Well, I started out on writing a blog post the other day but didn't finish it off...hence it wasn't posted. Then some things happened...so I figure I may as well just tell the world what's going on. I'll put the other entry up in the next day or two.
If you don't have Twitter and follow me on there or haven't listened to this week's podcast, I had a rather interesting Friday night. Friday evenings are now cricket training up at THCC, which is great. I can leave work early on a Friday afternoon with a good excuse and get the train to the other side of Hamburg for a couple of hours of practice in the nets and on the field.
So that was fine. I loosened up as always and started sending down my medium pace deliveries when required. A couple were all over the place, but the majority of them were at a decent length considering I haven't bowled outside since last August. Maybe 25 minutes in, I get told to pad up and duly do so. I always imagine that going in to bat is a bit like being sent over the top, except without machine guns and barbed wire. So really, it's nothing like going over the top...it's just having to defend my wicket while getting peppered with a variety of deliveries from the people bowling. Some clearly wanted to take my head off (despite the fact I don't wear a helmet, which I don't really think is on) and others were balls that I could play with relative comfort. I'm not the greatest batsman by any stretch of the imagination, so I tend to leave any balls that are going past leg stump unless I fancy having a bit of a slog. Great at a forward defensive though. ;)
I managed to escape batting relatively unscathed, just a massive bruise from where two consecutive balls from the same bowler came up and struck me which REALLY hurt. I should probably wear a thighpad in future to at least cushion the blow... Then I went off to do some fielding practice.
We get to the last 15 minutes or so and start to practice high catches...ball gets slogged into the air and I have to try and take the catch. So one gets sent up and it's not got a huge amount of distance, so I run in to take it. As I do, I slip over on some grass, fall backwards and give my head a good whack.
From that, things get a bit hazy. I remember pain and I remember everyone standing over me checking if I'm ok. Being the idiot that I am, I tried to stand up fairly quickly...which didn't go too well. Took a few minutes to compose myself and then moved to the edge of the field to continue lying down and gathering what senses I had. By which point, my head is throbbing, I feel a teensy bit sick and the world seems like it's got one of those stupid Instagram filters on it.
Ohh, what an idiot I am. Massive thanks to Steve for keeping an eye on me for the next few hours to make sure I didn't drop or have some sort of bizarre after-effects that I wasn't expecting. For those who know me, I've picked up a couple of head injuries in the past from things like this so I'm vaguely aware of what to expect. Maybe I shouldn't have done a podcast this week because listening back, I sound completely out of it...but I knew I needed to record the intro and finish some things off with it.
As things stand, my head isn't as fuzzy as it has been but I still have a headache. My neck and back are both sore so sitting down isn't too fun, lying down isn't fantastic either which leaves me with the option of spending my day standing or having a bit of nagging pain. Just like the last time I banged my head and knocked myself for six, I'm trying to sleep it off. I slept for a couple of hours yesterday and I've had a couple of hours today too.
Things could be a lot worse though. So let's keep some perspective on things.
