JUST over a week ago the Spitfire engine was running very smoothly, but unfortunately the Twenty20 competition has caused that engine to splutter and misfire a number of times.

There is no doubting that we have found this very different type of cricket tough.

This sprint version of the game requires risk-taking, creativity and unconventional shot-making, and so far we haven’t got it right.

But we are really anxious to get into winning ways and hopefully show the Canterbury fans some exciting cricket before these games are up.

I can say that we have all learnt a lot so far and can already see that we will need to prepare ourselves differently next year.

Of course, to prepare for this style of slog-fest cricket is not easy while grinding out top championship performances and the requirements for good four-day cricket are the exact opposite for effective Twenty20 cricket.

Next year we will identify specialists suited to the different requirements and prepare them ahead of the competition.

The players are really looking forward to playing again at Canterbury and to me it seems crazy not to have played at our home ground for seven weeks.

I was a little surprised when Andrew Hall mentioned to me that he had been with us for six weeks and had still to play a game at St Lawrence.

Playing at the out grounds is fun and we do get good support at them, the only problem is that we give away some of our home advantage and of course we do not have the back-up facilities like cameras, bowling machines and net facilities that are available to us at Canterbury.

The county programme here differs in many ways to domestic cricket in other countries and the hectic schedule leaves little time for coaching and practicing. For effectiveness this needs to be done regularly and to do such work during matches is ideal, hence the need for back-up facilities.

The 2nd team played their first 2nd XI Trophy match this week and our lads certainly looked classy in beating Hampshire.

Young Joe Denly showed good form again and when he plays this well it’s hard to believe he is still under 19.

We have a lot of depth in the club at the moment and competition for first team spots is pretty fierce, fortunately we have not had many in injuries to contend with and if this continues we will field a strong second team that ought to feature well in their competitions.