The Second Half!

Firstly deepest apologies for the lack of action on the blog, I’ve been so busy. Its been all work and no play unfortunately but I got enough grief from people that now I’m back online!! So here it is, the latest installment - The Second Half of the Season!

Summer had begun with the arrival of the Twenty20 league. And it was welcomed with open arms!! Not that I am complaining but it got very warm!!!! It was pushing up to 30 degrees and very humid, totally different to home. But it was such a relief to not be running on and off with covers constantly!  Twenty20 finished in disappointment for our team; too many inconsistent performances meant no progress past the group stages. It was fantastic to see the ground full and buzzing to the shortest version of the game, music pumping out from the speakers every time a wicket fell or a 4 or 6 was hit. I can see the appeal it has for the spectators - in and out in 3 and a half hours, a few beers and plenty of entertainment. With the rewards for Twenty20 being heightened since the introduction of the Champions League, IPL, ICL and Stanford Twenty20, this version of the game is here to stay. The ECB have already announced an extra Twenty20 competition for next season.  A couple of days after Twenty20 finished I went over to Malvern College for a second team game. The second team only play 1 game at New Road throughout the whole season; they play all their home games around the local clubs. Malvern College will be known to some people back in Dublin as it hosted Leinster under 19s for festival cricket in the recent past. It is a beautiful school with very well kept grounds. It was Malvern Colleges’ first time to host such a game so myself and Tim, our Head Groundsman went over on the morning to make sure everything was going ok. We had no hand in the preparation at all, there was no need as New Roads ex-Head Groundsman was now a consultant to Malvern College. We only went over to give a dig-out if needed and to be seen at the ground as it was their first such fixture. All went very well and it was good to spend a day at another ground, a welcome change of scenery! So with the end of the Twenty20 the 4 day Championship returned.

We also had a couple of ‘Tour’ games coming up with South Africa playing Bangladesh ‘A’ in a 3 day game and England Under 19s playing their New Zealand counterparts in a 4 day ‘Test’ match and England vs. Australia in a Deaf ‘Ashes’ 1 day game. The end of Twenty20 also signalled the beginning of the Pro40 league of which we are defending champions. It also meant that I would get an opportunity to see New Road under floodlights. The Club host one floodlit game a year. As New Road have no permanent floodlights, temporary floodlights have to be brought in.  As you can imagine putting lights in is an expensive business. 4 temporary lights are brought in on huge trailers and placed outside the stands in the car parks on the 4 corners of the ground. The night before the game the lights are elevated and set up so as they shine correctly onto the pitch. As defending champions we had the honour of being the first game in the league so it was televised live on Sky Sports. Unfortunately we were well beaten by a very good Notts side, who finished 2^nd in this league last season. The ECB would like every club to erect permanent floodlights, and will help them financially, but it’s very unlikely this will happen at New Road. The local council are very reluctant to grant planning permission for this as the lights would block the view of Worcester Cathedral for local residents and visitors to New Road. In fact when the new stand was being built the plans had to be adjusted so as it would not block the Cathedral. 

Northampton also came to play us, which meant the arrival of Niall O’Brien. It was good to see him, and it took away a bit of slagging away from this Irishman, especially when he came out to warm up in his ‘pink’ gloves!!!!! They suited him! Rain ruined the game which ended in a draw, but the rain enabled us to go out for a few drinks and catch up, it was a quiet night!!!

Here We Go!!!!

Its arrived!! Twenty20 season is here!! Its a game most love and gives every County club a financial lifeline. At Worcestershire we are hoping for full houses for our 5 home games. I’m looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere and to seeing what kind of impact the Twenty20 has on the club. There is a lot of talk over here about Twenty20 and how to get the most benefit out of it especially with the IPL being so successful. There is a place for it but it can’t take over from the Championship or One day leagues as they are a direct feeder to the national team. Interesting times are ahead.

All we need is a bit of decent weather, which is forecast for the next week at least, and hopefully the crowds will come through the gates.

Its a busy couple of weeks ahead. We host New Zealand this Wednesday in their first one-day warm up game then the Twenty20 starts on Thursday against Gloucestershire. With two Twenty20 games being on tv the Sky Sports crowd have moved in and are building the gantry’s for the commentary boxes and and laying the cables for the cameras. So its all action!!

As I’ve mentioned we play Gloucestershire, and we also play Northants so there’s a chance to catch up with some of the Irish players over here, William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien. It’ll be good to hear an Irish accent again!!!

Our last 4 Day Championship match was an interesting affair. It was another first for me over here. We had a visit from the pitch liaison officer (P.L.O.). Every ground gets a visit now and again. Generally they are ex-players who go around making sure all is good on the pitch front. They normally watch the first days play, have a look at the pitch and have a chat with the groundsman. Then if they have no problems they head off and report to the ECB that all is good. We played Essex and the coach wanted quite a bit of grass left on the pitch as he was backing our strong pace attack to come out on top. So it was to my surprise that when we won the toss we batted!! To me an unbelievable decision.

 As the pitch hadn’t been cut for the couple of days before there was plenty of live, green grass on the wicket. Obviously the ball seamed around considerably and we were soon in trouble and bowled out cheaply for 176 in 70 overs. We then had Essex 80 for 7 at the close of play. As a result of this the pitch gets ‘reported’ to the ECB because more than 15 wickets fell in the days play. As we had a P.L.O. here there was no need for the ECB to send someone.

What happens next is the P.L.O. assesses the pitch, has a chat with the Head Groundsman and stays for the second days play to see how the pitch plays. At the beginning of the game we took a core from the pitch to see the level of moisture was in the wicket. There was a bit of moisture on the top of the core but the rest was dry to the recommended level of 2 inches. The reason we are leaving a bit of moisture near the top is because so far this season we are suffering from the wickets cracking quite quickly. Its not anything we worry about but we certainly don’t want any major cracks in the pitch on the first day of the 4 day match. When the suns out the cracks appear reasonably quickly. One explanation for this is that the root of the grass isn’t as strong because of the top of the square being taken off after the floods last summer. With time and the correct treatment the root will work to a good depth and hopefully the cracking will get better.

 End result of the ‘reported pitch’ was there was nothing to report! The P.L.O. was very happy with the was the pitch played, especially on the second day. Once that first day ‘moisture’ had gone and the grass was cut on the second morning it settled down. The umpires didn’t have any issues at the end of the game either. But there is a lesson to be learnt. Worse case scenario for us would have been docked points for an unsuitable wicket. This is certainly not what we want. Eventhough we were under instructions from the coach it reflects badly on the groundstaff. And that is not a position we want to be in!!

A Quiet Week

Its the calm before the storm!!! Not much has been happening lately but the silly season is closing in quickly - 20/20 starts in 2 weeks!!! 

Not having cricket on the ground for 9 days is one of the good things about working a County ground. Not that it meant there was no work to be done. It gave an opportunity for some remedial work to get done. During the quiet time the ground was feed and watered. The outfield and square was fertilised and we got the chance to water the square heavily and re-seed the worn wickets.  There are very few windows of opportunity to do this so we have to take advantage when we can. The whole square is covered most of the time so artificial watering is just about the only water it gets. Of course the weather was fine when there was no cricket on the ground!!!

We had cricket back yesterday, a Friends Provident match against Gloucester, and you guessed it………it rained! Heavy rain overnight so there was no chance of a prompt start. There were puddles over a lot of the outfield and it was still raining at 11.00am then it eased. We had heard that the Glamorgan/Somerset game had been cancelled so we needed to play and win to get through to the quarter finals. That meant a lot of mopping up! And that’s what we did for hours until the game was abandoned at 3.45pm. Just after that it started to rain again so we would never have gotten a 10 over game in which was what we were aiming for.

One blessing was that the wicket wasn’t used. We play Essex in the Championship tomorrow so we can play them on this wicket, which looks good. The other wicket we were preparing had been under the sheets for 4 out of the previous 5 days so it was very damp and would have been difficult to play on.

As mentioned above 20/20 is coming up. I can’t wait to see the whole impact of 20/20 in person. Full grounds, music and entertainment is all part of the 20/20 phenomenon that has hit English cricket over the last few years. It has been so successful that most clubs rely on the income to keep the Clubs books in good order. I’m really looking to see the ground full and to taste the atmosphere of evening cricket. The Sky Sports cameras will also be in town so keep an eye out for me!! We have 2 matches on tv, on June 12th and 19th.

 The day before 20/20 starts we play New Zealand in a 50 over match so it will certainly be a busy time.

I must also congratulate the Irish cricket team on their recent good performances in the FPT. Being in Worcester the locals got great satisfaction out of Ireland beating Warwickshire. There is a big local rivalry over the neighbouring counties. So I was proud to be Irish on that day!!! I had the day off for their return fixture with Warwickshire and had planned to go up to Birmingham see them play but yet again the rain came. It was called off at 12pm and I didn’t even travel up.

So here’s hoping for 4 good days weather, and a win!! We’ve played 4 and drawn 4 in the Championship with the weather playing a major role in all the games. Plus I’m sick of mopping up water and pulling covers on and off!!!!!!

To Glue or Not To Glue…….

Good weather at last!!! Its an unbelievable turnaround here. From having rain every day to having unseasonally high temperatures! Its been in the mid 20s for the last week, thats about 6 or 7 degrees higher than the average for this time of year. How long will it last?? There have been some complaints that it been too hot but not from me! Its just great getting up in the morning and not having to worry about pulling covers on and off or clearing water off the pitch.

So I had another new experience since I have arrived here, we glued a wicket! Yes you heard me correctly, we glued a pitch!! We were playing Hampshire in the Friends Provident Trophy last sunday. The wicket we were preparing had a high percentage of silt on it. This silt was a result of the floods that occured before the season began. The majority of silt had been removed but for some reason this wicket had more remaining on it.

As I have said before the silt doesn’t majorily affect the way the wicket plays so we weren’t too worried initially. As the dry weather came in the wicket started drying out quite quickly so we kept moisture in it by lightly watering and using the sheets.  But as it got closer to the game the wicket started to crack a little bit more than we would like and the some of the silt started to curl up from the soil. So glueing was mentioned.

I’ve obviously heard about glueing, and did a bit of research into it whilst I was at Clontarf but never tried it as all the stories differed. At Worcester they have done it quite a bit and got good results from it. Basically by glueing the wicket it helps with the wear and tear on it and holds the cracks together. But it will not make a bad wicket good!!! The glue is not a quick-fix to getting a good wicket without putting the work in!!

After a discussion with the coach, Stephen Rhodes, on the day before the game it was agreed that the wicket would be glued. Out came the glue and it was mixed up, approx 60-40. It was put on the wicket 24 hours before the game. The glue was applied by a knapsack sprayer and 16 litres was put out on the wicket and let dry. It is regular PVA glue that was bought in a hardware store. When applied it came out white then dried to make the ground look very dark and gave the impression that the ground was damp. The raised covers were then put on until the next morning. 

I was very keen to see the results the next day. Off came the covers and I got my first look at a glued wicket!! It looked ugly!!! If you didn’t know it was glued you would think it looked like a terrible wicket to play on! The grass hard gone hard. When the sun shone there was a shine and glean from the ground. To touch it the pitch felt very hard, thats a result of the skin of glue on the top. The cracks that were there did now not move and were very firm. I was keen to see how it played. All we did that morning was roll the wicket for half an hour and put the stumps up!! There are pictures in the Photo Gallery before and after of the glued wicket.

We played a weak Hampshire team, they were missing 7 1st team players as a result of injuries, IPL commitments and England selections. They couldn’t compete with us, they batted first and scored 209 and we got it with only 1 wicket down with 22 overs to spare. The wicket played well with what looked like a little bit more extra pace in it than we have had in previous games. A great days cricket was had with over 2000 people in the ground enjoying the good weather.

We host Gloucestershire CCC tomorrow in the 4 Day Championship, the wicket looks like the best one we’ve had so far this season so fingers crossed for some more good weather and another home win!!!

Another Rain-Interrupted Game But Some Good Weather At Last!!

So we’ve yet to have a game so far this season that hasn’t been interrupted by rain!! Our Friends Provident game against Glamorgan was the latest game to be affected. The original forecast was for showers before 12am the night before the game but what we got was a thunderstorm at 4am that woke the whole town! I turned up at the ground on a dark, gloomy morning to be greeted by large puddles all over the outfield. There was no way there would be any cricket today I thought to myself!

Out we went with waterhogs, blotters and brushes to try and clear the water. It was the most water I had seen on the ground since I have arrived here. Every step had a big splash of water coming up over your feet. But being the professionals we are we battled on!!! The umpires turned up at 10am and were obviously less than optimistic. A pitch inspection at 1230 was set and we just cracked on with trying our best. There was so much water that the Blotter was full every 5 minutes so we spent more time emptying it than picking up water. We reckon it was emptied over 60 times that morning!! Thats a lot of water!!

The covers never came off as it was still drizzling and dark and didn’t look like improving at all. It was decided at the pitch inspection to have another look at 230. It was improving but slowly. Then like the parting of the Red Sea the clouds split and out came the sun!! So now we were in a situation of an original 5% chance of playing to a serious possibility of playing some type of game. There was pressure on as there were 1300 people in the ground wanting to see cricket, and they weren’t going home! Eventually the umpires decided on a reduced game of 28 overs a-side. To make this happen the rope was brought in hugely, it was a tiny boundary but no complaints as everyone wanted to see a game. Conditions underfoot were not ideal but the sun was warm and the ground was improving every minute.

End result was we won in a good game of cricket with us chasing 185 to win in 26 overs. It was a pat on the back for the groundstaff and all the hard work during the day was worth it!

All this work was on the back of me entertaining 8 of the lads from home who came over the see me that weekend. So I had to couple some late nights socialising with some early morning starts for work. Needless to say I slept well on monday night! But it was great to see the lads and we had some great craic. Thanks to Butzy, Nolely, Cairnsy, Smithy, Billy, Byrner, Lenno and R-Abbott for making my weekend!!

Now that we have no cricket until sunday the sun has finally shown its face on a regular basis! Ironic! Its been 22 degrees for the last couple of days with NO rain and not a cloud in the sky! Finally we can get down to some decent work without having to worry about when the next shower is coming. Fingers crossed the good weather keeps up!

Racing, More Rain and the Boys are Coming!!!!

Well cricket wise its been a fairly quiet week as the 1st team are playing away against Niall O’Briens Northampton. Unfortunately NOB isnt playing but I spoke to him on wednesday and hes confident of getting back in the team. Also plans are in the making for a few beers when he comes down here, oh no!!!

So not much has changed, its still raining!! We had 18mm of rain overnight on tuesday so in his wisdom the boss gave us that day off and we went to Worcester Races. Worcester race course is right by the River Severn and like our ground is also on a flood plain. So like us it has suffered from the recent flood. The rain didn’t stop until 1.45 so I was thinking it would be cancelled but there was no news of cancellation on the news.

I got onto my tipster, Derek ‘Del Boy’ McGeehan and he text me a couple of horses names. Then it all went wrong!! We thought it was a 2.30 pm start but it was 2pm!! As we walked up to the course we see the horses go round the corner. Oh no!! Please dont let Dels tip win!! Then my phone beeped, text message, ‘I do my best’ from Del. So I was thinking it was 2nd as he told me to go each way, thats not too bad. Then he rang, it won!! 6-1!! Of course he gave me an earfull!! Sorry Del, amatuer mistake!

Anyway despite this disappointment I battled on. Picked a winner in the 2nd race so started off well, but I was always thinking it could’ve been better! Then it went downhill, as gambling always does! I was chasing my money in the last race but luckily we got a massive hailstorm and the course was waterlogged and unsafe for racing. Got my money back from the bookie, that was my biggest win of the day!!

Back to work on thursday thinking there would be water under the covers and massive pools of water on the outfield as word had got back to us that there was so much rain that it nearly ran into the marquee from the pitch. Luckily it wasn’t that bad and the field was wet but had drained reasonably well and luckily nothing got under the covers. So the whole day was spent ‘blotting’ and ‘water hogging’ until we could get the roller out to the middle.

The forecast is ok for the next couple of days, its to get warmer and maybe some isolated showers. Lets hope they miss us as any more heavy rain and the FPT game against Glamorgan on monday will be in doubt.

Also 8 of the lads from Clontarf Hockey Club are on their way over for the Bank Holiday weekend. I’m really looking forward to that. So tonight will be a night to avoid Worcester Town centre as the ‘Worcester 8′ get the grand tour of the local public houses!! I’ll let you know how it went, if I can remember!!!!

Lastly I have my photo page working now, thanks Wally, and will put some up over the next week so keep an eye out for that.

Enjoy your Bank Holiday, and lets hope for dry and sunny weather on both sides of the pond so we can all watch some cricket!

An Eye-Opener of Things To Come…..

Well its saturday night and I am sitting in waiting for the highlight of my night, Match of the Day!!!

Its a sign of the way things will be for me over the summer. We’ve just finished a 4 day Championship match which ended in a draw with nearly half of the game lost to the weather. We had sun on wednesday, rain and then hail the size of golfballs on thursday hence only 8 overs play, then on friday we lost time to bad light!!!! At last today we had good weather with uninterrupted play but with so much time lost it ended in a tame draw. Thats County Cricket!!

So after all that I could do with a rest and a few beers BUT theres a Friends Provident game tomorrow against Somerset. So that meant plenty to do after the end of play today. We had to take down the white sightscreens, get the black screens up, cut the outfield, sort out the one-day markings, move the boundary rope and then we could out the covers on!! Its around then when you start thinking about going home, and bed!!

One eye-opener over the week was our loyal members! I must say I was very surprised on wednesday when around 1300 people turned up to see the first days play, mostly members. You know they are members as they wear their cards around their neck, it gives them access to the members stand and members bar. So I then discovered that they all know who I am. I had the misfortune of being announced as a new member of the groundstaff in the Newsletter, and it had a picture so there was no hiding!!

They seem to be great supporters but they are not shy when it comes to expressing their opinion, even worse than the alicadoos in the ‘Tarf!!! There was a certain amount of frustration for them with the weather. At one point it was the groundstaffs fault for no play because we were not taking the covers off to play despite there being large black clouds looming! The rules have changed and the umpires have total control over the ground during the match. They do take advice from us but its them that have the final say. But this didn’t stop some of them taking out their frustration on us. You just have to smile and be nice.

No doubt tomorrow will be much the same with rain forecast and there is more pressure to get the players back out on the ground to play as we expect a decent crowd of 3000 - 4000 in tomorrow. No play, no gate money!!!

On a more social note, some of the ‘Tarf hockey lads are over next weekend so I’m really looking forward to that thought I’m not too sure if Worcester is ready for the mayhem!!!

The Season Begins At New Road!!

So to the delight of everyone at Worcestershire County Cricket Club the competitive season is about to begin! Its a baptism of fire for me as we play Leicestershire CCC tomorrow in the 4 Day County Championship and then straight into a Friends Provident Trophy match on Sunday against Somerset CCC.

Because of last summers floods here, this will be the first competitive fixture at New Road since the England Lions played the West Indies on June 21st last year!! Needless to say everyone at the Club is ready for cricket to return. The supporters too are keen to see cricket and cheer their team on! They are very proud of their ground here, especially as it was voted number 9 in the worlds most picturesque grounds and the only English ground in the top 10.

Of course its been all go for the last few days. Finally today we had some dry weather to assist us with our final preparations. There has been some sort of rain just about every day since I’ve arrived and apparently I brought it from Ireland so i’ve been labelled with the unlucky ‘rain cloud’ tag!!

So today all the last few touches were being done on and around the ground. It was a very busy place today. Whilst we were having to contend with getting the ground in shape for tomorrow there are also other wickets to get ready for our upcoming Friends Provident matches. Plus the squad were in today for practice, they rotated between the net area out the back and the main pitch so of course they were in the way!!! There were also TV cameras from Sky Sports News around as well as newspapers looking at the condition of the ground and seeing if we will be ready.

Surprise suprise there is some rain forecast tonight so all the covers are on, about 300 foot wide is covered sideways along with the run-ups. We are all just hoping for no rain as its a lot of hard work and effort to clear those sheets of the water!!

We’ve done everything to the best of our ability to have the ground in great condition, and I must say when I left tonight it was looking a picture. The wicket looks good and we are eagerly awaiting to see how it plays.

All we ask is for 5 good days weather and 2 Worcestershire wins. Anyone giving odds on that double????

My mind this week is also on Clontarf CC and their upcoming Ireland vs Nottinghamshire CCC Friends Provident Trophy match. I have been on the phone to Podge Hughes quite a bit in the last week, by all accounts things are shaping up well. I just hope it does’nt rain because I have terrible visions of Podge trying to drive the Blotter!!! A lot of me wishes I was there helping with the preparations. I will miss the buzz and great atmospere that is around the Club the week before these matches, especially with the Sky Sports cameras there.

I hope with all my heart that the day goes excellently for all involved, and I am sure at some stage during our game here I will get to the TV to see some of the action from Castle Avenue.

New Job, Same Wet Pre-Season!!

Well some things never change!! The weather! We are getting typical English April showers most days, and with the water table being so high its tough to get any work done, just like home!

At the moment we seem to be spending more time ‘Water Hogging’ and ‘Blotting’ the covers to get the water off. Even with 5 on the groundstaff it seems to take most of the morning. We have a lot of covers! Along with covering most of the square and surrounds, we have grass nets off the main field that are covered as well so getting the water off them seems never-ending!! The afternoons have tended to be nice with some warmth in the sun, but the shorts have not been on yet!!!

We were to play our neighbours Herefordshire Minor County this morning in our last friendly before the Championship starts on wednesday. But there was heavy rain last night and even after 5 hours of non-stop work to dry the ground out it was decided that there would be no game. A sensible decision, despite it being a nice but cold day. The ground was very wet. So to all you club cricketers, games get cancelled in professional cricket despite all the covers and machinery!!!

One great tool we have here is a very accurate computer weather programme. If we know the day is going to be wet or showery, we get a readout from the programme regularly that tells us when the rain will hit us. Its a wonderful help as we have a lot of covers to put on and it gives us plenty of advance warning.

Theres no cricket on the ground until wednesday the 23rd as we play our first game away. Preparation has already started on the wicket for the 4 day game against Leicester, and today we started preparing for the Friends Provident 1 day game on the 27th. With all that time before the game we are getting the whole outfield verti-drained (spiked) on monday to help it dry out and we are reseeding the bottom third of the ground which was under the flood 4 weeks ago. With the ground being so big that area of the outfield will be outside the boundary rope for the first game. The rest of the outfield is in great condition so fingers crossed that the weather picks up and we’ll have a couple of good wickets for the first 2 games.

I hear the league is starting over in Leinster next week so good luck to all, and hopefully the ‘Tarf will get off to a winning start!!

I have pictures to put up but my camera is getting fixed so watch this space!

My Second Week

Hello again!! I’m nearing the end of my second week here and its starting to get busy! I’m loving it!! I’m settling in really well and enjoying it loads, it feels like I’ve been here a lot longer than a couple of weeks. Pre season friendlies have started and I’m getting into the swing of things over here.

 Its been a bit of a funny week, and a good eye opener to the way county cricket works. The recent flood waters have only been off the ground 13 days now and there was immediate pressure to get the ground ready for the first friendly game vs Warwickshire. It had been nearly 300 days since cricket was last played here because of the terrible floods the region had suffered last year. The Club were very keen for the first fixture to be played so as they could prove the ground had recovered, and to reassure the members that cricket is back at New Road!!! 

Obviously the water table is very high but the outfield is no softer than Clontarf would be at this time of year. The problem is the outfield is very bare in places due to the silt deposited during the recent flood. That silt leads to no grass in areas even though the outfield was reseeded 3 weeks ago. The square is in good condition so we started to prepare a wicket for the Warwickshire game. Due to the wet ground it was only 7 days before the match that we started preparing, which at this time of year is not ideal. We were never overly worried about the wicket, we knew it would be slow but not bad. The main problem was the outfield and run-ups. With the silt lying on top it makes the ground very slippy.

So match day arrived. It rained that morning at 6am so we all presumed no game would be played. We never thought Warwickshire would risk any injuries on the wet outfield. Then it got bizarre!! The Warwickshire captain, Darren Maddy, was not worried about the run ups or outfield, he was more worried about the wicket, the driest part of the ground!! I then heard something I never heard before…….he wanted to bowl on the wicket to see what the ball would do!!! Needless to say our captain, Vikram Solanki, said no. If we play, we play!! After another chat it was agreed play would start at 12pm, 1 hour late. If it was an official game there is no way they would’ve played because of the wetness of the outfield. But they played and we got well beaten. The wicket was slow but there were no demons in it and the players seemed happy to get out to play a game.

Later that day we heard that Leicester were on the phone, their ground is wet and can we reverse thursdays friendly fixture to New Road. The original fixture was a 2 day game in Leicester, so the new plan was to play the first day at New Road, we bat all day, and play the second day in Leicester on friday, and they bat all day. I must admit I raised an eyebrow when I heard this arrangement and thought it was an April Fools joke!! Anyway it all went ahead and we played the first day today. Looking at our ground I’d be surprised if anywhere else in the country is as wet as New Road so I wonder what repots we will get back from Leicester tomorrow.

So a quiet few days ahead, theres no game here until saturday week. I’ve even got a day off coming up!! I think it could be time to explore some of the local public houses!!!

 I hope all is well back home and you are all gearing up for the upcoming cricket season!! I have taken some pictures and will get them up over the weekend.

Bye for now.