It's been a busy old time...

I think one of the beauties of being captain is you get to see how much work goes on behind the scene at your club. Take Chipstead for example....we've got a Twitter feed and a website and a committee dedicated to trying to rebuild our club house before May. It's currently going well and despite the ridiculous winter we're still near enough on track....

Its also quite a busy time for me too. This week amongst organising training, doing table plans and collecting money for our fund raising dinner I've been finalising the signing our overseas player for 2010.

We've signed a cracker too, a young prodigy by the name of Zac Elkin, no not the fella out of High School Musical but a run making machine who's currently captain of Western Province Under 19's

No doubt over the course of the coming months Zac's not only going to score a few runs but drink a few beers and bring some fresh energy to the club in it's 150th Anniversary. The Chipstead revolution marches on and I can't wait for summer.....

The first ball....

Facing the first ball is always a bit daunting. Suppose it's a beauty that starts on leg stump and hits the top of off? Suppose the angry opening bowler wants to maim you because you've been flirting with his wife on the boundary? Suppose you've been doing the Sunday crossword and you're too busy thinking about "4 across" you chase a wide one? Lets be honest, nobody looks cool with a golden duck!

Writing your first blog post is a pretty similar feeling. Suppose nobody reads it? Suppose they think its boring? Suppose you get loads of bad comments? In the back of your head all you want is a nice wide half volley to get you off this mark.....

In fear of doing a Luke Wright and being too expansive early on, I'll keep this fairly short and sweet and say welcome to my blog "On the sweep"!

My name is Nick Woods, I'm a former Lancashire scholarship player, Oxford University captain and British Universities representative and I've recently been appointed captain of Chipstead, Coulsdon and Old Walcountians Cricket Club in the heady heights of Surrey Championship Div 5. We're planning a revolution though and "On the sweep" will hopefully be an entertaining recollection of our season and adventures! I'll also be touching on wider news and more hard pressing issues such as Shahid Afridi's new diet and Stuart Broad's latest hair cut.

So dust off those whites, pull on the pads and get down the nets, summer is nearly upon us.

Woodsy