Welcome!

For you all to follow along at home as I step into the giant cricketing world of Australia.  While I’m here, I’ll be playing with a club called Northern Districts, based at Waitara Oval in Hornsby (north Sydney).  Practices with men and women three times a week, games both weekend days, and as much cricket on tv and in the media and culture around me as I could ever imagine.  I’m looking forward to filling the rest of the time exploring all the outdoors, the wildlife, the culture, that Sydney and surrounding area has to offer.

This blog is for all my friends and family.

In particular, my hope is that through this blog, my teammates and I will be able to share together in these cricketing experiences down under, and that we all might learn a little something about cricket or about our teammates, or ourselves in the process.

Feel free to comment (discussion-provoking comments especially encouraged), or email me, or simply read a post or two every now and then!

Cheers, Mate!

This Blog is Retired

Just a bit of housekeeping: my cricket adventures for 2010 down-under are complete. I am leaving the blog up here for a while, just in case anyone lands upon this link, via the Cricket Canada website or elsewhere. I certainly am having flash backs lately, of warm sandy beaches, and hot sweaty cricket fields, as it is coming up to one year all ready since I departed for Australia.

Day 1 and 2 of Training Camp

Day 1: Fitness Test conquered. First fielding session all together as a team. Only 1 broken finger (mine. right-hand pinky. dang). Day 2: More fitness work, lunges, sprinting, ladders, oh my! Followed by an afternoon of throwing, batting and bowling.  And might I say, Team Canada is looking damn sharp! This time next week, we’ll be 1 for 1 on our way to showing the states who’s the best! I can’t wait!

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Come watch!

Canada versus USA. Winner goes to the World Cup Qualifying Event. This is a big deal!

Game 1: Tuesday July 13, 2010 (50 overs)

Game 2: Wednesday July 14, 2010 (50 overs)

Game 3: Friday July 16, 2010 (50 overs)

(Thursday July 15 will be a rest day, or make-up-for-rain day)

Winner of the 3 50-over game series takes the cake.

There will also be two T20 games on Saturday, July 17, 2010, for development purposes, and gain match experience while we have the opportunity.

Games are taking place at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club in King City, Toronto, Canada. Fans and spectators welcome! Bring your Canada flags!

Stay tuned to this blog, as I will be updating while on tour (1 week training camp prior to tournament, and 1 week of tournament).

It’s time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gib-7_iKsk0

Beach Day!

Just a quick-one, as I only have eight-minutes before my time in the internet cafe runs out. A splash from today! Pancake breakfast, with Canadian maple syrup, and good friends. Followed by some excellent, very salty, very wavy times at the beach.

More pictures to come..

Cheers!

-Meara

Game Today

Last game in the regular series today, against Team Gordon (different from Flash Gordon), before the semi and grand finals the next two weeks.  Unfortunately, didn’t come out with a win, but we put in a good effort all round.  They posted 203 runs. We fell short with only 150-some-odd runs. On the good side of things, a personal best batting, putting up 15 runs, including 2 fours, before scooping it straight into mid-on’s hands. Well, definately getting closer to my goal of 30 runs in a game.. David is doing a good job of convincing me to pop that goal up to 50 runs.. which I think we just might have see happen in the semis     Bowling wasn’t too shabby. One wicket – beautiful catch Claire! Thanks! And I bowled seven overs straight with only one no-ball warning!

Looking forward to next weekend when we face the same team again in the semi-finals. It’s going to be a great game!

Five-fer!

I’m glad the weather decided to clear for this game last Saturday. It turned out to be my best game, bowling stats-wise. I took five wickets, in 6 overs, with only 9 nine runs scored off my bowling. One clean bowled, one caught behind by the wicket keeper, and three beautiful catches! Thanks guys!!
A bit of a mini-realization during this game too. I realized that I’ve reached a point where I can now go into a game feeling relaxed and confident. I can maintain this sense of calm throughout the game (while fielding anyways.. still have a bit to go feeling totally calm while batting. Hehe), enabling me to better focus on and execute specific tasks at hand, like line and length, or fielding the ball. Excitment to play is replacing nervousness. This is one of the reasons I came to Australia, as this game relaxation is something that can only come from real-life frequent game experience, something that is tough to get in Canada. I’m satisfied to realize I’ve started to acheive this, and am looking forward to seeing if this feeling sticks for this weekend’s upcoming games. Hopefully this rain runs away by then

A couple of new photos

Some clicks from recent events now posted on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/mearacrawford/sets

Second Grade Game at the Glen McGrath Oval

 

Two weekends ago was my first game in second grades. Longer games, 50 overs instead of 40 overs, from what I’d been playing up till now, and tougher competition. And, I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but the weather seemd a LOT hotter in second grade too! My bowling felt a little wonky, but I got to experience they joys of the shwicket! I.e. getting batters out of my bowling, on balls than were less than perfect, and probably should have been smashed for fours and sixes. I got two of these, one was a short ball caught, and the second was another stupidly short ball that she played, but the ball then bounced inwards and back onto the wicket. Not pretty, but I’ll take it  

Don – as requested.. some pictures of my “scary” bowling from that game! Photos courtesy of David Turik… thanks again!

Updated dive pictures

Ok, so I have been advised by a trusted reader, that my previous dive pictures were a little too small. I’ve reposted a slightly bigger version, and also conquered how to organize my photos on flickr with “sets”. So, you can now check out the new, slightly bigger versions at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mearacrawford/sets/72157623168847075/with/4308793936/.