Cricket 1

I was a bit of a cricketer once.  I could bat, bowl or field but my forte was batting.
The trouble was, I was really slow to score.  I was once congratulated on reaching my 50, but when we went in I was still forty something.  There was a fast bowler who had a real reputation, that after an over verbally exclaimed (which was not done) the trouble he was having getting me out.  I was good at stonewalling but the runs came painfully slowly.  People could grow visibly older between runs when I batted.  I guess that is why I was an opener.  Bore the other team out of the match.
We had a social team.  We had all the gear.  Bats, pads, gloves, pitch covering, balls and wickets.  It was all in a box that two of us would get from my car, when we played or practiced.  That gear was borrowed from us. 
Whenever we would need to, we would buy a new Kookaburra ball, for the game.  I must have grown soft in my old age, as I find those balls really hard these days.  I just do not want to catch them, even when they are just going back to the bowler.
We would practice once a week.  We had one fast bowler that played high level grade cricket.  Facing him in the nets was scary.  He did not seem though, to unleash what he was capable of with us.  That seemed to change though, when he was put away a couple of times.
I remember someone describing to others his experience when he joined us for a game.  Fair dinkum he made it sound like an enjoyable but horrendous experience as he faced the bowler.  From where I was standing it was not horrendous, but then I was used to it.
We were inclusive before being inclusive was “in.”  For one game we had a scorer who could not join us on the pitch, but he was real good at scoring.  Confidence in someone is real important.  When we graduated (I use the term incredibly loosely) to under the house cricket with a ping pong ball, one guy who had polio would use a tennis racket for a bat. We had a bed strategically placed in case he went down.  That only happened once.
I regretted having one umpire who could hardly see.  I saw batsman trot off who had been given out lbw, and who were clearly not out.  We all accepted that the umpire’s decision was final, but with him the cost was huge.  I quickly learned, all we had to do was appeal loud enough, and the batsman was invariably given out.
If I was out in the field I was ok most of the time.  I remember one guy skying a ball that went so high, civilizations could be born, live and die in the time it was in the air.  Ok that might be an exaggeration, but it was in the air a long time.  My job was to catch it. I could make the simple, not just hard but seemingly impossible.  I dropped it. One of our players described the confidence he felt when the ball was coming to me.  On this occasion, I never shared that confidence.
We had a good team, and we often won, but not all the time.  To me, even keeps it interesting.