It's simply not Cricket... actually it is!
It's been a long time since my last blog, feels somewhat overdue. I think it's time for a long aimless ramble about my latest foray into the world of sport.
I'm making another push and conceited effort to make a lifestyle change. I've had a fun 2019 so far with a good six months of being poked and prodded whilst multiple specialists try to determine why my cholesterol is so high. Part of it could be down to the fact I spend eight hours a day sitting behind a desk in an office, to then come home to indulge in one of my many hobbies and past times, all of which are performed sitting down. Combined with my less than ideal diet (Vienetta's a vegatable right!?) I think we can almost put a finger on it. That being said, apparently even with my over fondness for cheese and red meat, my cholesterol is abnormaly high for my age, which the doctor's and cholseterol specialists I've now seen believe could be down to something genetic.
So once again I had to subject myself to NHS based vampirism, (they can call themselves Phlebotomists, but I'm onto them. I don't think she really needed that third vial, you can't tell me that's not for personal use!) Someone down in Bristol is going to look at my DNA and one of three things will be found. They will A: Find nothing, B: Find a mutation that is a definite cause of high cholesterol or C: Find a mutation that can't be conclusively said to be a cause high cholesterol.
Fun times!
All that being said, even if it is genetic the sedentary lifestyle and over indulgent diet doesn't help. Plus if it is genetic, I have to work extra hard to keep my cholesterol down. If someone has high cholesterol simply because of their crappy diet, they simply have to change their crappy diet to turn it around. I can change my crappy diet but the genetic nature of it all will still mean I'll have high cholesterol. Thankfully medication can do most of the heavy lifting but I can't rely on the drugs alone. I need to put the work in, eat better and spend less time on my arse.
After my last appointment at the hospital I new I had to do something, if only to be more active if nothing else.
It was time to start playing Cricket again.
My Cricket playing has been very on and off throughout my life, a lot more off than on. I played religously from a young age at primary school, for both my school team and a local club. Fun fact; the club I played for was where Mike Atherton started out, and his brother still played there for the senior team. He may even still play there now.
Around age fourteen or fifteen I stopped playing for one reason or another, probably as my focus moved to making music and being an angsty teenager, listening to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.
Twelve or Thirteen years later, in the run up to Christmas I was working the overnight stock shift in the bookstore where I worked with a colleague who was a huge Cricket fan herself. At this point I'd lost touch with the sport competely and couldn't really call myself a fan anymore. That being said, I was more than happy when she wanted to listen to The Ashes that was starting that night "Down Under" on the radio, one of the reasons she volunteered to do the graveyard shift. Just listening to the radio commentary had me hooked. A few days later, at the end of the first test, I was in love with the game again and wanted to be back at it myself.
I spent a few days scouring Sheffield community forums looking for a team to join. In December. With the first heavy snow Sheffield had seen in years. Surprisingly (to me) though I got a response from a player whose team were just about to start their Winter indoor net sessions and were also looking for players. They let me know when and where to go and a few days later I turned up for my first knock since I was a teenager.
They sent me straight in to the net with borrowed bat, pads and gloves, which were far to big for me, and to my astonishment it was like I'd never been away. I was rusty and my technique was awful, but I was getting my bat to the ball and I was giving it a good go.
We'll not mention my bowling.
I continued to go to the indoor practices, eventually picking up my own kit, complete with bat and pads that were better fitting for my short stature. Springtime came along and the first fixtures were scheduled. I was ready to play my first proper match as a "senior."
Matches were great fun but I soon realised that I was far from up to scratch. My batting was horrendous. The bowling you face as a senior is a lot different than what I was used to when I played as a junior. It was fast and, above all, terrifying! Although nothing like what you get at pro level. I felt hideously out of my depth. In the two seasons I played my highest ever innings was fifteen runs, which was an anomoly. Most matches I was lucky to get a single with a duck being my average. I was unprepared and lacked confidence, getting out on most days was a relief, as it meant I didn't have to face the pace bowlers anymore.
I was much happier fielding, although my fitness let me down somewhat, but I was confident I had safe hands when making catches and wasn't afraid to throw myself about to stop the ball from hitting the boundary. My arm was/is weak and I would struggle to return a ball to the keeper from the boundary, but I enjoyed chasing the ball down and anticipating when the batsman would send it my way. I love the strategy of watching how a batsman plays and positioning the fielders based on what your observations.
As it was, my lack of success with the bat was getting me down. I'd always seen myself as a batsman and not performing as one was upsetting. The worst thing being, after nearly two seasons of playing again, I wasn't improving and my confidence wasn't getting any better. I was lacking coaching (because I wasn't asking for it) and I was just going into matches hoping for the best.
I was also working shifts at the time, meaning my weekends weren't always free. The stress of trying to organise my time combined with my dissapointing batting performances meant I decided I had to stop playing. My head just wasn't in the right place.
Now, seven years later, I've decided to have another go!
About four years ago I changed jobs, and one of the main obstacles that got in the way of Cricket is no longer there as I don't work weekends anymore. The change of jobs is also a big part of why my lifestyle has gone downhill, previously my job had me on my feet all day, now I am sat at a desk all day.
Although I've had four years of no weekend working, it's only now I've decided to go back to playing Cricket again. Spurred into action by the realisation that I need to make a lifestyle change and get active again, but also this years Cricket World Cup has done exactly what that Ashes series in 2010 had done for me and rekindled my love of the sport and made me realise how much I missed it.
So my first port of call was to dig all my kit out of the garage and see if it's survived seven years of neglect, unprotected from the elements that our garage will certainly have failed to keep out. Although my bag had seen better days the contents inside were all in good nick; gloves, pads etc. My two bats, despite just having been leant up against a wall uncovered and unprotected, seemed okay, other than dust, cobwebs and the odd dead spider. The rubber grip had completely perished on one, and was looking worse for wear on the other, but usable for the time being. Thankfully that was the one I was planning on using anyway and would be fine until I could get a new grip fitted.
Then this happened:
I still have my first proper Gray-Nicolls bat, a bat I coveted for the entire run up to that years cricket season, and was absolutely made up when my dad bought it for me. The Gray-Nicolls "Ultimate," the top of the line bat in Gray-Nicolls' range for that season, costing well into three figures even for the junior sizes. I recently considered selling it as a collectible, but couldn't bring myself to part with it.
So when you're a brand loyalist, you have to match. If your bat is Gray-Nicolls, then your gloves have to be, as do your pads, and your thigh pad, and your box, and... you get the idea. This can lead to things being expensive and can be hard work to maintain. I managed to pick up some better fitting Gray-Nicolls batting pads in a clearance bin at Decathlon. Marked up at £24.99 but scanned at £19.99, win! (So if your curious, my correct pad size is "Junior.") I picked up a new helmet from Sports Direct, which sadly was Slazenger, budget and availability kept me from sticking with the Gray-Nicolls theme there and it still hurts my brain thinking about it. However it was a necessity and it is at least a good looking and functional helmet.
I'm making another push and conceited effort to make a lifestyle change. I've had a fun 2019 so far with a good six months of being poked and prodded whilst multiple specialists try to determine why my cholesterol is so high. Part of it could be down to the fact I spend eight hours a day sitting behind a desk in an office, to then come home to indulge in one of my many hobbies and past times, all of which are performed sitting down. Combined with my less than ideal diet (Vienetta's a vegatable right!?) I think we can almost put a finger on it. That being said, apparently even with my over fondness for cheese and red meat, my cholesterol is abnormaly high for my age, which the doctor's and cholseterol specialists I've now seen believe could be down to something genetic.
So once again I had to subject myself to NHS based vampirism, (they can call themselves Phlebotomists, but I'm onto them. I don't think she really needed that third vial, you can't tell me that's not for personal use!) Someone down in Bristol is going to look at my DNA and one of three things will be found. They will A: Find nothing, B: Find a mutation that is a definite cause of high cholesterol or C: Find a mutation that can't be conclusively said to be a cause high cholesterol.
Fun times!
All that being said, even if it is genetic the sedentary lifestyle and over indulgent diet doesn't help. Plus if it is genetic, I have to work extra hard to keep my cholesterol down. If someone has high cholesterol simply because of their crappy diet, they simply have to change their crappy diet to turn it around. I can change my crappy diet but the genetic nature of it all will still mean I'll have high cholesterol. Thankfully medication can do most of the heavy lifting but I can't rely on the drugs alone. I need to put the work in, eat better and spend less time on my arse.
After my last appointment at the hospital I new I had to do something, if only to be more active if nothing else.
It was time to start playing Cricket again.
My Cricket playing has been very on and off throughout my life, a lot more off than on. I played religously from a young age at primary school, for both my school team and a local club. Fun fact; the club I played for was where Mike Atherton started out, and his brother still played there for the senior team. He may even still play there now.
Around age fourteen or fifteen I stopped playing for one reason or another, probably as my focus moved to making music and being an angsty teenager, listening to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.
Twelve or Thirteen years later, in the run up to Christmas I was working the overnight stock shift in the bookstore where I worked with a colleague who was a huge Cricket fan herself. At this point I'd lost touch with the sport competely and couldn't really call myself a fan anymore. That being said, I was more than happy when she wanted to listen to The Ashes that was starting that night "Down Under" on the radio, one of the reasons she volunteered to do the graveyard shift. Just listening to the radio commentary had me hooked. A few days later, at the end of the first test, I was in love with the game again and wanted to be back at it myself.
I spent a few days scouring Sheffield community forums looking for a team to join. In December. With the first heavy snow Sheffield had seen in years. Surprisingly (to me) though I got a response from a player whose team were just about to start their Winter indoor net sessions and were also looking for players. They let me know when and where to go and a few days later I turned up for my first knock since I was a teenager.
They sent me straight in to the net with borrowed bat, pads and gloves, which were far to big for me, and to my astonishment it was like I'd never been away. I was rusty and my technique was awful, but I was getting my bat to the ball and I was giving it a good go.
We'll not mention my bowling.
I continued to go to the indoor practices, eventually picking up my own kit, complete with bat and pads that were better fitting for my short stature. Springtime came along and the first fixtures were scheduled. I was ready to play my first proper match as a "senior."
Matches were great fun but I soon realised that I was far from up to scratch. My batting was horrendous. The bowling you face as a senior is a lot different than what I was used to when I played as a junior. It was fast and, above all, terrifying! Although nothing like what you get at pro level. I felt hideously out of my depth. In the two seasons I played my highest ever innings was fifteen runs, which was an anomoly. Most matches I was lucky to get a single with a duck being my average. I was unprepared and lacked confidence, getting out on most days was a relief, as it meant I didn't have to face the pace bowlers anymore.
I was much happier fielding, although my fitness let me down somewhat, but I was confident I had safe hands when making catches and wasn't afraid to throw myself about to stop the ball from hitting the boundary. My arm was/is weak and I would struggle to return a ball to the keeper from the boundary, but I enjoyed chasing the ball down and anticipating when the batsman would send it my way. I love the strategy of watching how a batsman plays and positioning the fielders based on what your observations.
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| One of my favourite photos of myself batting as it actually makes me look like I know what I'm doing. Looks like I've made a decent shot to leg side but in fact I think I missed completely and the ball is actually in the keeper's gloves. (Photo Credit: Mark Mettam.) |
As it was, my lack of success with the bat was getting me down. I'd always seen myself as a batsman and not performing as one was upsetting. The worst thing being, after nearly two seasons of playing again, I wasn't improving and my confidence wasn't getting any better. I was lacking coaching (because I wasn't asking for it) and I was just going into matches hoping for the best.
I was also working shifts at the time, meaning my weekends weren't always free. The stress of trying to organise my time combined with my dissapointing batting performances meant I decided I had to stop playing. My head just wasn't in the right place.
Now, seven years later, I've decided to have another go!
About four years ago I changed jobs, and one of the main obstacles that got in the way of Cricket is no longer there as I don't work weekends anymore. The change of jobs is also a big part of why my lifestyle has gone downhill, previously my job had me on my feet all day, now I am sat at a desk all day.
Although I've had four years of no weekend working, it's only now I've decided to go back to playing Cricket again. Spurred into action by the realisation that I need to make a lifestyle change and get active again, but also this years Cricket World Cup has done exactly what that Ashes series in 2010 had done for me and rekindled my love of the sport and made me realise how much I missed it.
So my first port of call was to dig all my kit out of the garage and see if it's survived seven years of neglect, unprotected from the elements that our garage will certainly have failed to keep out. Although my bag had seen better days the contents inside were all in good nick; gloves, pads etc. My two bats, despite just having been leant up against a wall uncovered and unprotected, seemed okay, other than dust, cobwebs and the odd dead spider. The rubber grip had completely perished on one, and was looking worse for wear on the other, but usable for the time being. Thankfully that was the one I was planning on using anyway and would be fine until I could get a new grip fitted.
Then this happened:
Having survived the wasps and recovered my non wasps nest harboring equipment, I had to weigh up what I needed (a new fecking helmet for one) and what that I had was usable. I already knew it, but my batting pads were, and have always been, too big for me. I'm a short fella and thought I'd taken that into account when I ordered my kit last time round, but apparently "Youths" size is still too big for me. I struggled along with them for the two seasons I played but decided this time around I would make sure I had equipment that was right for me, rather than making do. I started to make a mental list of what I simply wanted, and what I definitely needed.
Now this is where I can geek out with Cricket. As with many things, there are different brands and styles of Cricket equipment, and for as long as I can remember I have always been a Gray-Nicolls loyalist. Why people make these decisions about what brand is their brand, I have no idea, but for me it was because all my favourite players when I was growing up used Gray-Nicolls; David Gower, Mike Atherton and Robin Smith to name a few.
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| David Gower = Gray-Nicolls |
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| Mike Atherton = Gray-Nicolls |
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| Robin Smith = Gray-Nicolls |
I still have my first proper Gray-Nicolls bat, a bat I coveted for the entire run up to that years cricket season, and was absolutely made up when my dad bought it for me. The Gray-Nicolls "Ultimate," the top of the line bat in Gray-Nicolls' range for that season, costing well into three figures even for the junior sizes. I recently considered selling it as a collectible, but couldn't bring myself to part with it.
 |
| My first proper Gray-Nicolls bat |
At this point I was pretty much ready to go, I was in two minds about my bat, although it seemed fine I had concerns about how it would take a fast ball after sitting through six or seven winters unprotected in a leaky garage. I was also unsure whether that wasn't also a size too big for me. A new bat had to be resigned to the "want" list rather than the definite "need" list, and I couldn't justify it on the side of pay day that I was. I would just have to see how the bat I had would perform.
Now I was ready to play, I had to decide if I wanted to go back to Club Cricket or a quicker format of the game. I'd been reading up on Last Man Stands leagues, eight-a-side cricket with twenty over innings. Matches last approximately two hours at most and anyone can form and enter a team. This sounded great as it would be less time consuming but fell down as I couldn't find an existing team to join, or muster enough people to form a new team of our own. In hindsight though I think this was a good thing as I don't think the faster more aggressive pace of cricket that would be played would be as enjoyable for me.
In the end I contacted my old team; Sheffield Transport Cricket Club, and asked if they'd have me back. I messaged them the Monday and was told I'd be playing that Sunday. At which point I remembered I needed whites! Another trip to Decathlon and I managed to pick up some Kookaburra whites, urgh! Needs must...
That Sunday I turned up for my first match having not lifted a bat in seven years, nervous as hell but eager to get at it. There were lot of new players in the team that I was meeting for the first time. We bowled first which I was happy about as it allowed me to stand in the field and ease myself back in to the game.
This first match was a wake up call as to how unfit I am. I ended up bruising a rib or two and knackering my shoulder diving to try and stop a ball that was going for four. My chest taking the full impact of my thirteen stone hitting the ground. Me legs started to cramp the more I ran about the field - stretching is important. Despite all that though I was having a great time.
At the break, I ate my sandwiches, downed a couple of ibuprofen and padded up ready to bat. I was meant to go in at number five but we lost our first wicket earlier than expected and as I was the only padded up and ready to go I got sent in straight away. I survived a couple of overs, successfully playing some defensive shots, stepping confidently to the ball and judging well which balls to leave. My downfall came when my legs cramped up again trying to make a run and I was run out for a duck. I hobbled off the pitch and spent the next twenty minutes laid on the floor trying to stretch the pain out my calves.
Regardless of the pain and discomfort, I loved every second of that first match back and cannot wait to play again. However heavy rain meant what should have been my next match was called off, and other commitments have meant I'll miss the next. So I won't get to play again until 11th August, weather permitting.
In the meantime I may have just treated myself to a new bat. The one I'd dug out of the garage didn't sound or feel too great when I struck the ball with it, so I don't think the years of cold and damp have done it any good. My choice of bat may have been fueled by nostalgia, as like my first Gray Nicolls bat, this one is called the "Ultimate" and I felt it was meant to be. Plus it's a good looking bat and feels great, I've just yet to swing it at a ball, so I'll have to try and get some time in the indoor nets very soon.
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| 2019 vs 1995/96 |
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| New vs Old |
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