CROSSING THE SAHARA

We rolled up for the second week in a row to play Emmanuel at their Sahara desert like home ground at Scammel Reserve. Having been pipped at the post last week, we could be forgiven for asking the question “what are we going to do differently this week”. The short answer to that is that cricket is a funny game and no two games play out the exact same way.

I was sent out to open again with Ragu Prabhakaran as my opening partner. Ragu played very well the week before and is a steadying influence out in the middle. We took one look at the pitch and immediately had concerns as it looked very green from all the rainfall during the week.

From the first over the ball was seaming about all over the place and bouncing at variable heights. Usually a nice trampoline bounce, but every now and again, one would keep low or bounce wildly after hitting a divot in the pitch.

I got off the mark with a controlled cut for a single. Then repeated the stroke soon after. I played a push to leg for a single and another push to cover for another single. However, most of the times it was hard to get a handle on the pitch as the ball was moving, bouncing and generally misbehaving. Ragu who is a free scoring batsman was also stymied by the vagaries of the green pitch.

After the tenth over, the Emmanuel captain started instructing his change bowlers to warm up and I started to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that soon enough I would be facing less suffecatingly accurate bowling than what I Ragu and I had to contend with thus far.

During the eleventh over, I already started to think “if I have survived unscathed so far for ten overs – I will bat at least twenty. If I can bat twenty, I can bat longer still and get a good score and get back on track”.

I negotiated the first few balls of Tait’s last over of his opening spell, content to just block him out when a ball pitched just short of a length suddenly exploded off the pitch as I was playing forwarded and was in a mille-second heading for my face. I instinctively raised my bat in front of my face and I felt I had done well to keep the bat remotely arched to send the ball downwards. The ball flew down to the right of second slip. The slip fieldsman dived and scooped up a remarkable catch less than a centimeter off the turf in his right hand.

A simply amazing catch.

The umpire conferred with square leg to ensure that the catch had carried, but I had already tucked my bat under my arm and I was making my way off by this stage as I had a good view of the catch and it certainly seemed to me that it had carried – just – to the second slip fieldsman who was sprawled out on the turf clasping the ball. Ragu was out caught behind almost straight away and we were suddenly 2 for 16 after twelve overs and in real bother.

Richie The Dragon Halpagoda was joined by new lad Danny Rowe a Welshman who has come to Australia on a working holiday with his wife. The pitch was such that the usually belligerent Dragon was subdued and was eventually dismissed for eight, but Danny Rowe was getting into full swing playing some lusty strokes.

Strachany joined Danny “Boy” Rowe and they put on a superb partnership worth seventy two with Dan playing some stupendous strokes to all points of Scammel Reserve. Strachany started off slowly and looked rather subdued, but as he got his eye in, he started to play some big strokes too and it was exciting cricket to watch.

The score steadily mounted when disaster struck as Danny Rowe was run out from a direct hit for a swash buckling sixty seven. It was a huge innings in terms of getting us back into this match. More importantly, he had weathered the early phase where the pitch was still seaming and then made Emmanuel pay. Barring the unfortunate run out, Danny Rowe would have marked his Yarras debut with a richly deserved century.

The score was now 4 for 120 and we still needed more runs to give our bowlers something to bowl at. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, but Strachany heroically saw us through to 8 for 157 with his own score being thirty seven not out.

On that outfield, 157 was a reasonably good score. Opening our bowling were the two high schoolies Alex Harris – the hero of the game against Nationals before Christmas and James Allen a diminutive lad who would not put the fear of God into batsman with his school boy looks and lack of height.

However, both lads acquitted themselves superbly and were miserly in their opening salvos. In fact, James “Jock” Allen took four of the first wickets to fall (Alex Harris took the other) and James Allen subsequently finished the day with the superb figures of 5 for 23 while Alex “Bomber” Harris who bowled probably better finished with the tidy return of 1 for 14.

Emmanuel collapsed to be all out for 59 two overs before drinks handing us an unexpectedly easier than imagined win by ninety eight runs. Ian Chips Pringle and Johnny Scurry both picked up 2 for 10 and we had triumphed on a wicket that was playing at different heights.

A sweet victory!

I was only disappointed that having survived eleven difficult, eventful overs, I was dismissed by a freak ball and an even freakier catch. Some days luck does not smile on you in cricket.

See you all next week!
Vic Nicholas
MELBOURNE

EMMANUEL OAKLIEGH - LOST IN THE SAHARA

“If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.”
~ Elbert Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher.

The day dawned brightly last Sunday as I drove out to Oakleigh to take on Emmanuel Oakleigh who sit third on the ladder and had just toppled top of the table Nationals. These were going to be tough hombres to crack on their home turf. Speaking of turf, I nearly died of shock when I took one look out at the playing arena.

How can I best describe it?

It looked like desert sand with the odd tuft of weeds here and there. It was pretty much devoid of any grass anywhere. While the wicket itself was a nice green colour and looked like it would play truly, the outfield was horrible. It was with some irony that on a sign hanging off the fence, it proudly read that “Drought Resistant Grass has been planted on this oval”. The only problem was, this drought resistant grass had died off long ago.

Anyways, we lost the toss and had been put in to bat. I was slated to open this week and I made my way out to the middle with the unflappable Nat “Mr Natural” Williams. The plan was to get to the ten over mark and then start pushing it on from there. Nat offered to take first strike which I was appreciative of, as I am always an extremely nervous opener. From the first balls Nat faced, I could see that the pitch was offering swing to the young Emmanuel bowler Michael Tate. At the end of the over Nat informed me that Tate was not only getting the ball to move away from the batsman off the deck, but also through the air.

I faced up to Emanuel captain Ralph who off a short run up generated a bit more pace and bounce than Tate and also swung the ball away. This was seriously tough going and the bowling was very tight.

I was lucky enough to get off the mark fairly early on in unorthodox fashion when I got a single down to fine leg when I French Cut a delivery from Ralph who glared at me in disgust at my apparent luck.

Nat was handling the bowling intelligently by leaving well alone anything outside his off stump and only playing at anything that simply had to be played. I figured that this was a good strategy that I also was going to adopt so we could get to our first objective, which was to survive until the tenth over.

The Emmanuel boys are pretty vocal out on the field which is all good and perfectly acceptable to me in how cricket should be played. However, Emmanuel Captain Ralph was a bit more personal in his biting remarks. Perhaps because he was fielding at silly mid off and was the closest of all their fielders. All the same, he fired off some sly sledges at me and I made a mental note that when Ralph came out to bat, I was going to give him a warm welcome and remind him that two can play the sledging game.

I soon played a very sweet cut shot off an infuriated Ralph which flew off the middle of my bat and promptly brought up puffs of sand when it bounced past the diving Point fieldsmen and raced away to the long, long square boundary. It tantalizingly stopped up less than a foot short of the boundary and would easily have been a four on any other ground in the MCA, but not on this huge ground. As Nat and I scampered through for three runs, I didn’t notice that the fieldsman had grabbed the fence with one hand when he picked up the ball with his other hand. It was my teammates that informed me about this later – so it should have been a four!

In any case, after some considerable struggle, we had reached the half way mark of our first objective by having safely navigated the fifth over of the innings. I told Nat at the mid pitch conference “another five overs mate and then we will see where we go next”.

During the seventh over, I played and missed a delivery by Tate that beat the keeper who was standing up to the stumps to keep me in my crease. Taking up my usual stance nearly a meter outside my crease to nullify any LBWs, I was no forced to sit back in the crease, but I was not undually worried, though Tate was causing me some problems with his swing through the air rather than off the pitch.

Then a full delivery from Tate drew me forward with my left foot planted down the pitch almost as far as I could stretch when in my anxiety, I missed the full swinging delivery which hit my toe on the full and a loud appeal went up. I was not duly concerned as I felt that I had taken a very long stride down the pitch and moreover, I also thought that it hit me marginally outside offstump and was swinging towards slip anyway.

Surely, the umpire would have to give me the benefit of the doubt? Not on your life. He fired me out pretty quickly and I was forced to troop off in great disappointment at having failed to see through to the first goal of surviving at least until the tenth over.

Dave “Doc” Neal strode in at number three and also had trouble adjusting to the swinging ball and capitulated soon enough, LBW for five. Now we were in some bother and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Nat who had survived at the other end and was starting to look comfortable, was also out for four. Three top order wickets down and we didn’t even total fifteen between us. That was not the start we needed.

Ragu and Richie The Dragon then settled things down with a very sensible partnership that was to advance the total to forty seven before Richie fell for a well made twenty to continue his recent run of good form. Ragu was next to go for nineteen with the score on sixty two before Strachany was also dismissed by the now rampant Ranatunga for three. This was Ranatunga’s third wicket and he had bowled beautifully for Emmanuel.

Johnny Spooner – a newspaper cartoonist by trade then stood tall with Disco McDonald putting on a hard hitting and valuable partnership that gave us renewed hope. Johnny Spooner was eventually dismissed for eighteen priceless runs and Disco contributed an innings top score of twenty seven to eventually get our score to 131 all out. Not a great score by any stretch, but at least we now had something to bowl to which for a long time did not look like being the case.

Emmanuel set off on their chase particularly well losing one of their openers very early on to Disco. It was an innocuous dismissal – but they all count. As the runs mounted, the wickets continued to fall and then Emmanuel started to stumble as they came within sight of victory.

Enter Emmanuel captain James Ralph.

I gave him a bit of needle to remind him that I had not forgotten his earlier sledging of me. In fact, I heaped a plethora of sledges on him and he stared at me like I was insane. Maybe he couldn’t remember that he had started this little tête-à-tête.

In any case, he steadied the ship and batted sensibly – if a little shakily – to get his team home by three wickets. While the game was still alive, Ralph was dropped twice as we failed to land the knock out blow. Ralph was the big wicket. If we had have dismissed him, the last couple of wickets (basically, young kids) would have in all likelihood crumbled under the pressure. As it was, Ralph shepherded his young team mates to the finishing line.

So we lost yet again in a close one and it was hard to take. I kept thinking to myself that if only I had performed my role and batted to at least the fifteen to twenty over mark, I could have contributed some valuable runs, protected the middle order from the swinging ball and helped make a bigger, more defendable total.

It was not to be and we came up short yet again.

My form and confidence have not been so good after Christmas and I need a long stay at the crease to get some confidence back.

See you all next week!

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne

The Burnley Blues

Strachany cutting during his innings of 21.

“You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.”
~ Zig Ziglar - (1926- ) American author, salesman and motivational speaker.

This weeks game was against Burnley CYMS at our East Como Park home ground. It was to be a rematch of our epic Round One encounter where Burnley's second last pair got them over the line in a cliff hanger. The temperature was hovering on about twenty degrees with occasional light showers scheduled and even more occasional bursts of sunshine through the clouds.

Nice comfortable cricket conditions.

The pitch was an absolute belter. Having a look at it pre game, I could see a lot of runs being scored on it and I was pretty comfortable that I would be able to get amongst it. The outfield was a lot better than last week as the grass had been cut again and the majority of the clippings had been cleared and the most important factor for me was the opponent – Burnley – whom I excelled against in Round One before Nat ran me out when he did not respond for a call for an easy single.

All things considered, I was confident of getting amongst the runs today. As the batting list was being drawn up, I noticed that Chris Connelly was slated to come in at Number Three, which is fair enough as he is a higher grade player “guesting” for us. His last innings for the Fifths was a swash buckling 67, so coming in at Three to move things along was a sensible tactic in my view. Next in line was Julian Lane – a guy who made 51 last time he played for us and then there was Richie the Dragon Halpagoda who had not scored higher than 10 in any innings at any level this season. So, I was somewhat miffed to find myself all the way down at number six in the batting order.

After improving incrementally each week at Number Three until my unfortunate dismissal for eight against Thornbury off a bump ball – I have been moved to number four where I have flopped completely and now instead of being moved back to the more familiar Number Three – I am at Number Six, a position I have never batted in my life. My confidence is taking a battering here with all this instability and changing of roles.

I tried to be philosophical…most weeks our number six batsman comes in around the thirty over mark…sometimes sooner, other times later. I might get ten to fifteen overs of batting if I am lucky. However, something inside told me that I was not going to get a bat at all as the pitch was an absolute pudding with plenty of runs in it.

And so it proved.

Nat playing defensively off the back foot during his innings of 19.

Strachany and Nat got the team off to a patient start putting on forty seven off about twenty overs. Chris Connelly then joined Strachany and they continued on cautiously until Strachany was dismissed for twenty one and the score on seventy two. Penny Lane fell soon after for seven and the score had advanced to 3 for 90.

Finally, the one hundred was reached in the thirty third over – way too slow for such a cracking wicket, but I was seemingly alone in my sentiment. Chris “Digger” Connelly and Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda then set about thrashing the bowling to all parts of the oval before Digger Connelly was dismissed for a fantastic seventy seven and the score was now 4 for 174. Digger was dropped twice in his innings, the first time very early on in the piece – so Digger made Burnley pay and they very nearly rued their lost opportunities.

Chris Connelly playing a push to cover during his hard hitting innings of 77.

The order was now reshuffled and the wicket keeper Sohail Khatwani was sent out in my place with less than two overs to go due to his willingness to smash the ball around. He did just that by hitting a six to the skinny side of the ground with a thick outside edge over point that carried over the short square boundary.

Richie Halpagoda was run out next for a hard hitting and entertaining thirty two – vindicating Strachany’s faith in him. The score was now 5 for 189 and there were only a couple balls left. I was due in now, but there was no way known I was going to allow myself to be shafted in such a way. Going in to bat in such a scenario, you are expected to try and smash a boundary or at least run a suicidal single. Either way, it is more likely than not that you will get out as you have no time to get your eye in and you have to try something suicidal.

Assuming I went in and smacked a four or a six – big deal. A four or six not out is hardly worth the risk of being dismissed for a duck. I am not being selfish here – because despite what the hierarchy at South Yarra (and other clubs) might say about it being honourable to give your wicket away in a suicidal manner for teh benefit of the team – in the final wash up, they count it as a failure against your name.

Nobody remembers that I copped a bum decision against Thornbury when I had made eight in three overs of polished batting. They just look at the eight and say to themselves “VB failed there”…same goes for when I was run out in Round One when my partner was watching the ball and not responding to my call (and it was MY call). Nope. They just see that I was out for eighteen and wasted a great start.

So I sent Conrad out in my place and he made two not out and we finished up with 5 for 193 – our highest score of the season, but still short of what I considered to be a winning score on that feather bed pitch.

My feeling wasn’t wrong. Burnley passed our total for the loss of only three wickets and a comfortable amount of overs in hand. They batted on only out of interest to see if their wicket keeper Dave Wraith could finally score his first fifty in his life, which he duly did and they promptly declared with two overs left. They lost a wicket after passing our total when their Captain John Eaton (a former Yarra) was dismissed for a well made fifty eight. Wraith who made a match winning forty two against us in Round One made a courageous fifty not out this time. Considering he cannot make runs against anyone else – he must love playing against us.

So today’s game ended on the disappointing taste of defeat and doubly disappointing for me was the fact that I played no role what so ever in proceedings. I did not bat nor bowl. I just spent forty five overs in the field making up the numbers. I have to think back to my very first year back in Under Twelves to recall the last time that happened to me and I did not get a bat in a game. Back those days I was a ten year old outsider in a predominantly white Anglo-Celtic club that thought lowly of “dagoes” like me. This time I was just seen as being of lesser ability than six other batsmen – which is very chastening and sobering.

I can never get today back again and the opportunity to have a great hit on an absolute road is lost. I now have to wait three weeks before I get the chance to have a bat again – how I can maintain confidence and form while having (by then) not batted for a month and only having batted once in seven weeks, is a mystery even to me.

That’s life sometimes.

There will be no match day blog for the next two weeks as it is a two week game and unfortunately for the first week of it, I will be in Hayman Island relaxing with my wife celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary on Australia Day. So I will have to sit out the two day game against yet another opponent that I have done well against in the recent past.

I am sure our boys will do well.

See you all in a few weeks time!

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA

COLES SHARKS - EATEN ALIVE

Surveying a push to backward square leg.

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing”
~ Harriet Beryl Braiker (1949-2004) - psychologist and author.

It was a blazing hot day as I made my way to our Como West ground, our opponents for this week are the high flying Coles Sharks. I arrived in time to learn that we would be bowling first which I was not altogether bothered about. As we made our way out to the middle, I took one look at the pitch and decided that it was an absolute belter being nice and yellow and almost devoid of any cracks. I thought to myself that this pitch will play true and will offer very little assistance to the bowlers.

That was the pitch. The outfield on the other hand was something else! The grass had been recently cut with small mounds of grass clippings left everywhere all over the oval. Also, the grass was not exactly “short” by any stretch of the imagination. So while the pitch was going to play truly, the outfield was going to curtail a lot of scoring opportunities as it would be unbelievably slow for shots played along the deck.

Our new ball bowlers this week were Roshan “Roshy” Peries a left arm fast medium bowler who has played as high as First Grade this season who possesses an occasionally wicked kicking out swinger that catches batsmen by surprise and Santosh “Toshy” Thuniki the hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas where he captured 4 for 19 including three of the top four batsman. So you could say that it was a reasonably solid new ball pairing.

A few overs into the Coles innings, I could already see that the pitch was offering both our new ball bowlers nothing by the way of bounce or sideways movement. The pitch was a road suited to the flat track whackers of which our middle order is composed of. “Going to be good for Tinker and Notty when we have a bat, but an absolute bowlers grave yard for our poor fast bowlers” was what went through mind as the Coles openers started to assert their authority with some lusty strikes bouncing over the boundary. The Coles openers were going aerial often to avoid the ball stopping in the grass once they ascertained that the outfield was treacle slow. This of course meant that there were seemingly abundant opportunities to test our outfield catching. Remarkably, the ball seemed to either just fly over the fieldsmen’s outstretched hands or just in front, or just to the side…you can picture the frustration building in our lads as the opening bowlers were unable to get the break through and the score was steadily rising at an alarming run rate.

Kicking some clumps of dirt off the pitch.

Johnny Scurry was brought on in place of Roshy from the River End and with his slower brand of accurate medium pace I thought that perhaps it might slow the batsmen down somewhat.

I was very wrong.

“Scuzza” opened up with a loose over composed of full tosses and long hops and the Coles openers licked their lips and started depositing his deliveries express post to the long on boundary. Now that the Coles batsmen could smell blood in the water, they went after Scuzza like a pack of blood thirsty piranhas. Even when Scuzza started to pitch the ball on a good length, they were dancing down the pitch and smashing him to the boundary, and on a couple of occasions, clean out of the ground. It was a killing that was performed with calculated brutality. Craig Nott – one of our best outfield fieldsmen – was stationed right on the long on boundary when eventually the Coles batsmen had gorged themselves on Scuzza one time too many as Coles captain Sarianidis eventually holed out to Notty standing almost on the chalk on the boundary when he held an excellent catch. It was good to see that Scuzza had got the big wicket to help restore his confidence after the Coles batsmen had annihilated him.

Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda was also introduced into the attack at this time and he was also swept away in the slip stream to be mauled to the tune of fourteen runs off his two overs. Finally, it was Chippy Pringle’s introduction to the fray that finally stopped the haemorrhaging. It was a classy spell of bowling and with Strachany introducing himself belatedly, things turned full circle as wickets started to tumble to Strachany’s wicket to wicket line.

Coles innings finally came to a natural end at the forty five over compulsory innings closure with their score finishing on a rather respectable 8 for 189. It could have been so much worse for us, as at one stage Coles looked like they were cruising to 250. As it stood, 189 was still an excellent score considering the slow nature of the outfield. Strachany was the star with the ball taking 4 for 27 off his nine overs of economical medium pace and Chippy Pringle chimed in with 2 for 34 off nine overs of controlled off spin.

Strachany and Mr Natural Nat Williams strode out to start off our chase and I was confident that they would get us off to a rollicking start. However, before I could even get my pads on, Nat was out bowled for a duck and we were 1 for 1. Not the start I expected. This week Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda was sent out to bat in my usual place at number three due to his willingness to “have a go”. The score had barely reached eighteen when Strachany himself was adjudged LBW nine.

A forward defensive stroke.

2 for 18 and I was walking to the crease in a scrambled head space. How were we going to turn things around and score at four and a half an over to overhaul Coles score? I batted in relative comfort as none of the bowling was particularly troubling me. What DID trouble me was the sight of the grass in the outfield stopping my strokes from going anywhere. It took me a while to get off the mark, but when it came, it was well worth savouring. A nicely timed glance off my toes that raced to fine leg for a single.

A study of my stance and backlift.

The bowling was tight, but not overly threatening. However, the tight line and the slow outfield was causing me to have nightmares as to how I was going to get the scoring moving. Soon after I had arrived at the crease, Richie The Dragon perished when he went for a half cocked drive that spooned straight to the mid off fieldsman for an innocuous dismissal that Richie must have been kicking himself over afterwards. 3 for 20 and sinking further into the mire.

Playing a splendid (though involuntary) late cut for a single down to third man.

In strode Alun “Tinker” Hume our very own genial Irishman and hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas when he made a barnstorming sixty one. His first words of wisdom to me when he arrived at the wicket were “I feel like I am about to throw up…I am not going to last too long today”. Apparently, Tinker was watching at a pub until 6:30am watching his English Premier League team playing on pay TV while drinking a guiness or five. So old Tinker was feeling rather hung over and less than one hundred percent as the afternoon wore on. To his credit, he started batting in an aggressive manner picking up where he left off before Christmas. As for myself, I still had time to play a purposeful push to square leg for a single and a wonderful – but entirely involuntary – late cut also for a single. But for the outfield, it would have raced away for four on any other day.

A push to backward square leg. Fielding at gully is the sledger who gave me the send off.

Drinks were taken and I was very concerned as to how I was going to manufacture an innings that would be fast enough to give us a chance to win the game. With this thought embedded in my mind, I played the first ball from the new bowler Javed after drinks defensively. The second ball, I involuntarily charged down the pitch to the fast bowler and missed the ball in my swipe which proceeded to hit the top hat of my left pad, deflecting onto the top hat of my right pad before dropping enough to clip the top of my off stump to be bowled in the most ridiculous manner. It was totally out of character for me to be giving any bowler the charge, let alone a fast medium bowler. It was a brain explosion pure and simple.

I felt totally ashamed of myself as I walked off the field. As I was making my way off, one of the Coles fieldsman sledged me with the words “he’s got a new bat, but he doesn’t know how to f*@king use it”. It rubbed salt into the wound, more so that the offender lasted only two balls himself when he batted and to be diplomatic, he had a body shape that would see him as a candidate to be conscripted onto the Biggest Loser for his own good. Throw in a Merv Hughes moustache and he had the complete all round image of a philistine.

Alun "Tinker" Hume ready to pounce during his gutsy innings of 43.

Craig Nott joined Tinker at the crease and the two of them set about rebuilding our innings and restoring our fading hopes of winning the game. They played sensible aggressive cricket and took the score to ninety vive before Tinker departed for a streaky but important forty three. A remarkable innings considering Tinkers hung over condition. Sunil Mandalika joined Craig Nott at the crease and they continued scoring freely to give us the feeling that perhaps there was life in the game yet. Sunil smashed two glorious sixes before perishing trying to do it once too often and was bowled for seventeen and the score on 6 for 120 and our hopes fading fast as Craig Nott was the last of the recognized batsmen at the crease.

Notty was eventually second last man out for a courageous thirty five and by now the score 9 for 135. Soon after John Scurry was the last man out and our run chase terminated at 137 to lose the game by fifty two runs. A heavy defeat in the final wash up.

Trying to play a pull shot to a ball that subsequently kept low and cannoned into my thigh pad.

I was extremely disappointed with myself to get myself out in such a silly manner. My concentration is something I really need to work on as it is a shambles. It was no coincidence that todays dismissal was the FIFTH time I had been dismissed this season in the over before or the over after drinks. That is clearly a break in concentration and must be amended if I am going to play any useful roles for the team this summer.

Thinking about things dispassionately this week, I started playing club cricket as a ten year old and stopped playing at the end of under 16’s when I was barely sixteen years old. That in effect means that this is only my seventh season of club cricket which makes me in relative terms a novice. If I count my beginnings in the backyard as an eight year old – I still haven’t totaled ten years of cricket under my belt. I have a long way to go – but I am very confident that quantum leaps in improvement are not far away.

See you all soon!
Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA

THE STORY SO FAR

Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.
~ John Madden (10 April 1936- ) Former American Football player and Former Head Coach of Oakland Raiders.

Over this Christmas/New Years season hiatus I have had a lot of time to assess and appraise how my first half season back in club cricket after a twenty six year absense has gone. I have had to be brutally honest with myself in my self examination because that is the only way one can find the answers to improve their game as opposed to living in some kind of delusional fantasy land and keep doing the same thing and getting the same end result.

My first half season scores were as follows:

18 vs Burnley – run out

A terrible mix up with Nat when I had the measure of the bowling and looked set for a big score.
This was a very bad blow in hindsight as a big score on the opening day of the season would have done me a world of good. It was not to be, and the mix up was worthy of a Keystone Kops episode in its clumsiness. It would have been hilarious if it happened to anyone else - as it was, I wasn't laughing. Still, we put on an opening stand of fifty nine in reasonably quick time.

7no vs Canterbury – retired hurt

Ripped both quad muscles during they pre-game warm up. Simply could not run in those frenetic overs when we were trying to secure a miraculous victory. To rip both quad muscles during a pre-game fielding drill is - again - hilarious. That is, if it happens to somebody else. Schadenfreude - just as I would be having a laugh at others expense - I am sure my teammates found my predicament very funny indeed!

0 vs Parkville – bowled

Bowled in freakish manner off my right toe with the ball clipping the leg bail and ending up in first slips hands as they appealed for a catch. Once in a career type of dismissal.

You need some luck early on in an innings and this was one day where I had none.

8 vs Parkville – bowled

Bowled by a jaffa as I went the big drive to move the scoring pace along. I was told at the drinks break that the scoring rate was too slow and that some big shots were needed. I promptly smashed a pull stroke for four on resumption and then missed an inswinger with a big heave aimed for mid off.

17 vs Maccabi – caught

Imploded by throwing my wicket away after surviving more than an hour on a green and seaming deck. Prior to my brain fade, I was looking good for a big score. It was a difficult pitch and the outfield was treacle slow. I was batting very comfortably up until the point I dabbed at a low full toss that careered off the toe of my bat to mid off.

DNB vs Parkdale – washed out

DNB vs National – washed out

21 vs National – bowled

Batted pretty well and had a big score well and truly in my sights when I threw my wicket away playing across the line of a leg break that simply did not bounce. To be fair, I was trying to up the run rate. Still, it was a waste of twenty two overs of grind. Put on a fifty one run stand with Richard Hounslow and batting with Richie was an education in being organized and aware at the crease. Aimed a big pull shot at a long hop that skidded through almost ankle height.

8 vs Thornbury – caught behind

Umpiring error. Given out caught behind off a bump ball that passed underneath the toe of my bat after looking comfortable to that point. I felt extremely confident during my short stay at the crease. I aimed a big cover drive at a widish delivery that caught the toe of my bat and the ground at the same time before the keeper took the "catch" at chest height. I was furious at teh decision, but, realistically, it was the only bad decision I have recieved so far this season - so I cannot complain. At this level, to have even half reasonable umpires is a blessing!

1 vs Thornbury – bowled

Bowled around my legs by a leg spinner. Simply a once in a season delivery. The first delivery I recieved after the drinks break.

My first half season assessment based on not converting any starts into meaningful scores is therefore 3/10.

That may sound somewhat harsh, but there are very good reasons for me feeling that way about my performance.

If the three scores of 18, 17 and 21 were converted into innings of 30+ runs each, then I would have considered my first half of the season to have been a 5/10.

Furthermore, if those three starts were converted into scores of 40 plus with maybe one of the innings being greater than 50 – then I would have considered my half season rating to have been as high as 7/10.

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Season Hilights

Undoubtably the two stands over fifty. The fifty nine opening stand in round one with Nat Williams was sensational, but could easily have been over seventy as neither Nat nor myself are the swiftest runners between wickets. The fifty one run stand with Richard Hounslow was a great learning experience for me in how to organize an innings and set targets. Richie Hounslow's constant updates of deliveries left in an over, runs scored off the over, etc was fantastic and made batting with him a real eye opener. It is something that I am consciously trying to emulate and incorporate into my game.

Season Downers

The two outright failures of a duck in round three and a score of one in round seven just before the Christmas break. Both were freakish dismissals of the likes that are not going to be repeated too many times over the course of my second coming as a club cricketer. Still, there was a lesson to be learned in both dismissals. In both instances opening up my stance a little bit more would have aided me greatly to combat those deliveries.

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With all the practice I have put in at official training with the club and private training with my club mates on other days, not to mention private technical tuition with Happy each Friday with the bowling machine at Hawthorn Indoor Centre – I really should have made some bigger scores.

My form has been good throughout and my confidence has remained unshakeable. I really feel I am one good innings away from cracking the code so to speak. Early on when I noticed some technical deficiencies, I worked diligently to iron them out as best as I could.

I have learnt a lot in my first half season of adult turf cricket. My stamina out in the middle is not what it used to be as I found myself wilting after only a few overs. This is in contrast to my formerly boundless stamina as a teenager when I could bat for two to three hours without any great problem.

Happy suggested that I eat a banana for breakfast on game day and then another banana just before the game to give my body the energy levels to get through an innings. Leading Yarras run scorer from our First Eleven - Kim Price - suggested that I drink an energy drink at drinks instead of the usual cordial that is doled out. He suggested something like a Powerade.

I am taking both those suggestions on board as I am staggered as to why I am fading fast so early in all my innings. Another though that occurred to me is that I show most of the symptoms associated with Type Two Diabetes, namely:

• Being excessively thirsty
• Feeling tired and lethargic
• Always feeling hungry
• Having cuts that heal slowly
• Itching, skin infections
• Leg cramps.

I had absolutely no idea that I was a candidate for Type Two Diabetes until I was listening to a sports talkback program that was discussing the symptoms associated with Type Two Diabetes and I immediately recognized that I have most of the symptoms that were mentioned.

So, I will be booking in for a thorough medical examination shortly to ascertain whether I genuinely have Type Two Diabetes (which I am pretty sure I have) or whether it is an overreaction and simply some other minor problem like lack of fitness. Either way, a full health check by a GP is a must.

I am going to leave no stone unturned to achieve my optimum level of performance which (rightly or wrongly) I feel I am capable of much more than what I have shown. I feel that I have nearly all the shots. The only shot that I lack that I need to work on is the late cut. I have seen a few batsmen use it to good effect as a scoring stroke.

Another facet that I want to improve in is my scoring rate. In my comeback this season, I have batted slower than I can ever remember. I would like to get back to scoring at a faster rate with more boundaries. All my boundaries so far this season have come either behind or square of the wicket. It has been greatly disappointing that I have not even looked like scoring a boundary with a drive.

That has to change and has to improve for me to make bigger scores and to score quicker. I have grown up as essentially a back foot player because of playing my junior cricket on coir matting. On low bouncing turf wickets, I have to construct a better front foot game and learn the art of lofting bowlers back over their heads. It is a different type of batting to what I am used to, but I am enjoying the challenge of learning new ways to play an old familiar game. At any rate, I have to double my scoring rate from now on for the benefit of my team.

Easier said than done, but one thing that is certain, I will be in there trying!

See you all soon.

Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA