First BUSA game of the new season, against Writtle College… was horrible, was wet, and we ended up playing at a Brighton council ground. Anyway we won… I scored 25 runs, my highest score since moving ‘darn sarf’, didn’t get any wickets sadly, but good to get back to playing some cricket!

Sad news though, my trusty Hunts County bat broke, cracked all the way through, was gutted! But it’s a good excuse to go down to Newbery and get a new one!

Popped down to catch some of the cricket today - revision break. Actually I’m on an exam at the moment, a 3 day take-away paper, it’s going suprisingly well. Anyway, sadly Sussex lost by just less than 20 runs. On the plus side, I got myself a picture with two legends, mainly for the benefit of some Strictly Come Dancing fans…

There you go, me and the dancing legend Mark Ramprakash. He scored 142* and got the MotM award. I think the dancing must have helped his cricket, apparently he’s now 37, so no chance of an England recall. There’s also a picture of me and Mr. Michael Atherton on Facebook, but I haven’t put it here because he was in a mood and didn’t smile. Oh well, back to the Principles of Programming Languages - joy!

I thought it was time to get myself some new wheels. After years of struggling round with my big cricket bag over my shoulder, probably giving myself serious spine damage, I’ve invested in some wheels so I can be like lazy people at the airport. Hoorah!

Played cricket again today, slightly more sucessfully than last time. Went up to play Kingston University, which was quite nice as grounds go despite the abysmal standard of the teas, which is the standard by which any cricket club is to be judged. Anyway I opened the bowling (yes for those of you who played with me at Dean, I am now opening the bowling for Sussex 1sts - hmmm), 9 overs, 2 wickets for 20 - a couple more wickets would have been nice. So me and Jo Harman had them 40-4, then the pie chuckers came on, anyway the end result was them finishing on 187-9…. hmmm…

Batting usually doesn’t require my involvment, though I did get 0 not out. We got to 190 on the first ball of the last over. The previous over I got called a cheat, which I was suprised at how much that offended me - I didn’t hit it, so I didn’t walk. However, the previous game I did walk (the umpire wasn’t going to give it either), which is causing something of a crisis of conscience… what happens if me walking causes the team to loose? Why should I walk when others don’t, especially people I’m bowling at?! I’m sure there must be something biblical that can be applied to this situation (do not lie?) but I can’t be bothered to consider this too deeply right now… I feel bad when I lie/cheat, so I think when I know I’m out, I’m going to walk!

On the way back we stopped off in Horsham, lots of rich people live here. Anyway, we went for food and drink at the Weatherspoon… but being Horsham, it’s not your typical Spoons; it’s non-smoking, no loud music, no chavs or scallies, no middle-aged alcoholic men, I could see the carpet and it was clean, I didn’t feel out of place in a shirt and tie. Loving my purple shirt and tie…

Cricket season started proper today, after 5 months of nets previously. Played a 40-over friendly against Oxford Brookes. Sussex batted first, scoring 146 runs - I managed to contribute a nice round figure to this total! Opened the bowling, didn’t get any wickets, then the spinners came on and cleaned up - took a catch though. Brookes were 138 all-out with a couple of overs left.

Would be nice to see England win a game of cricket…