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[LBWCandidate]

Im competitive,  love challenging myself , so i pride myself on performance.  If i play like crap , its certainly not due to lack of effort.  If you go hard , playing wise , that is all that is in your control . Sure , you hope you win , but all you can do is try to maximise what you can control /influence  (your performance) and hope all the other pieces fall into place for a win .
Btw , when i mean compete , i mean competing with yourself ..... i find it enjoyable trying to better myself in this way .
I also love  the grounds , different pitches,  traveling to venues with mates , seeing young guys improve (especially if you've been able to help in some small way) .
I love the memories and how certain things trigger a 'flashback' of sorts to childhood happiness.  Certain smells ( like fresh cut grass , linseed oil , the plastic/rubber smell of new equipment ) make me feel like an excitable kid again ..... that's something that's a simple pleasure , but always easy to experience.
I love sitting around with teammates having a laugh . Its kinda cool when a bunch of blokes who could easily be moping around , lamenting their dismissal , or being too nervous in anticipation of their upcoming innings , seem to provide each other with countless funny and interesting moments .
I love the anticipation the night before a game . It's like being a teenager about to go on a date .
I also love managing systems , so collecting , maintaining my cricket gear is endless fun too.
I love seeing new gear come onto the market , and 'perving' on bats .
I love seeing quality facilities.
I could go on . And on . And on .

If I could type faster and write all I wanted to, would repeat almost everything you said.

[Seniorplayer]

Used to love cricket, I guess I still do but I just don't want to play anymore. I'm just not very good and even did some statistical analysis of my last 6 years and playing for different teams at different levels I've always been rubbish. The most annoying thing is my 5 year old son is just getting into cricket and has been at allstars, I've. It played for a month and haven't missed it one bit, sad times

Unless you have stopped enjoying it
Being not very good shouldn't cause you to stop  as for statistics do they matter..

[FattusCattus]

I live and breath it, I think about it all the time.

I'm rubbish, but I still go to bed at night dreaming of the 5 Fers I might take and the 50's I might smash.

I'm 46 years old, and apart from sports cars and boobies, 3XI cricket is still the most exciting part of my week.

#when summer Saturdays come. 😁

[pablomarmite]

I live and breath it, I think about it all the time.

I'm rubbish, but I still go to bed at night dreaming of the 5 Fers I might take and the 50's I might smash.

I'm 46 years old, and apart from sports cars and boobies, 3XI cricket is still the most exciting part of my week.

#when summer Saturdays come. 😁

This is me too. Except the sports cars and boobies. I love cricket. Totally obsessed if you asked everyone who knows me to say one word about me they would say cricket. I captain 2s, I coach the kids, I read about the game constantly. I used to write the newspaper reports and a blog. At the moment I'm on this website watching sky cricket messaging the selection committee to get a team for Saturday while also looking at league website. When I go to bed be reading all out cricket magazine. Im also not very good either but the hope keeps me going!

[Biggie Smalls]

I live and breath it, I think about it all the time.

I'm rubbish, but I still go to bed at night dreaming of the 5 Fers I might take and the 50's I might smash.

I'm 46 years old, and apart from sports cars and boobies, 3XI cricket is still the most exciting part of my week.

#when summer Saturdays come. 😁

Mmmmmmmmm boobies........ i mean cricket . Yeah , cricket , that's what i meant . 

[Northern monkey]

What does cricket mean to me?

An escape?
When I was very young, I grew up in a small cotton town full of weaving sheds, factories etc
Imagine every northern cliche and you get the idea.

The first club I played at was a mill club
The ground and clubhouse were like a world apart from playing on cobbled backstreets and schoolyards
Its over 40 yrs since I first played there and I can still remember it like it was yesterday
The ground had a full time groundsman who took huge pride in the club

I played there until the cotton industry died and the club turned to weeds
I probably could have gone to better clubs, played a better standard etc etc, but I loved every minute playing for that club
Even met my sons mother there

Since then I've played all over the uk, and met some amazing people and played at some stunning grounds
I'm sure other sports could have given me the same experiences but I doubt it
The unique grounds,(howarth west end, Lynton lynmouth,bude etc etc) stunning scenery, and the opportunity to play the best game in the world with like minded souls.

Priceless

Only hope my kids get the chance to experience what I've been lucky enough to experience

[roco]

Day away from the wife for me

Its changed over the years

When I was younger I played a high level (brum prem) so the enjoyment came from winning and training hard

Now lot older and slower my enjoyment comes from coaching and mentoring, I still play every week but see my main role as mentoring young lads and helping them get better which gives me more joy than scoring runs myself.

Plus schooling them on after match etiquette of trying to out last the oppo in their bar.

[iand123]

Unless you have stopped enjoying it
Being not very good shouldn't cause you to stop  as for statistics do they matter..

If scoring runs is what you enjoy then yes. Turning up and not contributing isnt enjoyable for me. The stats was kind of a side project of something i was doing at work as i was doing some stats analysis for a team im working with and i though it would be interesting to show my previous seasons. Maybe i think im better than i am. I average 6 this year and get to bat 7 at the highest, thats not enjoyable for me. I'm close to giving up for good which is a real shame. I thought i would miss it but im not playing this saturday and that makes it 5 weeks without a game, before i was itching to play after a week break

[Seniorplayer]

If scoring runs is what you enjoy then yes. Turning up and not contributing isnt enjoyable for me. The stats was kind of a side project of something i was doing at work as i was doing some stats analysis for a team im working with and i though it would be interesting to show my previous seasons. Maybe i think im better than i am. I average 6 this year and get to bat 7 at the highest, thats not enjoyable for me. I'm close to giving up for good which is a real shame. I thought i would miss it but im not playing this saturday and that makes it 5 weeks without a game, before i was itching to play after a week break

I think we have all been there turned up and contributed nothing and your right iain it's  not enjoyable ive been a match winner once with the bat this season and failed the rest of it. but I tell myself there's always next week and maybe I will  score some runs.
I do think though if you miss a week you are itching to  play but if you have a prolong break and do  other things on match day you  can become lost to the game

[iand123]

I think we have all been there turned up and contributed nothing and your right iain it's  not enjoyable ive been a match winner once with the bat this season and failed the rest of it. but I tell myself there's always next week and maybe I will  score some runs.
I do think though if you miss a week you are itching to  play but if you have a prolong break and do  other things on match day you  can become lost to the game

I agree, the not missing it has really surprised me. I think the worst bit for me is i dont want to drift away from playing just as my son takes an interest in the game. He is at that age where he copies everything i do or am interested in and if he sees me lose interest i worry he will to.

[Simmy]

cricket is life!

play Tuesday/Thursday Sat/Sunday every week.

Other things in my life take a back seat when its cricket season!

[Seniorplayer]

I agree, the not missing it has really surprised me. I think the worst bit for me is i dont want to drift away from playing just as my son takes an interest in the game. He is at that age where he copies everything i do or am interested in and if he sees me lose interest i worry he will to.

 Maybe the way foreward is not to play again this summer and a fresh start in 2017 sometimes a change of club  helps.

[iand123]

Is it the personal performance that is dampening the enjoyment? I think it was Einstein who said doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of madness... which is a long winded way of saying, have you filmed yourself in the nets and do you know your strengths and weaknesses?

The other aspect I love of cricket is it is so technical and there is always something to learn or improve on (also the most frustrating thing too! )

I spent a lot of money on coaching this winter, i even lost about a stone. I videod myself over the winter and i looked decent (for my level anyway). I just havent transferred a single thing out to the middle. I now feel im in a complete mixed up state where i really have no idea what i am doing. Im trying to do about 8 things at once

[iand123]

Maybe the way foreward is not to play again this summer and a fresh start in 2017 sometimes a change of club  helps.

Maybe, we'll see i guess

[iand123]

I'm coming in to all of this fresh after a long time away from cricket so had a million ideas of how things should be or things to try so I get where you are coming from. I used the coaching as a way to get new ideas and different perspectives and I guess at some point you have to stop taking advice and know yourself what works for you. You know what your problem is which is a good first step! So, simplify and give yourself simple check points maybe?

I know what my problem is yes, i'm not very good! Even with a clear mind im still crap