Mates who don't play cricket!

I've been training at the indoor nets since January, each week thinking "... another week closer to the season".

Now, finally, the league starts on Saturday and I'm a sure bet to be opening the batting for the first team....things don't get better than that!

So what does my so called friend do? He decides to have his stag do on the exact Saturday I've been keeping clear for months!

I've known about this for months, but as the day approaches I find myself continually thinking of excuses, hoping that by some miracle his wedding will be called off! Maybe his girlfriend will leave him, or perhaps she'll catch him with someone else.........if only!

Does that make me a bad person or just a cricket fan?

Sunshine?

As usual, April is a tease: we've played both of our scheduled matches!

OK, our first pre-season friendly (18th April) was a bit chilly, but it was dry and we even got a BBQ going. And we actually got a bit of sunshine last Saturday. Here's photographic evidence.




I've got a new camera, so this may turn out to be a well documented season ...

Budget 2009: Cricket authorities to offer "old-player" subsidy

Cricketing authorities are offering up to £2000 for old players when traded in for newer, shinier versions.

The committee of one local team, Kirk Brae CC based in Liberton, has expressed caution, saying the scheme may result in many serviceable members being scrapped. "There's no doubt that new members would greatly improve efficiency both on and off the pitch, reducing carbon emissions" said one government spokesman.

Anthony Nuttella, Chairman of a local "green" Rapid Response Action Group, disputed the evidence behind government claims. His group suggests that the plan is a thinly disguised ploy to boost spending on cricket-related items and would actually increase total emissions of hot air. Nutella claims that huge amounts of resources are used in the creation of single new member of a cricket club and it is therefore much more efficient to use aged, decrepit or generally unenthusiastic players "until they can't see the ball".

The subsidy will be available from the end of the current season.

Lots of new match balls

This picture shows a batch of 600 new ESCA league balls - all packed up and ready to be delivered to the pre-season League meeting. As we watched my old car strain under the weight, we couldn't help thinking about the exciting life ahead of these balls.

So, COW CORNER has commissioned some scientific analysis on the subject.

Initial research tells us that each ball is likely to hit stumps 4 times and hit pads (in cast-iron certain LBWs) 9 times. Early indications are that each ball will be dropped 6 times. That gives us the following figures for my car full of balls: 2400 stumps hits, over 5400 straightforward LBW decisions, 3600 dropped catches.

Our researchers have put together this helpful graphic to illustrate these amazing numbers -
We'll post more research as soon as it becomes available.

And you thought your captain was bad!

As your skipper is trying to pull a team together for the first games of the season (and trying to make sense out of the rambling replies he's had to his simple request "do you want a game of cricket at the weekend"), spare a thought for Major Nigel Harvie Bennett.

Good old Major Nigel Harvie Bennett was captain of Surrey in 1946 ... by mistake.

The Times had a small piece about him on Monday (here). Major Nigel turned up at Lords one Spring morning in 1946, to renew his membership. It was all a bit chaotic there at the time and the ground had been used by the military during the war. Surrey had decided that a certain Major LEO Bennett should take over the captaincy that season. It just so happened that when Major NIGEL Bennett turned up, the clerk took his papers in to the Secretary, who happened to have the club Chairman in the room with him, and they gladly took the opportunity to offer Bennet the captaincy there and then: Major Nigel Bennett accepted.

His lack of knowledge ruffled a few feathers. In his first game, he repeatedly rolled the new ball back to his opening bowler. Apparently, on another occasion he asked Jim Laker to open the bowling, saying "But you bowl quick too, don't you?"

There's no mention of how Major Leo Bennett coped during that season. But I do have a great deal of sympathy for Major Nigel. Good on him for accepting the challenge.

Helmet

So, all the new gear is now in stock at Cow Corner. Our favourite is the Newbery “Grizzly” bat, which comes with a striking pink grip and bear 's claws across the back . Very tasteful! But what item has proven to be the best seller so far in 2009? The humble helmet of course. As clubs begin pre-season training on hard indoor surfaces, the protection a helmet provides is invaluable. However, is outdoors a different matter?

In the East of Scotland our grass pitches bear no relation to the fast bouncy indoor environments. Replicating our wickets indoors would require slopping huge quantities of mud up and down the net’s area beforehand. On our slow, early-season wickets a batsmen often has the chance to have two or three swings at the same short pitched delivery.

This is demonstrated brilliantly in the following diagram. Please note the detail in the cloud.