THERE was some worrying news from back home in Sydney this week when I spoke to Brad McNamara.

Buzzard - the Haslingden professional and my New South Wales colleague - returned home last month thinking he had damaged a tendon in his shoulder.

But further examination in Australia revealed that he had actually snapped a bone in his shoulder.

The doctors have told him to leave it for a month.

And if it has not knitted together properly by then a screw will have to be inserted.

It sounds pretty serious, and let's hope it works out okay, but Brad might already be forced to miss the start of the season Down Under.

After the final game of the season I will be flying back almost straight away and will only have a couple of days' break before getting back into full swing building up to the first one-dayers in October.

So myself and Richard Chee Quee are still following a plan laid out by the NSW fitness coach who does a lot of work with fast bowlers like Glenn McGrath and now we are due to start some sprint work outdoors - if it ever stops raining.

Fitness was one of my three objectives when I arrived here for the Lancashire League season and that has gone to plan. It would have been so easy to go out every night and return home a 50 stone whale.

The second aim was to improve my guitar playing but I have stopped having tuition since Brad left.

And the third, of course, was to do well for Enfield.

One personal priority was to work on consistency with my bowling, making sure I keep swinging the ball away and maintaining line and length.

I think that has been successful, especially in the conditions, although it can be frustrating if you bowl well and guys consistently play and miss.

Enfield, however, are on something of a roll and it is no coincidence that the amateurs have started to contribute in a major way.

Gary Barker smashed an incredible hundred a couple of weeks ago and his brother Andy scored a very good unbeaten 85 last weekend.

We are now only nine points from third place and, while I do not like setting targets, we could finish in a respectable position if we continue this form. That would round off a very satisfying summer.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.