Our first game against these blokes was May 2019. Their ground is out on the Dengie Peninsular near Bradwell Nuclear Power station. Possibly a contender for one of the most unusual grounds in the UK and possibly the smallest Pavilion? Word is, the ground is in the back garden of a bloke who was a cricket commentator in Holland who has now retired and lives here in the UK. He loves the sport so much he's had the ground leveled, a wicket cut and small pavilion built in the classic style (see images below).
The surrounding countryside was beautiful and I got lost on the way and had to stop and ask for directions and spoke to a bloke who had a proper Essex accent, something you don't get to hear too much in South Essex where I live what with the London diaspora and the 'Estuary English' which is the way most people speak.
When we arrived I recall looking at the opposition and thinking that we might have a chance against these bloke looking at attributes such as physique and age, oh how wrong I was going to be! The funniest thing was they had an older bloke who they were joking about saying he was useless and either never caught a ball in his life or was almost 99% likely to drop any balls that went his way. See the bowling analysis below, the blokes name is "Russell".
Thankfully the heavens opened and it rained 'Biblically' and the game had to be called off. We hung around for a good while trying to get the game going, but to no avail.
It's now 2 years later and the Covid pandemic has been a reality for 2 summers now and the cricket has been thwarted. Covid's with us still and the current news is around a variant that is being called the Indian variant and numbers are climbing a little after coming down massively with the prospect of a full summers cricket.
This weekend 15th May 2021 we host Tillingham at home at 'Holy Cross'. I'm writing the evening before and the weather's not looking too clever. The spring has been decidedly cold and the last 10 days or so after a long cold dry spell has showery and cold.
The forecast for tomorrow is pretty much showers and lower than average temperatures.
It's likely to rain in the morning, but the afternoon is likely to be cloudy bright.
Click on the images to access XC Weather where this map was sourced from.
This is for 10.00 by which time the rain has stopped and thereafter the forecast is that it'll progressively improve.
15/5/21
The weather forecast was pretty much spot on. It rained most of the morning quite lightly and by the time I arrived at Holy Cross it hadn't rained for an hour or so and the decision had been made to go ahead with the game. We won the toss I think and the Captain Tim Edmonds opted to put us in for a change to see if that made any difference to our fortunes. I've got no recollection of winning a game for years!
We lost again today, we only managed to score 127 runs in a rainy 40 over game with Mark Broadhurst scoring a decent 32 before being bowled by Mason. The other notable knock was from Rhys Eustace. See the scorecard below...
Our total of 127 was chased down by 2 blokes their No.1 and No.3, both who scored over 50 runs. The No.2 didn't trouble the scorers bowed by Wayne Morgan in the first over as I recall.
Alfie Bailey No1_________________________________
Alfie Bailey, the captain and opener. Solid player, generally played with a straight bat. In this game was Not out 54 and carried his bat for the full game. You can't bowl short to him as he's onto it and hitting your for four. The link below is his play cricket data. He's generally the main scorer for the team, so you need to get him early. A faster bowler bowling in the corridor of uncertainty with a good slips fielder and a primarily off-side field might do the trick.
The data on play cricket is interesting - 42% caught? He played well in this game as I don't recall many balls in this game in the air and most of it was along the ground, so this might be something he's vulnerable with - perhaps against spin. In this game as with recent games I didn't bowl any Leg-breaks or Top-spinners and bowled once he was well set. So spin might be an option? The 4.35% stumped suggests he gets frustrated by spin bowlers and looks to get aggressive?
17/7/21 - Another game with Tillingham, this time at their ground. I've got no recollection of the earlier game this season, but remembered that Alfie Bailey was the danger man. The other bloke Butterwick wasn't present thankfully. We lost the toss and were put into bat and they bowled well... Lang for instance 5-4-1-0! Lang with Allington got them off to a good start and it did look like we'd pretty much lost the game at this stage.
Eventually we got going with 32 from Mark Broadhurst. That combined with the others that nearly scored 20 meant that by the time the 40 over were up we'd posted a total of 122 for 7. I wasn't that hopeful, but then someone said that they didn't have a lot in the way of batting other than Alfie and another bloke, so the order of the day was to get these blokes at the top of the order out.
Because they were saying there was no batting to speak of I didn't bother with my usual diagrams, but as you can see above Bailey got off to a worrying flyer, the other bloke was caught in the covers as I recall leaving Bailey stranded. The outfield had only been cut recently and despite that fact the grass was long and lush, but worse was the fact that all of the cut grass was still on the ground negating any chance of hitting 4's along the floor although that's not really Bailey's style, but it did mean that if he was going to save the day he needed to clear the boundary by going ariel.
The wagon wheel below is an approximation, with the exception of the three 4's through the mid-off region. We adopted the tactic of trying to allow him to have a single so that we could bowl at the other bloke, but initially with Mid-off up (A) and the ball was either going over the top of just evading the fielder for 4, but I suggested pushing mid-off out to a deeper position (B) and that worked almost immediately, with Bailey caught by Ben Edmonds in the deep.
Having seen Bailey a couple of times now, the key areas you need to cover are mid-on and mid-off as he plays with a straight bat. This plan is based on what I saw on 17/7/21 where he predominantly hit the ball through the mid-off region. Note that previously he was stronger through mid-on, which may be down to the bowling line? If you bowl straighter the players in the 'A' zone might be swapped with the configuration seen in the 'B' zone, but whatever happens have a bloke on the boundary each side for protection and to take the catch, also starve him of the strike with that tactic meaning that he has to try harder to hit the big runs when he is on strike.Also watch when he's on strike for the last ball of the over as he'll try and rotate and get back on strike and provide a run out opportunity. Fielders 6 and 10 need to be good catchers, 8 and 7 good agile and committed fielders. 6 is also an option we nearly got him there early as well. This set up is for a slow to medium seam bowler primarily.
Jon Butterwick No.3 __________________________________________________
Historically 24 half centuries, 12% not outs is impressive especially if he's been coming in up the order. Definitely someone you need to get out early otherwise he's going to be sticking around.
Again plays with a straight bat and I don't recall any opportunities where the ball was in the air to be caught, but the data says otherwise.
