions innings is 52, so think fair to assume that not taking our chances costs us dear.
In addition to being organised I am also more than a little obsessive. I have practised, trained, analysed and worked on developing my own game more this time round than I ever did in the past, but it patently has not been good enough yet so I will be working even harder. Basically I am not batting long enough, not getting bat on ball enough, and not keeping it on the ground enough but I didn’t need Play Cricket to tell me that!
Enjoy your Sunday and the week ahead, fingers crossed England will set the week off the right way and next week will involve more cricket and less reorganising!
Thank You
Gray-Nicolls are generously supporting this diary and my return to cricket for the 2021 Season.