Irvine Willows

It was quite nice outside this past Sunday, wasn’t chilly at all, in fact quite pleasant. Sitting in a shade though you longed for the warmth of the sun. In a word it was perfect for a game of cricket. Ram repeated his feat of being the first one on the ground, he was there at 6:50 AM. He was followed by Chandru who got there at 7:05 and then the rest followed (I am not sure if somebody else was there before Chandru or along with him). By 7:20 our entire team had congregated (quite impressive) on the ground. The other team (OC Stars) was not in sight, they started arriving after about 10 minutes and one phone call. We then took a few minutes to decide the actual playing ground and finally settled on an soccer like field (not a baseball diamond) with a decent flat surface in the middle. (Being at this ground you could not help but appreciate service provided by the city of Irvine, the way they maintain the grounds … outstanding job … hats off them … of course its our tax dollars/ren...

I could hardly sleep the previous night thinking what would happen the next day. One match ago I wasn't so nervous, we had beaten Woodbury East team 3 times in a row and were going in as the favorites. But the last match turned things around for us a bit, where we just barely crossed the halfway mark. We had a middle order collapse. If we were to play on the same pitch as last time, we could have a very tough match on our hands. But if we played on our ground with the red ball then we had a good chance to regain lost glory. With all this in mind and butterflies in my stomach I somehow managed to catch a wink. Few hours later when the alarm sounded I was so drowsy I snoozed and then woke up and immediately jumped out bed ... it was 6:18 AM … I was supposed to be in the car 5 minutes ago! The only thing that kept me from running over myself was the fact that it was still kind of dark outside. It was quite chilly when I finally reached the ground. The other team members were just wa...

It was a rather pleasant day with the folks who had signed up showing for the game. We had 11 players which ensured a decent game. Despite being booted mid-way through the first innings of the first match the team made the most of it by moving to Jeffery Trail Middle School’s ground. This also ensured a good practice session lest we play here this coming Sunday. The is literally a minefield where the odd ball was coming onto the bat and most of them were either staying low and coming on a bit slowly or rising viciously or speeding past the batsman, the wicket-keeper and the hapless fielder in the slips. None-the less it was entertaining and while one of team failed miserably the other showed great character. We had a slight mishap which by its very nature can be very very painful and at the same time provide for some laughs (especially to the non-sufferers) with the lone sufferer being butt of jokes. Team A: Siddharth, Rajesh, Senthil, Pankaj and Abhijeet Team B: Venki, Gour, Amit, ...

The wind advisory was in effect this weekend too, but mother nature granted us a reprieve and we were saved from enduring yet another breezy Sunday, where couple of weeks ago we had to turn just to hear what others were saying (I am not kidding, that’s how bad it was two Sundays ago (12/29). We lost count of how many times we had to prop up the stumps and literally had to stop a few times to let a stronger wind gust pass through). But on the flip side that was when we stumbled upon our new venue, which was  kind of hiding in plain sight. After couple of unsuccessful trips we finally arrived at our new home, the baseball ground in Cypress Village. It is kind of perfect for us, we can play on either side and if we move the stumps a bit forward can even attempt to hook behind the wickets. The surface is hard which is kind of a treat for fast bowlers. Let’s see how things unfold in the coming weeks. We had a decent turnout this past Sunday and save for couple of players we played to ne...