End of the tour!

The end of the tour!

The last few days of the tour have flown by. As I write this we have a few more hours before we are off to the airport so a little bit of time to write this blog and catch some last minute sun.

The tour ended with a good two day game against Warwickshire. The result was a draw and we batted and bowled well but in two days neither side could really force a result on a flat wicket. In general the work ethic on the tour has been great both in terms of cricket training and fitness work. We have also certainly improved game to game on the cricket front and appear to be peaking nicely in time for the start of our domestic campaign. We have games against Worcs and Cam UCCE  next week and coupled with the games on this trip we should hit the ground running and be ready for Kent on the 8^th.

Off the field we have also had an amazing time, heaps of sun and swimming in the sea ,and general team bonding has been great. Barbados is truly an amazing location, perfect for cricket at this time of year and so much entertainment around the island for all different needs. We have had a few supporters come out here with us, some even staying in our hotel and Im sure they have also had a great time. The last I heard they got treated to a boozy dinner with Sir Gary Sobers which is pretty cool. They also came to the high commission with us the night we were the last standing at the welcome evening and eating all the canapés. It would certainly be good if more of you could come out next year. Smile Caribbean who sponsored us on this tour and without whom this tour wouldnt have been possible have done an amazing job looking after us and the supporters while we have been here. Fingers crossed we can come again next year and have even more support.

Well I had better start packing now so Im gonna wrap this up. I hope you enjoyed reading about our tour and continue to read my thoughts and blogs throughout the summer. There are also a few other Essex players on twitter who tweet regularly and give their own thoughts about all kinds of rubbish so stay in loop and get following!

Regards

Chris

March 21st

Hey everyone

After the T20 tournament we were given another day off to recover. A few of the lads went fishing, some played golf and the rest lazed around the beach. These days off are very important to recharge the batteries as the training and matches are intense, especially in the very hot weather.

In general not much to say about today as it was a pretty similar day to the last one we had off. The next part of this tour is all going to be practising and playing with the red ball. We have nets tomorrow then play Warwickshire in a two day game, and once we return home we are pretty much straight into games with Worcs and Cambridge UCCE. We have virtually two months solid of four day cricket. Therefore these last few days are very important as there isn’t lots more opportunity before we are into competitive games.

Regards

Chris

March 19th and 20th

In the last two days we have been competing in a T20 competition with the other touring counties plus a few invitational sides. They were early starts and late finishes so I had to merge the two days into one blog.

On the 19^th we had a light practice at Carlton CC before transferring to the Kensington Oval for our game vs Derbyshire. It was yet again another good run out and some very good performances during the game. In particular Wheats with the bat and Topley with the ball. Unfortunately we lost in the penultimate over which I bowled which was very upsetting. Its a horrible feeling but when you bowl at the death that can happen sometimes.

On the 20^th we played against an invitational side in the morning at Banks CC the winner of which would then play another game in the afternoon at the Kensington oval. This game produced a pretty comprehensive win. All the bowlers bowled smartly and then Billy G and Mark Pettini bludgeoned us to victory with some pretty hefty blows.

After the win we popped home to the hotel to get some lunch and then pretty much went straight from lunch to play our second game of the day. By the time we got to the ground we were caught in a storm and rained off without getting off our tour bus, extraordinary scenes!

We got back to the hotel and a few of the lads and I decided to go for a swim in the bad weather and try and catch some waves by the Hilton but for some reason there weren’t really any. Outside our hotel the waves were massive but yet one km up the shore none!

Anyway a good win so off the mark for the tour and encouraging signs as the boys are looking in good knick.

Regards

Chris

March 18th

Hello

Sadly not much to report on our day off. We were given our first day off on the trip so today was a fairly lazy affair.

A few of the guys, myself included went on a long walk up the beach to the Hilton hotel and mucked around on their beach. We tried catching some waves and skimming tennis balls but all roads eventually led to sunbathing and as a result sunburn. At least in my case sunburn.

After lunch we played a four v four volleyball game which got over competitive. My team won and we were all bought milkshakes by the oppo to celebrate the hard fought victory. After volleyball there was more sunbathing (boring I know).

We had team meeting at half six to discuss the game v Hants and where we would like to improve and focus our efforts for the next game. We were generally happy for the first run out of the season but still found some areas where we can really raise our game a bit.

After dinner I ended up crashing out to sleep. The sun and large amounts of food took its toll, but a nice relaxing day off will hopefully see me and boys refreshed for our T20 game v Derbyshire today. It will be an interesting one as well because Tony Palladino will be lining up for them so that will be weird.

Anyway enough rambling hopefully we win today, I am off to breakfast.

Regards Chris

March 17th

Morning/Afternoon all

Today we had our first game of the tour at Carlton CC vs Hampshire. I wont go into too many details about the game because you can read the match report on the Essex website. We unfortunately lost but there are definitely some positives to be taken from the game. Pettini and Cook put on a nice partnership and looked in good touch (we already know Cooky is in great touch mind), and in general the batters shaped up nicely. On the bowling side it was the first game of the winter for all the bowlers, myself, Napes, Hoody, Comber and Pips so we were trying to blow some cobwebs out. Nets are great but they still feel very different compared to a match. We bowled pretty well but could not break the partnership between Irvine and Howell which proved to be the match winning one.

After the game we had a reception at the British high commission . We virtually went straight from the game so they boys were starving which made for an interesting night. When we arrived the boys smashed canapés all night to make up for the lack of a real dinner, and these tasty treats more than made up for it. We also had quite a few drinks and cleverly placed ourselves near the bar during the speeches. All the other teams on tour were also at the function so it was good to mingle with the other players and all in all made for a fun night.

I spent most of the night with Walks and Billy G. Billy and I were recalling our various stints in Perth. We both played for Bayswater Morley CC and had amazing winters, his last winter and mine two winters ago. They are great bunch of lads and good side, we would both love to go back so I don’t think they will have trouble finding overseas players in future. Walks was sharing stories with us from his career which is pretty amazing. Its great to have guys of his experience around especially when they are as helpful and cool as him. He knows I am still pretty upset with him though for being the target of his football related abuse on twitter, same goes for Scott Styris! But he redeemed himself a lot last night.

Chris

March 16th

Hi readers

Today was a very tough day (as far as playing cricket in Barbados goes).

We had another net session from about 10am until 1pm. Before the nets started we did our prehab and stretching designed by physio Rich Marsden. This is largely stretching and strength exercises for certain areas that he thinks we need to improve based on preseason testing results. After that we moved onto sprints with S&C Ant Sharp former marine, RAF machine and non baldie. This short but tough fitness was hard and instantly followed up by fielding drills. This was four stations including high catches and throwing at stumps etc. Unfortunately my group was two men short which meant Billy G, Jaik, Comber, Westly and myself had quite a large workload and that coupled with fitness left us blowing a bit. It actually rained just prior to our session which made conditions very humid and sweaty, bad day to wear a black training shirt!

On the bowling front Spoons aka Chris Silverwood had us bowl two spells. The first was bowling as if it were the beginning of an OD game and the second spell was death bowling. The boys all bowled well and in good areas, and in general the wickets played really well today, bouncy and with reasonable carry. The wickets also got the balls reversing so bowling in the second spell was quite fun.

On the social side I went to TGI’s (which I moaned about in a past blog on my website), with Jaik, Wheats and Comber for a milkshake. We were too tired and sore to put up a fight with our conscience which means nutrition rule broken on day 2.

Anyway need energy for rest of trip and Hants game tomorrow, thats my excuse.

Logging off Chris

March 15th

Hi everyone

We arrived yesterday at 3pm local time, courtesy of a lovely flight from Virgin. Its great to finally be away, I cant speak for all the guys but this really feels like business time and the start of the season now. The boys have all worked tremendously hard all winter either abroad or in England so this is the time for it to hopefully start paying off.

The flight here was 8 hours and wasn’t too bad, so just three movies and we were here. These included Jackass 3 so there were some funny noises coming from my part of the cabin watching all the horrible stunts throughout the movie.

Im rooming with Michael Comber which is good as I have been training with him all winter. We are hoping to continue all our fitness work during this trip only with a little sun on our backs. We have set ourselves some pretty tough nutrition rules like not eating any artificial sugar for the whole trip and not drinking fizzy drinks. Hopefully we can get past day two with that one.

We had nets this morning at Carlton CC. Its a very nice ground and short drive from Bridgetown and I believe where Desmond Haynes played all his cricket. Obviously its a good batting deck so us bowlers are in for a tough two weeks. The nets were largely uneventful until Napes and Comber started going crazy at the end of the session and cleared the boundary with ease. Also today we had a top secret bowlers meeting to discuss our goals and objectives for the upcoming season.

There was a great atmosphere at our hotel for dinner, live reggae music and a West Indian buffet was the perfect end to a tough first day.

Chris