Chris Schofield has now been back from South Africa for nearly two weeks and has had some time to relax and dwell upon what he has achieved this summer but also peer into the next few winter months to see what they have in store for him. Here on www.surreycricket.com, the Surrey and England leg spinning all rounder continues his blog, to give us an insight into what his plans for the winter are.

We flew back in from South Africa and although it was a great experience, I was really disappointed that we had not managed to fulfil our potential in the tournament. We had really gelled as a unit and we all felt as we contemplated what had happened, that we should have got into the last stages of the competition.

It was great to be back involved in the England set-up and looking back I am really happy with the way that I performed over the course of the few weeks of the tournament. It all went so quickly with us playing huge matches against the world’s best teams almost everyday. But now that we are back, I do not want to dwell too much on what could have been but build on the experience and start to learn from some of the mistakes that I made.

We arrived back in time for me to get up to the Brit Oval and catch the last couple of days of the LV County Championship Match against Lancashire. Ramps had batted brilliantly again for the lads and had put Surrey in the box seat. We had obviously bowled and fielded brilliantly to get into the match winning position that we were in, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad for Lancs. Another brilliant innings from Ramps, which took him past 2000 runs for the season, meant that Butch could declare leaving Lancashire 481 to win the Championship. It was an incredible final day’s play and although I was really happy that we won – meaning that we finished fourth in the table – I would really have wanted Lancashire to win the title ahead of Sussex.

It was great to catch up with the guys again and we had some good evenings ahead. We went to the PCA Awards Dinner at the Royal Albert hall on the Monday evening, which was a cracking event. Ottis Gibson picked up the player of the season award but it must have been close between him and Ramps. After the meal, we watched Butch play with his band before heading off to the Kensington Roof Gardens nightclub, where I caught up with some old mates in the game.

A couple of days later I was back at the Brit Oval with Surrey having announced that I had signed a two-year contract with the Club. This season has been simply fantastic and it was just a brilliant feeling to know that my future at the Brit Oval is secure for the next couple of seasons. I knew that it was coming because I had spoken to the Surrey Cricket Manager, Alan Butcher, during the Lancs match, but it did not take any of the elation away. I could celebrate with the Club’s End of Season Awards Evening, which was held in the OCS Stand. It was another great evening and I picked up the Most Improved player Award. That was really rewarding, but I did not pick up as many awards as Ramps, who I think went away with six in total. I suppose that is a challenge for next year!!

The next few weeks will be spent catching up with my family and playing a bit of golf. I had planned to go away on holiday but I have had to cancel as I have been asked to go and train as part of the ECB Academy at Loughborough at the end of October. We will spend two and a half weeks up there, before flying out to India for a couple of weeks.

I can’t wait to get stuck in to the Academy training. I was in the original Academy set up but have not been selected since, so it will be awesome to be in and around it all again.

I have also been asked to be on stand-by for England’s current tour to Sri Lanka for the One Day Series. I caught a bit of the first match on TV on Monday. I have not been to Sri Lanka before but the conditions under lights looked really tough. Colly (Paul Collingwood) and Swanny (Graeme Swann) bowled exceptionally well in the middle period to peg the Sri Lankans back but no one could really get going with the bat.

The squad are confident and I think that it will only be a matter of time before it starts to click for them. It would be great to get a call, but in the meantime, I am just going to keep working hard at my own game.

Click here to see Chris Schofield speaking with Surrey TV.

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