In conjunction with Barford Sports Club, we are now the proud co-owners of a shiny new Paceman Pro bowling machine. It will be based at the King George’s Playing Field in Barford and once the electricity has been connected will be available for practice use on the MUGA as well as at winter nets.

As it is capable of propelling cricket balls at both 70mph and more or less in the same place as the previous one, it already outperforms the majority of our attack. It’s just a shame it’s even less mobile in the field than Pete Romyn, otherwise I think we’d be picking it every week.

Vice-chairman Simon Morgan and occasional club stalwart Mark Griffin put it through it’s paces(!) today and save for the missing feeder assembly all seemed to be working well.

The following clip shows how fearsome this machine is to face in real life…