The first in a new series of articles by Club Coach Mat Freeman.
Monday
The time: Monday morning, 9am (well, 9:20 due to the Victoria line being faulty)…
The place: Rosaneri Coach & part-time office worker’s desk at work…
Still aching from the Games industry 5-a-side football competition on the preceding Friday your mild mannered club coach checks the contents of his work inbox, the prospect of two crunch Twenty/20 games for the Rosaneri in the week ahead very much at the forefront of his mind.
Amongst the work & the spam is a cricket clarion call…his other club, Enfield CC are short for players to play in the annual match against the Enfield Grammar ‘kids’ (although aged 18 the lot and probably mostly 1st XI players ‘kids’ is somewhat of a misnomer). Coach finds himself in a quandary, does he stay focused on the pre-existing matches or does he step into the breach for the love of the game and the chance to play more cricket?
He proceeds to weigh up the pros & cons, mostly consisting of how much 3 matches in 3 days is going to hurt come Friday evening; the prospect of wasting half days off work to the weather if there’s no play; & how to keep Mrs Coach sweet after being out 3 evenings in a row playing cricket considering he’s also out Sunday evening which she’s most likely forgotten!
Surely the sensible choice is to play it safe, maintain the status quo at home and not over commit, despite his newly rediscovered love of the game of his youth.
Then, some wise words from an old campaigner helps to cut through all the extraneous concerns; more cricket can only be a good thing, especially as he wasted enough of his cricketing career not playing at all for 6 years.
The decision is made, he plays; an afternoon off is secured and availability is confirmed to the captain.
Now the choice is made some secondary thoughts occur…The prospect of getting one over on the old school’s golden boys is quite an enticing prospect to Coach, being a perennial 2nd XI stalwart in his day. Also, with no time in the nets for 3 weeks the match practice could prove vital for Coach in light of the brace of Rosaneri revenge matches at the end of the week.
Coach, not always the most organised of people but one who does like to plan ahead notes down some purchases he regards as essential for the coming week:
- Deep Heat for the guaranteed aching muscles.
- Ibuprofen Gel for the hopefully minimal misfields & brutish lifting deliveries.
- Ralgex for the post match ice bath (a treatment new to Coach but one with much word of mouth recommendation).
- Lucozade energy tablets for that extra zing in the run up…by Friday they’d be needed.
- A bunch of flowers for the wife as a pre-emptive strike!
Coach ends Monday invigorated before the veritable feast of cricket to be played in the coming days, the only potential blot on the cricket shaped landscape being the dratted weather:
“Bloody Wimbledon making it rain, tennis should be banned” mumbles Coach as he drifts off to sleep.
Tuesday
The time: 9:00am (well, 9:25, defective trains today)
The place: Coach’s desk
Coach arrives at work frustrated and annoyed at another delayed commute to delightful south London…it’s nearly 9:30 and he’s not had chance to check the Rosaneri website for the latest match & team news!
Even before his first cuppa of the day (Coach is a big PG man, fact fans) the vagaries of the internet are negotiated and the familiar & friendly Rosaneri website homepage appears. Coach scans down for new content…3 articles, a bumper crop!
First up, alarming news regarding the premier fixture of the season; Coach casually curses the inventors of tennis, holding them solely to blame for the recent deluge.
“Its Gods way of telling the British they’re rubbish at it & shouldn’t bother.” he articulates to no-one in particular.
Reflexively he looks up the BBC 5 day forecast, it doesn’t make good reading, “No wonder the Aussies are better than us, they don’t have to practice in wellies & a raincoat!” he spits bitterly.
Coach turns his attention to the other news, the line ups for the next 3 matches.
His eyes scan down the teams and his heart warms, there he sees three winning sides, players full of grit & determination to put previous performances behind them with the right mental attitude to make it happen.
On further inspection he reads with interest the thought processes of the selection committee and marvels at the amount of thought they’ve put into their decisions. His thoughts turn to potentially having to fight for his own place in the team in seasons to come and grins at the prospect…who’d have thought it!
A fairly uneventful day ensues, punctuated only by rumbles of thunder as the work day comes to a close. Coach eyes the heavens balefully…he doesn’t have a coat.
As he crosses the road on the journey home he stares daggers at the idiots playing tennis outside Wimbledon Station in a pretence at promoting the silly game, “Tantamount to a rain dance!” Coach fumes as he descends to platform level dripping wet.