Diary of a Vegan Cricketer (Week Two)

Picked up the first bruise of a season which has yet to start (and has eventually been put back two weeks), still limited inclusion of Vegans at Edgbaston, net sessions at Seat Unique Stadium, Church Eaton and an academy in Stoke, but had to duck out of the net session at Lords.

2024 Season Week Two: April 8th – April 14th

Great start to the week: bottom edged a pull off a rather fast ball thrower from Level 4 coach and it found the gap between thigh guard and pad!

Rain once again dominated the week, with no golf, and limited opportunities to train outside.

Week started really well with an indoor session at the Seat Unique Stadium. This was part recruitment and part practice for the LGBTQ+ tournament in June, and gave me 4+ hours with a Level 4 coach. Learnt a lot from him on the coaching front, encouragingly that I was doing a lot right, but picked up some useful tips. Had a long bat and bowl and the feedback was very rewarding. Recruited one player for the team, so all in a very good day spent with good people.

Managed a couple of coaching/practice sessions outside at Church Eaton (the benefits of actually playing for a local team!!) and I am pretty comfortable with y batting and bowling. The lingering issues remain ie legs, which tend to be very stiff until warmed up, but then are better than ever – well if you assume ‘ever’ as being post 35! I have increased the frequency of some very specific (and weird looking) stretches which seem to be working so am cautiously optimistic, and quietly pleased that the league has deayed the start of the season by two weeks – although typically that wasn’t straightforward as having met last week and rejected it is a plan, they now presented it as their plan this week with the stern statement that there would be no more delays and the season starts on May 4th regardless: whoever is in charge of the weather may have a say in that!

As it stands though I have a friendly set up paying for Save Village Cricket against Grimston on Sunday, which they are optimistic will go ahead.

I may or may not start the league season at Church Eaton on 4th May, but as the 2s don’t have a game scheduled that week, it would be for the 1s if selected, and I am planning on playing more Sunday cricket for Church Eaton the year, and they do have a game against Wedgwood that day which would be fun to play in!

The situation is not much clearer with Staffordshire as the 1s have a game against Leicestershire on 23rd, but I am not expecting to be selected, although I did finally show my face at the last indoor net on Sunday, so the 2s start they season on 7th May.

All very unclear then, but have decided that the focus this year is Church Eaton on Saturday and Sunday. I am not going to play for the Birmingham Unicorns as the development of LGBTQ+ players will now be done via the NBCC LGBTQ+ team so we can accommodate all players and clubs, so will play a few games later in the season. As for Staffordshire I simply can’t justify committing so much time to games that I can’t see that I have a specific or rewarding role in, so my position is play if selected, but select me if you are short. Maybe in years to come but with the volume or cricket I can realistically commit to (and play) and the fact I want to be around more for my parents this simply is not an option to be a priority.

Off the field had another couple of good days at Edgbaston, but …… first day took own food as wasn’t expecting a Vegan option on their members menu, but there was a Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff, then on Day two because I couldn’t be sure took my own food and was no vegan option. They really should commit (and communicae) that they will always have a vegan option!

Wandering round the stadium was frustrated that you can’t actually walk all the way round without checking out and then in again, and how old and neglected it looks when not full and vibrant. Personally would prefer they played the county games at smaller grounds (they are using Rugby School for the one day games in August because of the 100) as the atmosphere much better.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *