Aberdeenshire batsman, Kenny Reid, has just hit an unbeaten 50 in his Australian club�s latest victory. Here, Kenny shares his thoughts about his trIp Down Under.

Having left home at 3.30am on Thursday 27th September I eventually made it onto Australian soil at 11pm local time on Friday 28th, in Melbourne. So after 34-and-a-half hours of travelling via Schiphol, Amsterdam and then Guangzhou in China, I had made it and was pretty much ready for bed. I stayed in 3 different houses in the first week with the last place being my final resting stop, hopefully for the whole time I am here.

I first met the boys at my club on the Tuesday night and they were all friendly and welcomed me to the club, Melbourne and Australia. After spending a lot of time with the club captain/coach during the first week I soon found out what his aims and ambitions were and what he was looking for from the team during the season.

My first game was on my second Saturday in the country and was a one-day match away against a club called Bulleen, whom Paul Collingwood and Phil Mustard, had both previously played for. Unfortunately the game did not go well right from the start.

During the warm up we were doing some throw downs and the guy working with me managed to throw a neck high full toss that I only managed to top edge onto my lip, which immediately burst spraying blood everywhere and was soon swollen up like a balloon. So having self-administered some First Aid of ice and compression, I was told that we were batting and that I was batting at 4. This came sooner rather than later with us losing a wicket to the 2nd ball of the day and then the first ball of the 2nd over.

I got in and made 9, but unfortunately, or fortunately for our team, the rain which was drizzling throughout our innings eventually got too heavy and we came off with the score 18-4 after 8 overs. So after waiting around a while it was time for me to head off to the doctor to get my lip stitched up.

Our second game was another one-day game away at St Barnabas, and with rain Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we turned up to find a soft green deck unfortunately we got beat, being unable to chase 188 in 40 overs falling 46 short, unfortunately I didn�t make any.

Our third game was the start of the weird league structure where we play over two weekends with 80 overs being played each weekend, I find this very strange as conditions can change and be completely different one week to the next and this was the case in this game where Canterbury managed to rack up 331-9 in the first week off 80 overs and then we were 186 all out on a green top where the ball was doing everything under the sun in the second week. I managed to make 5 before getting a jaffa that hit the top of off stump.

I will remember this game more for me showing off my groundsman skills, having spent the summer working at Mannofield with Ken McCurdie. We turned up to play with the pitch seemingly marked too long, so we got the tape measure out and the pitch had been marked 8 feet 3 inches too long. So with no groundsman around on the Saturday, it came down to me to remark a crease, using a fence panel as the straight line and some hastily bought white spray paint.

After the second day of that game, the rained off game against Bulleen was replayed and with being in a strong position of 51-1 after 15 overs we were 68-3 in the 25th over when I went in to bat. I made a brief 22 and was caught behind on the first ball of the 34th over trying to increase the run rate, with the score on 102-5 we were then 109 all out in the last of the 40 overs. So much work to be done on batting the overs and rotating strike.

We have just finished the fourth game, having restricted Richmond City to 212 all out in the 80th over, and I am pleased to report that I helped our side to a five-wicker victory with an unbeaten half-century, which made me feel pretty positive.

This happened after a good training session last Tuesday, which was partly due to Melbourne Cup day and partly the consequence the pyrotechnics of the sky, with a very impressive thunderstorm.

So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself in what is claimed to be the best city in the world, with some visits to watch some Sheffield Shield cricket at the MCG, between Victoria and Tasmania, mainly to watch Ricky Ponting bat, and some visits down to St Kilda beach.

The club has also found me a job coaching at a local private school called Xavier College, where I am doing 2 afternoons a week. I am loving the fact I have pretty much been involved in cricket since the start of the year, and this may be as close to a professional�s lifestyle as I will get so I am making the most of it and trying to hit as many balls as I can and keep improving my game, which has been an on-going process with Neil Macrae (Macca) for the last 4/5 years.

The only frustrating part of being here so far has been the amount of rain we have had, after the summer back home where we only played 11 out of 22 weeks I had genuinely thought I had left that rainy weather behind.

The club have also been trying to source some other work just to try keep me a little busier as well as provide enough cash to live off whilst out here, and seem to possibly found me a couple of days a week working for a local window cleaning company, with some of the boys even suggesting that working with the water and Marigolds will help soften my hard hands when I keep wicket!