Away to Dawlish

Having rested my sore foot all week, I felt confident that I wouldn't suffer any ill effects yesterday for my first full-length game of the season.

The captain lost the toss and we were put into bat. This is bad as Devon league rules state that if you're bowled out with overs remaining, the opposition are given your overs. Plus if they reach 75% of your score, they can be awarded points in a 'loosing draw'. So in a nutshell, you have it all to do if you're fielding second.

I was a bit disappointed to be as low down as seventh but given that I was seriously lacking in match practise and had failed to score for my evening team on Tuesday, I found it understandable.

The wickets tumbled from early on. Within about 8 overs we were 15/5. Chris, who went in before me at 6th put in a good partnership with the captain (who'd opened) but was eventually clean bowled, meaning that I went in with the score at 45/6. My objectives were clear:

1. Stay in
2. Get through the overs
3. Try and get some runs.

Ian (the skipper) and myself managed to hold off the opening bowlers. The one coming down the hill was particularly dangerous as he was able to cut the ball in towards you, so if you thought it was missing the off stump, you'd find out pretty soon that it wasn't.

The runs were slow coming, I must have faced at least two overs before I got off the mark (My absolute first run this season). We were frustrating the opposition just by staying there as it was obvious their secondary bowling options weren't up to much. Wides and byes were plentiful and we must have had at least a 20 run partnership (I remember it being 66/6 as I made a bad joke) before Ian was cought off their leg spinner. I could see it coming as I'd been consistently getting Ian with my leg spin in the nets all winter.
After me there were three kids, so I knew I'd have to take the lead role.

I was a bit surprised when Wayne managed to score a few runs. His leg work was worse than mine was last year but with the fearlessness of his youth he got the bat on ball and it was away - somewhere. Between us we smacked their leg-spinner around enough to warrant taking him off - one over was in double figures. More significantly though, for the first time in years I was enjoying myself at the crease. Nets had been fun this year too but there you have the luxury of unlimited wickets.

We took the score over 90 (100 runs would get us a bonus point) and the opposition were starting to feel threatened. They brought their openers back on and 'Cutter' dispatched Wayne's off stump despite my advice to cover it in anticipation.

I can't remember the ins and outs of it but basically I'd taken one more run (when I probably shouldn't have) and 'Cutter' clean bowled all three kids. It might have been Wayne that I gave four balls of the over to or Ashley a couple of overs later on but either way, as the senior player I should have turned down the single and kept the strike. Elliot, the last lad in went for a golden duck and all I could do was watch from the other end.

So on the plus side more than half the runs were scored when I was out batting, and I had another not out (10 this time) but we could have got that bonus point if I'd been a bit more sensible.

There were ten overs left so Dawlish were given 57 overs to chase down 92. To cut a long story short, they did. That wasn't the worst of it though, chasing after the ball in the field made my foot even worse. I think my cricket boots must be too narrowl as I'm now in pain on the side of my foot rather than the top. Getting new boots on Tuesday as the end of the month is too far away.

This leaves me incapable of resuming my walks to work for another week and means I'll almost definately miss this Wednesdays evening game - but this does have the advantage of leaving me free to watch the Champions League Final. I rate myself as doubtful for next weekend as well.

This is all virgin territory for me as I've never sustained a sporting injury before (well apart from kicking the football around in the park) when I was younger I was too busy being ill to worry about getting hurt. It sucks having to sit out games, especially as I'm really starting to enjoy my batting. And I'm loosing another week for my marathon bid.

The only positive that has come from this is that when I was in the sports shop looking at cricket boots (which they don't have stocked in a size 13 - typical), my wife noticed entry forms for a run in November. It's 11 miles which should be an excellent training opportunity for the marathon, especially as it'll be at roughly the half way stage of my training time-frame. I have to stay focussed on this, I've given up on far too many 'grand plans' in my younger days so I'd like to think I'm getting stubborn in my old age.