Bowling Machine Revived & Sidhu The Cab Driver

Unfortunately with the turf on the second oval at the Planet not being as advanced due to a lack of much needed sunlight in recent times, planned practice match against Oakleigh was shelved. The players involved were given the chance to have a condensed session where again we took the opportunity of hitting as many balls as possible.

Bowling Machine was exhumed from the locked, hidden cupboard and kicked into action immediately upon connecting to mains power. Some minor love is needed but it did appreciate the chance to come out of the closet, even with dark clouds overhead. Chairman Tim in full control early doors, mentally checking on the required maintenance and access needed to have this in regular use.

Son of Chairman was the recipient of a significant number of balls from the machine (350 is a number heard) and it must have been during this period of discovering his flow that he was able to reflect upon knowledge from last season in recalling the story about Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered from lock-in syndrome (paralysyis) but was able to write a book through the blinking of his left eye - The Diving Bell &The Butterfly. It is in these moments that pleasure is gained from the evidence that some are accepting influence and retaining.

Response, balance and throwing accuracy drills completed on a damp surface - "all get padded up" - the call that players just love to hear.

For the next hour the group was able to work through drills that contained a series of combinations with short ball at body, feet to spin through off and front foot placement. By the end, each of the Lions had another hundred plus balls invested in skill development. Not quite as valuable as match practice but still very useful. Baxter and ex-Demon, Barry demonstrating a high quality of skill in handling the short ball with quality striking power.

Driving away from the session as Motschall and Kimberley remained for extra bowling, calls made to Phil for progress report from the match at Templestowe with no joy in connecting, messages left.

As the "domestic selector" was checking features on the new phone, she accidentally called Phil yet again and a voice answered that definitely did not sound like the returned Lion. After a brief moment of awkward introduction that went like;

"Who are you?" - "No, who are you?" - "Where is Phil?" - "Who is Phil?" (Please insert sub continental accent where appropriate).

Sidhu the cab driver from Mulgrave clarified the confusion by informing that the phone had been accidentally left in his cab the previous evening and the battery was running low. Required details were then swapped and information passed to Phil by email and carrier pigeon to finalise the reclaim process.