Hello again from Sydney, in this diary I will include my festive period activities and unfortunately rain, rain and more rain, with a few games of cricket in between and during the rain too!

Over the Christmas break I went out to stay in Penrith for a while as I had managed to get two weeks off work. Youngie and I had been invited to spend Christmas with Tim Mackay's family. So on Boxing Day, we spent most of the morning relaxing in the pool and playing back yard cricket, on the pitch which had been mown by Tim's dad. Although we did have a delay in the middle of the game as Youngie went for a direct hit run out and managed to smash his bottle of beer which he thought would be safe next to the stumps. After the cricket we had a meal and spent the evening chatting.

Christmas day saw Youngie and I meet up with the Mackay's and head to their family for Christmas lunch. Again sport was high on the agenda there and we played some more back yard cricket before eating. Then after dinner we played some volleyball, Youngie and I pulled our team through as we dominated. It was an enjoyable Christmas and was looking forward to the New Year celebrations at Sydney Harbour. But first was the Boxing Day test match party that Youngie's flat mate holds every year, where we managed to fit about 15 of us into a kids paddling pool on the back porch! I stayed with Youngie and I think we managed to squeeze in a game of golf two just by ourselves this time. It was another poor day with the clubs for Youngie, but I won’t go into the score! Youngie then came back with me on the 31st to partake in the New Year Celebrations. We arrived at Kirribilli and it was unbelievable how many people were around, there were 15-20 minute queues for the bottle shop and all the take away shops which we had to wait in. We spent the evening in my flat as the neighbours were having a party, and then went down under the Harbour Bridge for the fireworks at midnight. It was an amazing evening and much better than it looks on TV!

With the New Year celebrations over, next on the agenda was to go to the SCG to watch the test between Australia and India. It was a great day as there was plenty of wickets and runs and we got to witness Andrew Symonds score a hundred. Youngie headed back to Penrith after the cricket and I had arranged to meet with Gary Wilson one of our good friends and Irish Player. We decided to go the Test for day 2, where it wasn't as exciting as the first day but good to catch up with Wils.

The holiday period had come to a close and it was back into the cricket on the 5th with a PG's game against Penrith which included Calum Macleod. Which Penrith won, Calum batted and bowled well and I bowled pretty well too, a good performance from the Scots though. We got back into training the following week and we had our first grade games back on the weekend against Penrith also. Our 2nd grade game was at Penrith, so I travelled out on the Friday night and crashed at Youngie's to save the hour and a half journey in the morning. It was a really hot day and we batted first on a bowler friendly wicket. We lost a lot of quick wickets, but consolidated in the middle and our captain smashed a quick 90. We ended up scoring 180 and I contributed with 25 at the end getting out to Tim. We had about 15 overs to bowl at them before the close and bowled very well. We picked up 5 wickets, I got 2 of them in my first few overs continuing to swing the ball at a good pace as I had done before the break.

During the week there was some more rain around so practice was indoors and again I head out to Youngie's on the Thursday after practice. On arrival it was pouring down and did so all of Friday and all through the night and all day Saturday. So therefore the game was called off at 10.30 which was frustrating as we were in a great position to win the game. Had a good week at training with both bat and ball and was looking forward to our home game against Fairfield-Liverpool.

We bowled first on what looked like a pretty good wicket although it had a lot of grass on it. Again we bowled well as unit and managed to bowl them out for 180, another great effort as only 1 team this has scored more than 200 against us. We had to bat before the close of play and made 3-80, a good start meaning we only needed 100 for victory the following week. On Sunday our 1st grade side had a match against Sri Lanka as part of their warm up matches for the one day series with Australia and India. It was great day with all the big names taking part. Bankstown ended up losing by about 90 runs but put on a good display for the massive crowd. At training I did a lot of batting as our skipper told us that he didn’t fancy bowling again should we get the runs quickly on Saturday. Although I didn’t expect to be required.

It was raining on Saturday and had done all through the night but the pitch was covered but still a bit wet in places. We waited till 12.30 but should it rain again would call it quits. Although it did rain, both teams decided to wait around and see. Eventually we got on, and the 100 we needed seemed a lot more as the wicket was wet. It started to rain but one of our batsmen was hitting it well so decided to stay on even though it got torrential at times. We continued to lose wickets as the ball would make a splash as it pitched and the crease was about an inch deep in mud. I made my way to the crease and we needed around 25 to win. Unfortunately I was the last man out 3 runs short. I was disappointed but not too much as it was near impossible conditions and the worst I have ever played in. The only reason it wasn't stopped is because we had gone past the point of no return. This was only our 2nd loss of the season.

The rain didn’t stop all week except for Friday which meant we only had one indoor practice. I was looking forward to the game if we got on as it would be our last one dayer of the season against Mosman. At 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon I got a phone call to say the game was off. More rain at the start of the week meant we only practiced on Thursday ahead of our 3rd last game of the season against Western Suburbs away. I had a good bat and bowl in the nets and I’m looking forward to playing, providing the rain stays away!