Not everything at the sessions goes quite as planned, here is a collection of the fluffs, bungles and trips from the last few sessions. Have a laugh and enjoy Christmas, see you all on 3rd January 2010 for more cricket!

Just a quick note to let you all know that at the session tomorrow we will be helping santa out by offering the Grasshoppers Training Shirts for £10.00 (reduced from £15.00). We have a few of each size available and will keep a few other stocking fillers in the van if there is anything needed to put under the tree!

Cya tomorrow morning!

Last weekend we covered seam bowling. See below for the video of the session so that you can see how well those who demonstrated did. If you haven’t been on Grasshoppers.TV yet then make sure you put your hand up to show everyone how good you are when you get the chance! So – things to remember from the seam bowling session; keep your head level at all times and don’t fall away at the end of your action, grip the ball correctly as we showed you, keep your bowling arm straight at all times – otherwise you might throw it rather than bowl it. Finally – bowl every ball at the stumps and give yourself the best chance to take a wicket, if the batsman misses then you will hit the stumps!

Don’t forget there is no session this weekend (15th November) , the next session is on the 22nd November. See you then!

Check out our new Youtube Channel – Grasshoppers.TV!

Just to remind everyone (although we are sure you already know) that the clocks are changing this weekend. Please don’t turn up to Grasshoppers an hour early … we won’t be there! Also – just to be absolutely clear we are running sessions every other weekend, not every weekend. Thanks!

Hope everyone who made it along to the session enjoyed themselves and even learned a thing or two! Don’t forget that as Nigel always says “The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement!”. This is certainly the case when it comes to cricket, and the winter is a great time to be breaking down your game into the basic skills and getting some extra practice in. This week we looked at batting, and in particular one of the most important shots in cricket – the straight drive. This can easily be practised with a soft ball and a tee as the most important thing is the footwork and position of your head. Remember what we showed you and aim to practice before the next session.

Next week we are going to introduce a new element to the blog – example videos starring the Grasshoppers themselves! Those who do well will be asked to demonstrate their skills for the camera and the videos will be shown right here on the blog. The idea is that if you forget – or want to carry on learning at home and need some help, you can check the videos to see how you are getting along. If you want to be included for the videos then please ask your parents in advance if it is OK for you to be on the blog.

The next session is going to focus on bowling! We look forward to seeing you there – please don’t forget that the session times switch this week so if you were at 9am last time you will be at 10.30am this time and vice versa. See you there!

Due to the excellent response we had for the indoor net sessions, coupled with the fact that demand for the younger group was very small when compared to the older session we have made a few changes to the plan for the indoor sessions. These are detailed below – please read through the information carefully.

1. Instead of having a younger and older group we will be running the same session for both groups at the same level. Any of the younger players having trouble keeping up will be supported by the coaches to ensure they don’t miss out on anything.
2. The groups have been selected based on nothing more scientific than by putting siblings in the same group as well as trying to keep together anyone who normally travels together. Please let us know if we have forgotten to pair anyone that we should have done – but please try and stick to the groups for the first week. We will review any change requests after the session.
3. Each week the two groups will rotate time slots. So for session 1 if you are in group A you will be starting at 9am, but will start at 10.30am for week 2. Group B will start at 10.30am on the first week, but at the 2nd session will start at 9am … and so on. Apologies to those of you who thought you would be getting a late start every week – this was the only way we could think of making it fair.

Here are the groups we will be starting with:

Group A – Week 1 – 9.00am Forest School 11th October

Victoria Quilter
Beth Quilter
Jenny Leigh
Amy Leigh
Megan Stevens
Nathan Hawkins
Lucas Rendall
Dominic Hawkins
Harry Kent
Jack Kent
Harry Austin
Charlie Austin
Brennan Denhart
Jacob Denhart
Ben Stevens
Aaron Ruben
Jamie Miller + Guest

Group B – Week 1 – 10.30am Forest School 11th October

Daisy Beddall
Evie Spreadbury
Connie Lewis
Tara Norris
Cameron Gourley
Adam Hall
Matthew Weller
James Bunch
Ethan Davis
Stanley Forrest
Jake Burns
Ben Moss
Louis Batten
Mattie Owen
Jordan Crow
Toby Edwards
Rowan Bridle
Tyler Shoare

Please get in touch either by replying to this email or by calling Nigel on 07712887337 or Jon on 07540854000. Don’t block your number because chances are we will have to call you back and if you do – we wont know who it is!

Thanks for taking the time to read the above essay – see you on Sunday 11th October for the first session!

Summer is gone – it is nearly October and the outdoor sessions are done. Indoor sessions start soon so if you havent booked your place then get in touch ASAP as we only have a few places remaining. See you all on the benches at Forest!