Blakey’s Blog – 27 April

Fresh from the second day’s play down at Billericay CC, under the watchful of Sargeant Wilco, I bring you this blog from the holiday inn in sunny ‘Basvegas’, also known as the Leisure Retail Park in Basildon. In a game where we’ve paired up with Essex 2’s we find ourselves in a commanding position against a Durham XI, just over 200 runs ahead for the loss of one wicket in the second dig. Essex all rounder Graham Napier ran the show in the first innings with a score of 133*, but there was also valuable contributions of 50 from James ‘Open your eyes’ Goodman, Pikey Piesley, and myself, all who would have been disappointed to have not ‘backed the truck up’ and gone on. On an increasingly spinning wicket, we’ll hope to spin our way to victory come day 4.

There’s plenty of activities to keep us amused here in Basvegas during the evenings, the cinema and Hollywood Bowl being just a couple. Spent a lot of the first night in the arcades brushing Goody aside on the basketball machine, whilst others filled the fruit machines with golden nuggets, James Day being the main culprit. Had a claaaaaasiiic team meal in TGI Friday’s last night for Chris Vernon’s supposed 13^th birthday, which saw Wilco in full flow with the stories. The Jack Daniels chicken strips were highly recommended by the entertaining Durham scorer, and with his expertise in the food industry it was chicken strips all round.

Onto my last week, I was very pleased with the way I struck the ball at the Rose Bowl. It was nice to spend some time in the middle and I came away feeling a lot happier with my form. Scoring 50 in the first innings of this current game was also pleasing, although not as many as I would have liked. Being next batsman in this morning, I hope to continue ticking over.

Had a brief look around the new changing facilities on Monday, and I can assure you they look top notch. Once fully complete I’m sure they’ll be a great asset to the team. By all accounts, the open day went very well and a good time was had by all. The boys look to be on top at Canterbury after Day 1 and hopefully they can continue that over the next three days with a victory over the Gladiators. Good luck lads, and keep up the good analysis in your greenhouse Tony!