WHO would have thought September would be the month of spin?

Usually the ball seams and swings around this time of year but not at Cardiff.

I mentioned previously that the boys thought the best chance of winning games and pushing for promotion was to be spin.

The pitch was obviously adjusted accordingly to suit our three spinners.

Our previous two victories this year at Colwyn Bay and Swansea have both been spinning wickets.

It was a brave call against Essex with Danish Kaneria possibly the best leg spinner in the world in their ranks.

It turned out 30 out of 39 wickets that fell were down to spin.

Dean Cosker picked up his best career figures with 11 wickets in the game with Kaneria getting 10.

Unfortunately we could only manage to take nine Essex wickets on the final day to finish with a draw.

It was disappointing but there were some fine individual performances in the game.

Along with Dean’s 11 wickets, Gareth Rees scored his seventh first class hundred and was rewarded his county cap.

A cap is given to a player when the captain and coach believe you have established yourself in the first team with some outstanding performances.

Gareth is the best player of spin I have seen in a while and I believe better than Herschelle Gibbs.

The game against Gloucestershire last week followed a similar pattern although this pitch kept the seamers interested too.

It was the turn of our captain Jamie Dalrymple to reach a milestone when reaching 1,000 first class runs for the season.

He has had a fine year and will be looking to finish the season well at the Oval this week.

Again there was frustration for the boys on the last day with Gloucestershire finishing on nine wickets down but only falling 14 runs short of their target.

It was a more exciting game with all three results possible on day four.

This is why the ECB decided to bring in two division cricket to keep games competitive with both teams pushing for promotion to division one.

It was another frustrating week for the lads as we have come so close in a number of games.

We had Essex and Gloucestershire nine wickets down, Essex earlier in the season seven wickets down and two games rained off at Cardiff against Northampton and Derby-shire when we were in the driving seat.

It’s disappointing but just shows the huge improvement we have made this year.

We are now in the last week of the season with the lads at the Oval until tomorrow, followed by a Pro 40 fixture at Derbyshire on Sunday.

We still have a chance of promotion with a good win but we are relying on Essex to gain a low scoring draw.

The boys will be going all out for the win. Also it’s important to finish on a high in Derby on Sunday.

We have played some good one day cricket this year and a win could take us to a more respectable fifth in the table.

We have our player of the year dinner next week with the whole staff at the club attending.

It’s a good chance to socialise with catering and office staff along with the groundsmen who are always too busy to chat in the summer.

Also some of the lads are starting to plan their winter ahead.

Ben Wright will be flying to Australia on Tuesday with Tom Maynard off to Cape Town next month.

Some of the older members of the squad have enrolled in university with Gareth Rees starting an MBA in Cardiff.

Mark Wallace will continue his MA degree in UWIC and I will be entering my final year in UWIC, also studying for a Masters degree, so I won’t be short of things to keep me busy.

I’m sure a lot of you have been following England’s one day fortunes on TV.

They have come in for some stick of late and you can understand why.

There are some very talented players in the team but they just seem to be out of form at the same time.

They are obviously missing Flintoff and Pietersen but it’s a chance for some younger players to take their chance.

I do like Tim Bresnan as a cricketer; he is strong with a good action and is a very useful batsman.

It will be interesting to see how they perform in the Champions Trophy in South Africa, starting today against Sri Lanka.

Being a man of Gwent my self I have enjoyed ribbing the boys about the Dragons being at the top of the Magners League and now in second place.

There are a few in our dressing room who call themselves hardcore Blues, Ospreys and Scarlet fans who have been very quiet so far this season finding every excuse under the sun why their team is struggling.

Paul Turner’s boys have had a fine start and I will be down on the terrace this year supporting the boys.

They seem to have a no fear attitude on the field and get stuck in to the big teams which is what people are warming to.