Farrell?s Scholarship
One of the aims of the Gibraltar Cricket Association is to increase the exposure of their young cricketers to the rigours of batting on grass wickets. Batting on such a surface creates new challenges that are rarely encountered when batting week in week out in the Gibraltar league, where the games are always played out on artificial matting. Playing against the swinging and seaming ball on a regular basis can only improve a batsman's technique, so when I was offered the opportunity to play club cricket in the UK, it was a chance that I could not turn down.
The team that would offer me such a batting education was Halesowen CC, a strong ECB Birmingham League club. After arriving on the Friday evening there was little respite, as I was due to turn out for them on Saturday morning.
My first game was against West Bromwich Dartmouth CC at home. After bowling out the opposition cheaply around the 120 mark, we got off to a strong start. I was due to bat at 5, yet as a few wickets tumbled, I soon found myself striding out to the middle. Once I had faced a few deliveries, I realised that the bounce was very low and slow, so I found myself thinking just get forward and you will be fine and whatever you do, don't get out! I pushed a few singles and felt slightly more relaxed at the crease, although I was getting slightly bogged down mostly due to tight fielding and my inability to hit the ball off the square! When the opening bowler sent a ball down that pitched just short of a length I did what came naturally and attempted a pull. Yet due to such a low bounce I got hit smack in front and given out lbw. It was the wrong shot in terms of the wicket conditions, yet back in Gibraltar it would have been a regulation shot with the ball bouncing much higher! I trudged off disappointed, knowing that I should have maintained my concentration in getting forward. Points to note: always play forward on English wickets.
The next 2 innings all involved the same mistake playing off the back foot. Games against Wolverhampton CC and Barnt Green CC both involved lbw dismissals. It was clear that I was not adapting to constant front foot play, and for that split second where my eyes light up with pull! Hook! Boundary! I was paying the price. My education was exposing flaws that were mostly mental, that I must maintain my concentration levels and focus on each ball. Unlike back home, every delivery has its own box of tricks. Some will seam around with indifferent bounce, others will swing like a banana. I decided that if I wanted to hang around and make the most of playing in the UK, I must ensure that playing forward and minimising any swing or seam movement was the priority, not the flamboyant pull and cut stoke.
Following my initial dismal displays, I was allowed to tour with Old Edwardians CC for 5 games in 5 days against sides from Somerset and Wiltshire (Weston Super Mare CC, Keynsham CC, Warminster CC, to name a few). I was adamant that I would put into practice my thoughts and technical issues that had been highlighted following my previous displays, and it worked. Scores of 28, 38n.o. And 55n.o. cheered me up, mostly due to the fact that I had made a conscious effort to play forward as much as possible. Nevertheless, it highlighted another area of play in which I was poor. Due to the nature of playing on grass, the ball does not come on as it does on quicker artificial matting. I found myself going at the ball and subsequently hit the ball in the air on a regular basis, thank god I got dropped! Points to note: let the ball come to you!
We managed to win a couple of matches and that added to the good nature and camaraderie of the team, of whom I am extremely grateful for their patience with me and making me feel welcome.
On return to Halesowen, I played two further games against Kidderminster CC and Droitwich CC. We lost both games and unfortunately I only batted against Droitwich. I top scored with 30+ in that game and was by far my best performance. I put into practice all the technical issues that had been raised over the past 3 weeks and was content that I'd learnt to adapt somewhat to different playing conditions, although there was much room for improvement.
My four weeks playing for Halesowen and Old Edwardians has opened my eyes to a different kind of cricket. It exposed my flaws and made me think more about my game. I hope that it will prove to be highly beneficial when the time comes to playing for Gibraltar in future international competitions. The experience on grass will be invaluable when it comes to playing again in the UK.
In amongst all of this I attended ?The test match" at Edgbaston - yes you remember it ct jones b Harmison - won by 2 runs - THAT Test . Now most people that were there will remember it for the rest of their lives but I was a rung up the ladder from all of this as my much under-utilised bowling was in evidence in the practice nets when asked to bowl to the Aussie's on the Friday and Saturday - heaven to be so close to so many people's heroes.
Not only was the trip exciting in terms of cricket, it was a great social trip. I am extremely grateful to the boys at Halesowen and Old Eds for making me feel so welcome. To single out a few names, I would like to thank the two Johns of Old Edwardians for giving me the chance to play every game on tour, to jabba and hutch from Halesowen for their patience and coaching tips, to monkey mcgrath for allowing me to lodge with him in his swanky pad, and of course to Richard Cox and David Young for granting me the opportunity in the first place. Without their help this would not have been possible.
