It's reached reached that time of year, when I trawl through last year's cricket photos and try to decide whether I've taken anything I could submit to the MCC Wisden Cricket Photo of the Year. This year I even attended a sports photography masterclass Lord's in the hope that I could improve my cricket photography (that was after the close of season).

I saw a fair bit of cricket last season and for much of it I had a camera with me, so there's a fair amount of trawling to be done.

The season started in mid-April with Middlesex vs Notts. The game was played in great light and had lots of action. In the Notts first innings I had some nice shots of Chris Read, who made 40 before being knocked over by Steve Finn and in the Middlesex first innings both Sam Robson and John Simpson made tons. We also saw the injury that effectively ended Gareth Berg's career at Middlesex. He chased a ball to the cover boundary and collided with the advertising boards on the Grandstand. By the next over it was clear that he couldn't continue and that was the last end of his season.

In May I photographed one of the local clubs in the opening round of the Royal London Club competition. I shot the wicket that won the game for the home club and had I used f8 instead of f4, the keeper would have been nice and sharp and it would have been a photo I could have submitted.

IMG_4347Round one of the Royal London Club Championship, played at North Maidenhead on 4th May

A week later I was back at Lord's to see a couple of days of the Lancashire game.

Day 2 was characterised by some very black clouds and bright sunshine. The shot of Lord's with the back clouds is a potential image, but it's a photograph of weather rather than of cricket. There wer lots of photos of batting an bowling but nothing that brilliant.

In June I travelled to Oxford to see Middlesex play Oxford University at the Parks. It's one of my favourite grounds and in early summer it's very pleasant. I think the best shot I got here was one of Adam Rossington in what may have been his last game for the club before moving to Northants. Definately a potential pick for the Cricket Photo of the year, even though it was the warm up.

  In July it was the MCC vs Rest of the World game to celebrate 200 years at the current ground. A photo of Sachin Tendulkar was among my Festive fifteen, but wasn't of the right quality for the cricket photo of the year.

But I was quite pleased with a shot a took of KP and I was using only a little pocket camera.

The Northants game was played in fairly flat light and I don't think I bothered adding the photos to Flickr.

I didn't see any of the T20s, so my next cricket was the Royal London Cup. In the Middlesex vs Surrey game, I was able to photograph Dilshan going to a century with a Dil-scoop, but he was facing the other way and it could have been a photograph of anyone. Later I photographed Eoin Morgan going to another century. But the ball wasn't in shot. Middlesex vs Somerset yielded nothing I could use and neither did Middlesex vis The Indians.

In August Eoin Morgan visited my home club, Maidenhead and Bray and I had some photographic gold. A girls' game was going on and gave some excellent images, especially when it started raining.

IMG_7504Eoin Morgan visiting Maidenhead and Bray Crickt Club for the club's open day

IMG_7554Eoin Morgan visiting Maidenhead and Bray Crickt Club for the club's open day

IMG_8932Eoin Morgan visiting Maidenhead and Bray Crickt Club for the club's open day

In September I was back at Lord's for some more county championship cricket and for the final of the Royal London One Day Cup. The Middlesex vs Durham game yielded a potential entry, Ollie Rayner went up for what he was certain was an LBW, but was turned down. The agony of the refusal was palpable, but I'm not wholly sure what's going on is entirely clear in the photo.

The Royal London One Day final was not the greatest cricket and as the light deteriorated, the quality of the images diminished, and really I got nothing worth considering. For the Sri Lanka test at Lord's I had just a pocket camera and didn't even bring that to the India test.

In the end, I'll be submitting the two photos of the girls playing cricket to the competition and then I'll hum-and-har about what the third one will be.

It should be noted that I am a member of Maidenhead and Bray, and was asked to take photos of the children's cricket. I have all the essential clearances to work with children in a club cricket setting.