SportsShoes Blog

Well its about time England broke a record for something! The Test team has been unchanged in 6 Tests which is a new world record!Its about time we had some consistancy, they have a had a revolving door selection policy for years. So many conty players have 1 or 2 England caps its a joke. The Aussies did not have the world beating team they had for 10 years by getting rid of you as soon as you have a bad innings or get a bit of tap when your bowling. They had about 13 or 14 playrs that made up their test team for years and look how good they are! Admittedly it isnt all about keeping the same team, they’ve had some awesome players, but they knew where they stood. They didnt have to worry about getting 100′sand 5 wicket hauls to stay in the team. In England if you werent ripping the heart out of the opposition straight away that was it, you were out. And they brought in someone who was playing well at county level, and most of the time they struggled. The step up is a big one, and when your expected to make waves thats alot of pressure to handle. So im all for a this new found consistancy in selection, it helps with team spirit, confidence and gives players faith in their management.

Lets see if we can survive a battering from South Africas nasty fastys. The most hostile bowling line up in the world apparently, it should make for an interesting summer!

Well, things aren’t going too well at the moment. We got hammered at the weekend! Some awfull batting led to a spectacular collapse and we lost by 100 runs.

On the plus side my bowling is looking really good at the moment, my run up feels much better and im getting it in the right areas again. I took a yard of pace of my run up which has helped get me into a rythm again, and i was getting the ball to move about a fair bit, in the air and off the seam, which has given me some confidence back.

Started doing more coaching now and I have been working on batting with the kids, they’re picking it up quite fast but they know how to frustrate me, trying to get them to keep it down on the floor is a nightmare.  They all want to hit sixes like Kevin Pieterson

Well I was meant to play 2 games this weekend but Saturday was a washout, I went all the way to Halifax to come all the way back an hour later! Spent the rest of the day cleaning!

Sunday we played against Saltaire, we batted first and got 224, i picked up a quick 7 but was run out which i was not too happy about. I opened the bowling for the first time in a while because of my shoulder, it went well, i took 3 wickets in my first spell of 9 overs. I was very happy with how I bowled, and I had no pain in my shoulder which is great news.Unfortunately we lost in the end by about 5 runs, but still picked up about 8 bonus points.

I’ve been struggling with 2 parts of my bowling recently, my run up and also keeping upright throughout my bowling action. After working on my run up in the nets this week I think I have sorted my problem with bwling no balls which has really been frustrating me asI’m only millimetres over the line. And also spending some time bowling on my own to iron out my problems with my action collapsing while I bowl which means I start spraying the ball down the legside and bowling wides. I think I’m back in the first team this week after a few good weeks of bowling, hopefully I can keep bowling well and keep my place!!