News from Chingford's Australian Correspondent
Chingford Fast Bowler, Ryan Harris spent the 2005/6 season in Australia, playing cricket and reminding his hosts which country holds the Ashes. (see Ryan in the Interview page)
Ryan agreed to give us regular reports of what he was up to both on and off the field. These reports were added throughout the winter;
17th March
Hello all!! My season here in Australia is now over!! Part of me is thankful as I have pretty much been playing cricket non stop for a year and to be honest I have struggled out here but another part of me is frustrated as I wish I could at least prove to the Aussies that the Poms can play!! Plenty has been said about me being a useless Pom etc this year! Since I last wrote I have particularly struggled with the bat! Mostly lapses in concentration have played there part but I have been out to some ridiculous catches!! I suppose learning to hit the ball on the floor more would help! Bowling has been steady but not really excellent! We made it to the semi finals of the competition after finishing 4th in the league format. We played the semi final last weekend, a two day game (saturday/sunday). We won the toss and batted first. This was the first time all season the opposition had bowled first. We got off to a good start with the openers getting 25 for 0 after 5 overs, but then the captain ran the other opener out and our heads dropped. After a succession of low scores I had a wait to bat, coming in at number 10. We lost wickets steadily throughout without anyone making any noticable contributions with the bat. I finally came in, and to say the opposition were fired up would be an understatement! The sledging was flying around, although its really not intelligent sledging, more like constant swearing to unsettle you! Not intelligent?! Could that be a way of summing the Australian nationals up!! Quite possibly! I had the ball thrown at me around 4 times, 3 times I was alert to it. Once I wasn't, got hit straight on the arm! That went down well! There was no way I was getting out after that! Played a few nice shots through mid wicket and straight but ran out of partners, finishing 16 not out. We only managed to get 136, not enough against the best batting side in the competition. We ended up getting them 5 down, being 30 for 5! How we let them off the hook! Poor captaincy and plenty of complacent performances! So that was the end of the season in Australia for me! I have no doubt I under performed out here which is incredibly disappointing. With only 1 noticable score to my name whilst out here and a 4 wicket haul just after xmas being the only real decent bowling performance, I will leave the shores disappointed with my season and myself for bad performances. Those times when things havn't gone to plan are very lonely as nobody really knows how to console me after such events. I have experienced something that I would recommend any young cricketer to try. I've had an excellent time in Australia and will hopefully do it again and do much better. Thank you for your time and I will see you all in the near future!
11th December
Hi! Me again! Unfortunately little cricket has been played since I last wrote, we have had a one dayer washed out, the 2nd dayer of a 2 dayer washed out and a 2 week by! But anyway I will get back to where I left off. We played another under 23s game but got beaten easily by a team from Sydney. We started off fairly well, the opening partnership going along steadily to 70 but then the first wicket fell and it had a domino affect on the rest of the side! We ended up getting bowled out for 121! Not good!! And rightly so we were told so by the coach! I got a 5th ball duck! Wasn’t a happy bunny! Got myself out playing a stupid shot of a medium pacer! Tried to smash him over midwicket! Not a good idea when we aren’t doing so well and need people to stay in! Anyway that was the end of our cup run after they got it 1 down! I wont go into my bowling figures, the numbers weren’t low we will put it that way! So then we went to the first half of a 2 dayer, I went in at number 9 after watching most of our top order get out to stupid shots. The number 10 batsmen and me put on 45 for the 10th wicket off around 20 overs! Then I got the 3-card trick, 2 short balls and a full pitched one. I could see it coming, I knew what was happening but still didn’t move my feet and got caught at mid on. Then Sunday came, played a rep game for the league we are playing in. I thought I was picked as a bowler! But soon realised the coach didn’t think that! I still batted only at number 7. We bowled first and got the other side out for 44! Batting started fairly poorly with the opening batsmen and the number 3 both getting ducks! The other opener then but on around 110, they both got out in quick succession. Then came the numbers 5 and 6, 6 got out cheaply so up stepped Harris to the plate! I realised that the number 5 was a brilliant batsmen so I just worked it around and made sure he got the strike. He ended up getting 57 off around 20 balls. I got 12 not out! Finally a not out, will this be the start of something! The next week was meant to be the second day of the 2 dayer I spoke of earlier but that got washed out! It’s strange because I came here thinking it got hot! Now we had a two-week by so apart from training there will be no cricket for me for a couple of weeks! I spent the 2 weekend off in the middle of nowhere in a house belonging to a friends sister! Certainly makes u appreciate life’s little luxuries! Next cricket match was today (Sunday), another rep game. Against one of the stronger sides in the competition! So I was told! We were soon 4 for around 40 when I went in at number 6. The opening bowlers still on and the ball still new, I don’t remember ever being in a situation like that since I was around 13! After leaving a surely record amount of balls I started to play some shots and feel confident. Me and the number 5 ended up putting on 99 for the 5th wicket before my batting partner was caught at mid on. Number 7 came in and went very quickly, then came number 8 the other player in the rep side from my club side. We ended up putting on 94 for the 7th wicket. We ended up getting I got a cheeky 92 not out! My happiest moment on Australian soil so far! Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t my most fluent of innings but they all count at the end of the day! We then bowled the other side out for 150. I bowled the last 4 overs at one end. Just about being able to run up! I've never been so exhausted with plenty of running whilst batting and the temperature bring around 35 degrees!! Anyway that’s all from me for this little passage! Hope everyone is well! Speak soon, Ryan
1st November
Been here for just over a month now and really enjoying myself. The weekdays are taken up by work and then either cricket training or coaching the under 16s, so I don't get much time to see much of Australia. The training is pretty relaxed with the Saturday side I play for but when I go to Stockton for the Under 23s training it is really intense and well organised. I really enjoy this, although they enjoy the short pitched bowling a lot more than I'd prefer! The fielding training is really good, I would say they take this more seriously than anything else and when the catches are hit, they really are hit! I had my first Under 23s game the other day, I bowled fairly well; 7 overs 2 for 21. I was really pleased with this as the standard is quite high, although we used a 2 piece kookaburra ball in this match and it swung so much so it made it hard work to bat against. I batted at number 8, getting caught at short leg off the glove for 5, first time I've ever been hit on the glove, I didnt realise cricket balls could bounce that high after 13 years at Chingford!! We ended up losing this match, a really bad batting display ended with us getting beaten by 94 runs! Saturday was a close game, it shouldn't have been, considering we were only chasing 131! We made hard work of it, we quickly became 10 for 2! with by far our best batsmen getting caught on 4. Then came the old head of the side who steered us to victory with a well dug out 42 not out, losing 8 wickets along the way, one of which was me, batting number 7 being convincingly bowled by a left arm quick. This week the side we are playing has a batsmen who Adam Gilchrist has written about as being the cleanest striker of the ball he has ever seen, won't be volunteering for any close catching positions this week then! I need to get some runs though as batting doesnt come that often with most matches being played over 2 days that are successive weeks! I am currently sorting out my travelling around Australia once I leave my job here in January, there is so much to see with so little money and not enough time! I am going to the Test against South Africa at the SCG so that should be good. I have arranged to stay out in the bush for 2 weeks in December so that should be interesting! Anyway guys I will be in touch soon with some more updates! I hope everyone is coping without me!! erm yeah because that would be hard! see ya...... Ryan!