More cricket gear buying today, as I looked to take advantage of End Of Season Sales.
Risky – cos I’ve had a spectacularly bad record with kit buying this year and the place I went (Globe Sports) has some Very Expensive Bats that are incredibly tempting.
Two (ok, three) bits of kit walked out of the shop : Knee pads and a new bag. I wear knee pads not so much because I expect ligaments or tendons to go BOOM, they’re more there for impact protection. My knees used to be weak but appear to have somewhat caught up with my leg muscles now.
I figure, I’m a fairly average sized fella, so I choose “Medium” thinking they’ll have enough stretch to fit without slipping annoyingly. Medium works out to 13-15″. I get them home and attempt to try them on. Huge feelings of deja vu erupt as my mind goes back to the whites I bought to save me doing the washing. That time, 30″ waist whites did actually go on, these knee pads didn’t even go over my calves. I measured the circumferences as 17.5″ calf muscles and 17″ knees. Big Calves = Very Fast Sleepy.
Oh well. Back to Globe tomorrow and the torture of seeing that Salix Daemon bat on the shelf.
What else did I get ? A cricket bat is a fairly specialised beastie, even though I’m fairly light on gear I’m still looking to drag along the following to a game :
Helmet
Batting pads
Batting gloves (only one pair, some have many)
Bat
Fielding spikes (I wear flat shoes for batting due to shuffling)
Sleevy jumper (which may be older than me)
Non sleevy jumper (20 years old)
Bat hammer + bat repair tape
Box
Shin pads (not that I ever wear them)
Spare hat + cap (don’t wear these now either)
Drink bottles + occasional munchies
(there’s a picture or two in this linked earlier post)
That’s quite a bit of gear to carry around, most of it is awkwardly shaped too. A bat is 38 inches long and 4.25 inches wide, which can be a pain to fit in the boot of some cars (Puma struggled), let alone fit in a normal holdall.
The new bag is a Gray Nicolls Atomic bag, which holds the bat in an outside pocket. Everything else goes inside, even the helmet. That’s a first for me, since getting it the helmet has lived outside the bag. This should be better if I’m caught out in the field while it rains. My rainhat lives outside the bag, if it goes inside it’ll get the brim squished.
There’s a few things in there that I don’t use but I take ’em along out of habit. I still have the hat I was wearing when I got whacked on the nose (and it still has the occasional blood splat). I don’t wear it but it’s a good reminder.
So – taking advantage of cheaper prices but still keeping the moderation to stop me buying a new bat or new spikes. My current fielding spikes are falling to bits like my old bag. The retired bag served me well, I’ve had it since I started playing cricket 20 years ago and it has survived everything. Including things like a coke can (I’ve learned Coke + Sport = BAD) exploding inside it. Old bag was starting to fall apart at the seams though. There’s only so much jerky pickup of heavy stuff a bag can take before the fabric splits.
Oh yeah – the new bag has wheels …
PS Pakistan betting scandal is getting to be tedious old news. Want it gone, bored of it.