The rallying call earlier in the week definitely worked as 9 of the 11 contracts turned up to nets in a Russian military style show of strength. 

Banter was electric and a great night was had by all. The batting looked particularly good throughout and there were very notable performances from Tony and Shell.                                          

The “One life strategy” experiment went well again as batting looked focussed and nobody fell foul to an early walk back to the changing area. Some batsmen played it safe and opted for the guaranteed time slot which gave a nice mix to proceedings. 

It was great to see so many contracted players at nets, but now I suppose the rallying call has to go out to the ad hoc guys. The only ad hoc chap to turn up was Big Mike Freeman, who incidentally is always there. 

Again it must be stressed that nets are not compulsory, but the selectors need to get a handle on who is up for the coming season. If you genuinely can’t make nets, try and do something else during the week to help you have a better season. 

Maybe read about cricket technique, maybe go for a run to get fitter, or perhaps watch some cricket coverage on Sky and absorb what you are seeing. We can all do a little bit more, so let’s march forward with collective improvement as our goal.