All in the toss

We are now moving to a crucial few weeks in our season at Kimberley Institute. We are still battling on three fronts and we are very much looking forward to our Royal London Club Championship National Quarter Final in two weeks time up in Liverpool against Northern CC. However, before we get that far, we have two huge days this weekend. On Saturday we take on Plumtree who currently sit top of the Nottinghamshire Premier League. Plumtree, like ourselves, have a side built around a number of talented young players, and it promises to be a key battle in shaping the direction of the League title. On Sunday, we then face old rivals Wollaton in the Semi Finals of the Nottinghamshire T20, where a win would see us progress to face either Farnsfield or West Indian Cavaliers later in the day.

Last weekend I was at a wedding so I was unable to see the spectacular innings of Sam Johnson that brought us the victory at Ordsall Bridon. You only need to take a look at the innings statistics to see how special a knock it must have been. We will need Sam to continue that fine form over the next few weeks if we are to maintain our run of recent results.

It would be remiss of me this week to not pass comment on the recent Test Match at Lords this week. After arriving to England after the successful ODI series against New Zealand and then winning comfortably at Cardiff, Trevor Bayliss the new England Coach must have thought it was all a breeze. However, the team came crashing down to reality at Lords, and the Aussie now has his work cut out to repair the damage done to the confidence of that crushing defeat at the home of cricket. It is amazing in cricket how important the toss can be. I don’t think in any other sport it carries as much significance. Imagine back to day one of the Lords Test with England riding high in confidence, the pitch flat, not a cloud in the sky. It would have been quite likely had England won the toss they would have gone on to set a solid score. Yes there are clearly problems in the top order, and I am glad that the selectors have opted to make a change (I am always amazed at how long some batsmen get when they are out of form). However, if the toss had gone the other way, I expect England would have been going into the next Test at Edgbaston with their 1-0 lead intact. England now need to clear their minds and bat with the confidence and positivity that saw them play so well against the Kiwi’s and down in Cardiff. In sport, we always get a pummelling every so often. Any team is defined by how they respond. So its over to you Trevor and Alistair to keep the new found optimism in English cricket alive.

Consistency is the key

Well what a fabulous weekend we had at Kimberley Institute. Firstly, we were able to beat Nottinghamshire Academy, who we have struggled to get the better of over the past few seasons. Then on Sunday, we put in a sparkling performance in the last 16 of the Royal London Club Championship to defeat Kidderminster Victoria, one of the top sides from the Birmingham League.

After a solid and composed bowling and fielding display, restricting the hosts to 223 on a good wicket, Sam Johnson and Tom Rowe proceeded to play probably the best partnership I have witnessed in club cricket.  The pair batted with remarkable maturity and control, to ease us to victory well within the 45 overs and without looking in trouble at any stage. It was a very special day for the club, and as a player it was a massive boost and also made me very proud to see the large number of Kimberley supporters who had made the trip over to the West Midlands. To send them home happy was a perfect way to repay their wonderful support over the last few seasons since I joined this special club.

Kidderminster were at one stage in danger of not putting up much of a fight on Sunday, and had it not been for the brilliant innings of Richard Kimberlin, we could have been chasing a score closer to 150. Kimberlin, rode his luck at times, but his clean striking at the end, and his use of the reverse sweep allowed him to assemble an impressive score for his team.

Kimberlin played the reverse sweep well but I did feel sorry for Alex King who bowled very well, and was unlucky not to dismiss the Kidderminster batsman on a number of occasions. It is becoming a bit of a bugbear of mine that everything down the leg side is called a wide, especially for an off spinner. There were a couple of times on Sunday where Alex bowled a delivery which pitched in line with off stump. The batsman had every chance to play the ball which then spun sharply and slipped down past leg stump. I really do not feel this should be classed a wide. The main argument that comes back on this one is it allows for consistency, but that really is a non argument. You could just get rid of LBW to improve ‘consistency’ of umpiring, but we wouldn’t because we are happy to let the umpire interpret the delivery. That is exactly what they should be allowed to do with regard to ‘leg side wides’.  At one stage, Kimberlin moved early to reverse sweep and effectively changed his stance, and this is where there should definitely be a caveat for interpretation.

Anyway enough of me moaning, after all it has been a good week!

Lunesiders are on the up!

Last weekend’s win away at Cuckney was a significant moment for us. It has hopefully proved to ourselves that we can win ugly and in difficult conditions. It will be of vital importance over the coming weeks that we can repeat that feat, as there promises to be a number of challenging situations between now and the end of the season.

It was also great last weekend to see Alex King bowl so well. Alex had a frustrating season with the ball last year, but since the start of the new campaign he has bowled with real zip and is getting the ball to turn and bounce which makes him a difficult man to face. He has really led from the front this year, and we will need him to continue in that vein as we head towards such a huge weekend.

Last weekend I was able to travel up to see my old club Lancaster take on Netherfield in the Northern Premier League T20 competition final. Although the game was eventually washed out half way through, it was so good to see a full house down at Lune Road, and the club looking in such fantastic condition. It has been a difficult few years for Lancaster with challenges on and off the field, but now under the stewardship of Brendan Hetherington off the pitch and Ben Simm on the pitch, the club are starting to look like they are really moving in the right direction, something which gives me great pleasure. I now wish them well in the replay of the final next Sunday, come on the LPN Lunesiders!

Watching the final last week, and seeing all the hard work that went into the inaugural game for our Kimberley Krusaders U19 team who played in the National U19 T20 cup this week, once again demonstrated to me how the Notts Premier League misses a trick when it comes to running a T20 competition.

Iain Burstow strides out in front of a full house at Lune Road for Lancaster in the Northern Premier League T20

I would really like to see club’s play their group games across a series of weeks, in the evenings, home and away and with coloured clothing. These events can add a real zest to the competition, make it something different from a normal league cricket, and help draw in a good audience and thus some revenue.

Twenty20 is clearly the format of the game that strikes a chord with more of the broader public audience, and if you do it well as our U19s showed the other night, you can bring in a big crowd. I would love to see a big crowd down at the 2bm Private Ground on a Friday night, with music blasting, runs being racked up and the beer flowing. For now though, we need to make sure the runs keep flowing this weekend so we can possibly look forward to a National Quarter Final come Monday.

Exams, your time is up!

Saturday was one of the strangest cricket matches in which I have played. It very much felt like watching a highlights package through the first 15 overs, as a flurry of boundaries was followed by a burst of wickets. In the end, we actually got our bowling together and were able to limit Clifton to just over 150 on a good wicket. We then got home relatively safely, with just a little wobble, and picked up a very important twenty points.

Sunday was completely different. From the start to the finish we were superb in every department, and it was fantastic to keep our cup run going into the last 16 by winning the regional final. We now have an appetising match away at Kidderminster Victoria to look forward to in the middle of July, and with another win in the Ockbrook invitational T20 this Wednesday we are now still competing on five fronts going into the end of June.

With only a few weeks to go now until the start of the Ashes, the anticipation has really been building in the cricketing public. English hopes have certainly been lifted by the improved performance of the ODI side in the last few weeks, and it will be interesting to see if they can carry that momentum into the Test side which has a number of different players.

As part of the build up, I was reading this morning that Mike Gatting has been touring schools to promote the game. He has also made some very interesting and pertinent comments regarding the demise of summer sports in school due to examinations.

Working in a school myself, I know that Mike is definitely onto something. Schools are under increasing pressure to meet examination targets, and inevitably things that do not fit in with this objective can too easily be moved to one side. This is not a problem that is solely that of state schools. Independent schools too have been finding increasing challenges balancing the needs of sport and examinations. With the movement of all exams to a completely linear system where they are all sat at the end of the year, this will only add further to this problem.

The difficulty is that there is no easy solution or remedy. One option might be to move examinations to another time in the year, but that would probably mean changing the school calendar completely, something that would be difficult and controversial. In all reality, summer sports, forever the poorer relation, will just have to find a way to continue to thrive in the difficult environment. Let’s hope they can.

Ignore youth at your peril

Having been away at a wedding this weekend, I thought I had chosen a good one to miss. After the terrible weather on Saturday, it looked like there would be no cricket for Kimberley Institute this weekend, but with the clouds clearing and the sun shining on Sunday, we were able to go out and play in the qualifying round of the Nottinghamshire Twenty20 Competition.

I have been thinking all season that this is a tournament that our side is well set up for, and the boys didn’t disappoint. Tom Rowe’s blistering innings of 126* not out off 75 balls set the tone for the first game against Ordsall Bridon and this was then supplemented by some sensational figures of 6 for 6 from George Bacon. The lads, then had a much tighter game against Radcliffe in the final, but pleasing pulled through in a tense last over.

It is great that we now have a finals day to look forward to in July, and we hope to add to our Sunday success this week, when we take on Caythorpe in the regional final of the Royal London Cup. We would really welcome a large crowd to support us this weekend, so if you are in the area come on down.

This week, I have been able to watch some the remarkable ODI series that has been taking place between England and New Zealand. The way the cricket has been played has really gripped the English cricketing public, and for the first time in my memory, there is a real buzz around our one day side.

I suppose the key question is, what is the biggest difference between the team that played in the dismal World Cup campaign and the one that has been breaking records for fun over the last two weeks? Well there has been a lot of talk about, the intent and ambition of the way they have wanted to play their cricket. This is without doubt a big factor.

For me, the biggest sea change has come from the willingness to select young exciting players, and not be too ‘safe’ with selections. Ric Charlesworth the great Australian hockey coach, who built Olympic winning hockey teams over a long period, said that one of the key blends of any successful team was to include up and coming talent. He said that you should ignore youth at your peril. In cricket this is most true. Too often, we can be cautious with selections and not be willing to give young talent the opportunity to come through. This England side is brimming with young lads who want to make a point. What makes it better, is that they are really hungry for success. The atmosphere looks relaxed. Jump back a few months to the World Cup and the team looked like they were carrying the weight of the world. Not now. This happy-go-lucky England are playing with a smile on their face, but also real intent.

Ric Charlesworth believed in bringing in youth

I can draw similarities from the new England set-up to our young team at Kimberley (with myself as an exception!). We must continue to play with no fear, be positive and impose ourselves on each match. Yes, at times, it might not work and we might get well beaten. However, with the talent we have in the dressing room, if we continue to back ourselves, I know that success is not that far away.