Today, I have perhaps not written as much as I would have liked but have nevertheless made some progress. My first task was to write my analysis of England’s Test squad for the first Test against South Africa, which contained few surprises:
Number six has been England’s only ‘problem’ position since the retirement of Paul Collingwood and the shift up the order for Ian Bell. Eoin Morgan, Bopara, Samit Patel and Bairstow have all had a go and failed to nail down a position. This could be Bopara’s final chance to do so before England look to one of the younger guard such as James Taylor or go back to Bairstow. At least Bopara has the advantage of being able to bowl a few handy overs of medium pace, and should conditions remain gloomy that could prove an asset.
With that completed, I turned my attentions to 1,309 Days Later, and finally weeding out any remaining spelling mistakes in the 22,000 words written so far.
Later on, I decided to start the process of formatting it correctly for publishing as a paperback, which can be a nightmare but following a few handy guides online, I reckon I’m making good progress and it’s weighing in at around 90 pages so far. I still have all but one game of the 2011/12 season plus a few extra bits to add so might be looking at around 150 pages for the finished product.
With the Olympics underway in 12 days, I face a challenge to get everything published before our hockey players get onto the pitch, but it would be some achievement if I could manage it.
1,309 Days Later, the story of how Grantham Men’s 1st XI went over three years without a league victory, is due to published later this year. A proportion of any royalties will go back into the club to support grass roots hockey.