Pining...

It was watching our dog, Wallace, yesterday that I realised how I must be for the cricket season.

He was lying by the door, every noise he heard worthy of investigation, each one perhaps heralding the return of his 'Mum' from the supermarket.

I am missing the cricket badly. It is something I haven't experienced before and although I try to stay optimistic, I am resigned to there being no county cricket this summer. If they pull it off, well done, but I can't see it.

The press piece released by the club this week on Michael Cohen, and how he has been living with bowling coach Steve Kirby since getting here brought it home to me. There was much to like in the prospect of Sean Abbott joining Ravi Rampaul et al but the prospect of Michael Cohen, a left-arm quick bowling 90mph held considerable interest. So too did seeing how Sam Conners had kicked on over the winter, with the attack, even before considering our raft of talented all-rounders, looking so much more incisive than the previous year.

Alas, we may have to wait another 11 or 12 months to find out and there is nothing we can do about it.

To fill in the time I have been writing my 'In My Mind's Eye' series, enjoying a week off work and getting my garden pristine.

The new series starts today and I acknowledge the help of David Griffin and the DCCC Cricket Archive in sourcing quality photographs.

I decided on ten players whose lives were worth the telling, focusing particularly on those who were less well known despite their major contribution. All are pre-Second World War and I discovered material about each that I haven't seen before. It was my reason for writing, perhaps leaving something for posterity, but keen to recognise that the only important players in the club's past are not just those who played in the past thirty years.

Polls and modern discussions naturally focus on what we know best. If, at the end of the series, you know a little bit more about some of our bygone legends and appreciate what they did for the club, then the writing will have been worthwhile.

Some of what I have discovered really blew me away.

Stay fit, stay well, stay interested! And please do comment, because I genuinely love hearing from you.