The Return

Of what you ask?

Not football, chess, or any other such sport - it's time for the return of the greatest sport ever played - it's the rounders pre-season, back at last!

Yep, the second training (a.k.a. muckabout) session of the pre-season was tonight and we had a good old time. The weather just about held, quite grey as you can see here with the occasional burst of rain, but that just added to the fun - there's nothing quite so amazing as watching the power hitters (such as Ian, pictured here facing Woody's bowling skills) blast the ball into orbit, round first and then slide halfway into the outfield because they're running too fast to turn the corner!

It also means when diving in for a catch a good slide is actually useful as the proper timing can carry you to the spot faster - or beyond the spot while flailing wildly as I did a few times!

Batting tonight was not so good for me - my bruised thumb has been hurting since the first training session so I decided to switch hit and batted right-handed. This is great fun for everyone else as I look like just a bit of twerp batting that way - I have to pretend I'm throwing the bat at the ball to get the right action - it also means I have to hit at no-balls as proper ones aren't in my over the top arc!

Anyway, I'm hoping I won't feel the follow-up pain so much this week (less running, more sprawling will have helped) and that I'm getting back into better shape. There's a few more training sessions to go with my friends, then the opening game of the season at the start of May with Zoology (my team the past few years) taking on Cambridge Assessment (the guys I train with) - talk about divided loyalties!

And to make matters worse I've not heard back from Zoology about playing with them this year, a defection could be on the cards...