Cricketers thread

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So another weekend another game.

Up against the ladder leaders and back on the glorious home ground, with it's undercover deck and fully stocked bar. After a bollocks lot of rain on the Thursday and a newly laid pitch, it was hard to decide what to do, bat on a wet pitch and a slow outfield or bowl on a deck where you were likely to slip on your arse.

Luckily, not my decision but captain decided we should bat and bat we did. I had a chat with our opening bat and we came up with the plan that between the two of us, we needed to score 100, if we did that, then the rest could bat a little freely and 100+ can easily turn into 170 or more which you can defend. If we didn't then the pressure was on the rest of the team to score meaningful runs.

Sadly, we contributed 60 to the scoreboard which turned from 1 for 60 to all out 78 pretty quickly. As you might guess, there isn't to many confident front foot defensive shots on the back 9 of our batting list but conditions were hard and the bowlers bowled some solid spells.

Worse than that was time has been called on my keeping career ( just after I got a decent pair of inners as well). One of the guys whose keeping is more reminiscent of a wheelie bin behind the stumps, gloved up and I was made to open the bowling, much to the howls of "I'm too old to bowl".

Still 25 overs, 100% humidity, shiny new ball on a skiddy pitch and a slow outfield, they were just the right conditions for me to be flayed all over the ground as I searched for any swing. What can I say...it wasn't the end of daylight saving but I certainly turned back the clock with an arsey performance.

First ball on the pads, turned for a single, second outside off, snicked and dropped by 1st slip, another single. Third ball off cutter ( maybe spinner, I am at that pace), no swing, straight, skid, into pad, LB, out you go son, which brought my mate Haydos to the wicket.

Haydos was a kid I brought through my team years ago, very handy fielder and good bat. He was the guy that I had a 150 run partnership with off 20 overs to win a one day match a few years back but he left the club a couple of years ago because he thought our A grade cap was a bit of a dick.

Anyways, Haydos comes to the wicket and I know Haydos so well, doesn't move his feet early on, really vulnerable to a snick to 1st in his first 20 balls but when he gets in, pain in the arse. So I am at my bowling mark and I ask the umpire who is batting, he tells me and I walk back up to the bowling crease.

Fine leg, don't need you, come into first. The ump has a laugh as I walk back to my mark. "Haydos batting hey" I yell out as I walk back to the crease. Midwicket, don't need you there, come into second, cover don't need you there, come into third, gully, into fourth, point into fifth. The guys were looking at me for where exactly do a fourth and fifth stand, I really had no idea, never had that field before but they worked it out.

By this stage, Haydos team mates are giving him s**t about five slips being put in for his batting. I was seriously thinking of going the 6th slip but I went back to my mark. 4th ball just out side off stump, play and a miss, 5th ball the same so I go for a big outie on the last ball...ball lands on leg, takes off out of the ground. Poor bastard, such a good mate but he's playing for the opposition.

Ended up bowling 13 overs 5 for 29 and though we did have them 5 for 37, 78 runs just isn't enough of a total to defend as a rule.

Next day on a much dryer ground, we finished the oppo quickly and went in for another bat. This time I batted better, defending the good ball and actually making use of the short single so bowlers didn't get into a rhythm, which then got them bowling the occasional short of a length delivery that I could dispatch. Ended up with a 50 in the second which I was happy with.

Still using the Hitman cricket bat at the moment, such a nice bat. Only cocking the wrist on my bottom hand on a cut shot and the ball flies past the fielder, if it was a choice between a GN 800-1000 dollar bat and a Hitman at that price, every day of the week you'd go for the Hitman. When I still use it instead of the players bat, it says a lot about it.
 
You know what, I think I am getting old.

I actually came to that conclusion last season when I thought I'd sneak my arse into keeping instead of bowling or maybe just hide by batting...just anything but bowling.

Here I am but opening the bowling, like an idiot without a memory praying and hoping someone else will just step up and make my Sundays something that doesn't require pain medication and alcohol, maybe just alcohol to function.

It sucks because I have been brought up with that, * losing belief when it comes to sports. You hear about these type of people and how it was their dad that made them that way, possible mental and physical abuse during their sports. I never had physical or mental abuse and it wasn't my dad, it was my mum.

My mums side of the family were serious sportsmen, representing the country type and when we came to Australia, my mother took up sports with a passion and I am sure she beat much more skilled opponents form being mentally tougher.

It was passed onto me, when I was maybe 11 or 12, the principal at my school believed that sports were fun and was concerned that I seemed to be a little too focused on the result and not having fun. He was good friends with Barrie Robran and had him come to the school to have a chat with me.

Whilst I was stoked to have a triple Magarey medalist come to the school just to have a chat with me, I was a little concerned with why he was telling me that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose...I mean it was so North Adelaide and the reason why they are such a s**t club.

After he talked to me, he had a chat with my mum, he told her that it doesn't matter who wins or loses, it's about having fun. My mum looked at him and said " so why do they have a scoreboard if it isn't about who wins or loses". Quality, quality comment from my mum and I am still so proud that she shot down a legend of the game.

Which brings me to this weeks match. 2 day match and the first day we were surprised under such overcast conditions that the opposition captain after winning the toss, batted. He did though and it wasn't his best decision of the day, that was calling heads.

Now for those that bowl, they understand that bowling is about partnerships as much as batting is. Sometimes, one bowler keeps it tight and the other gets wickets from shithouse long hops, wide deliveries and batters playing on. I mean it is sweet when you are the bowler that reaps the rewards...and I have been there a few times but not so cool when you aren't.

To be fair, the captain and opening bowler bowled 12 quality overs and took 4 wickets, no long hops or wide deliveries for 8 runs but there was fat boy bowling 7 straight for nothing, dead set nothing. To make it worse, it was one of my better spells but nothing to show for it. Worse was when the captain bowled, he got an edge, I was at first slip, I dived to where second would have been, just took the tip of my fingers and he called me for a $2 fine for dropping a catch.

We stumbled along as a couple of 16 year olds got on top of us and put together a bloody handy stand before one got out to a full toss from our leg spinner. It brings me to this point, besides Warnie, do leggies get a decent ******* wicket ever?, full tosses, long hops and number 10 or 11 going for a massive heave, that's about it.

In something I totally regret now, the captain brought me on to clean up the tail and three overs later we had them out for 81 and I had 3 for 17 off 10 overs.

We went out to bat and at 1-32 I came in. I have a new bat over the off season, which I have had some weight taken off. I took it out without practicing with it because it always rains on practice day. Anyways, I use it for three overs, can't find the centre of it so I make the mistake of calling out for them to grab my Hitman bat.

Obviously, this starts a bit of chatter behind the stumps about what a dead set w***er Iam for having more than one bat. I laugh it off and at the end of the over, the captain runs out with every cricket bat from our team and says " which one of your bats do you want?"

Dead set dickhead and he is 19, still I taught him to be like this so it is my fault, could have not bothered bringing him out of his shell but yeah, that is what I get.

We ended stumps at 1 for 99 with Trav passing his 50 and myself on 28 not out. Sadly the captain wants to go for the outright ( which would come close to guaranteeing us a spot in the finals) but all I heard was " * your hundred, I want you to bowl again" which given the way I limped and shuffled around today, does not make me a happy camper.
 

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After he talked to me, he had a chat with my mum, he told her that it doesn't matter who wins or loses, it's about having fun. My mum looked at him and said " so why do they have a scoreboard if it isn't about who wins or loses". Quality, quality comment from my mum and I am still so proud that she shot down a legend of the game.
I get that it's not all about winning in kids' sport but surely trying to win is a large part of it.

You might come up against an opposition that's bigger, stronger, more experienced etc. They might give their stars players all the turns while your team shares it round evenly. Some bad luck or bad decisions go against you.

Whatever. You lose the game. It happens and is not the end of the world. But every minute of the game each player should be trying to do their best and trying to win. Keeping an eye on the scoreboard - working out what we need to do to win from here and trying to achieve it.

You just don't want kids walking away thinking they're s**t because they lost. And conversely, thinking they're top s**t because they won.

Obviously, this starts a bit of chatter behind the stumps about what a dead set ****** Iam for having more than one bat. I laugh it off and at the end of the over, the captain runs out with every cricket bat from our team and says " which one of your bats do you want?"
Outstanding.

I remember our diminutive wicket keeper breaking his bat one time and calling for a new one. He didn't have a 2nd bat so we had to decide whose bat to take out for him.

This one nincompoop in our team had bought himself the chunkiest, heaviest bat he could find believing that it would help him hit bombs. He couldn't swing it and it had no middle anyway. 3 pounds plus tax. So, sure enough, we run this plank out to our keeper for a laugh and he can barely lift it. Chortles aplenty from the pavilion as he tries to lay bat on ball for the next few overs.

We lost the game.

Maybe that's what Barrie Robran meant about it being about having fun more than winning.
 
I get that it's not all about winning in kids' sport but surely trying to win is a large part of it.

You might come up against an opposition that's bigger, stronger, more experienced etc. They might give their stars players all the turns while your team shares it round evenly. Some bad luck or bad decisions go against you.

Whatever. You lose the game. It happens and is not the end of the world. But every minute of the game each player should be trying to do their best and trying to win. Keeping an eye on the scoreboard - working out what we need to do to win from here and trying to achieve it.

You just don't want kids walking away thinking they're s**t because they lost. And conversely, thinking they're top s**t because they won.

I never got the reason for the life talk form Barrie. I mean I was all for winning the game and giving everything I have but if we lose, we lose. I'd be far more down on myself for not trying 100% of the time. It actually felt s**t at the time because I played a season of soccer when I was like 7 and we lost every game of the season, not even a draw and it was OK, we all tried as hard as we could, the opposition was just better...and the pricks wouldn't have an off day ever.

Then I realised that soccer sucks and footy was a hundred times better. But losing is part of life, like winning, it builds character whichever one you experience and you can learn from your losses ( not so much your winning because you get way too drunk to learn s**t)

Outstanding.

I remember our diminutive wicket keeper breaking his bat one time and calling for a new one. He didn't have a 2nd bat so we had to decide whose bat to take out for him.

This one nincompoop in our team had bought himself the chunkiest, heaviest bat he could find believing that it would help him hit bombs. He couldn't swing it and it had no middle anyway. 3 pounds plus tax. So, sure enough, we run this plank out to our keeper for a laugh and he can barely lift it. Chortles aplenty from the pavilion as he tries to lay bat on ball for the next few overs.

We lost the game.

Maybe that's what Barrie Robran meant about it being about having fun more than winning.

Nope, he is a campaigner. As soon as I saw him running out with the bats I was like " you ******* campaigner".
 
After the days play last week, I stayed back and drunk beers with our opening bat. I may have said he was a dick earlier in this thread...and he is but he is an interesting guy to have a few beers with and then drive the back roads home. Guy used to share a house when he was younger with two unnamed AFL footballers. Can't give you their names but they did both play over 200 games and at one point get transferred to Freo in the same year ;).

Anyways, sounds like both boys were both very domesticated and every night when the opening bat came home, he was treated to a roast. It was one you watch instead of eat, a spit roast if you like, sounds like the young fellas had little trouble with the ladies. The story then went onto an ex Sturt captain who once again was very popular with the ladies. One night he got himself in trouble after a match by spending the night with a young lady and then wnet home and fell asleep next to his wife. Unbeknownst to him, his wife woke up and decided to start the morning off with a bit of a BJ and got very angry at him as he hadn't washed the old fella before going to bed and well he tasted a bit off.

His answer to this was to always keep a cake of soap by the front tap then on, to remove all evidence of tomfoolery.

To the game and our captain decided we should bat for 7 or 8 overs, get about 80 ahead and then put them back in. I went for the slog straight up and past my 50 before getting caught quite well by a youngfella, tough catch, two hands, no stupid tumbling, it was like watching a video of 70s cricket except he didn't have a mo.

Rest of the day was a drag, it was good batting conditions and the oppo all batted well enough to make sure they had enough runs on the board by time stumps were pulled.

On the positive, we have a couple of weeks off, so I am happy with that.
 
First day of the new year after the Xmas break and on Thursday i learnt we had a new heat rule. If the forecast at 8am is for 38 degree or over, there is no match. At 8.05 am I got up to check the forecast, needn't have bothered, already four messages with "you beauty, no game" on the phone.

Funnily enough, the old rule was that if the temp was under 38, then play, over then come off. Today at 12.30pm, it was 42 degrees, by 1pm, the change had arrived and it was already just a chilly 33. Still, to draw a game against a side who would have beaten us more than likely...sweet as.
 
So a couple of games down since last in. We are still fighting for 4th spot and a finals gig.

One day match at home against Kalangadoo and a bucket* of rain fell the day before and on the morning which made the pitch wet beyond belief. Still, heart folk like us keep playing, I mean the other option is to go home to our wives or girlfriends, sometimes both if they are along the way and really, who wants that?

After knocking them over for 138, we felt we may have been in a good spot to get over the line...but we collapsed. I must admit, I had a s**t week so you can only imagine my delight at getting out to a guy who can't bowl...who bowled a long hop, which I drilled to square leg. I was so angry at myself and let myself have it with both barrells...and then had to apologise to the other team for swearing like a Tourettes sufferer who had hit his thumb with a hammer.

So, our captain batted well and we got to 100 for 8 down but no game points against a top 4 side I think we have covered but have lost to twice now
 
Next game of the season was last week, a one dayer against the team fighting us for fourth spot.

Cheeky bastard captain pulled me aside for getting out like I did, apparently I let the side down taking 3 wickets for 11 and scoring 14 runs, so I had to tak to the team about valuing their wicket. Which meant that if I gave the speech, I probably had to lead the way...FFS.

We posted a half decent score of 129 off our 35 overs, with the speechgiver getting 66 before skying a ball to mid on and the guy who had dropped 3 catches decided he would take one...bastard. Still, decent total and during the break, the captain learnt the basics of keeping as only you can tell from a five minute masterclass.

Captain bowled a great spell and as wicketkeeper, I took a pretty good catch running back to a skied pull shot...and dropped a bloody easy edge like two overs later. We had a kid playing for us for a few matches, he may play AFL in 3 years, maybe only SANFL but he probably won't play cricket, we dropped at least 10, at least, maybe more and took two. I swear he must hate us. The easy edge was off his bowling, poor bugger.

Game went down to the last 4 overs when they needed a run a ball but our bowling was supreme, giving up a run and over and taking some poles, good stuff, particularly as the other team are frigging cheats, with very little idea of what a LBW decision is.

Still, screw them, we should have 4th set up after this, next match against the top team.
 
Which brings me to today. Top team wins the toss on a nice sunny day and decides to bowl.

Pretty happy with that as it gave us the opportunity to make some runs if we were good enough. We opened really well losing our first wicket for 67 in the 19th over. We batted a youngin (well he is 19) because his defense is good and he lasted 19 overs. I was stoked though, even as he only scored 10, he didn't get it that he took the shine off the ball and tired the bowlers. He seemed disappointed to get only 10 but a few of us thought he did an excellent job.

Which led to the fat bastard coming to the crease. I was happy to block away and let our opening bat smack the runs and just when it looked like he'd get a ton, he mishit his only delivery of his innings and was caught, out for 89. There were a few more wickets down before tea and with 15 overs left I was on 41. The guy coming in to bat with me said that I needed to put my head down and get to 50 and I looked at him and said "* a 50, plenty of time for a ton"

And so it was, with two overs left, I hit the single to bring up 3 figures. There of course was many a ball in the last 15 overs that went from outside off over midwicket, which was good given they had three guys on the boundary from in front of square to Cow and I was still going to the well.

We ended up 7 for 258, good stuff. Hopefully we can get them out for well 257 is good enough
 
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Which brings me to today. Top team wins the toss on a nice sunny day and decides to bowl.

Pretty happy with that as it gave us the opportunity to make some runs if we were good enough. We opened really well losing our first wicket for 67 in the 19th over. We batted a youngin (well he is 19) because his defense is good and he lasted 19 overs. I was stoked though, even as he only scored 10, he didn't get it that he took the shine off the ball and tired the bowlers. He seemed disappointed to get only 10 but a few of us thought he did an excellent job.

Which led to the fat bastard coming to the crease. I was happy to block away and let our opening bat smack the runs and just when it looked like he'd get a ton, he mishit his only delivery of his innings and was caught, out for 89. There were a few more wickets down before tea and with 15 overs left I was on 41. The guy coming in to bat with me said that I needed to put my head down and get to 50 and I looked at him and said "**** a 50, plenty of time for a ton"

And so it was, with two overs left, I hit the single to bring up 3 figures. There of course was many a ball in the last 15 overs that went from outside off over midwicket, which was good given they had three guys on the boundary from in front of square to Cow and I was still going to the well.

We ended up 7 for 258, good stuff. Hopefully we can get them out for well 257 is good enough
Which league is that?
 
Which brings me to today. Top team wins the toss on a nice sunny day and decides to bowl.

Pretty happy with that as it gave us the opportunity to make some runs if we were good enough. We opened really well losing our first wicket for 67 in the 19th over. We batted a youngin (well he is 19) because his defense is good and he lasted 19 overs. I was stoked though, even as he only scored 10, he didn't get it that he took the shine off the ball and tired the bowlers. He seemed disappointed to get only 10 but a few of us thought he did an excellent job.

Which led to the fat bastard coming to the crease. I was happy to block away and let our opening bat smack the runs and just when it looked like he'd get a ton, he mishit his only delivery of his innings and was caught, out for 89. There were a few more wickets down before tea and with 15 overs left I was on 41. The guy coming in to bat with me said that I needed to put my head down and get to 50 and I looked at him and said "**** a 50, plenty of time for a ton"

And so it was, with two overs left, I hit the single to bring up 3 figures. There of course was many a ball in the last 15 overs that went from outside off over midwicket, which was good given they had three guys on the boundary from in front of square to Cow and I was still going to the well.

We ended up 7 for 258, good stuff. Hopefully we can get them out for well 257 is good enough


We weren't quite good enough. It isn't too bad though this is a team that dropped back a grade after losing the GF last year, so it was always going to be a tough ask.

It would be easy to blame the captain when the side loses...and I did, his bowling was all over the place, like Barnabys balls in a annual performance review. Nah, there was little to fault, a couple of dropped catches, guys getting tired in the field but we did fight it out. I bowled 17 overs yesterday, 17..at my age I should know better and today was a mixture of bike riding, muscle relaxants and heavy doses of pain relief. Thinking tomorrow will be fun, may have to go home early.

Was kind of concerned when the captain said we all needed to go to training on Thursday, still, he didn't say we had to train, just go there. That may be a good thing because it may take til Saturday until I feel OK enough to do anything cricket related. Usually when I train I bowl some overs but don't bat, I'm one of those people who bats like a damned champ in the nets and then go out Saturday and get out for a dozen or so. Don't bat and the results are much better.

Last game of the season this match, we are currently outside the four by a couple of points but we get the bottom side ( who will probably stock up with ring ins) and the four teams above all play each other, so as long as we win, we should slide in to the finals and if we don't, I may be OK with that as well
 
Last match of the regular season, all we need to do is win and we are in the finals. Our captain can't play first week because he has to go to something called "O week".Absolutely no idea what it is but by the sounds of it, all women between the ages of 18 to 21 just shag guys whether the guys want it or not, sort of like a reverse Harvey Weinstein situation. I was pretty down on him for this and on Thursday night at selection told him that you can get a root anytime but they only schedule matches of cricket once a week on a Saturday.

Still, young and dumb and other things he seemed pretty keen to go almost like how your dog acts when he hears you coming out to the back yard with his walking leash. As I was left to captain the side in a very important match, he gave me this bit of advice " I am 3 ahead of you in the bowling trophy, don't bowl Saturday you campaigner".

Thought that was pretty rough, not only does the youngfella abandoned us for a few roots, he wants a trophy for bowling too. Being the nice guy I am, I told him I was going to bowl and I was going to bowl 20 overs straight. I guess he was very lucky when I looked at the forecast it seemed like it was a mild sunny day, so batting was the better option.

So, yesterday I win the toss and we bat but not before I had a chance to flick a text to our captain telling him I had won the toss and we were bowling...* him.

Set up the same batting order as last week and our young opener spoons the ball to mid off for a pretty soft dismissal. It brought the fat guy to the crease, fresh off an unbeaten ton. First ball was a wide outswinger that I chase, edge just wide of first and get off the mark. Pretty down on myself for playing such a stupid shot to a ball I should have left.

Second ball, wide outswinger, in for a penny, in for a pound and I go after it, thick edge, high to first slip, through his hands, two more runs. Surprisingly, third ball is another wide outswinger and I finally let it go, apparently you can't fool me three times.

Next over our other opening bat was out to a corker of a delivery, inswinging yorker that took leg stump out of the ground and two overs from there, our number 4 was walking back to the club rooms with us 3-13. It wasn't a great start in a must win match I admit but one comment changed the match.

As the oppo were huddled together cook a hoop about the start a few guys a few boys commented that they should just finish us off now to which the fat guy replied " you ain't got me out boys, I'm the wicket you need"

And so it was, pissed off with the situation and having to bat with a leg spinner, I put my head down and started milking the strike and the runs until the voices in the field dropped. The legspinner batted very well and straight until he, in ironic fashion, was dismissed by a long hop from another leggie when the score was on 96.

4 down and plenty of overs left I teamed up with the captains dad, a great local footballer back in the day and still quite fit. After noticing that I was struggling a bit, he decided the best option was to have us turn singles into 2s, not sure why that is what he went with though.

We got to tea with the score on 150 odd and myself on 93. I just needed one more over before tea to get there, was a bit annoyed because coming back from tea, they'd all know my score and there'd be chatter...and I'd never been out in the 90s.

Was a long 15 minutes waiting to go back out and the chatter started up when I face the last ball of the first over, my first on strike. Ignoring the chatter I put that ball first bounce into the midwicket fence to bring my score onto 97.

Next over when I was on strike, the chatter went up again, "he's on 97 boys, 97" so with my first ball on strike turned it off my hip, thinking I had placed it well enough for those 3 runs. Maybe i am old, maybe I am slow but as I turned for the second, the fielder already had the ball in his hand. Still I took the second and had to signal to the boys to bring the defibrillator out to square leg, just in case.

Next ball, leg glance and another ton for the fat man, my nervous nineties lasted four deliveries either side of a tea break. Ended up out at 120, not moving my feet at all to an inswinger and was bowled off my pads.

I guess disappointingly for me, was how our team batted after I was dismissed. We still had a good batsman in at seven. He isn't much for running but his bat is about 3 pound 6 and he is a big, big country boy but my team wouldn't bat around him. No matter how many times I said " just block the ball, you don't need to score runs, let Andy score them..." nope, block , play a shot, hit in the air...out.

Disappointed that we didn't bat out the overs but we did get 240, which is the total still facing the oppo next week
 
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So obviously, we made finals, second day of match was a bit of a non event, captain didn't bowl me because he wanted the bowling trophy. I was good with it because I don't care but when he finished his spell, he wanted to keep, so we swapped gloves and he proceeded to drop about four catches. On the plus side we won the match and I had a chance to bring my season total up to 540 runs at 60.

Which brings us to today, first v fourth and we were out on the field after winning the toss...go figure. We copped a bit of a pasting early and whilst fielding in today, early on I turned to chase a ball and heard a "crack". Needless to say, the remaining 50 overs after that were not exactly fun but there was no way I was leaving us with 10 on the field.

Foot looks a little fat, nicely bruised up and I am still working out how I stand on it properly. On the positive, everyone expects me to ton up again, yay me, their bowling attack isn't outstanding but good enough so we will see how it goes...if only I had a friendly doctor who would put a shot in my foot...
 
Wear a moonboot

Funny you say this. My wifes friend came over about an hour ago and she is a lady doctor ( I know, will the miracles of science never end). Anyways, anytime she comes over it is standard patter between the two of us " what is wrong with you"..."I'm old and I play sport" but tonight, I threw caution to the wind and asked her opinion.

A quick examination followed by 5 questions all answered "yes" and she said "Planter Fascias" or however it is spelt. * me but if this is what Tex has it is very effin painful. Lady doctor was pretty heartless though, told me to not play tomorrow...in the middle of a semi final...FFS, think she was joking...she must be.

Anyways, ice pack on foot, anti inflammatories in tow and a few beers...it is OK I guess. I get this really bad feeling I'll do something stupid like win the match tomorrow and have to front up again next week. By the sounds of it, once I stop playing cricket, I have a few weeks/months of pain to put up with.
 
Ha.

My ma has rung up to see how we went today...and for those who read this thread. When she found out that the doc had said Planter Fascia, my ma said " yeah, that sounds like something you recover from in the off season"

80 year old woman and this is my sporting mentor I guess. Getting the idea she'd be ashamed even if i moved down to 2nd drop
 
Ha.

My ma has rung up to see how we went today...and for those who read this thread. When she found out that the doc had said Planter Fascia, my ma said " yeah, that sounds like something you recover from in the off season"

80 year old woman and this is my sporting mentor I guess. Getting the idea she'd be ashamed even if i moved down to 2nd drop
Generational maybe. "You can rub it tomorrow" was my grandpa's sideline advice if I ever copped a knock on the footy field.
 
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And it is season over. Struggled a bit on the pitch but made 26 before getting out. Was happy to immediately have a couple of Pan Forte and a beer and my foot stopped hurting as much. After the top 4 got out chasing the total, the rest put value on their wickets and kept the oppo out for the whole day.

Next stop is Wednesdays association awards, hopefully get to neck 6 pints, have a feed and possibly bring home a trophy and if the association is really good, a new bat because it has been a few months since I have got a new bat ;)
 
So, today is the first day I have looked forward to the new season. Pretty sure this gets further each season, I think it can't be too far away from me wanting to play a new season and the season is already two games in. I can remember when I was in my late 30s by May I'd be ready for the next season, now it is August, mid August at that.

Of course, one thing that has cheered me up is the purchase of a new bat, A Hitman "The Boss" with a few shots played in the hallway this week. 2 pound 8 and a half, middle has a lovely ping to it.

Last week our club had an auction night as we needed to do renos on the club rooms which was quoted for and was costing us around 7k ( keep in mind we aren't getting charged for labour, well in slabs but you know).

So, last Friday was the night and one of the local footy clubs gave us their clubrooms to hold it at ( it's a country thing, we all look out for each other...big thank you to West Gambier) and I had a s**t, really s**t day at work. Think I may have drunk 15 pints in the 3 and a half hours I was there and wasn't even slurring my speech or had any other signs of being pissed ( like being annoying, or thinking I was funny saying something that when I sobered up thought "OMG that was awful/sexist/homophobic or worse, racist). In saying that, we had a quiz on the night, quite a big one apparently...yeah, didn't notice that.

All good though, the auction went pretty good ( we had both silent and...noisy auctions I guess), I hit up one of my customers to donate something and he gave me a Dometic eski which are bloody expensive, so we threw some of our left over drinks from the club into it. The Eski retails for $200, so I thought that if it hadn't hit $50 I might pick something up cheap...yeah, that thought was blown out of the water, I stopped looking when it got to $150.

Still, just when the good wife went to put the kids in my parents in laws car so they could go home...they started bidding on having a Mercedes for a long weekend, donated by the local merc dealership. When she came back in, I had to explain to her that she shouldn't leave her pissed husband with a bidding paddle alone...on the positive, we have a Merc for a long weekend and I will be bringing that back with no tread left on the tyres.

End of the night and 7 k was raised and for some reason, I made the good wife take me through the drive thru so I could get a six pack of beer because maybe I hadn't drunk enough.

Hope the weather clears up soon, I really want to try out the new bat...
 

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