The Pavel Florin Supporters Club and Cricket Thread

[Baz Windham]

Was anyone else lucky enough to just see The Netherlands chase down 190 in 13.5 overs to go through over Ireland? They even had 3 balls to spare. It was incredible stuff

Edited March 21, 2014 by Baz Windham

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Having been a distinctly average club player and one of the worst players you could ever wish to umpire, I decided that over the winter I would take the Level 1 ECB ACO umpiring course. Did the course over 3 Saturdays and sat the exam on the 4th Saturday.

 

I soon discovered that as a player I knew chuff all about the rules of cricket and that also what you see on TV are ICC match regulations and not the laws of the game. It wasn't just that it was also about man management and a lot about junior players playing in senior games, and the bowling and fielding restrictions for them and such like.

 

The exam itself was 50 questions with 80% required to pass and on top of that in the 50 questions were 12 "Red" questions. You had to get 10 out of the 12 Red questions within the 80% or that was a fail. Luckily I got 96% and no Red questions wrong so I qualified as a Level 1 umpire.

 

I live in Lincolnshire and there are 4 main leagues round here. ECB Premier, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, and South Lincs and Border. ECB Premier uses umpires that are 2 levels above me, but I have got games in various divisions of the other 3.

 

Last week was my first game. Lincolnshire League Division 3. Luckily nothing controversial to give, a caught behind that he really should have walked for and some no-balls that spot fixers would be ashamed of but on the whole a good game.

 

This week the game has been called off because of a waterlogged outfield after lots of heavy rain over the last 2 days. That is a shame for me because it was Lincolnshire League Division 1, and that is the highest standard I have got in the first half of the season.

 

I will keep you informed about games in the coming weeks, unless you tell me to sod off obviously.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

I don't dance and to be honest johnnyboy the umpires assessors don't encourage dancing round like Billy Bowden in a nightclub.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

A beautiful day tone umpiring today. The pitch was green but it didn't do loads. There was a bit in it for good bowling. Team batting first collapsed from 50-2 to 72 all out. Gave 3 lbws in the collapse, all of them plum also turned down another that was very close but just outside the line of off stump. Team batting second collapsed from 43-0 to 60-7, but got home from there. Including one that pitched middle and was hitting middle half way up that the batsmen gave me the right evils as he walked off! That's cricket for you though. Batsmen never think they are out.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

There is no mandated system. A lot of people use stones or coins. I have a clicker that you can count both balls and number of overs off on. As long as you can count to 6 you are fine.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Only got 12 overs in today before the match was abandoned. Standing water on the square would just not go away and it kept raining intermittently.

[LariatTom]

Possibly a bit late in the day for this, but the T20 kicks off this evening. After some of the biggest changes to the English domestic scene in years, we've got Sunday starts to most games, 50 over games returning later in the season and T20 spread out across Friday nights to give some sort of consistency. Love it or loathe it, T20 is where the money is for county clubs. If there's great weather like we have today, there are worse ways to spend a Friday evening.

 

Yorkshire are looking pretty good in the four day (proper ) format of the game. Big win this week against Warwickshire, and a nice opportunity for me to see some cricket for the first time this season. Back off to Headingley in a bit for the T20 and hopefully some nice cricket from Aaron Finch as the overseas player. If he gets his eye in early on, I'd expect to see cricket balls flying all over the ground. Might not sit square of the wicket as I usually do...

[PowerButchi]

Have you ever considered blogging about your experiences cricketing in Germany. It's the kind of thing I'd find dead interesting.

[LariatTom]

It's something I really wish I'd done while I was out there. It really was a great experience in terms of playing with so many different nationalities. The Australians were great motivators (and they could spin the ball), we had the gutsy Englishman, the South African who built his innings, the Afghan lads who could bowl quick and hit hard and the Germans who were wonderfully meticulous and fantastic opening batsmen. I don't think I saw Frank score that many runs but he had the most wonderful forward defensive. Considering they play 50 over cricket, he could get through the first powerplay opening the batting and have less than 10 runs to his name at the end of it.

 

As strange as it may sound, I learned so much about the game while over there that I'd never had here. I'm a no.10/11 batsman, so I never really get much batting practice at nets, but in Hamburg I could be one of the first guys there since I'd go straight from work and after I'd helped get the equipment and set up the ground and that meant I'd be one of the first guys to bat and I'd get plenty of time in the middle to practice everything from defensive work to more attacking shots and building an innings. Depending on which day of the week it was, I could be facing former international bowlers...admittedly, "only" German international, but they were sending them down at well over 80mph. Training sessions would play out as real games, so you get into the rhythm of bowling full overs, field placings, placing shots as a batsman and calling runs. Great stuff. I spent time umpiring during games (and learning that a lot of guys don't seem to know the LBW rule), how to keep score. For my cricketing progression, I learned more in 6 months than I had in the previous few years here.

 

I recorded a podcast with the guy who had set up the club, but the audio file was messed up when it came to editing which is a shame since it was a really interesting conversation and there were bits of commentary spliced within since we were watching the team playing in the national semi-final at the time. I can always say that I played cricket for the 2013 DCB Bundesliga runners up.

 

If/when I move back out there in a few years, keeping a blog will definitely be something I'll do. I'd also recommend a fantastic book called Batting for Berlin by an Aussie called Andre Leslie who moved out to Germany and ended up playing cricket for the national side.

[PowerButchi]

See, that's really fucking interesting. I'd have loved a Simon Hughes style travelogue of it. Culture clash and characters.

[PowerButchi]

And also, as a spinner myself, we know the LBW rule, we just pretend not to as at grass roots level umpires are easily intimidated by a big appeal. If it hits the pad, have a go.

[gadge]

Pleasantly surprised by Sussex sneaking a last ball victory in their first t20. If I wasn't at wrestling tomorrow, I'd definitely have gone to Lord's for two t20s in one day

[Max Power]

Keep us updated with the umpiring Lion, its really interesting and something I'm thinking about doing in the future. I've toyed with the idea for a while about trying to 'make it' as an umpire. I've contacted the blokes up at Yorkshire and they say I could start off doing some of their midweek representative games (i.e schools cricket and Academy stuff). Obviously I need to be sufficiently qualified first. It's how Richard Kettlebrough started out - he used to umpire our age group when I played for the academy. As it stands though, I still want to continue playing for a bit longer - I'm only 32.

 

We had a 21 year old umpire two Saturday's ago in the South Yorkshire Premier League. It was a top of the table clash - first V third - so there were some right bellends playing who appeal for everything. And guess what, he was really good. Really good. Better than the bloke at the other end who'd done it for fifteen years.

 

We have a game at home today, but I'm stuck at work till 1pm, which means I'll miss the start. Hopefully we're batting first because last time I worked in the am and arrived late, I dropped the biggest dolly ever three balls after arriving. No warm up, lethargic and full of breakfast = very annoyed opening bowler.

 

EDIT: I agree with Butch about the German blog, would be super interesting. As for experiences of playing abroad myself, I went on an MCC tour to Cyprus which was unbelievable. The first thing you notice is the heat. If you think playing in 24 degrees heat in Barnsley on a mid-May day is warm, trying playing in 35 degree heat in Cyprus in mid-September. Its breath takingly energy sapping. As a spinner myself (spinner's union Butch), you always get thrown the ball when its hot, but bowling a 12 over spell in Happy Valley (where the are hills/mountains to all sides and the cricket ground is in the valley in the middle) is like bowling in a Sauna. Just horrible. I can only imagine what Karachi or Delhi is like. The standard of cricket was pretty good too, mostly ex-pats like Tom alluded to, but the occasional home grown kid who's picked the game up. The beauty about the Cypriots was that they play with no fear or inhibitions. They try and bowl as fast as they can or hit it as far as they can. Just wonderful.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Max Power

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

And also, as a spinner myself, we know the LBW rule, we just pretend not to as at grass roots level umpires are easily intimidated by a big appeal. If it hits the pad, have a go.

 

As a player I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment, with my umpiring hat on. BOOO

 

The progression from starting as an umpire to getting to the top level is very clearly laid out Max but it is not easy. The first 2 course Level 1 and 1A can be done within a couple of years, but after that you just have to be good enough to get invited to do the next level. Level 2 is ECB Premier league level. Level 3 is minor counties and multi-day games and Level 4 is First Class and above. I think it took Richard Illingworth about 10 years to get from step 1 to step 4.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Lion_of_the_Midlands

[Max Power]

Sorry yes. It does come across in my post that I think it will be a piece of piss - which obviously it isn't. It's something I might want to look at though if my shoulder continues to give me the jip that it is doing.

 

I'm locking up at work now, 1pm start. Tara!