After the past ten days I think I’m definitely qualified to work for the AA if this coaching business doesn’t work out.

The last check yesterday read 1,546 miles covered in the past eight days!

It’s probably best to brush over the trip to Hampshire last bank holiday Monday where we just weren’t at the races.

Hampshire are a very strong and experienced one-day outfit and showed us what is required to succeed in that form of the game. It should have been a good learning experience for the younger players in the team.

As you can probably imagine it was a pretty quiet bus trip back to the Hilton Hotel in Newport where we meet for several of our one-day games this season.

We had hoped the rest of the week would allow us to practice outdoors before our trip to Scotland on Saturday.

This, of course, was not possible due to the horrendous weather we have experienced this summer (can you call it summer yet)?

It meant three days spent in the indoor nets on the bowling machines.

I can’t remember a summer as bad as this for as long as I have been playing!

I think we have only practiced as a squad outdoors twice this season!

During our final practice session on Thursday, Swalec were running a Cricket v Rugby Challenge.

A few of the lads got involved and it was quite hilarious watching Simon Jones bouncing Tom Shanklin, even if the balls were only plastic!

I don’t think I’ve seen ‘Shanks’ looking so scared!

Unfortunately for me, our lads were in a sports psychology meeting at the time and Swalec needed somebody to race against Shane Williams over 40 metres with a turn!

I thought surely I could beat a bloke half my size and five years older than me! Shane was actually dressed up with full cricket gear, which made me even more confident of an upset on camera!

I actually got off to a flying start, which has always been a trait of mine since my Greenlawn Junior School sports days when I used to dominate the 50-metre sprint race! I held the early lead but I think I let myself down on the turn because when I looked up to the finish line Shane had actually finished!

Saturday saw the eagerly awaited trip in the van to Scotland for our game on the Sunday. Steve Watkin and myself shared the driving time which actually only took us 5h 30mins. It was a surprisingly comfortable drive with some lovely views through southern Scotland to keep us entertained.

We arrived at the Uddingston Cricket Club on the Sunday desperate to play as we saw this game as a chance to pick up our first points up in this competition.

The forecast was appalling for the afternoon so we tried our utmost to start on time and squeeze a shortened match in.

We did actually start but the weather closed in early and we had to settle for a point.

It was doubly disappointing as we had travelled so far for the game!

The van has arrived in Derbyshire this week for a return to the County Championship campaign.

Being in charge of the van actually does carry some responsibility!

Every time we reach a new ground it’s the job of myself and Steve to carry all the lads’ kit into the changing rooms.

As you can imagine, the bags are not particularly light these days (each one at least 20kg).

As a result my back is in bits and I will be at the front of the physio’s queue this week!

It obviously hasn’t gone to plan for us so far this season but it’s great to see the return of Simon Jones to our team.

Simon is a world-class bowler and we will be looking to use his experience and skill this week in Derbyshire.

This week will also see Marcus North making his first class debut for Glamorgan.

Marcus is a vastly experienced player and his runs and knowledge will give us a huge lift.