Time for a rest

Since I last played cricket a couple of weeks ago I have had a few days of complete rest which was very much needed because a lot of the niggling injuries that have built up have been getting on top of me so it was good for me to get away.

Last week I started back with Darren Veness doing two gym sessions per day for five days and now this week we are back working on our game and into the swing of things.

I have had a few hits in the nets this week and I have been very pleased with the way that I was striking the ball which is a good sign and put my mind at rest as to how I am now playing.

I was also pleased with the way the ball was coming out when I was bowling so it’s been a pretty productive time away for me and a good lead up to our return to championship cricket against Durham on Friday.

With 10 championship matches still to be played only six points separate the second team from the team which is third from the bottom of division one so it’s a pretty close thing and every game is going to be hard fought.

It’s been a while since we played a four- day game at Chester le Street because the last time we met it was at Stockton. The last time was probably soon after the Riverside wicket had just been laid and you could say that it was a little ‘fruity’.

Obviously the wicket has changed since those early days and we have played some one day games up there since and it is now a pretty good cricket wicket.

At the Riverside if the seamers put the ball in good areas early on it will help them, but the wicket also tends to spin after a couple of days so we should have an interesting game of cricket between two good teams.

Although we won’t have Andy Caddick back with us just yet there are several other bowlers waiting in the wings like Ben Phillips, Steffan Jones and Mark Turner as well as Pete Trego who missed out on the last championship match.

There are a lot of players who are waiting to come back into the reckoning and fight for his place.

I am sure that Durham will have a pretty tasty seam attack with the likes of Steve Harmison and Graham Onions but this is what first division cricket is all about- there are not many weak attacks at that level of the game.

This is a massive game I think because we know that the next three games after the break are going to decide whether or not we are going to be challenging for the title or just a middle of the table team.
We need to put in a couple of big performances and let other teams know that we are in the first division to stay by getting the results to prove it and I know that we are all certainly well up for it.