Getting quite unfeasibly excited

This is my first real "that time of year" for some time. I knew this time last year I wanted to play again,  so in some respects the experience was magnified you could say. The difference though was that I had got used to the "winter lull" as mine had lasted over 15 years . *

This time I get the proper experience. The gathering together after the winter. The hope for next year. The new kit in the magazines. The idea that a few little things I have been "working on" over the winter, insofar as waving a bat or ruler occasionally I'm living room or the office kitchen constitutes work,will transform everything. Actually those last few are quite similar to what golfers feel this time of year as well- though  me not so much as I always a winter golfer ( quite courses, no leaves on tree, less rough). 

Even the total fatuity of a first winter net can't tarnish things. 10 minutes of leaving balls from out of practice/ shape contemporaries and fishing them out of the netting; the odd straight ones  bouncing about 4 times higher than they do on any wicket I will play on; having to do some bowling myself after 20 years of not being able to get an arm above the shoulder line. Not exactly practice for the grim reality of club cricket at my level, or indeed any other level. Doesn't really matter though does it?  And THAT is what I have missed....

* I squeeze this under the banner of my blog's name by making a George R.R Martin / Game of Thrones  joke here but can't go anywhere with it beyond  making the allusion sorry.