1st Blog of the Summer...

Sitting here, at Northants ground, laptop on lap top while a Championship match is taking place that I should be playing in, feels weird. Normally when I blog it’s late at night after a day on the park. Not right now. The boys are on the park and currently we, Middlesex CCC, have racked up 442-8 dec. Steven Finn is steaming in, the sun is out and a cool wind blows across the ground and I’m on the sideline with a groin injury. It almost a perfect day to be bowling, light breeze and warm out in the sun.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here, since I’ve sat down and blogged. I do need to be more regular. It’s tough when you’re new to a team, new to a new city. So many things to keep you busy with, to keep you entertained, to while away time; and I am having thoughts of maybe putting a book together and don’t want to spoil material for it, still unsure.

So, this groin of mine... (Never thought I’d ever type that!!) I first felt it during our preseason fitness work. It didn’t really bother me, it was just something that was there and I didn’t really think much of it. It went away, it came back, went away, came back and so on. It wasn’t until the morning of Day 3 vs Glamorgan, our last Championship Match that it really gave me any grief. I had got four overs into a spell and it was tightening up more and more. I was hoping it would just go away, it does happen, believe me; sometimes injuries just disappear. It didn’t. It kept getting worse, and after six overs I had to leave the park; something I hate doing. I hate leaving unfinished business in the middle. Off and ice on it straight away, Glam were six down and I knew I was done for this match and my attention, and the physio’s, was getting me fit for this next game.

I got out to warm ups early here in Northants so I could give it a good run through and give the ‘skip’ the yes or no as early as possible. Unfortunately I couldn’t give any guarantees to Udal that I’d be any good later in the day. I knew I could get through a couple of spells early but later in the day when the body gets tired I wasn’t sure how it’d be. So that means this match was a ‘no’ for me for this one.

So far London has been good to me. The weather, generally, has been pretty good; getting around has been ok, I’m living not too far from the places I need to get to so travel times haven’t been so bad. Around where I’m living is three curry restaurants which, if you’ve been following my blogs, keeps me very happy; especially one. When I phone to make a booking, they answer the phone “Ello, dis is Paradise.” Too right it’s paradise!

The first couple of matches this summer haven’t gone to plan. I hate to say it but it is a bit of a familiar story; just not quite enough runs. As a unit we’ve bowled well and taken 20 wickets in both. Scoring runs in our first innings has been our failings; 160 and 120 are just not enough when our opposition have scored around 300 both times. We’ve also been unlucky. We’ve bowled bloody well and seen the ball sail pass the edge a lot and past leg stump of the other edge to many times. I’m not being defensive; it just is what it is.

I was privileged to be a part of something special in the first match of our summer. Finn and I took all 10 wickets between us. That doesn’t happen too often. The very special thing about it was that I got just the one and Finny the other nine. Yeah, that’s right; Steven Finn took nine wickets in the innings, for just 37 runs.

Right, I’ve run out of words at the moment. Here is two of links from couple of Middlesex CCC interviews that I did preseason and have been posted through the MCCC channel on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k5trEbb-lo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9_vzJomsx8&feature=related