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

Pre season and Barbados Trip

Hi everyone

Pre season testing went well. All the lads did brilliantly on the fitness tests and we certainly achieved the best results for a good few years. The tests are very thorough and consist of a yoyo test (similar to beep test), sprint tests, agility test, jump tests and strength tests.

Once the testing was out the way, the last few weeks have seen us do lots of team bonding/fitness sessions. These included a great day training with Saracens RFC and a tennis tourny. The rugby session saw us join their backs in a weights session which was quite intense. After we had lunch we sat in on their team meeting prior to their game vs leicester. Very interesting to hear the tactics that woud later see them win the game and narrow the gap at the top of the league. The boys then finished off in the afternoon playing a series of rugby games which got quite competitive at times. It should also be noted Tymal Mills has no idea about the offside rule!

The tennis was dominated by Foz who is a former county and national payer I believe. The only shred of competition he would have had would have been Pettini but he was ill on the day (suspicious).

Anyway, we now fly off to Barbados for our tour, its been a long hard winter in the gym and indoor school so this trip really kicks off the start of the season. I will try to blog and tweet daily or at least every other day for the duration of the trip. For scores and other updates please also log onto http://www.essexcricket.org.uk/

Regards Chris

Feb

Hi everyone

Its been quite a good month in training terms and its good to see some hard work paying off. Some horrible interval runs and jogs at Hylands park have got my cardio levels up and bench press apart, my weights have been going well too. I had one week where I thought that I might win my bench press bet with the physio, but in the weight sessions since my chest is nowhere to be seen. We have a training session with Saracens rugby team this tuesday which should be good. We are in the gym with them in the morning and then in the afternoon we are doing rugby skills and conditioning games. It promises to be a tough day but should be fun watching them smash the gym up.

Coaching has been going well this month at New Hall School. The New Hall squad are halfway through a tour of the UAE and it appears to be going well. Prior to the boys trip the bowlers and I worked on bowling a wicket to wicket line, and some variations, slower balls and yorkers etc to compensate for the dry and flat conditions. They have won their opening two games but as yet dont know how the bowlers did. Hopefully well or I will lose that coaching job.

My poker playing has slowed down a little in Feb, obviously as the season grows closer I play less and less. I am keen to try to play as much as possible before Barbados so I can have some spending money for the trip. Not sure where we are staying yet but its pretty expensive. We went to TGI Fridays last time we were there and there was a rack off ribs on the menu for $180!! TGIs is hardly fine dining either. Bend over, Cha ching!

On another note glad to see Arsenal doing so well at the moment. The game v Barcelona was amazing and was very pleased for Arshavin to score the winner after struggling a bit this season. Hopefully Man U slip up in the coming weeks, they have two games v Chelsea and will play Liverpool so maybe we can overtake them.

Take it easy Chris

2011

It has been a long time since my last post and so much has happened. I have moved house, although not to the one I originally thought, Im renting my flat. The Essex pre season tour to Barbados is back on and the team are back into the rountine of indoor cricket training and last but not least England smashed Australia in the Ashes.

Regarding the move, the lady who was going to buy my flat pulled out the day before the exchange of contracts which is totally late (stupid a**e). This meant I had to remove my offer for the house I was going to buy and with the looming cricket season my partner and I couldnt face anymore more house hunting. So my flat is being rented and we have moved into a really nice house just the other side of town in chelmsford. Its so good to get all the moving out of the way because it really is one of the most stressful things you can do, it feels great to be settled somewhere and to be able to focus properly on training and things again.

On the training front not much has changed since before christmas, only a slight shift in emphasis to more cardio and a lot more cricket, particularly bowling indoors. Gradually there are more and more of the team coming back from their winter stints abroad either playing as an overseas pro or in some cases getting married. It really is good to have more guys around, sessions are lots more fun and its great to see the changes people have made to their games and fitness. Sadly at the moment im on my way to losing a bench press bet with the physio which means I will be taking him to dinner somewhere of his choice (nandos).

Cricketwise im working with Chris Silverwood the bowling coach on a few different deliveries for the new season in an attempt to be more successful in all forms of the game. One of my main goals for the year ahead is to reduce my economy rate in all cricket which should hopefully lead to some more wickets. On the batting side I really want to increase my training workload fullstop. It can be quite difficult sometimes as a bowler but im going to make sure I hit more than my fair share of balls this season. Great news is that the preseason tour to Barbados is on. In the past few years Essex have toured UAE and Barbados and the trips have been amazing and so productive. When some teams are stuck indoors training it can really give us an edge on the competition to be outside in the sun, not to mention how good the trips have been for team morale!

Poker has started well in the new year. Im currently in 4th on the sharkscope leaderboard for Holdem 9-10 players non turbo total profit (www.sharkscope.com/PushTheEdge). I am tring to decide if it is worth moving up in stakes and risking my ROI coming down as a result of tougher games or to just keep beating the $10s for a tidy amount per month. I have also set up a pokerstars home game for friends if people are keen to join. I dare say it will be mostly cricketers who do but anyone is welcome see the link below.

You are invited to join my private poker club for Home Games online.

- If you don't already have it, download the free PokerStars software from www.pokerstars.com
- Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
- Click the 'Join a Poker Club' button
- Enter my Club ID number: 27359
- Enter my Invitation Code: cricketers
That's it! Once I've approved your membership request, we'll be ready to start playing Home Games online together.
If you want to find out more, visit www.pokerstars.com/homegames

Aside from cricket and poker I am trying to coach as much as possible right now so if anyone is interested in some coaching please feel free to email me at chriswright500@hotmail.com. Coaching can be done online as well. If you have any comments about this or any other post i would be pleased to here them and you can leave them below or email or Facebook me. Anyway enough from me I hope you have all had a good start to the year and will chat soon.

Regards Chris