Thanks

 

More amusement on the clapping batsmen in front yesterday. New man half way to the crease received the applause and raised his bat to acknowledge it ! To be fair he did score 50 so it was just a journey in space-time.

 

Super-polite

 

I'm from the generation old enough to know that the belief of the next two generations that clapping in a new batsman is a time honoured tradition is incorrect. But it can't be wrong to be over polite, particularly in contrast to the quantity of inane noise that goes on on cricket pitches these days.

 

Anyway yesterdays oppo had a practice, quite a good one maybe, of having one of their team umpire at the bowlers end whilst the next man in stood at square leg ( dodgy if you're batting and have fallen out with him).

 

This let to the bizarre situation of several of my colleagues applauding the incoming umpire ! 

 

Win cricket tickets

 

I can't say that I've got the time to enter this, but if you've got the time and the inclination, you can win tickets for The Ashes or T20 Finals Day.

 

Enjoy!

 

Things looking up at Steyning...

 

Having lost last year's opening bowler to a Premier League club after he got into the Sussex Academy, we needed to strengthen the Steyning squad this year.   And things weren't looking ideal until the last week or two when it's all started to come together!   So on Saturday we have our new "overseas" player, Ramesh Subasinghe, playing alongside Owain Jones, who is currently playing against Worcestershire for Oxford UCCE.   ("Overseas" isn't really accurate - he's registered as an overseas player, but lives in Barnet).

 

Owain won't play that many games given other commitments, but Ramesh will be around for all matches assuming he stays fit, and he comes with his friend Sunil Bhatt who can only play every other week, due to work commitments (Sunil's not an overseas player).   Two weeks ago Sunil scored 52 off 33 balls for Horsham v Eastbourne before choosing to join us, so that's certainly encouraging.

 

From nowhere it looks like we'll have a pretty strong side if the rest of the squad sort out their availability (people going to watch football in the cricket season still drives me insane!!).   Ramesh bowls 80mph apparently so I just hope I can cling on to the odd slip catch when the league starts on Saturday!   And check out the backdrop we'll be playing against....