WHEN Matt Mason came back from a Wild West Day to launch the Friends Provident Trophy South/West Division he tried to make out he had a bit of a John Wayne day.

Now Mase' is a fan of the Duke, but the picture on the right shows there is a small hat on a rather large head.

If you have seen the film Something About Mary when Ben Stiller and the guy who plays Cameron Diaz's brother come out of the fancy dress shop, you get the idea.

I'm sure that Mase' will be taken to task over it in the dressing room this week.

We were frustrated by the rain again last week.

Steve Davies played a lovely knock in the first innings against Leicestershire to get us a few extra points, while Steve Magoffin bowled beautifully and Kabir wrapped up the tail.

But the rain probably came to our rescue on Sunday, we were a little bit light on runs but Daryl Mitchell played another great one-day knock.

During the rain breaks over the week we have had Steve Moore talking about the credit crunch. To be honest, with 90 per cent of the boys, it went in one ear and out the other if they hadn't fallen asleep.

Kabby and myself were scouring the internet for new- fangled weight loss ways to stay in shape and there is also a bit of card school going on.

Daryl Mitchell has become the pub champion of the year, dominoes, darts, cards - you name it he is cleaning up.

Whelo', being a Scouser, thinks he is a bit of a scallywag and likes to think he can win a few quid, while Benny Smith, the bat fiend, has been covering my corner of the dressing room with sawdust sanding and cleaning his bats.

Some fans may have seen us warming up with the boxing pads and now we have got a speed ball upstairs.

A few of the younger guys have been watching Rocky III and trying to emulate Rocky.

Steve Davies and Moeen Ali have formed a protection company in the dressing room and if you want something doing they'll sort it for you - well, that's what they like to think.

Tomorrow we play Northamptonshire and it is likely to be a pitch that turns with them having Monty Panesar and Nicky Boje, so I'm expecting to do a lot of work.

I have started pretty well with the ball so I'm looking forward to the match.

Without Ray Price, Moeen being a little bit inexperienced and Vikram struggling with injuries when he bowls, it means a lot will fall on my head.

I'm sure they will fear our seam attack and hopefully we can have the weather on our side.

We have to remember that we must focus on the things that we can control. We need to make sure that we keep doing what we are doing.

We know that we can take wickets and we can score runs at a phenomenal rate.

As the season goes on we need to make sure that we are nicely placed to kick on when the weather gets better.