March 1st

I like March.

Its the first time I start to think we're through the winter as I'm generally home in something close to daylight. There can be some dodgy weather during the month but the sight of bulbs coming through and flowers appearing suggests that nature is ready to burst forth for another year.

Most of all, March is when you can say "the cricket starts next month".

What a great thought! We've almost made it through the rain (with apologies to Barry Manilow), snow, sleet, fog and ice and can look forward to waking up in the morning to sunshine piercing the blinds. OK, we can hope that happens occasionally...

Next month I'll start the nightly rituals that only the true cricket fans appreciate. The evening viewing of the weather and how it is likely to affect not just YOUR day where you live but Derbyshire's where the game is on. You keep your fingers crossed for sunshine initially (when we're batting), followed by a little humidity (when we're bowling). You love to see the little sun symbols then, if things go pear-shaped, hope to see the dreaded clouds when we get to the last day with four wickets in hand and 250 still to get...

I'll watch Sky Sports News each evening hoping to see a few highlights of games and again mutter when it appears that all other games have cameras at them apart from ours. Until the third day when we have a bad one and suddenly our wickets are falling for all to see.

I'll keep my eyes on teletext (when I can)and hope that the delayed updates mean wickets are falling too quickly for them as we bowl, while its just a technical fault when the opposition are.

Most of all I'll hope that we can move forward again this year. While I still feel that our best chance of success is in the four day game, I really want to see the one day side play better cricket this year. For me, the signings of Garry Park and Tim Groenewald will help towards that, but that's on paper.

If they do the business when we get out on the grass I'll be as happy as the rest of you