Sellsy's Monday Supplement

The cricketers who represent the mighty Somerset flew out to South Africa at the weekend for a two week training camp. Warmer climate, no rain and training outdoors on grass, instead of being confined to indoor practice in Taunton, well it was great forward thinking by Dave Nosworthy.

It seems that the training centre is a high performance place; international athletes use the facilities, with state of the art technology to help improve things like fitness (what?). Dave has also recruited extra specialist coaches in batting, bowling, fielding and wicketkeeping; sounds as if it is going to be a serious intense fortnight for the players.

Alfonso Thomas coming back from Australia saying buoyant things are within the squad; lots of positive coverage about the Overton twins in various media publications; and lots of positive talk from younger players like Alex Barrow and Chris Jones, surely this is going to be Somerset’s season, surely?

Now call me long in the tooth, but I feel I have been here before, but somehow I am a bit more positive this season than I have been for some time. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, there will be no England distractions. Players like Nick Compton, Craig Kieswetter are no longer in the fore front minds of the England selectors, which is a shame for them and their careers, but good for Somerset.

Next, the youngsters would off gained a lot of experience last season. The afore mentioned Overton twins are a lot stronger and fitter than the last campaign, plus they have been with the England Performance squad, gaining valuable experience. The 2013 campaign proved the youngsters could hold their own in the top flight of First Class cricket, even though it was touch and go towards the end of the season whether Somerset would keep their top flight status, but now they need to take their game to the next level.

Thirdly, Dave Nosworthy being shrewd with his tinkering of the backroom staff. Andy Hurry has been pushed to one side and Dave has appointed specialist batting and bowling coaches who report directly to him. A more hands on approach perhaps? But he will have a lot more say this season over selection than last.

Lastly, Craig Kieswetter will have the gloves all season. There has been a lot of debate last year who was the better keeper, Craig or Jos Buttler, with both players sharing the responsibility. Completely unsatisfactory, Jos made a decision at the end of the season to go to Lancashire, which saddened many, but it now gives Somerset clarity about the wicketkeeping position – Alex Barrow might have a say in that!

With all this in mind, I have been trawling through bookmaker’s websites to see what prices Somerset are for the various competitions for the forthcoming season and they are good value. 9-1 for the County Championship, 15-2 for the 50 over competition and 10-1 for the T20. With this in mind along with my renewed optimism, my annual bet on Somerset to win all three will be placed with a bookie over the next week or so. Does anyone want to join in, if so, get in touch, the more the merrier, and I will let you know what type of bet I am doing.

So the lads have definitely got to walk the walk now!

5.27, enough of that, time for Thatchers and skittles.......!

Sellsy's Monday Supplement

A new look England fly out to the Caribbean this week in preparation for the World T20 cup, playing the West Indies in three ODI’s and then three T20 matches. Then they fly to Bangladesh for the tournament which begins in March.

I say new look, as there is of course no Kevin Pietersen, no Andy Flower (he did give up his involvement in the shorter version of the game sometime ago), but there is Paul Collingwood to assist Head Coach Ashley Giles.

Collingwood’s appointment is very good and very shrewd indeed, I suppose results will tell. He knows the players as he has played against the majority of them last season, he knows the England set up, and he, as he has shown with Durham last season, can get the best out players in the face of adversity.

It was 10 years ago that I visited the shores of the Caribbean to watch England play cricket, visiting various islands and meeting some wonderful people. First stop was Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, the home off Brian Lara. Boy do the locals love him.

I rolled up to the ground in the heart of the city on a beautiful hot morning, looking to some exciting calypso cricket. Found my seat, in some shade thankfully, the bar area was just behind me and the food just down a few steps on the next floor down. Heaven!

The West Indies won the toss, to the absolute joy of the locals, decided to bat, and that’s where it started to go wrong. As soon as the players walked out to the middle, the thunder and lightning started and one of the heaviest storms I have ever witnessed hammered down.

Within minutes the outfield was a lake, and when I peered over my shoulder to look outside the ground the streets were like rivers, with water just flowing down the roads. Wow! The rain relented after about 30 minutes, but by then the damage was done, there was absolutely no chance of play that day.

Instead of going back to the hotel, my travelling colleague, John Harlow (now where is he?), talked me in to going down town to have a few beers with the locals. Did I say earlier that Port of Spain was the home of a certain Brian Lara; well did those locals let us know that fact. Great banter, they always had the upper hand as Lara was the greatest batsman of his era, scoring 375 and 400 against England in recent years.

The Carib beer flowed, more talking rubbish about cricket, I even got on to the subject of Viv Richards, one of Somerset’s greatest players, but I suppose he was an Antiguan. A couple of pick-ups then appeared, one was full of steel drums and the other full of scantly dresses ladies. Well the steel band set itself up in the street just outside the bar, the music flowed and dancing in the street was unavoidable.

A enjoyment came to an end somewhat after a couple of hours and just when it was getting dark, when it whispered in our ear that we had better go back to our hotel. In asking why, the local who gave us a warning said there are some gang members on the way to the area looking to take out some revenge on white people. With that, no questions were asked, a taxi was hailed, we piled in and set off back to the hotel via a food shack.

When arriving back at the hotel, the Hilton no less where all the media boys were staying, I fell out of the taxi, clutching my bag of food, but ending up a heap on the floor. I looked around to see if anyone seen us, but in front of me was this figure, Ian Botham no less, he looked at me, smiled and just said: “looks as if you have had a good night!”

5.27, enough of that, time for Thatchers and skittles.......!

Sellsy's Monday Supplement

Somerset County Cricket Club recently reminded me that there is less than 70 days before the start of the cricket season, yes 70 days before the beautiful game returns. I am not counting down the days off course, but it will soon be cricket season and all the aspects which come with the game.

With all the recent rain and floods it does make you wonder if there is anywhere in the county where there is a dry bit of land and the forecast for this make is even less encouraging. I recently paid a visit to the Over Stowey ground, cog mire is the best I can describe it, will it be ready for May 3^rd?

Somerset’s ground is looking quite pristine, in fact better than most people’s lawns in the height of the summer. If you compare the County Ground to Worcester’s ground, well, you just have to feel for them, it looks like a lake. You just have to feel for them, in fact any club however large or small in the same predicament.

Somerset’s players are dotted all round the world, whether playing or training, getting ready for when battle commences. Craig Kieswetter and Alfonso Thomas have been competing in the Australian T20 competition; where Tomo’s side, The Perth Scorchers, went on to win the competition, with Tomo bagging a brace of wickets in the final – a sign of things to come?

Kiesy has put himself available for the IPL, and if selected will leave a bit of a gap in the Somerset’s batting line-up or perhaps a chance for someone else to make a name for himself. Peter Trego has been smashing the ball to all parts of New Zealand, playing for Central Districts in their domestic season.

More importantly is that Craig Overton is out in South Africa with the ECB Potential Emerging Player programme fast bowling group. I say more importantly as Craig missed most of last season through back injury. Along with his brother Jamie, these two can become an important part of Somerset’s attack this season.

The squad in general is back in training at Taunton, I even believe new signing Johann Myburgh has been with the squad since February. Nick Compton is also back from doing his charity work – I wonder how he feels about the state of the English cricket team, now there is a connection there somewhere between charity and the English cricket team, but can’t quite think of it at the moment.

Anyway, the long, hot, barmy summer of cricket is just around the corner, come on Somerset.

5.27, and I haven’t even mention Kevin Pietersen or Andy Flower, so it can’t be bad can it. Time for Thatchers and skittles.......!

Sellsy's Monday Supplement

For those who don’t read All Out Cricket magazine, you don’t know what you are missing – a quality magazine for cricket lovers like myself. In the latest edition something grabbed my attention and made me laugh out loud (lol!).

There’s a quite comprehensive section about performance, which includes things like skills (what?), fitness (no chance!), gear (I have a box!) and in particular nutrition. Apparently this will help amateur cricketers, like myself, fuel your match day performance! So let me talk you through it.

Breakfast: AOC’s nutritionist’s recommends things like omelette, scrambled egg or even a Greek yoghurt smoothie (a what?), something to do with protein. Now I can speak for the majority of Over Stowey CC, ok, the ones the go on tour, where a fry-up is the order of the day, which does include eggs, the fried type and plenty of carbohydrates like hash browns.

Nowadays, I still have my fried egg, usually stuck in a sandwich with bacon, and mushrooms, with loads of sauce, washed down with a gallon of tea. Now that’s the way to start a match day, surely?

Drinks Break: What follows breakfast, lunch of course, not a drinks break, I think the nutritionist is slowly getting out of touch with amateur cricket, especially village cricket. Lunch usually involves a couple of quick pints down the local, my type of drinks break, see if there is anything on the specials board which looks appetising, a bowl of chips usually suffices and straight to the match.

Now we can have our drinks break, so what did our expert come up with this time? Electrolyte tablets (something to do with sweating too much), skimmed milk, bananas and nuts! This is to do with maintaining energy levels during a long innings. Phil Rich, Stowey’s prolific batsman, during a lengthy innings needed a drink; he asked if someone could bring him out one, to his bemusement a glass of squash was working its way out to him. “Not one of those” he cried out, “go in my kit bag, I have a special can in there!” Out come a can of cider, he knocked in back in three gulps and went on to hit a ton!

Tea: Teas are the most important part about cricket and teas in the West Somerset League are absolutely marvellous, especially Wendy’s at Stowey. Full of cream cakes, scones, sponges, sandwiches, sausage rolls etc.

So what does our expert say (look away now please Wendy), low carbohydrate, high in protein type tea, which includes: chicken goujons, quinoa salad, carrot and celery sticks, yoghurts and a fruit salad. Enough to give me a nervous breakdown, or even contemplate retirement.

The afore mentioned Phil Rich and myself once had a scone eating contest when playing at Stogumber one barmy summers day. He managed to polish off about a dozen and then went out to score a hatful of runs – experts eh?

Post Match Drinks: Now a pint or two goes down quite well at Over Stowey after a hard day’s play, in fact it can be more than a couple of pints. Now our nutritionist is coming to his senses here a little as he mentions drinking gin or vodka with tonic, but this is instead of beer and cider which is calorie heavy, I don’t think so! At Stowey the shorts usually flow when spoofing start, however Bacardi and coke is the order of the day, except for yours truly who is a bit partial to a G&T.

Post Match Food: Again AOC’s finest is coming round, as he recommends a curry house! Now you are talking, but (there always is with an expert) avoid garlic naan and curries, go for a mixed grill with lots of meat – so what is the point of going for a curry?

As Over Stowey is about eight miles from any civilisation, if you can call Bridgwater civilised, a curry house is usually out of the question, unless someone decides to do a fish and chip run (curried chips). So a pasty or pie at the social club is high on the menu by the players.

Anyway, all this advice about performance isn’t exactly going to enhance mine, I don’t even warm up before play. Life in the cider tent sounds wonderful on match days instead of the worries of playing when selected.

5.27 time for skittles and Thatchers cider!